Wednesday, August 29, 2012
Friday, August 24, 2012
Enrichment Centers
Enrichment centers are designed to offer
students a variety of learning alternatives as an adjunct to a common
unit of instruction. These centers are typically used after the
presentation of important materials or concepts and are designed to
provide students with opportunities to enrich and enhance their
appreciation and understanding of the topics through individual
experiences in the center. For example, after you have presented a
lesson on the life cycle of plants, you might assign individual students
to a center with the following components:
- Construction of a terrarium using soil, several plants, rocks, etc.
- Observing several plants under the microscope
- Designing an individual observation kit for use in the field
- Preparation of several foods using different types of common plants
- Exploring various news articles on plants in our daily lives
- Creative writing on the uses and misuses of plants in modern society
- Watching a filmstrip on the ecological implications of acid rain on plant life
- Painting a mural on the stages of plant growth
Enrichment
centers require you to be aware of your students' learning styles as well as their knowledge about a topic. The enrichment
center can provide individual students with varied activities or
combination of activities that differ from those pursued by other
students. As such, the center becomes an individualized approach to the
promotion of the topic. To find out more, visit TeacherVision.
Ms. Jasztal has created a system of centers for enrichment. Even though she does not have her actual centers on her blog, she has given several ideas how to create centers for the math-minded, science/nature-minded, art-minded, music-minded, literary-minded, public relations-minded, and world-minded. Here are some more learning center ideas:
Challenge Capsules
I found this idea on Pinterest! Fill the capsules with enrichment activities for your students who finish early. How cool would it be if you could actually find a toy vending machine to dispense the capsules!
Choice Boards
A great tool for differentiation is a choice board. Choice
boards offer students ways to make decisions about what they will do
in order to meet class requirements. A choice board could be used for a
single lesson, a week-long lesson, or even a longer unit of study. Choice boards can be used in any subject area and in any grade level. Here are some examples of choice boards. To view more choice boards, check out Dare to Differentiate.
Enrichment Sites for Students Who Finish Early
Well, it's the beginning of the school year, so inevitably there is quite a bit of review, which is necessary for many students. Unfortunately, there are a handful of students who really don't need review. And, if they finish early, they definitely don't want to do more of the same work (that they already know). So, here are some enrichment sites for students who finish early.
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