Level Up Your Math Workshop With Choice Boards (EP7)

Level Up Your Math Workshop With Choice Boards

Hello, everyone, and welcome to another episode of Elementary Math Chat. Today’s episode is all about choice boards. I am a huge fan of choice boards, and I know not everyone uses them. I recently did a poll on Instagram, and it was about a 50/50 split. Just under half of teachers reported not using them in the classroom.

I think teachers know how beneficial they can be, but they’re not sure how to get started or how to manage them when they do get started. Or they’re just unsure of what resources to include on choice boards. So, I will go through all of those details, and I’ll tell you everything you need to know when it comes to choice boards, and hopefully, I’ll convince you to give them a try if you don’t already use them in your classroom.

Let me start with why I believe they are so beneficial. If you’ve ever given your students a survey on their preferred learning styles, then you know firsthand the results you will get. They will be all over the place.

Some students prefer working with a partner while others prefer working alone. Some prefer more challenging work to keep them engaged and others do better when things are more basic. Some students thrive when it comes to drawing and creating and others are more mathematical and enjoy solving puzzles or riddles.

So, it’s fair to say that when it comes to learning styles and learning preferences, one size does not fit all. Choice boards are a great way for teachers to address all of these learning styles and learning needs. They are also a really fun way to tie in themes in your classroom. It can be a holiday theme, like Thanksgiving, Halloween, or Christmas. But it can also be a seasonal theme, like winter or spring. So, that’s an easy way to add engagement to your activities.

And the final and probably the most beneficial reason to use choice boards is they are a great way to review previously taught skills. The closer we got to state testing the more review skills that I included on our choice boards, and that was super helpful. Even though I was doing a spiral review every single day, it was a bonus to also have this spiral review in my choice boards.

So, now that we know why they are so beneficial, I want to take you through seven questions that you need to consider if you are going to use choice boards. So, let’s dive into question one. What type of activities should you include on a choice board?

You definitely want to include a mix of digital and printable activities along with independent and partner activities. Mine were usually about half digital and half printable, and that really helped cut down on the amount of copies that I had to make, and just the amount of papers I had to keep track of. My favorite digital activities, I’m sure you’re not surprised, they are Boom Cards, and they were always on my choice board.

I also assigned Google Form assessments Those were great for collecting data. Freckle is another good one to use if your district has that, and you can assign quick 10-question assignments, and they will also give you data. I like that you can reassign them if students don’t do well. A lot of times I would tell them they had to get at least a seven out of 10 for it to count. Otherwise, they had to redo it.

A few others I used a lot were Flocabulary, BrainPOP, and then we also did Think Central. That was the online program that went with Go Math, so we tried to mix it up. But those were our go-to’s for each choice board.

I also made sure that any assignment they were doing online would give them a score, and that is how I held them accountable for their work. Even if it was a game they were playing, I still made them put their score in. So, that takes care of digital activities.

Let’s go to printable activities. My students loved any type of puzzle or riddle. Color by Number activities were popular, and they also really enjoyed gallery walks where I would put task cards around the room and they would solve these questions on their recording sheet. They loved being able to get up and walk around the room. So, gallery walks were usually the first one they chose to complete.

They also enjoyed playing games, and we did include a few of them each time. I actually converted all of my printable games into digital games during the pandemic, and I ended up sticking with the digital version from there on out. They are literally no prep games because the dice are embedded within the Google Slides, so they can still roll the dice, and the game pieces are on the slides as well. So, they didn’t need any materials to play, and there was no mess to clean up.

Another benefit to the digital games was it would save their progress if they didn’t finish, so they could pick up the next day where they left off and actually finish their game. I think a lot of times with the printable games, they run out of time, and they never even get a winner. So, we all preferred the digital games and just stuck with them even when we were able to go back to printable.

If you’re interested in seeing what the digital games look like, I will put a few links to some third, fourth, and fifth grade games in the show notes for you. All of these games come in printable and digital forms, so you can choose which ones you want to use. 

So, while we had a lot of games and a lot of puzzles and riddles, we also had worksheets. There’s nothing wrong with putting a worksheet on your choice board. Remember, the goal is to practice, practice, practice, and the worksheet will do just that.

You also want to make sure that you have a balance of challenging activities with more basic activities. We don’t want them to feel overwhelmed and frustrated. But we also don’t want it to be too easy, because then they’ll get bored and they’ll probably finish way too fast.

I think the best way to make sure that you have a variety of difficulty in your choice board is to assign different point values to different activities, and I promise you it is not as hard as it sounds. 

For example, in my choice board, I had three different columns, and each column had a different point value. The activities in the first column were all worth one point, and these were fairly quick and simple activities like a Greg Tang math puzzle, a digital pixel art, or a 5-10 question Google Form assessment.

The second column was worth three points, and these were a bit more challenging and required a little more time to complete. This could be a Flocabulary assignment, or a set of Boom Cards, color by number, or a practice worksheet.

And then the third column was worth six points, and these were the most challenging and time-consuming activities. These could include logic puzzles, a gallery walk with task cards. It could also be a Google Form or a set of Boom Cards that had more questions than the three-pointers did. Setting it up this way ensured that we had a variety of difficulty and something for everyone.

If this sounds like something you’re interested in, I have a free and editable template that is linked in the show notes. You can customize it with your favorite fonts and add your activities in, and I’ve even included two versions. One version has room for 12 activities and the other has room for six. So, if you’re wanting to use it for an entire chapter, definitely use the one with 12 boxes. But if you prefer a weekly choice board, then I would use the one with six.

All right, well, that was a long answer to number one. So, let’s go on to number two. I promise these next few will go a lot faster. The second question you need to consider is where are you going to find these activities. Well, I am so glad you asked because if you remember in episode two, I mentioned my lesson plan guide, and this guide includes over 60 lesson plan ideas to choose from.

When you download this guide, you’ll notice that it’s broken down into three parts. What to do before the lesson, during the lesson, and after the lesson. You’ll want to look at the after the lesson section. Those will give you ideas of what kind of activities you can add to your choice board. That link will also be in the show notes if you missed it from Episode Two.

Like I said, these are just ideas of what you can add to your choice board. So, if you are new to teaching or you’re new to your grade level, make sure you reach out to your teammates. They may already have a lot of these resources. Also reach out to your math coach, your gifted teacher, or even your administrators. They are part of your team too, and a lot of times they can use their school money to purchase resources for you.

Another place you may not have considered for getting free resources is by signing up for teacher newsletters because many times teachers send freebies in their newsletter at least once a month. I know I do once a month, sometimes more. So, this is a great place to grab those freebies, and a lot of times there are little ones that you can add to your choice boards.

I would love for you to join my newsletter. So, if you’re interested, you can find that link in the show notes. Also, don’t forget to check TPT because you can find a lot of resources for free or for a very small price.

I have one quick tip I want to mention for your digital resources. Make sure you label them digital on the choice boards, and that way they know they’re digital and they know where to find them. 

You’ll also need to be really clear on the difference between partner activities and independent ones. They will want to work on everything with a partner, and that can get really loud. So, make sure they know this one’s independent, and this one’s partner.

What I did for this is if it was a digital activity, I put that in parentheses after it. So, I just put (digital). If it was a partner activity, I would do the same.

Let’s move on to question three, which is how long will each choice board last? I think most likely, you’ll choose either to swap them out weekly, monthly, or each chapter, I have done weekly, but I prefer to do them by chapter. That’s what I did the last few years I was in the classroom. It just felt like a natural time for a beginning and end of a choice board. So, I prefer doing it that way.

But you can do it weekly, too, you’ll just have less on there. But that also means you’re going to be collecting them more often and grading them more often. So, you have pros and cons to both.

The nice thing about doing them by chapter is they turned them in on the day of the test. So, I could grade them while they were taking their test and hopefully not have to take any of them home. I usually got the first set graded during the day, and then only had to take one class at home. So, that is a perk of doing them by chapter. Otherwise, you’re collecting them every Friday. But again, you have less activities on the weekly ones, and they won’t take as long to grade. So, it’s up to you.

Moving on to Question four. Will your activities be set up around the room or within a packet? Okay, I’ve done both. The first few years, I put all printable activities in hanging file folders, and then students could grab whatever they needed from these files. They kept all of these activities along with their choice board in their math folder.

This did work well for a while, and what was nice about this was I often had leftover papers, so I didn’t always need to make copies for the following year. But there were a few things that I didn’t like.

For starters, some students had a hard time keeping track of their papers since they weren’t stapled together. And also, the papers within the hanging folder would sometimes get mixed up. Like, someone might take out a paper and then decide they don’t want to do that activity, and then they don’t put it back in the right spot. Plus, the file folders took up a lot of space in my cabinets when they weren’t out and being used.

This system actually worked better when I first used it during RTI time for the students who weren’t in a group, and I would still recommend it for that. But it’s not the best system to use for choice boards when you have multiple classes.

Thankfully, in 2020, we thought of a much simpler system, and I’m not sure we would have thought of this had we not been able to share supplies. We also knew that students would probably be working from home at some point. So, our hanging file system wouldn’t work if they were trying to work from home.

So, we decided to make choice board packets, instead, and I’m telling you this made everything so much simpler. They were easy to copy, they were easy to pass out and collect, and they were easy to store. And students could work on them from home, which is exactly what we needed at the time.

Even after the pandemic, it was helpful for students to be able to take them home just in case they fell behind. Because you know, some students just take a little bit longer to complete activities. Or maybe they were absent for a few days. So, having that option to take them home and get caught up was nice.

We even explained how choice boards worked during our Meet the Teacher night. I forgot to mention that in episode three. So, our parents knew exactly what to expect with choice boards, and they knew how they could help at home. I know they especially enjoyed it when they could play one of the games with their child. Remember, they were digital, so they could go online and play with them.

I always told my kids to write down who won the game on their choice board. So, it was fun to see who won when they played against their parents. They’d be like I won, or mom won, or dad won. So, that’s something fun you can do as well.

All right, question five. Where will students keep their choice boards, and can they take them home? I recommend having a folder for this. I mentioned in Episode Five that our kids had a work-in-progress folder, and this is where they kept their choice boards. 

These folders stayed in their binders, so they could take them home. But most of them only worked on them in class. In fact, I encouraged them not to work on them at home, so they didn’t finish too quickly. But again, if they needed to, if they were behind or they were absent, they could work on them at home.

And that leads us to our next question, number six. What will you do if students finish their entire choice board early? This did happen every chapter, so you will need to have some early finisher activities ready. I had an early finisher bin that had projects and puzzles that they enjoyed doing. But their favorite activity was to create a Google Slides presentation on a science topic we were studying.

They had to get the topic approved by me, and that’s an important tip because you want to make sure it’s somewhat related to what you’re doing in science. These worked out well because there were a lot of times in science when I would have two to three minutes to spare. So, I would let them present these projects during that time.

I did keep a signup sheet, so when they were finished with their project, they would put their name down. And that way, when I had a few minutes to spare, I would look at the list and call the next person to present. So, that’s a great early finisher activity and it meant that I didn’t have to copy anything, or prep anything. So, it’s definitely one I recommend for you as well.

All right, the final question, this is a big one, how will you grade choice boards? I’m going to share how I graded them, and you can certainly adapt this to what feels right for you. Like I said before, my activities were broken into categories worth one, three, and six points, and this added up to a total of 40 points. But I did not require them to complete all 40 points. That would be all 12 activities, and while some of them did that every single chapter, it just wasn’t reasonable to have the same expectations for every single student.

Instead, I gave them a minimum number of points that they had to earn, and that’s what they would be scored on. That number was different depending on the length of the chapter. So, if it was a short chapter, it might be 18 points that they had to earn. So, if they got a 15 out of 18, that would be their grade.

If it was a longer chapter with 10 to 12 lessons, I might require 28 points. So, if they got 24 out of 28 points, that would be their score. I also did not require the same number of points for every single student. It was different for those with IEPs, or other accommodations, or for those who were pulled out of the room for various reasons. Maybe they had a speech session two times a week, or they worked with a math tutor during that time, or even if they had gifted pullout.

I never wanted them to feel punished for having to go with their gifted teacher or go to a speech session, or with the math tutor. We know as teachers that fair does not always mean equal, and this is a good example of that.

A couple other things when it comes to grading. You are going to have students who finish the whole choice board or do more than they have to. So, what we did in that situation is we ended up counting them as bonus points, and we added those points to their test score. Every extra four points that they earned on their choice board equaled 1% that was added to their test. Usually, 4-5% was the maximum percentage they could earn, and this was a big motivator for them to keep going and keep working once they reached that minimum number.

For example, if 24 points was the required amount, and they got to 24, but they still had three days left, they would keep working. They would want to earn those bonus points to add to their test score.

The other thing I want to mention is I know the thought of grading 50 choice boards can sound overwhelming, but I did not grade everything. Nor should you. I just kind of looked through it and checked for completion, and if I could tell that they showed effort in completing their activities, I would give them the points. But if it was obvious that they were just rushing through to get it done, then I would not count it. But usually, once they figured out that they wouldn’t get the points if they just rushed through it, it didn’t happen again.

Another helpful tip with grading is to print the reports of any online activities they complete. I did this for Google Form assessments, Flocabulary assignments as well as Freckle, and that made it really easy for me to write their scores down because on these assignments, there was a space to put their score.

You can also just have them write their own score down. A lot of mine did that anyway. So, if you think they’ll be honest with this score, I say go for it.

One of my favorite parts about choice boards is that students really do love them. They were so excited to flip through the activities every time they got a new one. Truly their faces lit up when they saw the games they got to play, the puzzles they would solve, the new gallery walk that was up. It was like they were opening a present. So, I hope I have convinced you to give choice boards a try.

And that’s going to take us to today’s teaching tip of the week. This one is a really fun tip for your Monday morning meeting. Mondays were always the day that I allowed my students to share a few things about their weekend. And of course, they all wanted to share every single detail about their weekend, and I just did not have time for that, especially on a Monday.

So, I changed my Monday topic to be one word weekend. This meant that if they wanted to share about their weekend, they could only say one word about it. If their word was interesting enough, I would allow them to elaborate just a little bit, but I only did this for a couple students. So, this put a little pressure on them to be creative and thoughtful when choosing their word.

This activity allowed everyone to participate and share about their weekend, and it was really fun. It only took a few minutes so, it’s a great way to save time on your Monday morning meeting.

Well, friends, that is all for today’s episode. Have a great week and I will see you next Tuesday.