Stations in Middle School?

Hello!  My name is James Hunt, and I teach 6th grade math and science in southeast Missouri.  Thank you for joining me on my blogging journey!

I really want to talk about one of my favorite classroom practices: stations.  I feel that many times stations are associated with elementary school, however I'm hoping the resources I share will help break that mold a bit.

Let me start off by saying...as educators, there are about a million factors that can go wrong with implementing stations - at any moment.

I think (with anything) the most important thing to do when implementing stations is to be prepared.  How do you get them to rotate smoothly?  How do they know where to go next?  What do the early finishers do?  I've realized that just about every one of these questions can be answered by just being prepared.  I'm going to explain how I run stations in my room and include some free templates for you to take if needed!

These are the slides that I display on my board.  The themes change each time to match my middles' interests (weird, I know).  I have one slide for each class - yes, I know the year is wrong on the last one👋

My groups always rotate clockwise, so with these slides displayed on the board it leaves little confusion as to what group goes where.  After 15-ish minutes (I'm not big on setting a timer, especially if I know a group needs a few more minutes at one station to finish up) then I have them rotate.

Grab a station slide template to edit and display here

In my last blog post, I talked about lesson planning with Google slides.  These station slides will be easy to insert into your lesson plans so you can display them on the board!

I store any and all station papers inside folders with station rule cover pages stapled to the front.  These folders are easy to move around the room and makes sure all papers for that station stay together.  I make sure my station directions are explicit so there are very few questions as to what is expected at that station.  One thing I would recommend is by including a low-maintenance activity for students that finish early.  This assures I have more time to work with my small group with few disruptions.  Also, if a student has a question, they must first ask members of their group.  If they don't know, then they ask a member from another group.  If their question still hasn't been answered, then they may come ask me.  I don't think they truly understand how important small group time is until you relate it back to, "How would you feel if you were in this group and someone interrupted 100 times while you were trying to get help from the teacher?"

Station folders with rule cover pages

Grab a copy of my station rule pages to edit and print here

Lastly, gathering up supplies will be a complete time-saver.  I realized very quickly with middles that if you have them get supplies for their station, you'll hear the phrase, ".......it's...too......far" like they'd be trailing through the Sahara Desert without any water😒.  Having your stations completely prepared and ready to go will eliminate that!

I hope you find these tips useful and implement them in your classroom.  If you have any questions - just ask!

Please give me a follow - socials are linked below:

Twitter 👉 Instagram 👉 Pinterest 👉 Teachers Pay Teachers 👉 Donors Choose