You’ve made the decision. You are ready to start giving student choice in the classroom. You’ve gathered a few ideas, and you are feeling excited. Perhaps you have even downloaded my FREE choice board template and have already created weeks of choice board warm-ups.
The only thing left for you to do is pump the brakes. Yes, you read that correctly. Pump the brakes and slow down. There are a few things you need to consider before giving student choice.
Avoid Too Much Choice in Learning
Have you ever eaten at a restaurant where the menu is more like a published novel? I’m talking thick as a phone book back in the day? (I’m definitely showing my age with that comparison.) I am an extremely picky eater, but even I struggle to choose a meal with a menu like that. Our students will struggle to decide if you give them too many choices. This is especially true if they have never experienced choice in learning before. Students become overwhelmed when they have too many choices and when they feel overwhelmed, they shut down. That is not what we want to happen. Start off by giving two choices. Continue with only two choices until students are comfortable with that and then you can add a third choice. You want this to be a slow progression for students.
Consider your audience
Do you have an activity that you do every single year? Or a website like Boom Learning that you use every year. I’m guessing that some years your students love that activity while other years your students despite that activity. I know that is the case with me. I have had groups of students who LOVE color by numbers and want to do them daily. But I’ve also had groups of students who HATE them and beg me to never do them again. Part of giving students a choice in the classroom is getting to know your students and what motivates them. Obviously, this takes some time. In the beginning, when you only give students two choices, change those two choices every time. Make notes of what your students responded well to and what activities did nothing to motivate them. This will help you know what options to give once you build up to more than two choices.
Choice in Learning – What’s the Objective?
What is your learning objective? Is there more than one way a student can accomplish that? This is where choices like paper assignments or digital assignments come into play. I mentioned color by numbers above. Sometimes, I like to give students a choice between two types of worksheets – color by number or a maze. This is where knowing your students is crucial. You don’t want to make a ton of copies of color-by-numbers if your students aren’t motivated by them.
Be Consistent in Student Choice
My students are so accustomed to having a choice that they often wait to start an assignment until I’ve told them about their choice for the day. That choice may be their writing utensil or where they work. They might only have to do so many problems, and they get to choose which ones. They wait for the choice because I consistently give students a choice in the classroom. Like anything else we do in our classrooms, we must be consistent if we want it to work well.
Learn More About Choice in the Classroom…
Choice Board Templates
Create a Math Choice Board From Any Worksheet
