Creating Choices for Students in Reading Centers

Here are some helpful ways to provide choices to your students during centers, so that the routine of centers does not become monotonous:

1. When students read to self, allow them to choose books from a certain genre or books within their reading level.
2. When reading a DRA level book with the teacher, have students choose from a set of 5 different choices of books for the week.
3. In a writing center, provide choices such as journal writing, writing a story, or practicing handwriting (cursive).
4. Every week, my students focus on a Florida Center Reading Research skill such as vocabulary, comprehension, and fluency.  Each week students can choose between 2 vocabulary skills that they want to focus on.
5. Game boards that go with the reading series of SRA in my classroom provide a workshop kit with different skills for the students to practice on.  Giving the students a choice of 3 different game cards such as homophones, vocabulary, and sentences allows for choice, but still focuses on the skills that we are learning for the week.