Are Reading Stations Really Worth the Time?
Efficiency tied together with high-impact student learning is every teacher’s goal. We also want students to be able to work with some degree of independence. The wish for all three of these things to take place is what so often leads teachers to implement reading stations. But are these rotations worth it? Do they really check all of these boxes?
Not really…unless they’re very carefully designed.
Teachers often use literacy stations as activities for everyone to rotate through, mainly to keep the class busy while they work with small groups. This also usually means that all students do the exact same things. But struggling students often complete the tasks incorrectly—reinforcing the wrong habits. Additionally, this time is rarely used for cooperative learning that would encourage langauge and social interaction. Instead, reading stations tend to become groups of kids doing the same independent work at the same time.
Without the teacher right there to guide and monitor students as they complete the work in literacy stations, teachers are too often left with the same inevitable result–that at the end of the day, the work was too easy for some, too hard for others, and just right for a few.
“Over 90% of elementary school teachers report meeting with small groups of students three to five times a week. In practice, this means we are squandering learning time and reducing the odds that the most vulnerable students learn to read, speak, and write effectively.”
Mike Schmoker & Timothy Shanahan, Ed Week
This has been shown through research to be true, too. A 2004 study found that students learned more with greater amounts of time with the teacher, and less when they spent more time on center-like activities. Shanahan discusses this as well, reporting that research studies about this have found that “the best readers did reasonably well with seatwork and other independent activities, but lower readers learned substantially less from such activities.”
Reading stations are often a lot of work to set up, too.
Many teachers change out stations weekly, which forces them to spend hours creating resources or searching TPT for ‘done for you’ materials. I know, because I’ve done it too. But in an effort to quickly find low-prep materials and activities for students to do in reading centers, what usually happens is that the tasks amount to little more than busywork.
In a recent Education Week article, Shanahan and Schmoker confirm this, stating that they’d “both seen how these centers routinely consist of low-value or “cut, color, paste” activities and worksheets. They keep students busy but do little or nothing to make them better readers.”
And let’s not forget behavior.
Without question, kids are less able these days to work independently or in small groups without an adult. They need constant redirection. Many struggle to work with others in any way. While the goal is for students to be able to work cooperatively and productively, the reality is that too many kids just can’t yet do this. You’re not alone in this, either.
According to a survey conducted by Education Week, “Eighty-two percent of teachers said students have become less independent over the years.” Part of this is the child’s own doing and part of it is due to outside of school factors, but part of it also due to the noise going on around them. Carl Hendrick explains how a new study confirms this, finding that “ambient verbal clutter so often seen in group work activities” is highly disruptive to students, making it much more difficult for them to stay on task.” It’s also one of the reasons independent reading goes south, as I discuss in this post.
When teachers have to repeatedly interrupt small group instruction to police student behavior, the time serves no one.
A caveat on literacy stations that require students to work on computers
Putting kids on computers isn’t always the answer, either. Students need to interact with real texts and real writing, not more screen time. Research on the detrimental effects that device use has caused abounds, including what Jonathan Haidt so clearly explains in The Anxious Generation.
What’s more, students and teachers often find computer programs time-consuming, unreliable, and cumbersome. In an era where students could really benefit from peer-to-peer interaction, putting kids on computers to work by themselves doesn’t help. We must use this approach sparingly.
Here’s another thing to consider: we tend to overdo small group instruction.
Yup, I said it. The idea that everyone needs equal time in small group instruction just isn’t true.
Why?
Well, because…
- Different students need different things–different kinds of instruction and differing doses of it.
- If the teacher is essentially a station in the rotation themselves, she is then unable to be truly responsive to students’ in-the-moment needs. Small groups based on today or yesterday’s instruction, for example, are often not possible with this approach.
- Teachers devote significant time to reading rotations—time they could better spend ensuring that every child gets “much more time reading with purpose and building reading stamina; acquiring knowledge and vocabulary; writing and learning to write and participating in meaningful discussions,” as Shanahan and Schmoker tell us.
- If all students get the same kinds of lessons with only differing levels of texts, then the time might better be spent on more direct whole-group instruction with grade-level texts with scaffolds built into the whole group lesson. This is something Shanahan and Schmoker advise, and something I’ve written about as well.
If literacy rotations might not be the best use of the little time we have, what is? How can we still ensure that the class is doing something productive while we meet with small groups? Is there a way to carefully design them so they are a good use of our time?
That’s what I’ll talk about in my next post!
Who is Coach from the Couch?? I’m Michelle Ruhe, a 25+ year veteran educator, currently a K-5 literacy coach. I continue to learn alongside teachers in classrooms each and every day, and it’s my mission to support as many teachers as I can. Because no one can do this work alone. I’m available to you, too, through virtual coaching calls! Simply email me at michelle@coachfromthecouch.com or reach out for a coaching call! I’m here to partner with you to build that foundation of student motivation for writing so your students can realize greater success.
Or, consider joining my Facebook community–a safe, supportive environment (really–no blaming or shaming is allowed!) where you can ask questions, learn ideas, and share your thoughts among other literacy-loving educators!
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