The Thing About Choice Boards…

#Realtalk: There’s a Thing

Choice boards are getting a lot of love right now as an option for student learning activities in virtual learning environments. Choice boards are simply bingo-like, often hyper-linked,  grids that provide students a variety of options for covering material. Choice boards can be used for many purposes, from daily or unit activities, to PBL final products and Personalized Professional Development. This format holds a lot of potential for learner engagement in distance learning, for teachers and students, but also brings along some concerns. Read on for best practices and cautionary tales for Choice Boards in virtual learning environments. 

Pd Choice Board

Promises of Choice Boards 

First and foremost, Choices Boards offer up a great deal of potential for “voice and choice” in a learning environment right now that tends to” teach to the middle”. By “voice and choice” I actually mean choice- students have some options for how they want to go about covering content. If designed with * multiple intelligences * in mind and providing students a variety of opportunities to show what they know (as evidenced by the titles of the columns on the board), choice boards can be pretty awesome.   

Choice Boards can be used for formative or summative assessment; and they can be great for supporting student agency, as well. With best practices of feedback, reflection and self-awareness embedded, students can make informed and intentional choices about their learning that results in a great deal of empowerment. 

In distance learning so much of the learning process can feel isolating- #realtalk: collaboration can be challenging! Choice boards provide two ways that learning can feel collaborative: 1) students can be grouped based off of the formats (columns or rows) they chose to show what they know. From here the teacher can provide small group instruction for scaffolding workshops and tutorials to support each “box” on the grid. 2) students can be placed in groups, asked to engage in some Multiple Ability Orientation reflection, and then collectively decide who will tackle which box on the grid for the group as a whole, to get a “bingo”. 

And finally, as a leader of adult learning, I love the idea of using Choice Boards for professional development. Best teaching is best teaching and this applies to teachers, as well! When adults have a choice in how they learn what they need to learn, it goes a long way! 

Choice Board Quote

Cautionary Tales of Choice Boards

So here’s the thing….yes, there’s a thing! Choice boards are only effective if the following is in place:

  • There needs to be accountability

Somebody, either a teacher or an instructional leader, needs to be an “accountabilibuddy” here. There needs to be a deadline, and an authentic need to complete the board. If you are a teacher, it’s likely some type of formative assessment- whether it be a follow up , feedback or reflection. Choice Boards should not be glorified busy work, or simply another way to list out tasks!  

  • There needs to be equal content weight 

The majority of the time humans will take the path of least resistance. If there are an imbalance of options on the board students will pick the bingo path that is the easiest lift. For assessment purposes (see the previous bullet again!) there needs to be content that is equally weighted/comparable, and requires the same “brain work” across the board. {Think: “equal thinking, not just equal doing”}

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  • There needs to be intentional choices

Students should be asked to think strategically about their choices before jumping into a specific column or row on the board. Students should be asked to reflect and provide a ‘why’ to justify why they picked the path they are heading down. 

  • There needs to be some student reflection

Based on the strategic students make (and maybe even need to defend), there should be some element of follow-up to it for student to pause and reflect on how it went, what they learned, how to apply what they learned,  and what they might do differently next time.

 

A Model Choice Board 

Check out this model choice board I found for NGSS:

Model Choice Board

A few things jumped out to me when I saw this:

I love the active verbs: Find, observe, investigate, discuss.

It’s a great model for showing how to spark inquiry and leveraging a board as a “jump off point” to learning more.

It allows different ways of knowing and showing.

 

 

While Choice Boards provide a great deal of potential for us during times that we are grasping for strategies for engagement, we need to uphold fidelity to best practices of teaching and learning as well. Staying mindful of these 3 things (I lied, there were 3 things not 1 thing 😉 will help us ensure that rigor exists alongside engagement in virtual learning. 

 

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