Florida’s Benchmarks for Excellent Student Thinking (B.E.S.T.) are standards for English Language Arts (ELA) developed by Florida literacy experts, Florida educators, and vested stakeholders. The standards emphasize that the pathway to literacy and reading comprehension is built with effective instruction in foundational skills, knowledge, and curriculum. The mastery standards are divided into four strands: Foundations, Reading, Communication, and Vocabulary. The standards use the following coding scheme:
Click here to learn more about Florida’s B.E.S.T. Standards: English Language Arts.
Click here to learn more about Student Center Activities.
Using FCRR’s Student Center Activities with the B.E.S.T. Standards
A team of researchers and teachers at FCRR aligned the Student Center Activities with Florida’s B.E.S.T Standards: English Language Arts. The activities are designed for students to practice, demonstrate, and extend their learning of what has already been taught, sometimes with teacher assistance and sometimes independently. Students can complete the activities in small groups, pairs, or individually. Use the filters above to find activities by grade, standard, and area of reading instruction.
Component
- Name of the reading component: Phonological Awareness (PA), Phonics (P), Fluency (F), Vocabulary (V), or Comprehension (C). Each component is color coded: PA is purple, P is orange, F is red, V is green, C is blue.
Subcomponent
- Name of the reading subcomponent, which is a subskill of the component.
Activity Name
- Name of the activity.
Activity Number
- The letters correspond with the reading component (PA, P, F, V, or C). The numbers are listed in ascending order within each component. The activities are sequenced from simple to more complex within each component and subcomponent.
Student Icon
- The suggested number of students for the activity. One student icon indicates that students may work independently or with a small group. Two student icons indicate that the activity requires students to work in pairs. Two student icons with a plus sign indicate that the activity requires two or more students.
Objective
- States the goal of the activity, which is aligned with the subcomponent.
Materials
- Materials are located on the pages that follow the Activity Plan. Most materials are non-consumable to be prepared and used repeatedly (e.g., word cards can be laminated). Some materials are consumable and will need to be duplicated for each student doing the activity. Other materials, such as counters, are commonly found in most classrooms.
Activity Statement
- One sentence explanation of the purpose of the activity and what students do to complete the activity.
Activity Steps
- The first step describes how to setup the center. The second step begins with: The student, Students, Working in pairs, or Taking turns depending on the number of students needed to complete the activity. The second step also starts the series of steps to complete the activity. The next steps explain what the student does to complete the activity. The last step lists one of three accountability methods: Self-check, Peer evaluation, or Teacher evaluation.
Example
- A visual of the activity and key materials.
Extensions and Adaptations
- Suggestions that extend or provide an adaptation for additional practice on the skill addressed in the activity. Materials for the extensions and adaptations are included after the pages that align to the Activity Plan.
All are welcome to make print copies of the Student Center Activities as long as modifications are not made, the materials will only be used for non-profit educational purposes, and the copyright belongs jointly to the Florida Department of Education and the Florida Center for Reading Research. These materials may not be used for any commercial purposes. These resources on our site may be linked to but not reposted, reproduced, modified, or copied to other sites. For questions about the use of these materials, please contact The Florida Center for Reading Research at: fcrr@fcrr.org.
