Student Choice

"Providing cognitively & intellectually appropriate challenge and structured choice to gifted students increased motivation, engagement, and sense of empowerment."

(Graefe & Ritchotte)

What is Structured Choice?

Fosters learner independence within teacher assignments
Tasks appropriately challenge the learner
High expectations in place
Guidance for completion provided in the form of checklists, rubrics, etc.
Students have control over the pace, place, path, and/or products of learning

Strategic Teacher - Graduated Difficulty Description Graduated Difficulty is a strategy best suited for the parts of a unit or lesson cycle devoted to practice and assessment. The teacher provides three or more problem sets or tasks for students to complete. Each set or task is intentionally created at increasing difficult levels.

Playlists, HyperDocs, Contracts, Menus, and Choice Boards

Playlists

A playlist is a step-by-step breakdown of specific activities that students should complete.

Allows students to self-pace through the required content/activities
Allows teacher to provide student choice within the playlist (among activities and/or within specific steps of the assignment)
Receive real-time feedback with the help of technology.

Playlists can also have different depths of knowledge. Students can choose different activities that are worth different amount of points. Some teachers organize the work so must complete activities to reach a certain number of points.

Argumentative writing playlist

Parts of Speech Review Playlist

Dystopian Literature Book Club Playlist

Using Playlists to Differentiate InstructionWant better differentiation? Learn how to use this simple method for providing students with customized plans for working through a unit of study.

HyperDocs

HyperDocs are digitally organized lessons/activity plans that allow students to work through content and provide documentation of learning.

Can also be called multimedia text sets

Examples

Templates for getting started with HyperDocs

Folder of HyperDocs by content area

Geometry HyperDoc

Challenges in Non-fiction

5th Grade Geometry, Measurement, Coding & More HyperDoc

Learning Contracts and Study Guides

A learning contract (sometimes also referred to as an independent project) is a plan for what, how, and when a student will study a specific topic. It is best used when a student already knows a significant portion of the required content in a unit, which you will discover when you pre-assess.

Puts the ownership of learning more on the student (Link to guidelines for contract)

Learning Contracts and Playlists

Contract Collaborations with Gifted Students

Contract Guidelines Ideas here

Example of compaction contract here

Example Study Guide

Study Guide Plan