Choice Boards
Choice Boards gives students a say in how they access information as well as demonstrate their understanding. They also allow for a variety of learning styles and levels.
Creating a Choice Board
Identify what you want students to know/do/make
Create an assessment/performance task that can show mastery
Choose multiple instructional methods to turn into choice-board activities.
Introduce the different choices to student and let students pick based on interests/needs/
Listen to reflections and check the formative pieces for each activity to see if students are prepared for the assessment.
Give the assessment/performance task.
Sample Choice Boards and Templates
Would You Rather? Designing with Choice in Mind
Instead of a choice board with nine options, teachers can provide students with at least one choice between two options during the learning experience. That requires less time to prepare for, while still giving students a choice. Choice has been shown to improve retention, transfer performance, and motivation.
Read more about Would You Rather? options at https://catlintucker.com/2021/02/would-you-rather/
5 REASONS TO USE CHOICE IN THE CLASSROOM
1. CHOICE IMPROVES STUDENT BUY-IN
At the beginning of the project, it was a challenge to get every student to actually choose a topic. Some wanted me to just give them a worksheet and tell them what they needed to do. However, once we got past this obstacle...the buy-in was already there. Students cared about what they were doing because they CHOSE what they were doing. If they wanted to complain about their topic, I would let them switch to a new one so the buy-in would always remain the same.
2. Choice puts the responsibility back in the students' hands
At the same time, the students knew that I was not the "expert" on their chosen topic. I didn't know much about learning sign-language so my responsibility as a teacher changed. Students could no longer come to me expecting an answer but had to come to me expecting help in finding the answer. I was still the "lead learner" in my class, but I was learning alongside my students and not doing it for them. The learning responsibility was firmly on their shoulders.
3. Choice allows for flexibility
If you've ever done a "passion project" or have written your own story, song, etc....then you know that things change. The idea we initially started out with gets reworked and twisted into something completely new. Because I did not give requirements and deadlines with what they needed to complete...this project allowed for complete flexibility. Choice drove the students' actions and gave some room for lots of little (and sometimes big) changes along the way.
4. Choice embraces current and new passions
To be honest, I didn't expect so many students to struggle to define what they were interested or passionate about. However, this project allowed students to find new passions and new interests---as well as embrace their current passions. This is important because they did not need to start with the base knowledge, but they also could start with prior knowledge. That meant for many students they were just beginning to learn about this topic, and for others, it was something they had been doing for many years. The choice put students on very different learning continuums during the project, but as we saw with the final presentations, this did nothing to limit the overall learning.
5. Choice leads to growth
Ultimately, choice consistently leads to growth. Because of the above factors, choice became a way for students to create their own learning path, and assess how much they had learned. Almost every student came out of this project saying they had not only learned something new but also been excited to grow through the process.
It was not always easy for the students, or for me as the teacher, but choice brought out the best in all of us.
Quick Challenge: Try to find a small way you can give your students a choice in their learning this week. It does not need to be an entire project but instead can start with small activity.
-From AJ Juliani's "5 Ways Student Choice Impacts Learning"