American Indian Choice Board

Submitted by: Stephanie H. Gilbert
School: Glen Allen Elementary

Summary

In the two weeks prior to this lesson, students studied the lives and contributions of the Powhatan and Lakota American Indian tribes. Students were asked to choose an activity to complete in order to assimilate the information they’ve learned about the tribes in a meaningful, engaging manner.
I decided to offer the students an opportunity to choose their activity via a choice board in order to allow differentiation of product, process, and learning style. Students were introduced to the choice board activities on day one, and then allowed time to choose their activity and begin working.

TIPC Ratings

As the facilitator of this lesson, I pre-selected appropriate interactive websites, books, and tasks for students to use as resources for research. I allowed students the prerogative to conduct research using a choice board. In this specific lesson, I did not formally assess students’ researching abilities. Through the construction of questions to research and selecting the appropriate task for their understanding, students were organizing the information they had learned from various sources and applying them to create their tasks.

Through the varied use of digital tools and tasks, I allowed students the opportunity to communicate and collaborate in many ways. Students were involved and engaged in meaningful tasks without my direct supervision at all times. Because the tasks I provided were high interest, and students chose their task to complete based on their personal preference, all collaboration and communication was purposeful and centered around the concepts. Students formed groups based upon their own abilities and choices, and worked together cooperatively by communicating and collaborating within their own groups as well as among other peer groups. Students using digital resources were able to create documents that could be shared, and students who chose to blog not only communicated by responding to my assigned post, but have also continued their digital experience by accessing the blog at home and replying to posts from home to peers or parents who have contributed to our blog posts.

In this lesson, I facilitated student questioning by providing tasks that allowed for meaningful student engagement. Students were forced to think critically about the information they’d learned about the American Indians and synthesize this information in order to create many of the products or complete the tasks. Student questioning was encouraged prior to the lesson through the postings of research questions in the room, as well as the use of Marzano’s higher order questioning stems.
Students selected the most appropriate tools based on level and interest to complete based upon the choice board activities presented. They had to use critical thinking skills to determine what they would create and how this would be accomplished. Problem solving was especially raised among students who worked collaboratively, because students were forced to work together and cooperate to solve issues that may have arisen. Finally, students reflected on their learning, quality of work, and time on task in an age – appropriate manner through the self-assessment.

Within my classroom, I strive to empower my students not only with knowledge, but also with the tools they need to research and learn new facts to apply to their life to make informed decisions and judgments. This lesson showcased that students were actively engaged in creative, innovative tasks with little direction from me, but simply using their own knowledge. Within the assigned tasks, students created meaningful, original work using a myriad of mediums, then shared and reflected about their products and the process.