Hacking Learning Centers in Grades 6-12: How to Design Small-Group Instruction to Foster Active Learning, Shared Leadership, and Student Accountability

Think learning centers are only for elementary students? Think again. Learning centers for grade 6 and beyond can transform your classroom into a dynamic learning experience.

A learning centers model enhances excellent pedagogy. Learning is a dynamic experience, and students thrive when educators acknowledge individual learners’ needs and interests and inspire them to engage with the content more deeply within personalized middle and high school spaces.

Learning centers create robust thinkers, problem-solvers, and brave leaders. As teachers and administrators, we can build learning structures that include everyone and allow students to collaborate, experiment, reflect, self-assess, and transfer the learning to their lives beyond school.

Hacking Learning Centers in Grades 6–12 shares the “why” along with practical guidance to design and teach with learning centers. Authors and award-winning educators Starr Sackstein and Karen Terwilliger show how to:

• Design small-group instruction centers to foster active learning
• Empower unexpected leaders
• Raise the bar on student accountability
• Activate the fun and bring learning to life
• Inspire students to share ideas and make decisions

Starr Sackstein is arguably the world's leading authority on the no-grades classroom. She is a longtime teacher and author of six education books, including the bestselling Hacking Assessment: 10 Ways to Go Gradeless in a Traditional Grades School and Hacking Homework: 10 Strategies that Inspire Learning Outside of School. Starr produces EdWeek's popular blog Work in Progress and co-moderates the popular #sunchat on Twitter. Starr is a 2014 Bammy Awards finalist for Secondary High School Educator. A global voice of change in how learning is assessed, Starr co-moderates the Teachers Throwing Out Grades Facebook group. Follow @mssackstein.

Karen Terwilliger is the co-author of Hacking Learning Centers and a seasoned sixth grade English and social studies teacher in the George Washington Intermediate school in West Hempstead, New York. She has written sixth grade English curriculum and served as a mentor to new teachers. Her experience as a kindergarten teacher has inspired her to bring student voice and choice with station learning into the middle school and intermediate school settings. You can reach out to her at kterwilliger005@gmail.com and on Twitter @MrsKTerwilliger.