Recently, I discovered a HUGE love for math choice boards. I thought that they were kind of silly and a waste of time but Holy Kleenex, Batman. These are amazing. Not only did they save me time but my students were 100% engaged.
How can you use them?
Using math choice boards really isn’t hard. For me…it’s print and go. Most choice boards come with at least 9 options. Each of the 9 options have different tasks to complete. The students can choose which ones to complete or you can. I am going to walk you through the different ways that I use them in my classroom.
The point of choice boards is to challenge students. We don’t want them to be too stressed out though. That would ruin the entire thing for them and they won’t want to participate again.
Tic-Tac-Toe
One way that students can complete the math choice boards is by getting “Tic-Tac-Toe.” That means that they can complete 3 across, 3 down or 3 diagonal. A lot of choice boards will provide something for each type of learning style so that is a benefit.
All 9
This is not one of my favorites however I have seen the gifted class do this over the course of a unit. Teachers can assign all nine boxes to the students, and the students will have to complete them over the course of 20 days. It could also be over the course of a month, or the unit. This would definitely be a teachers choice and allow the students to be challenged with things that they normally wouldn’t complete. For example, if you have a student that loves technology they might not want to create anything with music. You are challenging them and allowing them to step outside of their comfort zone. I highly recommend that you get to know your students before you assign all nine to them because it may become very stressful to have that many tasks to complete.
3 Random or Students Choice
I love assigning complete three random ones because my students really get to shine. Sometimes using tic-tac-toe keeps them in a box and doesn’t let their creativity come out. When you allow them to select their own choices, the students will choose something that they feel confident in. Usually it is something that they will want to do well with. You definitely see more engagement and more excitement about the task because they have a interest in the topic now. When I assign math choice boards to my students, I will let the students choose to do three random ones or they can do the TicTacToe style. This is a teachers preference and what they feel comfortable with.
Teacher Favorites
I will use teacher choice when I want to see if the students understand the concept 100%. This often comes when we are at the end of the unit and I want to see if they can teach me the skill. We know that if a student can teach someone else the skill than they completely understand the topic. I honestly will try not to use this one too often because I don’t want to be viewed as a negative result more of I want to see if they can be challenged. The more buy in I get with the students the better their tasks will be. I want that buy in so that the students feel challenged and want to complete the challenges.
Want to try a choice board?
Check out these choice boards in my TpT Store.
Want to save this for later?
We'll email this post to you, so you can come back to it later!
Want a free math choice board? Check it out here in our FREE Resource Library!
