Blog 11 - Technology
I tried my first digital choice board this week! I was pretty excited to give it a try. I have several conditions in my current Spanish class of sixth graders that made it seem like a choice board would work well; there are quite a few behavior challenges in this group, stemming from a desperate need for attention; I have had to slow down the curriculum because of these behaviors; and we were preparing for a test.
After reviewing several examples, the choice board I decided to create was a Tic-Tac-Toe board with a "Must Do" in the middle. I asked students to complete at least five of the nine squares, and encouraged them to do more if they were able. To help them study for their upcoming test, I offered choices of videos, three different online games, and 2 offline choices with flashcards and a quiet study corner. I did have a few hiccups, but I will learn from those and definitely try this again.
I was especially pleased by two main results from this activity. First, the high-achieving, self-motivated students were really able to go off on their own and complete many activities, as well as having fun by engaging with classmates in the online games. Second, my time was "freed up" so that I could concentrate on several students who I knew needed extra help. Even though it took quite a bit of time on the front end to create my choice board, these results made it worthwhile!
Kristen,
ReplyDeleteThis choice board is so great! I am glad it was a success! Did you use a template from somewhere or did you create it? It is a lot of work but now that you have the template maybe it will be easier to do it again with just different links. Thanks for sharing!
- Hannah Ball
I started with a template from SlidesGo (which someone from our class shared in a blog or tech talk - maybe it was you?), and then I tweaked it to fit my purpose. Yes I think it will be easier after the first time, whether I use the same one or make another.
DeleteKristen, I am so glad that this was a success. I think that whenever students have some sort of control over the choices in their learning, they are so much more receptive to whatever it is that they need to do. I would like to give this a try in my own class as well! Thanks for the inspiration.
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