If you have been following my blog you already know that I am a HUGE fan of the station-rotation model. The essence of the station rotation is that students rotate between carefully curated online and offline learning stations. This can occur both within and outside of the classroom walls so this model lends itself well to the remote and hybrid learning environment. In this post, I will share how I transformed my existing lesson plans on the theories of emotion into a station rotation that can be used both in-person and online.
The key to a successful station rotation is balance. One of the most helpful resources that I have found in my blended learning journey is a book and blog by Catlin Tucker. According to Tucker, a strong lesson balances teacher-led stations with online and offline stations. You might already have ideas of what types of online and offline activities you could build into your station rotation. If not, consider checking out this document she created that summarizes different types of activities that could be used to ensure balance. This blog post is a MUST read if you are thinking of incorporating the station-rotation model in your own class.
The following station rotation was developed for Unit 7: Motivation, Emotion, and Personality in my AP Psychology class. It covers the content from Topic 7.3 Theories of Emotion. I choose to redesign this section of my unit because my students have struggled with the theories of emotion in the past and many of the activities that I already did would actually work better in a HyFlex environment – with some of my students in the classroom and some at home.
This station rotation includes 5 stations. Each station is 20 minutes long. The stations are progressive and build off each other. In a “normal” year, the students rotate through different stations based on their groups so I pay careful attention to the order of the stations. Since my students can’t physically move, I have them all completing the same station tasks each day.
There are three instructional components to a station rotation; online, offline and teacher-led. I have included links to the activities at the end of this summary.
Online Stations: These stations include the content delivery covering the theories of emotion and nonverbal communication as well as an online test measuring how well the students can read facial expressions.
Offline Stations: At this station, the students create a one-pager explaining the theories of emotion and providing unique examples of each. I used this post by the Cult of Pedagogy as inspiration for this assignment. It also has some great one-pager templates. They also participate in a demonstration called “These Pretzels are Making Me Thirsty” designed to stretch their communication skills. (Side Note: If the “pretzel” demo was your original idea, I would love to give you credit. Please comment and I will update this information.)
(Side note: If any of my readers are AP-veterans, you might remember when we had a listserv to share ideas. This came from that listserv! If this was your idea, please let me know so I can give you credit).
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Station A: Crash Course Psychology: “Feeling all the Feels” EdPuzzle
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Station B: Emotion One-Pager
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Station C: Test Your Emotional Intelligence
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Station D: “These Pretzels are Making Me Thirsty”
- Station E. Flipped Lecture – Non-Verbal Communication & Selfies!
- https://geniusclimbingfish.blogspot.com/2020/10/hyflex-teaching-in-person-and-online.html
- https://geniusclimbingfish.blogspot.com/2019/12/tackling-testing-and-individual.html
- https://geniusclimbingfish.blogspot.com/2019/08/utilizing-station-rotation-model-for.html
- https://catlintucker.com/2020/01/blended-learning-in-an-ap-class/
Blended Learning Journey 
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