Katie McKnight, Ph.D.
Katie@KatherineMcKnight.com
DIFFERENTIATED INSTRUCTION:
CONTENT LITERACY CENTERS

Tenets of Differentiated Instruction
• Students differ in their learning profiles.
• Classrooms in which students are active learners,
decision makers, and problem solvers are more
natural and effective
than those in which students are served a "one-size-
fits-all“ curriculum and treated as passive recipients
of information.
• "Covering information" takes a backseat to making
meaning out of important ideas.

What are Learning Centers?
• Synonymous with Learning Stations.
• Learning Stations are locations that a teacher
designs for students to work in small groups or
individually.
• Each center has a clearly articulated learning
activity.

Getting Started: A Checklist
1. Write out all directions for the students for
each station.
2. Explain procedures and have them written
out and posted in your classroom.
3. Create a “make up station” at the end of
the rotation so that students can complete
any unfinished work. Review and revision
are key in the development of literacy skills
sets.
4

Getting Started: A Checklist (cont’d)
4. The teacher should circulate among the groups
to facilitate answers and questions about the
work.
5. Formal assessment occurs when the students
have finished the novel.
6. When possible, give students a choice at each
station.
I like to make a poster for each station.
Let’s look at a model for learning centers.
5

A Classroom Picture
Sample Stations for First Rotation
Content
Reading Study
Vocabulary Strategy
Activity
Practice Listening or Make
with Viewing
Content Center Up
Center
6

Sample Learning Centers
Directions: Circulate around the room to the
different learning stations.
Consider the following questions:
1. How can you use this learning center activity for
your content area and classroom?
2. As you consider your content area and a specific
learning center, what adaptations and
suggestions do you have for the activity?
Note: These learning centers focus on vocabulary.
When you create center activities for your
students, you will have a variety of activities, not
just vocabulary.

VOCABULARY AND TERMINILOGY CENTERS

Learning Center Station
Vocabulary
Samples are from: McKnight, K. (2010). The Teacher's Big Book of Graphic
Organizers: 100 Reproducible Organizers that Help Kids with 9
Reading, Writing, and the Content Areas. Jossey-Bass.

Learning Center Station
Vocabulary
Samples are from: McKnight, K. (2010). The Teacher's Big Book of Graphic
Organizers: 100 Reproducible Organizers that Help Kids with
Reading, Writing, and the Content Areas. Jossey-Bass.
10

Concept Sorts
• What is it?
• Introduces students to the vocabulary of a new topic or
book.
• Students are provided with a list of terms or concepts
from reading material.
• Students place words into different categories based on
each word's meaning.
• Categories can be defined by the teacher or by the
students.
• When used before reading, concept sorts provide an
opportunity for a teacher to see what his or her students
already know about the given content. When used after
reading, teachers can assess their students' understanding
of the concepts presented.

Concept Map
You or the student selects a word or concept for the center box of
the organizer. In the box directly above, students should write the
dictionary definition of the word or concept.
Students should record key elements of the word or concept in each
of the boxes on the upper left side.
In each of the boxes on the upper right side, the students should
record information that is incorrectly assigned to the word or
concept.
Examples of the word or concept are recorded in the boxes along the
bottom of the page.
The ‘‘What is it like?’’ and ‘‘What is it NOT like?’’ boxes can be
particularly challenging.
Be sure to model responses to these or allow students to work in
pairs so that they will have greater success in completing this activity.

Word Detective
• The importance of encouraging students to
study words cannot be emphasized enough.
• In this center, students are prompted to
research the etymology of words (and content
area terms) and connect visual images to the
words that they encounter.

Creating Slide Shows
• www.photopeach.c
om
• Sample from an
Algebra teacher
http://photopeach.co
m/album/tculv0?invit
ecode=b684ea3b5c

Vocabulary Demonstration Lesson
• http://www.adlit.org/media/mediatopics/voc
ab/
• http://www.adlit.org/media/mediatopics/voc
ab/

SAMPLE READING ACTIVITIES

KWL
K= What the reader already knows
L= What the reader wants to learn or know.
L= What I learned

DRTA

DRTA

Sketch Through
Text
Daniels, H. and Zimmerman, S. (2004). Subjects Matter:
Every Teachers’ Guide to Content –Area Reading.
Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, p 121.

Stop and Write

Inquiry Chart
The Inquiry Chart (I-Chart) is a strategy that
enables students to generate meaningful
questions about a topic and organize their writing.
Students integrate prior knowledge or thoughts
about the topic with additional information found
in several sources.
The I-Chart procedure is organized into three
phases: (1) Planning, (2) Interacting, and (3)
Integrating/Evaluating. Each phase consists of
activities designed to engage students in
evaluating a topic.
http://www.adlit.org/strategies/21826/

I Do, We Do, You Do
• http://www.adlit.org/media/mediatopics/com
prehension/
• Comprehension Demonstration

Visuals
• Graphic Organizers and other visuals support
student comprehension and understanding of
text.
• Here is an example from a Social Studies
teacher
• http://www.adlit.org/media/mediatopics/cont
entarea/

Feedback
• I need feedback from you about next steps.
• What do you need in order to experiment
with content based centers?