Teachers realize that not all students learn in the exact same way. We may create an outstanding lesson that engages most of our students, but we always seem to have a few that it just does not work for. Teaching to the varied learning styles of our students is difficult and time-consuming.Students seem to be more engaged in an activity or lesson when they have a choice. This places more ownership on their learning because they made the choice of how they wanted to master a particular learning target or essential standard. This is where the concept of a choice board comes in.
Simply, a choice board is a graphic organizer that contains a certain number of squares or choices. Each square or choice can be an activity, task, homework assignment, project, or an assessment. The possibilities are endless of how teachers can creatively and effectively design them.Using choice boards have many benefits. They allow students the power to “choose” which will encourage them to be more accountable and responsible for their learning. At the same time, the careful design of the boards can create unique opportunities for students that will aide in their different learning styles.
Choice board design should be centered around a particular learning target or essential standard. Once we have identified our learning targets and/or essential standards, we need to plan activities to provide students with a variety of mediums, methods, or learning styles that fit their educational needs. Look at some possible examples below:
Choice Board- Level of Difficulty
Choice Board- Level of Bloom’s Taxonomy
Choice Board- Varied Learning Styles
After you have designed the various tasks to fit into your choice board, you can assign any number of tasks, in any order you wish, to the students. Your students could pick 1, 2, or 3 tasks in random order, or have them play a game of tic-tac-toe for their 3 choices. A choice board does not have to have 9 choices either. Smaller boards with 3-6 choices will work fine!I created some choice board templates that you can use to get you started. Click on the links below and you will be asked to make a copy of the template that will be your own to manipulate in any way you wish.
TIC-TAC-TOE Choice Board Template
https://docs.google.com/drawings/d/1r_6PCWEdk3OcXyg2JHn8UXMEPlDG1APKgNn2wwAMWJk/copy
Choice Board Template (6 Choices)
https://docs.google.com/drawings/d/1k_YWNG2YEuLq8phSUMJCSLNgeXJbZTkLVf_hxGUE1Fw/copy
Choice Board Template (3 Choices)
https://docs.google.com/drawings/d/1ATkAxzfg7pgp7tLkHLgf82e2tcF0bGAweT_inHwNseA/copy
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