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Just as students are expected to work cooperatively with one

another, we must also expect students to have the ability to work


independently. Centers are a time for the teacher to be a facilitator and
allow the students to work on their own. Of course, students should be
given the resources and directions needed to be successful, but this
time allows students to learn how to be autonomous workers. During
instruction that I was not straightforwardly supervising, my students
had to be given opportunities to self-select aspects of their centers,
such as which classmates they would sit next to, if they would work
with others, and how they could learn to the best of their ability. This
helped students become more reliant on their own decisions during
independent work time. Boushey and Moser (2006) tell of the
importance of allowing students to self-select aspects of independent
work, stating, We believe that given choice, some [students] may
initially practice undesirable behaviors but they will quickly see the
value in practicing appropriate ones and build their stamina by doing
so (p. 68). As I allowed students to work on their own, it was
important for me to step back and let my students learn about the
behaviors that would garner the most success during centers time.
Making these choices for them would do my students a disservice and
would not fully allow them to become self-reliant. Boushey and Moser
continue to add that it is then important for teachers to stay out of
the way in order to let students work. My students needed to learn the

appropriate skills to work on their own and put forth their best effort,
even without me. My hope for independent work during centers
aligned with the idea that students learn to make decisions on their
own and to monitor themselves regarding their progress (p. 25). I had
to give students the opportunity to do that as they worked
independently.
It is likewise important to be aware that the power of the
instruction that takes place away from the teacher must rival the
power of the instruction that takes place with the teacherJust how
well can the children function independently? What do they need to
learn to function better as independent learners? Most often, children
need to be taught how to be independent. Taking time to teach them
how to be independent learners is well worth the effort (Ford & Opitz,
2002, p. 710). Practice and modeling had to, of course, be put into
place in order to demonstrate how this should be done. Puig and
Froelich (2011) describe the importance of instructing students in a
way that prepares them to work without the teacher, stating that
instruction leading up to independent learning should be intentional
teaching that focuses on teaching students to become critical,
independent, and flexible learners. In other words, we are focusing our
teaching on assisting students to be self-directed, self-regulating, and
self-extending (p. 47). I had to prepare my students for this type of
work, while facilitating their independent work. Katz and Carlisle (2009)

give this example to illustrate the importance of modeling a skill to


foster independence once the teacher is not prompting:
In the first excerpt, the clinician raised the question about the
word cunningly, asked the student to highlight it, and
prompted discussion of the meaning. In the second excerpt, the
clinician simply remarked that thoughtfully is a good word. The
student, now accustomed to having conversations about words,
volunteered that she knew the meaning and offered a definition.
Theses examples show a transition that might have been
important in the transfer of the strategy instruction the students
reading of texts (p. 335).
Once I had entirely modeled and practiced with my students the
work that they should be doing at centers, I provided them with
opportunities to be self-sufficient learners. Overall, my hope was for
this to heighten their engagement, allowing them to acquire a sense of
responsibility for their own learning.

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