Hacking Learning Centers in Grades 6-12 by Starr Sackstein

Hacking Learning Centers in Grades 6-12 by Starr Sackstein

Transform your classroom into a dynamic learning experience with small groups

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 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, a National Board-certified English and journalism teacher, spent nine years at World Journalism Preparatory School in Flushing, New York, where her students created the multimedia news outlet WJPSnews.com. She earned her advanced leadership certification from SUNY New Paltz and is a Journalism Education Association-certified Master Journalism Educator. She was recognized as an exceptional educator by Education Update in 2012, and she was named one of ASCD's Rising Leaders in 2016. Sackstein is currently a consultant with the Core Collaboration and publisher at Mimi & Todd Publishing, where she works with teams on assessment reform and bringing student voice to the forefront of classroom instruction. She hosts AuthorED & InspirED, a video show featuring author interviews, and she is the author of the ASCD publications Teaching Students to Self-Assess and Peer Feedback in the Classroom.