Many teachers have been embracing the high-leverage practice of Universal Design for Learning and making student choice a priority. The UDL principle of Engagement encourages individual choice and autonomy and might include choice boards and playlists as a vehicle to provide student choice. In Mrs. Buck’s 6th-grade science class at Maywood, she created a choice board activity to review concepts about the Nervous System by having students participate in a Tic-Tac-Toe choice board.
Using Canva to build her interactive choice board, Mrs. Buck uploaded the choice board as an annotated assignment in Canvas that allowed students to mark their progress. To help students get started, they watched a review video which allowed them to mark the center box and ensured they were all receiving the information she deemed important to move on to the next steps in their process.
Students were able to choose at least two additional activities to complete a Tic-Tac-Toe. The activities utilized different technology tools such as Scratch, BrainPOP, Blooket, or Kahoot. Even though students were using different ways to connect with the content they were all receiving information relevant to their upcoming assessment.
During the review, students were choosing activities that suited their learning style. Some students were competing in Kahoot! while others were creating coding projects with Scratch. When they completed an activity, they could return to their choice Tic-Tac-Toe board and add evidence of their learning with an annotation or comment. For students who worked quickly or wanted to try more activities, Mrs. Buck encouraged them to get more than one row completed or even try to complete a blackout of their board like one might in bingo.
By providing choice through this Tic-Tac-Toe activity, Mrs. Buck ensured that all students were engaging with their Nervous System content in a way that was meaningful and fun. If you’d like to find out more about creating your own choice board in Canva, Ed Tech is hosting our zoom tech series on Feb 7 & 8. If you want to learn more about using annotated assignments in Canvas, creating an interactive choice board, or any of the other tools highlighted here please feel free to email Valerie Buck or contact your school’s Ed Tech Lead or Ed Tech TOSA.
References:
- Resources to support Student Choice can be found in your Digital Learning Experience course from the January 27 PD module. Specific learning paths to support activities highlighted in this article include the district learning path “Choice Boards & Playlists” or the guided study path “UDL Expression.”
