What it might look like

So, after meeting with Paul (which was extremely helpful, Thank you, Paul) and reading all of these great posts and looking into a variety of tools. I am definitely planning to use the station rotation model in my classroom. I believe my room is already well equipped for this model and the content of ELA will work well utilizing this model.

I mentioned in my previous post that I want input from the students right from the get go. But I do plan to provide a variety of options for students when rotating to various stations. If students are going to "own" their learning, they have to "own" what tasks they do when, as much as possible. So, aside from whole class instruction or discussions, students will be able to choose to do an independent activity, like independent reading or skill building on the computer or work with a partner or small group on another activity.

Here are some of my initial thoughts on what some of those choices may include:

                Journaling

                Independent Reading

                Building  skills in Grammar

                Building skills in Vocabulary

                Building skills in Writing

                Building skills in Comprehension

                Peer discussions (this could be brainstorming ideas for writing or after reading discussions)

                Peer editing (after writing)

                Peer tutoring (on any skill)

Some of the tools I plan to use or at least look into further are Edmodo, Google Docs, NoRedInk, VocabAhead, Quill, TurnItIn, BlogSpot, Newsela, MyOn, Learnthat.org, Grammarly or Grammar Monster.

I would also like to incorporate web quests, movie creator and comic creator tools.

I am wondering if we will be granted access to YouTube. I have often found great resources on YouTube but was unable to access them in the classroom. I know (and the students know) there are work-a-rounds, but I would rather just have it as a legitimate resource.