Forty-five minutes to an hour of sitting in a classroom learning about one subject can cause students to get restless and lose interest. By using rotation activities across one subject areas, teachers can help diversify the learning experience for middle school students and keep them excited about learning. For example, in a mathematics classroom, teachers can rotate students through five different activities. One activity could be on the computer, another could involve working with groups to solve problems and another activity could be a pop quiz to test how well students are understanding the material.
Rotation activities can also be used across multiple classrooms. Many schools rotate activities like art, music, physical education, library and computer class throughout the week so that students get to experience each of these classes once a week instead of every day. This helps students to try many different activities that they might not otherwise have time to try. Teachers can also use rotation activities across multiple disciplines that are taught every day. For example, a history teacher and an English teacher could pair up to form a rotation in which students read a novel in English class from the historical time period they are learning about in history class.
Learning Centers provide a great way for teachers to use rotation activities in their classroom on a daily basis. Set up one area of your classroom for computer activities, another for creative and artistic activities and still another for group activities. By making these learning centers a permanent part of your classroom environment, you can incorporate rotation activities into the daily academic lives of your middle school students.
Rotation activities work because they help give students different opportunities in the classroom. Each of your middle school students will have developed specific learning strategies. Without rotating the way you teach a lesson you may not be able to reach a student who does not share the same learning style as your teaching style. Rotation activities are great for middle school students because they help them realize how different subjects are interrelated.