Literacy Learning Centers

Interactive learning centers
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Interactive learning is a practical way of giving instructions to the student. Interactive learning ensures that the student is actively engaged in the use of various techniques including technology. In interactive learning, the emphasis is put on constant student-teacher interaction, student-student relations through peer learning and even student-parent communication. Unlike passive learning, in interactive learning, the learner acquires problem-solving skills rather than the just theoretical application of knowledge. Below are five phonic learning centers that will help review and practice skills in an interactive, social and reflective learning environment.
Our first interactive learning center is a primary grade one classroom. This class is parted into sections essential in giving instructions; there are tables for small groups of two students at the back of the class, chairs arranged for the teaching of the whole class and private sections for individual learning. In this level, the leaner is required to identify various sounds in a word. To achieve this, the teacher has to come up with creative ways that will help actively involve the learners in the process. These are called interactive elements. In this case, the teacher can design colorful cards each dividing various words into their inclusive sounds. The teacher can then distribute the cards to each student and give them favorable time to understand the process of identifying the sounds in a word as indicated in the cards.

To socially engage the students in the process of identification of sounds, the teacher can now put the learners into small groups where each leaner is expected to discuss what they have learned from the cards earlier assigned to them. This will ensure the learners interact with each other and develop a relationship of mutual benefit in their learning process (Brice & Brice, 2009). To enhance the reflective response of each student, the role of the teacher, in this case, will be to ask each of the learners to represent their skills of identifying sounds in a word in their journal. By so doing, the learners reflect on the skills they have learned and continue cultivating them amongst themselves.
In the first center, formative assessment for the current situation of each leaner’s ability to identify various sounds in words can be done in the following ways; the teacher can analyze how a learner does his or her assignments. This can help the teacher to understand the learner’s strengths and weaknesses, the learner’s current knowledge and attitudes towards the subject and be able to establish whether or not there is a need for special attention on each learner (Haywood & Tzuriel, 2013).
The second interactive learning center is that of learners in a primary level one class aiming at acquiring the skill of phonic segmentation. That is, breaking words into individual sounds also known as phonemes. To achieve this, a teacher can introduce the use of Elkonin Boxes (Chard & Osborn, 1999). To use Elkonin boxes, a child listens to a word and moves a token into a box for each sound or phoneme. In some cases, different colored symbols may be used for consonants and vowels or just for each phoneme in the word. The procedure for successful use of using Elkonin Boxes by a teacher is to first, pronounce the particular word slowly with a slagging effect to stretch out the sounds within the word. Second, instruct the learner to say the word after you. Third, draw squares on board and finally direct the child to drag each sound into a box. Elkonin boxes are essential in building a learner’s phonological awareness, teaching a learner how to count the sounds in a word. It also assists in the comprehension of the alphabetic principle in spelling (Chad & Osborn, 1999). The teacher can further group the students into small groups of three to five learners and prompt them to discuss what they’ve understood from the subject. The teacher can also, in the quest of achieving a reflective response, ask the learner to write down what they have learned about the use of Elkonin boxes in their journals.
In this second interactive learning center, the formative assessment can be done as follows; the teacher can pass charts among the small groups formed in the class where the students will be required to discuss and record information on what they understand about phonic segmentation. The teacher can later check the content of the charts to determine the level of understanding of the learners in each group (Coolahan et al., 2000). The teacher can also assess the student’s performance in the various assignments the student does and be able to determine what they have or not gathered on the particular topic.
The third interactive learning center is a primary level class with the target of blending sounds to make words. Under this target skill of blending, there are many interactive elements a teacher at this level can use to ensure that learners are fully included in the learning process. First, the teacher can use blending boards with word families (Brown et al., 1992). Second, the teacher can introduce word cards which can be used to learn to blend in two ways; blending the starting two sounds in a word or the last two sounds in a word. Alternatively, to enhance social engagement in teaching blending, the teacher can put the learners into groups, with two wooden cubes, write consonants on one cube and word families on the other. The teacher will then let the learners take turns in flipping the cubes then write on a paper bearing two columns one reading, “Word” and the other “Not a word,” according to the observations made from each flip of the cubes. To enhance reflective response in teaching blending, a teacher can print letters on a learner’s journal and ask the individual student to complete the letters to form a word.
In the third interactive learning center, the recommended formative assessment strategies are as listed: First, the teacher can summon individual learners and question them on matters related to the subject, most especially why and how blending is achieved in phonics. This approach helps explicitly the teacher understand the level of understanding of the subject by the student. Second, the teacher can organize classroom polls. In this case, the use of a silent poll will help fetch information and opinions from the introvert students. This is also an efficient way of collecting quick feedback from the students about their understanding of blending.
In our fourth interactive learning center, the first grade of a primary level student is tasked with mastering spelling. In the interactive element, the teacher can create a photographic display of words around the classroom. Here, the teacher can give technology a chance by introducing typing. When learners type words repeatedly they eventually master how they are spelled (Wasik & Bond, 2001). As a way of enhancing social engagement, the teacher can divide the class into smaller groups and ask them to play spelling games like hangman and a crossword puzzle. This works efficiently since students will have the push of correctly spelling the words to win in the games. The teacher can also pronounce the words loudly and ask the learners to do the same, by so doing, the ears and eyes of the learners internalize the correct order of letters in words, therefore, mastering the spelling (Smith & Wang, 2010). Some of the activities under reflective response that learners can be encouraged to do to boost their mastery of spelling are; first, writing words by hand in their journals. However, this may not be friendly to all students; computer technology is at this moment encouraged as typing the words will be better than manually writing them. Second, the teacher can help the student to cut out letters from magazines and create words using the letters as part of homework. Third, the teacher can help reading among students. This is effective because the more the learner sees a correctly spelled word, the word will eventually be transferred into the long-term memory, and therefore, achieving mastery in it it’s spelling.
The formative assessment methods to be used in assessing the fourth learning center are; one, the teacher can ask the student to write small notes about their views and feelings about a subject and collect them as they leave the class. These are called exit tickets. This one helps the teacher understand how they feel towards a particular topic and tries to find ways of correcting pointed out mistakes.
Our fifth and last interactive learning center is a first grade class with target skill of understanding word families. Word families are words with predictable patterns, or they rhyme (Pyle, 2011). In this case, as interactive elements, the teacher can create word cards or write the word families on a chart and present it to the kids. As part of technology, the teacher can introduce video-teaching in her class; this is less boring and highly attention drawing. The teacher can dictate various word families for instance “ell” and ask the learners to insert letters before the word family to make words, it this case, words like “tell,” “well” and “fell” will be produced. The teacher can then ask each of the learners to share with the rest of the class the word or words they came up with. The teacher can also ask the students to write the various word families in their books and carry them home for further practice with their parents and guardians (Richgels, 2013).
Formative assessment in the fifth learning center can be achieved through; the teacher can ask his or her students to answer the short question in writing at the conclusion of each lesson. The question can be about; the core of the subject, word families. The unanswered queries relating to the topic. The most surprising concepts and the controversial areas in the subject. Responses from short question assist in the streamlining of future issues that should be tackled. Here, the teacher can also review the student’s homework to establish their level of understanding of the topic.
In conclusion, interactive learning centers are imminent in ensuring that learners are not left out of the learning process. They ensure that learners actively participate and maximally gain from the process. Coupled with formative assessment, interactive learning centers are an efficient way of instructing learners.

References
Brice, R. G., & Brice, A. E. (2009). Investigation of phonemic awareness and phonic skills in Spanish-English bilingual and English-speaking kindergarten students. Communication Disorders Quarterly, 30(4), 208-225.
Brown, A. L., Campione, J. C., Webber, L. S., & McGilly, K. (1992). Interactive learning environments: A new look at assessment and instruction. In Changing assessments (pp. 121-211). Springer, Dordrecht.
Chard, D. J., & Osborn, J. (1999). Phonics and word recognition instruction in early reading programs: Guidelines for accessibility. Learning Disabilities Research & Practice, 14(2), 107-117.
Coolahan, K., Fantuzzo, J., Mendez, J., & McDermott, P. (2000). Preschool peer interactions and readiness to learn: Relationships between classroom peer play and learning behaviours and conduct. Journal of Educational Psychology, 92(3), 458.
Haywood, H. C., & Tzuriel, D. (Eds.). (2013). Interactive assessment. Springer Science & Business Media.
Mellard, D. (2008). What is RTI? National Center on Response to Intervention.
Pyle, N. (2011). Inclusion of letter knowledge, phonemic awareness, the alphabetic principle, and oral language is supported for early reading intervention for kindergarteners with language difficulties. Evidence-Based Communication Assessment and Intervention, 5(1), 19-23.
Richgels, D. J. (2013). Talk, write, and read: A method for sampling emergent literacy skills. The Reading Teacher, 66(5), 380-389.
Smith, A., & Wang, Y. (2010). The impact of visual phonics on the phonological awareness and speech production of a student who is deaf: A case study. American Annals of the Deaf, 155(2), 124-130.
Wasik, B. A., & Bond, M. A. (2001). Beyond the pages of a book: Interactive book reading and language development in preschool classrooms. Journal of educational psychology, 93(2), 243.