👆🏾 Choice boards: Tips, templates and more

🕺🏻 A ton of fun techy learning ideas

How do you make learning not just a lesson … but an experience?

How can you make class memorable … something students will talk about in the hallways or on the bus ride home?

And … can your classroom technology level up that experience?

I packed my very favorite answers to those questions in my book, Tech Like a Pirate. It’s all about creating fun, meaningful learning for students.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “I finished this book in two days! I love that it is practical and includes ideas and strategies you can implement right away.” — Amazon reviewer

Get it in paperback or Kindle ebook on Amazon.

💡 THE BIG IDEA 💡

✅ Expand your lessons and engage students with choice boards

🤔 What is a choice board?

Choice boards are interactive tools that offer students a selection of activities or resources to choose from based on their interests or learning needs. They provide a structured way for students to engage in independent learning during free time or as extension activities. Check out our interactive, free-time choice board to see an example.

📝 Where do choice boards fit in my lessons?

In your classroom, you can use choice boards to create opportunities for students to learn about topics they choose, cater to diverse learning styles, and differentiate instruction.

By creating choice boards with a variety of activities you can allow students to explore topics that interest them. Choice boards can be particularly useful for early finishers, enrichment activities, or as a way to keep students engaged during downtime.

💡Tips for successfully using choice boards in the classroom

Using choice boards as an exploration or free time activity (also sometimes referred to as Explore Boards):

• Include a wide variety of multimedia: Explore Boards should include a wide variety of multimedia, such as videos, audio, and images. The important thing is to provide learners with the resources they need to build a stronger conceptual understanding of the topic they are about to study.

• Add essential questions or learning objectives: Don't forget to add your essential question or learning objective to the Explore Board. This will help students understand the purpose of the board and guide their exploration.

• Engage your students: Include links to collaborative activities to reinforce key understanding and ensure all learners are ready for the next step in your lesson. You can also include links to interactive images, Padlet shelves, or tables in Google Docs with hyperlinks.

• Use a template to help you create a choice board or explore board to fit your class. You can find templates and content ideas in our post, Personalize Learning with Explore Boards.

Using choice boards to apply learning or allow a variety of assessment types:

• Provide clear instructions: Clearly outline the tasks or options available on the choice board to guide students in making informed choices.

• Consider a progressive choice board: Choice boards give students options for activities they do, but they can also be overwhelming. A progressive choice board builds over the year as you learn the different tools.

• Offer variety: Include a mix of activities such as research tasks, creative projects, online resources, or hands-on tasks to cater to different learning preferences.

• Encourage reflection: Have students reflect on their choices and learning experiences to enhance the activity and to get feedback on the choice board itself.

• Allow for flexibility: Give students the freedom to select activities that match their interests and abilities while ensuring that all options support learning objectives.

🔎Where do I find example choice boards/explore boards?

I’m so glad you asked!

We have created an entire Wakelet collection of resources for you. You can find our Choice Boards/Explore Boards curated collection here. You can also find this collection plus many, many other resources on our public profile page. Click the SUBSCRIBE button below our social icons to be notified of the new collections we share.

🗄 Template

✏️ Write your story day!

As we mentioned earlier in the week, March is Book Creator’s Be An Author Month. You may already have a plan for creating and sharing your students’ writing. However, if you need some help getting those creative juices flowing Book Creator has an entire library full of resources, including templates, for you.

Book Creator has leveled templates to use to get your class writing for “Write Your Story Day" on March 14th.

✏️ Write Your Story Day - First Start - This lesson is for students who are just starting to write and focuses on learning the basic elements of a story.

✏️ Write Your Story Day - Beginner - This beginner lesson focuses on first-person perspective and the basic elements of a story.

✏️ Write Your Story Day- Intermediate - This intermediate lesson focuses on first, second, third person point of view, and dynamic & static characters.

✏️ Write Your Story Day - Advanced - This advanced lesson focuses on literary devices, audience/theme relationships, and storytelling voice.

If none of those templates work for your class you can check out all of the other templates available inside their Be An Author Month resource library.

👋 How we can help

There are even more ways I can support you in the important work you do in education:

1. Read one of my six books about meaningful teaching with tech.

2. Take one of our online courses about practical and popular topics in education.

3. Bring me to your school, district or event to speak. I love working with educators!