What Are the Rest of the Students Doing? Literacy Work Stations in Two First-Grade Classrooms

Across the United States, teachers use literacy centers as a way to engage their students and build independent literacy skills while they teach guided reading groups. Maximizing student productivity and learning while the teacher is busy working with a reading group is an issue that has challenged teachers for years, leading educators to propose a variety of solutions. However, the effectiveness of literacy centers remains virtually unexamined in literacy research. Through classroom observations, videotaped reading instruction, and teacher and student interviews over the course of a school year, we examined literacy centers (more specifically, "literacy workstations," Diller, 2003) in two first grade classrooms. Findings suggest challenges with workstations were similar to those found in previous studies of seatwork (limited explanation and modeling of activities, limited monitoring of students' activities, confusion about assignments, and limited engagement and productivity). Productivity and engagement in stations varied, with different effects on students instructed in lower and higher guided-reading levels. In light of the findings, we recommend that teachers closely and critically examine instructional practices, use them flexibly and in ways that are appropriate for their particular contexts and students, and continuously evaluate their effectiveness.