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presented in a different light receive a more individu- alone or with other students (Devaney 2005).

alized lesson than a whole-class lesson could ever pro- There is no one way to run centers. The activities in

vide” (“A New Approach,” 2017). Learning centers each center will vary year by year as the teacher dis-

are tools that will help students understand and expand covers what works best for his/her students and what

their knowledge of the subject the center is focused their needs are.

on. Running centers is something that may take prac-

tice, but once executed correctly, can lead to great ac-

complishment. Teacher David Ginsburg shared his

journey with centers in his article written for Educa-

tion Week Teacher. He stated:

I didn't know what students were supposed to get out

of centers. Practice and review old skills?

Learn new skills? Blow off steam and learn

through play? If nothing else, I saw centers as

a chance to divide my class into small groups,

which I believed would be easier to manage.

But each week, I scrambled to put together

center’s activities (usually involving lots of

paper), spent lots of time redirecting students,

and was unsure what, if anything, students

were learning from the experience (Ginsburg

Teacher Diane Bales wrote an article in which she 2016).

stated the pros of using centers in the classroom. In The concerns this teacher felt are ones that make

her article she wrote: many teachers hesitant to try out centers.

Learning centers capitalize on children’s natu- Later in his article Ginsburg wrote:

ral need to explore because they are given Eventually, though--after reflecting critically

the chance to gain experience by trying out on my classroom practices, asking

their own ideas in a hands-on way. Once colleagues for advice, and attending work-

established, you can write your lesson plans shops--I transformed my centers from chaos to

according to each learning center to make order, and from busy work to meaningful

sure you're offering something to enhance each learning tasks. Here are four keys to effective

subject. Then you can easily set up your learning centers that allowed me to make this

planned activities for the morning/afternoon in transformation: Create, communicate, and

each corresponding center, and children practice procedures... Group with intention...

can play in whatever center interests them Provide meaningful tasks... and Assess the

(Bales 2015). Impact (Ginsburg 2016).

Centers give students the freedom to explore In order

their own self-management. As they are sent to each for centers

center with little to no teacher instruction, they can to be

discover what kind of student they are, and what valuable,

methods work and don’t work for them. they need

Students have so many different learning to be an

styles, and learning centers are able to serve effective

the diverse needs of students quite well. A use of

learning center is an area that allows students your

to fulfill curricular goals by choosing from a student’s

variety of hands-on activities. There are no time. As

special rules about setting up learning centers; you

the way one’s centers are arranged implement each of the four keys Ginsburg addressed,

depends on student needs, teacher preferences, the use of centers will become crucial to your students

and space limitation. Students can work development and learning process.

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