Station Teaching

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Running Head: STATION TEACHING 1

Using Co-Teaching Strategies Effectively:

Station Teaching

Amanda Brightman-Uhl

EDU 724

Laurel Ellis

March 25, 2012


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The group of students I decided to do this case study on is a group I typically have

in my classroom everyday for mathematics around 10:30 am until 11:30am. They are all

of varying abilities but for the most part have mathematic abilities ranging from a first

grade level to a third grade level. This group is comprised of four students, the first

student is in second grade and has a diagnosed processing speed disorder, ADHD and

disruptive behavior disorder, the second student is also in second grade and is diagnosed

with a developmental delay, the third is in first grade and has aspergers, the fourth is in

fourth grade and has disruptive behavior disorder and an attachment disorder. Each

student comes to my room with their one-on-one ed tech for mathematics. It just so

happens they all come at the same time so I thought I would work with the other special

education teacher to implement the four co-teaching strategies for my case study. My

classroom is broken up into different learning areas because it is an alternative classroom

and there are a lot of different students that come and go during the day, it is a perfect

room for station teaching. My classroom also uses no florescent lighting for my students

with on the autism spectrum this really seems to help with their behavior and

concentration. At the time they are in my classroom for mathematics there is only one

other students in the room working with their ed tech, it is a relatively quiet time of day.

The first co-teaching strategy tried was station teaching, Friend (2010) describes

station teaching as content divided by teachers to be addressed in three segments. The

students are then grouped and they work in their groups on the individual teacher

developed content, the students move about the stations in groups in timed intervals.

Each teacher gets to work with each group of students and teach their individually


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developed content. Cook and Friend (1995) state that station teaching has many positive

outcomes including professional engagement, increased instructional intensity,

individualization and more control over small groupings. There can also be some

challenges as a teacher you need to be aware of while using station teaching and those are

pacing, providing independent work and controlling the noise level. Cook (1995) also

states that it works best when a general education teacher and special education teacher

can work together to station teach in the general education classroom. As the teachers and

students get used to station teaching and the management of the groups gets easier, more

groups can be introduced with more independent stations. I found a great blog written by

a kindergarten teacher called Timmons Times (2008) that explained how they use the

station teaching strategy in their classroom. In this classroom there are many stations set

up, the class is divided into five different groups for reading. The two teachers taught a

specific skill in there two teaching stations and then walked around the room while

students worked in their groups independently. When time was up for that station, the

groups of students would move on to a new station. The stations that are written about in

this blog were partner reading (independent), small group instruction (teacher taught),

genre baskets (independent), reading detectives (independent), and guided reading

(teacher taught). Reading about how actual teachers use the station teaching strategy

really helped me brain storm other ways I can use stations in co-teaching.


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The group of four students I decided to work with at this time is one of the bigger

groups I have. I decided to set up two stations to start out with because my students can

be very volatile and change needs to be gradual at first. At each station there will be one

teacher and then their individual ed techs to help out when needed for behaviors. The

other special education teacher and I decided to focus on money activities because all

four students need help in the area of money identification and adding coins.

Lesson Plan: A Lesson on MoneyTime: 20 minutes

Topic: Mathematics

Objectives:Students will be able to correctly identify each coin and its assigned value.Students will be able to use the coins to arrive at the designated total marked on theenvelopes.

A. Anticipatory Set

1. Allow the children to examine pennies, nickels,and dimes.

2. Ask the students how much each coin is worth.

3. Ask the students what coin has the greatest value.

4. Ask the students what coin has the least value.

5. Ask the students how much the nickel is worth.

6. Ask the students how much money they would haveif they had one penny, one nickel, and one dime.

B. Concept Development/Activity

1. The two students will choose an envelopwith a designated value amount written on it.

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2. Using pennies, nickels, and/or dimes, the studentswill place the specific amount of money in the envelop.

3. After placing the coins in the envelop, the students

trade envelops with their partner. Each person checks what theother one did to make sure it is correct.

4. After each person has checked the amount in theenvelop, it is their turn to come up with the correct amount ontheir new envelop using a different combination of coins thantheir partner did.

5. The students then trade envelops again to checkthe work of their partner.

C. Practice

1. With objects provided with price tags on them, the students will beasked to use only a specific amount of coins to arrive at thedesignated value.

D. Closure

1. Problem of the Day.

2. The students will be given a handout in whichto complete the problem of the Day with assistance from their ed tech.

3. They have $1.25 to spend on lunch. They must chooseat least one item from each category (fruit/vegetable, drink,sandwich, and snack) without going over $1.25.

4. The students discuss with the other student in their group whatselections they made and why.

5. The teacher can ask various extension questionssuch as:

* How many different combinations are there?

* If you buy the most expensive thing in each category,do you have enough money?

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* If you buy the least expensive thing in each category,how much money do you have left over?

Materials:

* Plastic coins (pennies, nickels, dimes)

* Envelops marked with designated coin values

* Activity sheet for the Practice section

* Activity sheet for the Problem of the Day

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This lesson has been used before with other groups of students. It has always been

successful and was this time as well. It was interesting seeing it used in station teaching

because I had never used it in that context before. The other special education teacher

was teaching the concept of place values which fits perfectly when learning about adding

coins and dollars together. By having our students switch between the two stations the

stations meld together and give the students a deeper understanding of money and how to

apply it to everyday life. At my station different amounts can be written on different

envelopes making it easy to differentiate for each students ability. For example, one of

my students is working with coins so amounts only using coins were put on their

individual envelop. Because in the lesson the students have to exchange envelops and

check each others work the use of their ed techs came in handy for scaffolding and

modeling. When the student that is only familiar with coins had to check an envelope

with $5.45 in it, the ed tech counted the dollars and then the students helped add the

change to get the final money count.

While learning more about the co-teaching, station strategy I started thinking how

beneficial this would be to our general education classrooms. Right now my school has

no procedure for co-teaching in formal terms, if I could change one thing about this

lesson it that would be it. It has always been my dream to get out into the mainstream

classrooms and use different co-teaching strategies instead of always using the pull out

method. It may boil down to the fact that I have to teach many students from different

classroom and grades at the same time. This would present a problem because I can only

be in one classroom at a time. For this reason I decided to use the students that come to

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my classroom in coordination with our other special education teacher to implement

different co-teaching strategies. I am thankful that I have another special education

teacher to practice co-teaching with in my classroom once a day.

I will use station teaching again and hopefully once I get more comfortable with it

I can introduce it to the general education classrooms and use less pull out for my

students. I believe being in the general education classroom with same aged peers is truly

the least restrictive environment for my students.

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References

Cook, L., & Friend, M. (1995). Co-teaching: Guidelines for creating effective practices.

Focus on Exceptional Children. 28(3), 1-16.

Friend, M. (2008). Co-teach! A handbook for creating and sustaining successful

classroom partnerships in inclusive schools. Greensboro, NC: MFI.

Timmons, D. (2008). Timmons Times. Retrieved May 28, 2008, from

http://timmonstimes.blogspot.com/2008/05/station-teaching.html

Station Teaching

Documents

Transcript of Station Teaching