Choice Boards: Personalized Learning in the Elementary Classroom

 2nd Grade Choice Board     

By Lisa Henriquez

We all know the importance of differentiating assignments for students of different ability levels, but differentiation goes beyond taking off a few questions for less able learners or giving the gifted students an extra project to complete. Differentiated Instruction should reaching different levels but it should also meet specific needs and be student centered. All students learn differently so they should be given different ways to show mastery. One way to address this need is the use of choice boards. They offer students a way to make decisions about what they will do in order to meet class requirements. A choice board could be for a single lesson, a week-long lesson, or even a month-long period of study.

According to Fair Isn't Always Equal: Assessing and Grading in the Differentiated Classroom by Rick Wormeli in order to create a choice board:



O     Identify the most important elements of a lesson or unit.

O     Create a required assignment or project that reflects the minimum understanding you expect all students to achieve.

O     Create negotiables which expand upon the minimum understands. These negotiables often require students to go beyond the basic levels of Bloom's Taxonomy.

O     Create a final section that offers students the opportunity for enrichment.

I use choice boards in all grade levels. The younger students need more detailed instructions and resources in class. I will work on the research and back ground information during class and send the student’s research pages home for parents to help pull everything together in the project. My 1^st and 2^nd grade classes have approximately 25 students. The individual, creative activities can be difficult to accomplish in class. I feel that it is more important for me to spend class time, helping them get the information. I can assess their understanding of the different assignments and topics and research skills in class.  Older students are given the choice board and class time and resources, but can work at their own pace to complete the activities. They have the freedom to work at home if needed or bring in the needed project supplies if they aren’t in the classroom.

I also use the same choice board for all students in class, special education – gifted.  All students are working on the activities they feel comfortable completing.  I conference with students to help pick activities to make sure all are working at their ability level and pushing themselves to try different types of activities.  I also offer a Pick your Product opportunity for older students. They are much more creative than I am so they come up with some great ideas!          
       

3rd Grade Choice Board

Create Your Own Traveling Teaching Trunks

Select Artifacts

By Nina Kendall

Looking for a new activity for you class? Try a traveling trunk. A “traveling trunk” is a collection of artifacts and sources that can be used to teach others about history.  Students examine artifacts and investigate collections to better understand an event or a historical period. The 'trunk” or collection comes to your classroom when you can’t make it to a museum or historic site.  Many museums or historic site have trunks they will lend for a small fee. Of course, you can make your own traveling trunk as well.

The Histocrats did. We all have and use trunks to teach. Whether we teach elementary school or high school, we use them in class. From colonial hornbooks to railroad ties, we each have a unique collection of objects to teach with in our classrooms.  Our trunks reflect similar themes but different approaches to teaching.  When you make it yourself, you can customize it to your curriculum and student population. We encourage you to pick a topic and create a trunk of your own.    

Now you might be thinking high school students don’t want to work with artifacts. You would be wrong. I have had students argue over who gets to work with various artifacts. In fact, I would make the argument that the secondary level is a great age to use artifacts. Traditional activities put activities like “show and tell’ and field trips in elementary school, when you are learning to be careful, observant, and cautious when handling materials. Yet secondary students who have mastered all these skill rarely get an opportunity to handle and examine objects or go on field trips. Traveling trunks bridge the gap by putting artifacts and other objects in the hands of those prepared to handle them.

Are you ready to try making a trunk of your own? Try these tips to help you get started.

·         Select the topic you want to build your trunk around. Think about what unit you would like to your students to participate in as more engaged learners.

·         Think about objects that would help you teach this unit and how you would use them.  Ten objects would allow for the creation of small groups in any classroom.

o   Do you want all the objects to be the same?

o   Do you want students work with several different objects?

·         Establish a budget for yourself in collecting your objects. Set aside a small part of organizing and storing your objects.

Traveling Trunk

·         Brainstorm where you might find your objects. Be creative. You may find some at home or may be free items that are recycled or found in nature.. Others objects may be found in souvenir or gift shops on your travels.

·         Organize, inventory, and label your collection. You will need a way to monitor your collection.

o   What will you story your collection in? Anything can work. We have seen people use trunks, baskets, and old suitcases.

o   How will you pass items out? A collection of small items could be stored in individual plastic bags.

You are now well on your way to creating your first traveling trunk. We hope you enjoy your trunk as much as we do our trunks. Share your success stories and pictures of your trunks @Histocrats. Happy Teaching!

Other Ways to Work with Biographies

By Nina Kendall

            In the post assessment period of my year, I decided to try a new plan to engage my students. In the past, I have done scrapbook projects based on decades, create your own songs, themed PowerPoint activities, and children's books.  This year I decided to work with biographies. Students would read and interact with the different books. The primary question was what did I want students to do. This year I tried several new activities. Here are some of the choices offered to students:

 Resumes: This is a format many will have to work with in the future. I gave them a resume worksheet to take notes on as they read. There are a variety of resume worksheets available. This activity lead students to ask a huge number of questions about resumes and people. It was interesting to hear them discover new things about people they thought they knew.


Facebook Profiles: This activity has become a more standard fare in classrooms today, but it was new for my students.  Many of them do not use Facebook. I gave them a page that combined biographical data and the opportunity for post.

Pinterest Page: This was a format unfamiliar to many students as well. Further, it challenged them to think about what the subject of the biography would have valued instead of what we value about the subject.

Text Message Conversation: They were to have the subject of their work text a historical peer. These conversations can be generated online. It was interesting to see them seek out and identify the social relationships related to the subject of their work.

 Tombstones: Students could also write and design tombstones for their historical figure. They were to look at how the life and accomplishment of one person could be expressed in a short verse. I was particularly fond of the Oregon Trail Tombstone generator.

Word Clouds: This was an option for students to consider the key words in an individual life.  I used Wordle to create an example but there are many options. What words dominated their life? What words were less important?

 

Students turned in their work in as booklets after an allotted period of time. There work varied in quality but I was pleased by the conversations they had as they worked through the activities. Most of the work was done on paper as access to technology was limited. My students were just as comfortable with generating work with technology as coloring. ReadWriteThink has as number of student interactives that could be used to create products. In the end, we all knew a little more.

 

Elementary Spotlight: Colonial America Pocket Books

By: Lisa Henriquez

Student Colonial American Pocket Books

Project-based Learning(PBL) is a great way to engage students in using all of their skills to demonstrate what have they learned. Engaging and fun this is a way to get all students to be active learners. Here is a recent project in an elementary class.

My students completed the project entitled Colonial Times to demonstrate their learning for this unit of study. Students were challenged to create a pocket book about the Colonial Era and we could not be more pleased with the results.

Colonial American Pocket Books Requirements



Each book will have eight pockets:

·         Introduction

·         First Settlements

·         Native Americans

·         Homes and Villages

·         Daily Life

·         School

·         Work

·         Memorable People

Project Checklist

 

Each pocket will be labeled on the front with the topic, contain an informational page about the topic, a primary source related to the topic, and various activities for the topic, and various activities for the topic. Each pocket will have a list of activities to complete for the pocket as well that students could choose from.

 

Sample Student Pockets

 
 

Sample Activity

This was a great project it was fun and engaging for students and me. The choice board gave students real ownership of the project.  Another high point of this project was the introduction of primary source reading and interpretation to 4^th graders. The only real challenge was making sure that there was sufficient access to all the documents at home and school for students.