15 Powerful reasons to use station activities in the classroom

What are station activities in the classroom?

 Station activities are a teaching approach that involves breaking the class into small groups and having them rotate through a series of learning stations. Each station provides students with a different activity or task that focuses on a specific learning objective. Students work in small groups, with each group rotating through all of the stations.

To set up station activities in your classroom, you’ll need to first determine your learning objectives for the lesson. Then, create several activities that focus on these objectives. 

Stations don’t have to be a lot of effort to set up. They don’t even need to be hands-on activities. A station could consist of a worksheet, reading a passage, or even watching a video. It could be all the normal activities you were going to do in a lesson, but rather than having the class do them at the same time you could set them up as stations. 

Next, divide your class into small groups and assign each group to a different station. Depending on the size of your class and the number of stations, you may need to repeat some stations to ensure that all groups have a chance to complete all activities.

Some ideas for making station activities in the classroom run smoothly include:

• Setting a timer for each station so students know when to rotate to the next station (I don’t usually do this as I like my students to move at their own pace, however, if you have students who dawdle or need help staying on task then this can be super helpful). 
• Put students into groups rather than letting them choose their own. I like to group my students so that my strugglers have some support from peers who are able to work more independently.
• Set up more than one set of stations. My classes are usually upwards of 25 students. If I have a smaller number of stations (say 5) I like to set up two lots of these to reduce waiting time and crowding. 
• Have students take turns ‘leading’ the station. This may involve reading instructions, ensuring all parts of the station are completed, and ensuring the station is cleaned up and reset for the next group.
• Set rules and expectations as well as consequences for what happens if they don’t follow them. Generally students really enjoy station activities, so ensuring they understand that if they muck around they will be required to sit back in their seat to complete the work might be enough for them to be on their best behaviour.
• Make sure instructions are clear for each station so that students can start immediately and avoid confusion.
• Give students a goal of what needs to be done in the time frame to keep expectations high.

Reasons to use station activities in the classroom for students

Using station activities in the classroom has some very powerful benefits for student learning. Some of these include:

1. Encourages Active Learning: Station activities allow students to be more actively engaged in their learning. By moving around the classroom, working on different tasks, and collaborating with peers, students are more likely to be invested in the learning process.

2. Differentiated Instruction: Stations can provide an opportunity for teachers to differentiate instruction and meet the individual needs of their students. Teachers can create different stations for different skill levels or learning styles, providing students with targeted activities that are most effective for them.

3. Differentiated Environment: Stations also allow for differentiation by allowing students to work at their own pace, complete stations in different orders, choose to sit or stand, and potentially choose who to work with. Providing this level of choice is also powerful in giving students ownership over their own learning. 

4. Increases Student Engagement: By providing a variety of tasks and activities at different stations, teachers can capture the interest of all students and promote engagement. Students are less likely to get bored or disengaged when they are presented with a variety of options.

5. Promotes Collaboration: Station activities in the classroom can encourage collaboration and peer-to-peer teaching. Students working in pairs or small groups can discuss and compare their work, and help each other if they are struggling. I often also witness this not just within a group, but between groups. Students may check with the group that completed that station ahead of them to see if they also got the same result. 

6. Enhances Learning Outcomes: When students are engaged, active, and collaborative in their learning, they are more likely to retain information and perform better academically. By incorporating station activities, teachers can enhance learning outcomes and help students achieve academic success.

7. Allows for Movement: By allowing movement, you are also allowing more oxygen to be pumped to the brain. This helps students remain focussed on the tasks and keep their brain active to learn new information.

8. Builds a positive vibe: This is hard to describe, but when I use stations in my classroom there is a vibe. Students are discussing the learning, smiling, working hard, enjoying different tasks, enjoying the collaboration. It’s a vibe. A great one. 

station activities in the classroom

9. Cost effective for equipment or supplies: If you have limited sets of equipment or materials for a whole class activity, then this is an excellent solution. Rather than having to buy lots of equipment, you can just buy one set of each and have students take turns at each station.

This is particularly helpful for myself as a science teacher as we often don’t have a class set of the more expensive equipment.

10. You can move around freely: Being able to move around the room rather than being stuck up the front allows you to witness students in the depths of learning, hear their conversations and participate in them, provide direct instruction or assistance as necessary, and even take the time to make notes for informal assessment. 

11. Differentiate instruction and assistance: By moving around to different groups you are able to provide more differentiated instructions, information and help as students need it. 

12. Assess students and provide feedback in real time: We know that feedback is most useful if it is timely. By using stations and moving around, it provides you with this opportunity to check student work and give feedback at the time it is needed.

13. Observe students working in different ways: It is a great thing to witness students learning in a range of environments and with different people. This can help you plan for future lessons in making observations about how long students take at each station, who they work well with, who is good at leading the group, etc. 

 14. Provides great opportunities for action photos: Take these opportunities to take photos of students engaged in learning. Use these to put up around the classroom, put in a newsletter article, add to the school website, promote your subject or even send home to parents.

 15. Helps you build positive relationships with students: While it can be hard to get to know students while they are working at their desks, station activities in the classroom allow for you to chat with them more freely and engage with them more personally.

This is really helpful for building a positive rapport and relationship with your students.

station activities in the classroom

Conclusion

There are so many benefits to both students and teachers when using station activities in the classroom.

Do you use them in your classroom?

Please share your experiences below in the comments!

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station activities in the classroom

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