Friday Matinee: Creating Choice Boards With Google Slides

Giving students a choice of how they can complete an assignment gives students ownership over how they show you what they've learned.  By creating choice boards, in Slides (you can also use PowerPoint to do the same thing) it is easy to create an assignment where the students have to pick a certain number of things to do to complete the assignment.  Many teachers use these boards and have students pick 3 out of 9 options to complete tic-tac-toe.

Here's how to create the boards in Google Slides.

During remote learning, some teachers are having their students work on their choice board assignments when they are remote while they do something different with the students in their classroom that day.  Others are using choice boards to have students work independently when they are not attending class synchronously.

Friday Matinee: Choice Boards & Learning Menus

Choice Boards are a great way to give your students some choice in how they will complete an assignment.  Some of our students may excel at creating a Google Site, where another student would rather create a video or write a paper.  Some may want to watch a video on the topic and others would prefer to read a chapter in a book.  Choice Boards let us differentiate our assignments and engage our students at where they are.  During these times when we are all teaching online, we as teachers need to create the best learning experiences possible that will keep our students attention, maintain a positive attitude, and keep them committed to doing their best job possible.

Here's a 3 part mini "course" that is entitled "The Ultimate Guide to Choice Boards and Learning Menus" by AJ Juliani.  He talks about why Choice Boards are important, especially now, describes a step-by-step process for creating them, and gives examples of choice boards in action.  This was written for K-12, but can easily be modified for your teaching here at MSU.  It's easy to use Google Docs or Slides (or Word or PowerPoint) to create these menus for your students.
Choice boards are perfect for online learning, student choice, and differentiation.  Here's what Kasey Bell of Shake Up Learning says about choice boards/learning menus:

What is a Choice Board?
IT’S ALL ABOUT CHOICE!

• Choice boards are a form of differentiated learning that gives students a menu or choice of learning activities.

• Learning menus and choice boards can be created in a variety of styles and mediums.

• They’ve been around for a long time and originated in a static, paper format.

• With digital tools, we can bring the menus to life with interactivity and creation.

From Dr. Catlin Tucker, a post on Student Agency: What Do Students Want to Create to Demonstrate Their Learning? will help you understand how choice boards allow students to make key decisions about their learning and helps you personalize learning for each student.
I've added several examples of choice boards below.  Have a favorite?  Share it with us!

Google Chrome PD Choice Board

TicTacToe - Choice Boards

Interactive Tic-Tac-Toe Menu Choice Board Template

Novel Study Tic-Tac-Toe Choice Board

Choice Board - Google Slides

Halloween Choice Board Example