What comes to mind when you think about a math choice board? Do you immediately imagine hours of work creating the choice board followed by more hours grading it? I know that is a common myth.
But it’s just that – a myth.
Creating a math choice board doesn’t have to take hours. And it certainly doesn’t have to take hours to grade them.
Still not convinced?
I challenge you to download my free choice board template. You are halfway to creating a choice board just by downloading the template when you click here.
But just for fun, let’s say you don’t want a template but instead want to create your choice board for math from an old worksheet or perhaps your favorite digital activity that you’ve been using for a few years.
How can you easily do that?
I’m glad you asked because that is what I want to share with you today.
How to Make a Choice Board
So you have your favorite worksheet, assignment, or activity. But it doesn’t offer your students any choice in its current state. Let’s fix that.
Student Choice Board Option #1 – Choose How Many Problems
One of the easiest ways to offer your students choice with any assignment is to allow them to solve a certain number of problems. There is no rule that says they have to complete the entire assignment. If there are ten problems, perhaps you let them choose eight to do. More than likely, that is enough problems to show if they understand the concept. And they will be thrilled to cross off those extra two problems.
Student Choice Board Option #2 – Choose the Order
Do your students know they don’t have to work the problems in any particular order? Maybe that seems obvious, but have you ever vocalized it to your students? If not, your students might not know they have the choice. Just like there is no rule that says students have to complete the entire assignment, there’s also no rule that says they have to do problems in a particular order. There is such freedom in being about to skip around.
Student Choice Board Option #2 – Even or Odd
I know I’m aging myself here, but back when I was a student, we always did the even problems only because the answers to the odds were in the back of the book. Most students today do not have a math textbook with the odd answers in the back, allowing the even or odd idea to be a great way to give students a choice on assignments.
Do you see? Choice boards don’t have to be time-consuming. They don’t even have to look like a traditional choice board. They can be that worksheet, assignment, or activity you love and have used for years. Just think outside the box a little to turn into a choice board for math.
