Offering choices to students can be highly satisfying and extremely motivating. The students will feel some sort of control over their learning and the trust the teacher puts in them. Also, they will likely choose an option they are good at, which will increase the likelihood of quality work. Offering choices is also a good way to differentiate.
Offering choices can take several forms, here are some:
1. Choiceboards. They offer several options to students, who will choose what activity to do or which project/team to join. The activities need to planned in a way that doing them will allow the students to reach the objectives. See this example below and you can get more tips here.
2. Format of the homework/presentation. Does it really matter in what format the students submit their work? It can be an essay, a blog post, an infographic, a poster, a video, a slideshow, a song – anything they prove they’ve made progress. Don’t forget to include proper rubrics for assessment though.
3. What source to read. Students can also decide on what they want to read. There might be a set text or the textbook to read, but to increase fun, you can curate a collection with wakelet and the students can decide which two or three (or more) extra resources they want to explore. They can add their own resources for others to read.
Do you have any other ideas about how to offer choices to the students? Share with us in the comments section.
