How to Use a Digital Choice Board in the Classroom
The use of a digital choice board in the classroom can facilitate differentiation and creativity while also fostering student agency. This article will discuss how to use a digital choice board and its benefits. The main benefits are:
Digital choice boards facilitate differentiation
Digital choice boards enable students to differentiate their learning by letting them choose which activities they will complete showing their understanding of a subject. Differentiated assignments can accommodate different learning styles and rigor levels, while the traditional rubric allows teachers to provide a range of choices to students. To facilitate differentiation, teachers can color-code the board. Here are some examples of digital choice boards in the classroom. One type of choice board is a learning menu, which offers students a series of options arranged in a specific order.
Teachers can create digital choice boards based on specific concepts or vocabulary words, or even individualized education plans. These boards can be used for any subject, and they are easily adaptable for different levels of learning. These boards can help differentiate learning and make it easier for teachers to manage a single lesson or a week-long activity. There are many advantages to using digital choice boards in the classroom, and Kasey Bell’s Chrome PD Tic Tac Toe app is an excellent example of a graphical choice board.
Differentiation can help improve student engagement, reduce discipline problems, and encourage student engagement. However, teachers should be aware that this method requires more time than traditional teaching. The learning curve may be steep, and some schools do not have the necessary professional development. Critics argue that the benefits of differentiated instruction outweigh the time spent in lesson planning. The time spent on the preparation is worth the extra time, however. In addition, some teachers are not comfortable integrating it into their practice.
Digital choice boards help educators differentiate learning and help students achieve their potential. These innovative tools provide teachers with a variety of learning opportunities and enhance motivation. Choice boards are great for fostering this. With a choice board, students can choose which activity to perform next. They can choose from different rows or columns, and each choice can have the desired outcome. Besides being flexible and scalable, choice boards allow teachers to assign different options to students depending on the curriculum and their needs.
They promote agency
Using choice boards in the classroom promotes student agency. Students curate their learning materials based on their interests and goals and choose from a variety of tasks to complete. Using a choice board also encourages empathy-based design strategies. In addition to engaging students in self-directed learning, choice boards are also a great way to support remote learning environments. They can also be used to promote agency and differentiate learning.
Using choice boards in the classroom is a great way to move students to the center of the learning experience. Choice boards allow students to decide how they will spend their time, freeing teachers to work alongside them. Students can choose a number of tasks and activities from the board, and they can decide the order in which they want to complete them. The choice boards can also help teachers shift time-consuming tasks into the classroom, including feedback, grading, and conversations.
The design of a Choice Board depends on the learning goals of the class. It can be paper-based, computer-based, or a combination of both. The board can be used as a standalone activity or can be part of a unit, project, or lesson. It can include a variety of activities, depending on the age of the students, learning styles, and levels of readiness. Moreover, a choice board allows the teacher to differentiate activities according to the student’s abilities and interests.
A teacher who has an understanding of how to promote student agency is an effective educator. By providing students with the tools they need to take charge of their own learning, a teacher can empower students to become self-managers. To understand more about how to promote student agency, read this EdWeek article by Larry Ferlazzo. He describes this process as a continuum of autonomy. Once students are empowered to decide their own learning, teachers can modify and adapt the system to meet the needs of their students.
A choice board can be a physical handout or a digital space. It can provide students with a variety of resources, interactive links, and opportunities to produce artifacts. One option that works well on a choice board is a game where students are given 3 choices and must choose one out of three options to finish it. It can also be used as an assessment tool. Choose boards are a great tool to foster agency in the classroom.
They promote creativity
Teachers have long been using choice boards in the classroom to inspire students’ creativity. But what are the best ways to use these boards? Here are a few ideas. One of the most effective ways is by using theme menus. Themes can be as diverse as sports team positions, collecting objects, or superheroes building their dream teams. Students tend to engage with themes more readily, especially older students. In addition, students can choose activities related to their interests, which helps them take ownership of the learning process.
Using choice boards can be particularly helpful when students are experiencing “paralysis by analysis.” A choice board is simply a document with various options for completing an assignment. Students choose one option from each column. Teachers commonly use a 3×3 grid or a 5×5 bingo board. It empowers students and makes assignments easier to complete. Aside from encouraging creativity, these boards help students learn how to synthesize knowledge and apply it to new situations.
Another way to use choice boards is to design your own book. Create a template or a choice board with different sections for students to complete. They can then copy the template. The key is to make sure that your choice board doesn’t contain any content that is irrelevant to the topic you’re teaching. If your students don’t want to write the same thing as you, create a choice board that offers a variety of options.
Choose a graphic organizer for each task. A choice board has several squares, and each one represents an activity. The board will help students learn different concepts while giving them ownership over their work. Students can select two or nine activities from a grid. Some boards offer more than nine options, so you can choose whichever one suits your students’ needs. They can also be used as a learning strategy to reinforce a certain concept.
Another great way to motivate students is to use choice boards in the classroom. These boards help teachers identify student interests and empower students to take responsibility for their learning. It also helps them identify what they enjoy and feel committed to their school work. These learning tools can be easy to implement and provide students with many benefits. They also help teachers make their lesson planning easier and more effective. So, choose boards today and watch your students’ creativity soar.
They promote motivation
The use of choice boards in the classroom has many benefits. These visual aids can be used in writing workshops, project-based learning, and assessments. They also encourage students to take responsibility for their own learning by allowing students to choose the tasks that they find interesting or challenging. In addition to engaging students in the educational process, choice boards can be beneficial in remote learning and pandemics. For example, students can create a choice board for a weekly task such as homework or a project.
Choice boards can also be an effective tool for warm-up spiral review. Research has shown that these boards are effective in enhancing student motivation. In general, however, they are not an appropriate replacement for actual assignments. Therefore, teachers should experiment with how these tools work before they implement them in their own classrooms. To maximize the benefits of using choice boards in the classroom, teachers should align the learning objectives, instructional strategies, and assessments with the goals of the course.
Using choice boards in the classroom promotes intrinsic motivation and meaningful learning. Students are more likely to internalize new content when they find it interesting or relevant to their learning style. Further, these boards accommodate multiple learning styles and empower students. Since students gravitate toward learning activities that align with their learning styles, careful choice boards allow them to explore other learning styles and interests. They may also increase their engagement level. However, choice boards are not ideal for every learning style.
When choosing choice boards, teachers should keep in mind the learning styles of their students. Depending on the age of their students, teachers should design the choice board based on their preferred learning style. The structure of the choice boards can be linear or random. Having a “Free Choice” square on the board can be useful as a choice for students to choose from as they progress through their course. This type of learning environment encourages students to take ownership of their learning and to persist even when the going gets tough.
Using choice boards in the classroom is another effective way to improve student learning. It’s simple to design choice boards and incorporate them into your lessons. In addition to fostering motivation, they also promote learning by using differentiated instruction. They also simplify lesson planning and address different learning styles. Moreover, they are quick to implement and easy to use. So, it’s a win-win situation for students! If you’re considering using choice boards in your classroom, make sure you check out the benefits!
