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Letting Go: Giving Students Choice

Choices, Choices, Choices!  When you walk down the toothpaste aisle at your local grocery store, there are so many choices.  Decades ago, you had two choices:  Colgate and Crest.  Now we have to choose between the brand and variety: cavity protection or whitening, gel or paste, mint or bubble gum, and so on.

Our students are born in a day and age where they have numerous choices, and, with technology, they can research and find the best choice that suits their needs.  Well, education should not be any different.

Choice boards and student menus are excellent avenues that allow for student choice, but still give you, the instructor, an idea on how students are learning and mastering specific content.

Choice Boards

A choice board is a graphic organizer that allows students to decide how they will learn a concept or demonstrate mastery of content. Choice boards focus on students' interests, abilities, and needs.  In the example below, you can see the student has to pick three activities to complete in a Tic-Tac-Toe fashion.  When designing a choice board, be sure to include activities that will accommodate the various learning styles:  visual, aural, verbal and physical, logical, social, and solitary.  You will find that choice boards are easily adaptable to various learning levels in your classroom.

https://www.smore.com/z12ay-tic-tac-toe-choice-boards-menus

How to Create a Choice Board

  1. Identify the instructional focus.
  2. Determine your students' interests, needs, and learning styles.
  3. Design tasks that meet the students' interests, needs and learning styles.
  4. Arrange the tasks in a 9 celled table.
  5. Have students pick tasks in a Tic-Tac-Toe fashion:  diagonal, vertical, horizontal.  

Student Menus

Student menus, like choice boards, allow for student choice.  The difference between a student menu and a choice board is how the information is presented.  Let's take a look at a student menu.
https://iqe4efxsuu-flywheel.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Digital-Menu-for-Student-Creation.png
Tom Spall, Creator


In this example, the student menu is set up like a HyperDoc.  Students choose an appetizer, main entree, beverage, side dish, and dessert.  This menu can be adapted to any grade level, content area, and learning ability.

Here is another example of a student menu.  
https://www.smore.com/z12ay-tic-tac-toe-choice-boards-menus

Letting Go

Are you ready to let go a little by creating a choice board or learning menu?  Your Technology Integrator would be happy to assist and facilitate the process.  Let's give our students the opportunity have voice and choice in their learning.

Resources




About the Author

Becky Poljac is a technology integrator with Chesterfield County Public Schools.  She recently moved to the Richmond area from Springfield, VA where she was a high school teacher and a school based technology specialist in Fairfax County.  She enjoys spending time with her husband and two young children, gardening, running, and traveling.
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