Choice boards are a great way to offer students a way to show what they know. The boards connect to what they are learning. They enhance student engagement and heighten motivation while using differentiated instruction. They can be called menu boards, choice boards, or tic-tac-toe boards. As a general rule, these boards outline a variety of instructional options that are targeted towards a specific academic goal.
What are choice boards?
Choice boards are a series of squares that have a different activity in each individual box. Each activity helps students practice vocabulary, enhance receptive skills, reinforce a concept, or practice a skill. Choice boards also increase student ownership of their work. The activities can be completed at random (choose 4 squares to complete) or in a sequence (play tic-tac-toe and complete 3 in a row).
Get this free packet of interpretive task choice boards for you to use.
Why use choice boards?
We know students need lots of exposure and repetition to the language and concepts being taught. Choice boards give students opportunities to practice and master what they have learned. However, scaffolding the activities is not an easy task. Teachers need to take into consideration learning styles while keeping the activities interesting and challenging. Choice boards give that opportunity to do this and that is why they are great for the language classroom. Choice boards are quick to create, easy to align to state standards and promote learning.
How to create a choice board
Choice boards generally revolve around a particular concept or set of vocabulary words. The learning goals in the choice board should be stimulating for students and help reinforce what is being taught. To begin, identify what you want students to practice and be able to do. Focus on the core concept. Secondly, focus on student’s interests and level of readiness. Thirdly, provide activities with a variety of methods to practice. Lastly, the activities should be at different ranges of difficulty.
You can choose to leave a “free” space that allows students to create their own activity. Activities for all tasks can be for individual work, partners, or small groups.
Wording your choice board activities
Use a wide variety of action words by using Bloom’s Taxonomy to write how the tasks are completed. For example, identify the fingerspelled words in the video, change the ending to the story, design a meme, or demonstrate the culture knowledge you have learned.
Tips for creating a choice board
It is important that the choice board have varying activities for differentiating instruction. Here are a few tips that will help you create a great choice board for your students.
- Design at least 9 activities/tasks for students to complete
- Incorporate activities for all modes of communication (interpretive, interpersonal, and interpretive)
- Include as many learning styles as possible into the activities (kinesthetic, artistic, reading, visual)
- Boards can be created for weekly use, homework, or sub days
- Use a variety of action words to accomplish the tasks
- If requiring a tic-tac-toe style board, make sure you have all modes represented in the formation (verticle, horizontal, diagonal)
- Make them in Google Docs so they can be completed paperless
Enjoy creating your choice boards for your units of study today!
Get this free packet of interpretive task choice boards for you to use.
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