About the Project

Station-based instruction is a great teaching strategy for technology. Students move among a variety of activities matched to their ability or interest levels. Meanwhile, the teacher is freed up to work with small groups or individual students on special challenges.

Lesson Overview

Set up three to five station activities for individual students or small groups to work on such as spelling games, flashcards, typing activities, or manipulatives. Students rotate through the stations every 5 to 15 minutes. Lessons usually take place over at least a 30-minute period. Ideally, one of the stations involves working directly with the teacher.

Tips and Suggestions

Getting students to the right website, screen, page, etc. can be a slow process. Speed it up by using QR codes and access cards so that elementary students are taken to the correct page each time. Develop sets of activity cards for your workstations, so that you can quickly pull them out as needed. Students can use a QR scanner app and the camera on their Chromebook to visit the activity website.

Remember, not all of your stations need to incorporate technology! Having a variety of digital and hands-on activities will increase student interest.

Lesson Resources

• Activity Card Template
• Watch a 1st grader scan
• QR Scanner App for Chromebooks
• Blog post: Setting up digital workstations