June 19, 2019

Including more student choice in my teaching this past year (2018-19) was well worth the effort. Even just the little bit of autonomy that I was able to offer my students made a noticeable difference. I included choice boards as simple as different ways to review test content, and as complex as allowing different topics and format choices for projects that were created at the end of a unit. But my absolute favorite choice board of the year was the one that I created for Forensics class.

I designed my Forensics class to include a fair amount of student choice and self - pacing. Because of these two aspects, my students are often at different places in their learning. Some are finished before the rest of the class is ready to go on. The lab skill capacity matrix that I designed to guide their self-pacing provides some cushion for different levels of self-pacing. One of the levels in the matrix is to teach another student how to do a specific skill, but even with that mastery level in place, I still needed a challenge for those who met those skill requirements early.

As the semester progressed, I was so glad that I spent time creating the Forensics Challenge Choice Board before the start of the semester. The Google Sheet that I modified, was I a wonderful resource created by Alice Keeler -Winter Break Challenge. My version consisted of 50 different tech and Forensic challenges that the students could choose from. Each one varied in difficulty and topic area within the realm of Forensic science. Each challenge had a link to the video, website, or a template that they needed to complete the challenge, and a column for a badge that the student received upon finishing the challenge. Also, each badge they earned gained them points, allowing them to level up in their scoring. As I plan, I keep reminding myself that gamification allows the students to be in situations where they can achieve mastery, and choice allows the students a sense of autonomy. Both are factors that affect intrinsic motivation for learning. Each time I directed students to this document, I was confident in knowing that its design provided them with even more motivation to learn.

To see a copy of my Forensics Challenge Board, Click Here.