The Choice Board Model

This is a self-paced option for the Hybrid A/B learning environment. The Choice Board allows for various levels of learning to take place and gives students choices in how they access information as well as demonstrate their understanding.

Here are the steps you can go through to create a Choice Board in your content area:

1. Identify a unit/concept or skill and what you want students to know/do/make in order to demonstrate their understanding/proficiency.

2. Create or choose an assessment/performance task that allows students to demonstrate mastery.

3. List various instructional methods, resources, and strategies to prepare students for the assessment/performance task.

4. Choose four-six instructional methods to turn into choice-board activities. Each activity should be a similar length in time and cover common material. Here is where you can add different types of technology or hands-on experiences to the learning process.

5. Create a workflow for the students to follow. Have notes and formative checks as part of the choice-board design process. Allow for reflection during each activity when planning how long students will complete the activity.

6. Introduce the different choices to students and describe what the goals of the activity are (as well as the assessment this is leading up to).

7. Let students pick activities based on their interests/needs.

8. As the teacher, a few of the activities/options might need more guidance than others. Make sure you aren’t just “managing” this activity, but instead truly acting as a guide and expert learner when the opportunity is available.

9. Once the choice-board activities are complete, put students into small groups to “jigsaw” their reflection. Bring students from different activities together to reflect on their learning experience and share (this can be written, audio, or video reflections – think Flipgrid).

10. Listen to reflections and check the formative pieces for each activity to see if students are prepared for the assessment. If not, feel free to go through one more activity together as a class or talk about any topics/concepts they did not understand during the activity.

11. Give the assessment/performance task.

12. BONUS OPTION: Make your assessment into a choice-board with multiple performance tasks that allow students to demonstrate an understanding of the content and skills.

As you can see, the process takes more time on the front end from the teacher, but you’ll know that students are prepared for a performance task by going through this activity.

Check out all kinds of Choice Board examples in this blog post!