A Brief Blog on Choice Boards

Choice boards are not only a great way to provide students with choice in their learning, but depending on how they are designed, they can be a great way to address the approach of "low floor, high ceiling" tasks. Research reflects the importance of integrating student choice with learning, as choice can foster student ownership of learning (Kallick & Zmuda, 2017). Choice boards are one way to integrate choice, but they should not be the only option for choice in a student's learning. Choice can be integrated in many ways, but that's a blog for another day. Choice boards can be a simple way to begin integrating more student choice into lessons. They can be used for class work, morning work, homework, and other ways throughout the school day.

Choice boards can also be helpful for differentiating instruction. Problems can be included that are accessible by all students in some capacity, meaning "low floor, high ceiling" tasks. Encourage students to challenge themselves and to try more difficult tasks, as compared to only selecting the easiest task on the board. In designing choice boards, be intentional with the structure of the problems or tasks included, particularly in terms of building complexity and critical thinking.

With the choice boards that I create, I include space for students to show their work and to record their responses below the choice board.

References

Kallick, B., & Zmuda, A. (2017) Students at the center: Personalized learning with habits of mind. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.