Have you ever tried out choice boards with your students? I love them because they give students some voice and choice in their learning. Choice boards provide a variety of ways for students to demonstrate they have mastered a concept. Your students that love to write can choose to answer writing prompts, your students that are artistic may choose to create an animated cartoon, and your talkative students may choose to use an online voice recorder to explain what they learned. The possibilities are endless.
If you make your own, here are some options you could include:
- Virtual labs
- Website review games
- YouTube video clips
- Listen to a podcast episode
- Answer a writing prompt
- Fill out a crossword puzzle or concept map
- Create a cartoon
- Answer a question in an online voice recorder (such as vocaroo)
- Take a photograph that represents a science concept
How to grade choice boards:
It is up to you on how many tasks you want students to complete on the choice board and how you will assess them. Grading ideas could include:
- Grade for completion
- Create a rubric
- For virtual labs or online games, you can have students screenshot their high score
- Type up questions that go along with videos or podcast episodes
- Insert their answers into a Google form
Here is a preview of a choice board I created for cell organelles to give you an idea of how they work:
If you don’t want to make your own, I’ve created choice boards for biology and earth science units. CLICK HERE to check them out!
