Reaching ALL students is one of the biggest challenges as a teacher. We all want our kiddos to learn and progress taking into account their individual needs. But how do we differentiate learning without spending hours and hours planning?
The answer is easy… with choice boards!
Creating choice boards is a simple and creative solution that I implemented with my 5th graders and… It was a game-changer! Keep reading to know how I use choice boards to differentiate learning in my classroom… and get a FREE one for you!
What are choice boards?
A choice board is a series of activities presented to the students in the form of choices using paper or a digital platform. Students complete each task and submit their evidence of work following the instructions on the activity.
Students have several activities to choose from.
In this post, I am focusing on digital choice boards using Google Slides. Paper choice boards (aka menu choice boards) are a great tool as well. However, digital ones bring more benefits and options to our students and teachers.
As you can see in the picture, students have all choices in the Google Slides file. Clicking one activity will take them to a specific slide with the must do and the exit ticket instructions. I also use that slide to include extra information about that choice: time, voice level, links to other platforms…
Benefits of using digital choice boards
There are many positive aspects when implementing digital choice boards in the classroom. In this post, I am going to highlight these five:
Boost engagement
Improve time management
More flexibility
Help the environment
And the most important one… you will reach ALL learners!
Boost engagement
My students love choice boards!
For me, it was game-changing! And it was the simple fact of choosing! Children are more engaged when they can choose what to do, making them accountable for their learning. This also helps them discover what motivates them.
It is not the TEACHER telling them what to do. It’s THEM deciding what to learn.
“For decades, students have been stuck in the “do what I’m told” mentality. One way you can empower your students to free themselves from the limiting “do what I’m told” mindset is to introduce digital tools that cater their unique passions and interests”.
Using digital choice boards allows me to introduce those tools and interests among the activities. A unique way to engage, motivate and make them responsible for their own learning.
Improves time management
During small group instruction, I used to organize my class with workstations: timed rotations, must do, may do, exit tickets… I felt that my Guided Reading and Guided Math time was too rigid. So did my students.
We needed more flexibility.
So, I created digital choice boards! Now, my kiddos have the freedom to choose what they want to work on. And I dedicate the necessary time to each student or team during Guided Reading and Guided Math instruction. No need to rush!
Flexibility
I love digital choice boards because they can be adapted to different situations.
Digital choice boards are environmentally friendly: no need to make dozens of copies every week! All activities are presented on Google Slides, which shows clear instructions for each task.
Besides, my students submit their exit tickets through SeeSaw. This allows me to see their work from my computer in the classroom or at home. I no longer carry heavy piles of journals home!
Obviously, I have some paper activities in my stations area: weekly passage, comic strip template, students’ journals… But I always think about a way to reduce my paper copies to the minimum.
How I reach ALL students with digital choice boards
In my opinion, digital choice boards are the greatest way to differentiate instruction. It offers the possibility to provide options based on students’ needs and other aspects like their passions and interests.
These are some things I take into account when creating digital choice boards for my students.
Use your data to group your students
For me, this is the first step. I use my data from district platforms (Istation, Imagine Math, Education Galaxy…) and assessments to group my students.
This will help me create 2-3 different choice boards. Although all of them will have common activities, I will add some activities to strengthen the content or skill that needs improvement. They could be…
Reading comprehension
Fluency
Word problems
Math facts
Science vocabulary
ESL support
As you can see in the pictures, I created two different boards for two different groups of kids. There are common activities and, also, specific ones for each group.
The first one has more technology options. In the second one, I included more small group choices and substituted the prefixes activity for one about synonyms and antonyms.
Use different types of materials and resources
Digital does not mean doing everything with a computer. Activities in your choice boards should include different types of materials and resources. For example:
As I mentioned before, providing students a variety of choices will empower them to find their passions and motivations.
Alternate individual and teamwork
As you can see in the picture, I always state if the activity should be done individually, in pairs or in teams. This respects the social aspect of choice boards: students will decide the type of work they want to perform, based on how they feel that day.
Ask for diverse ways to prove their learning
I always ask my students to send all exit tickets through SeeSaw. This platform provides many ways to submit work. So, I use them to create creative ways of proving their learning, that also align with their learning styles. Some example are these:
Draw pictures
Record themselves
Rap
Write a tweet
Complete a template given
How to create digital choice boards with Google Slides
OK, you read this blog post (or you scrolled down :P) and you want to give digital choice boards a try. Where do you start?
To begin with, you should create a simple digital choice board (4-6 activities) and test it with your class. Below, there is a Youtube tutorialthat will help you with this first task (or you can keep scrolling down and get the freebie!).
Now, if you have no time to create your own choice board from scratch, I am bringing you a cool FREEBIE! A digital choice board template for Google Slides! Fill the form below and download your free copy of this template!
I hope this gets you started with choice boards in your classes! However, if you want more designs and choice boards with more options, check our paid digital choice boards in The Bilingual Plaza TPT Store!
Differentiating our instructions is one of the biggest challenges for teachers. We’ve seen how digital choice boards provide a creative and engaging solution to this. Reaching ALL learners in our classrooms is absolutely possible!
Now it’s your turn. Are you using digital or paper choice boards in your class? What do you like about them? What are you struggling with when differentiating your instruction? Let me hear from you in the comments below!
Distance learning is new to me and most teachers in the world. Districts, schools and educators had to quickly figure out a plan to keep teaching our students and… we still are!
After all this time of distance learning, I have been able to analyze what is like to be a teacher from home. I have also read about other teachers who are struggling with teaching remotely. So I came up with 10 distance learning tips for awesome teachers like you!
I wish that some (if not all!) of these distance learning tips help you in the amazing job that you are already doing! Oh… wait! That’s exactly the first tip!
Our responsibilities as educators changed since the moment schools closed. And we have managed to be there for our students and their families. We might not receive all assignments each week, but we support them any day, any time from home.
Weeks ago I read this “Letter to Teachers During COVID-19”. It clearly reflects my thoughts about this new challenge we are facing and how we are facing it. As the letter states: “Dear teacher, you are doing enough”.
Tip #2 Let parents know you are there for them
Distance learning has affected teachers, students and, especially, parents! Somehow, parents have become their kid’s new teacher: understanding homework, answering questions, logging in to different platforms, explaining the content and, on top of all… being a parent!
The first thing I did during school closures was sending a video to my students’ families. I wanted to tell them “personally” that I was there for them during this process, that I didn’t want them to stress over schoolwork, that I knew their struggles, that the most important thing is their well being… In summary, I wanted to tell them that I understand them.
Understanding their situations changes our regular expectations. And this leads me to more distance learning tips…
Distance Learning Tip #3 Be flexible (and patient!)
Families with no computer at home? No Wi-Fi? Students moving out of the state or country? Our own Internet is down?
We all suffer these situations, so we must be super flexible (and patient!) when teaching remotely. Our online expectations must be different from our in-person expectations. We can’t. The sooner we understand this, the better experience we will have with this distance learning adventure.
Are students turning in an assignment late? Be flexible. Students not turning in any assignments? Be flexible. Parents asking the same question over and over? Be patient! =)
Tip #4 Communicate daily with your students and families
During this situation, our role as educators has changed and communicating with our students and families is a vital part of our job. They need to hear from us, not only to explain lesson plans but also to check on how they are doing and how we can support them.
I consider this one of the most important distance learning tips: plan to communicate daily with the families (a blog post, a remind text…) and, at least once a week, with each student individually. This will make a huge difference.
Choose a platform to communicate with the families:
During my video conferencing, I usually follow the same class structure: I do, we do, you do. However, my lessons are shorter and the objectives are super-specific.
I DO: no more than 5 minutes.
WE DO: our practice time is limited to only one game or activity.
YOU DO: students show their learning by completing an exit ticket.
I often use Pear Deck for Google Slides to teach. This Google Slides add-on allows the students to see the presentation on their own devices. And the best thing is that you can include interactive slides in which students can draw, write, move icons and many more.
In these situations, I also simplify the content: one slide with one idea I want to teach, one interactive slide to check students’ understanding. They are super engaged! Aaaaaand… that’s the next distance learning tip!
Distance Learning Tip #6 Engage Students
Teaching in front of the computer might sound boring at the beginning, but it is not! As we do in our own classrooms, we need to be creative and find ways to engage students during our online lessons. I always ask myself the same question as in school: Are my students looking forward to coming to my (online) class?
My favorite way to build that expectation is by using Zoom digital backgrounds. Each day I choose a different landmark and students have to ask questions to figure out where I am teaching from. This short “bell ringer” activity takes about five minutes and students love to use Google Maps to find me. Besides the obvious academic benefits of it, the activity gives that extra time for students to join the meeting.
Other ideas to engage your students when teaching online:
For distance learning, I complete each board weekly and assign it to their Google Classroom along with the expectations. Students choose throughout the week which activities they want to complete and how they want to submit them.
Mr. Hache using Zoom Digital Backgrounds to teach from the beach =)
We all know teaching is fun! Those comments from students that make you laugh, that goofy lesson that you prepared, those little pranks you played on them… Being a teacher is filling your memories with anecdotes and unexpected funny moments each day!
Teaching remotely can be fun too! As I said, one of the things I am enjoying the most… I mean… THEY are enjoying the most is the digital backgrounds in Zoom. It is a simple tool that can change the mood during your lesson.
Let yourself have fun in front of the computer as you do in your classroom: sing the songs the kids have learned, practice that TPR sequence they love, keep doing brain and stretch breaks… Let yourself have fun in front of the computer!
Tip #9 Find professional development opportunities
It is absolutely true that this change in education is a professional development opportunity itself. However, it is always a good idea to find the time to learn something new that we can add to our distance learning toolbox.
For example, read a new book (I just finished “Ditch that Textbook” by Matt Miller and it was full of great ideas!), explore the web to find cool class quiz games, give a new digital platform a try… Countless options are out there. If you can add one to your resources, it will be more than enough.
Tip #10 Celebrate yourself! Celebrate others!
I want to close these distance learning tips as I started them: You are already doing an amazing job! We know how hard, intense and beautiful our job is. New challenges arrive every year and we always overcome them together.
This time is no different!
We are in this together. Together with our grade level teachers, with our administrators, with our school staff.
And now…together with educators from all over the world!
Celebrate yourself for the amazing work YOU are already doing and let’s celebrate others!
I still remember… One day I was enjoying my Spring Break, and the next one, teaching my students through platforms like Zoom and Google Meet. The covid-19 had arrived and we could not go back to our schools with our students…
Unexpectedly, we had to change the way we deliver education and started using news platforms to communicate with our kiddos.
But which platform is the best for teachers?
In this article, I am going to compare and contrast – without a Venn Diagram 😉 – two of the most used video conferencing platforms in education: Zoom vs. Google Meet.
ZOOM
Zoom has grown so much in little time because it is super easy to set up. First, sign up. Then, create a meeting. Finally, share the link with your students! This intuitive platform has been a great tool to start our distance learning adventure, hasn’t it?
Zoom offers useful features for teachers
Among all the options in the platform, my favorite ones are these:
Zoom allows participants to choose a virtual background. Source: Zoom Help Center.
Multiple participants can share their screens simultaneously. Very useful when students have to share their responses.
Option to share a whiteboard to explain, model, write or draw.
Make notes on the shared screen: highlight, underline, circle, point…
It is possible to see your students while you share your screen. This way you can check if the class is on task while you explain.
Private chat between two participants. I used this option when I want a written answer from my students without making them public.
The teacher can mute and unmute the students’ microphones.
You can divide your students into breakout rooms. Perfect for small group instruction!
Once the teacher leaves the room, the meeting ends for everybody.
Zoom also includes some fun tools that my students love:
Virtual background. I use it to “travel” around the world and teaching my class from different countries.
Share your audio. I love playing music before and after the class, and also during their independent tasks… And they love it too!
Students can send reactions such as “raising your hand” or “thumbs up”. This helps with digital classroom management.
However…
As you might have heard in different media, there have been many security issues that affected Zoom: from sharing private data to software that can be easily corrupted.
[November 2020 update: Zoom has improved his security in the previous months. Check this article for all updates on this matter]
GOOGLE MEET
Using Google Meet it is also really simple! You just need a Google account to access the online platform for free. After creating the video conference, you share the link with your students, and they can join from any device or through a phone call.
Google Meet offers enough features to teach remotely
Google Meet Home Screen. Source: Google Meet.
Unlimited time for free video calls.
Up to 100 participants in each meeting.
Allows integration with Google Classroom.
Option to share one screen at a time.
Possibility of joining a meeting through a phone call.
But the most relevant feature in Google Meet is SECURITY The online app provides a safe digital environment that only a giant like Google can offer. Actually, more and more districts and teachers are using Google Meet for this exact reason.
Teachers might miss some options in Google Meet
We understand that Google Meet is a video conferencing platform used worldwide for formal and informal meetings. And it is perfect for that! However, when it comes to teaching remotely, we might be missing some features that would make our job from home a little bit easier.
[November 2020 update: Google Meet has included many tools that make the platform more teacher-friendly].
There is no whiteboard to share.
No option to make notes on the screen that you are sharing.
While you share your screen, it is not possible to see your students. You need to go back to the Google Meet tab to check on them.
You can only mute your students, but you can’t unmute them.
The tiled layout only shows up to 4 participants, so it is not possible to see your whole class on one screen.
If the teacher leaves the meeting, students can stay. It is a good idea to make sure they leave before we do.
There are no fun features like digital background or reactions.
Some of these options can be fixed with an external program. For example, Paint can be used as a whiteboard. However, Google Meet would be a better option for teachers if it could incorporate some of those features.
Conclusion
Zoom offers more tools to manage my digital classroom than Google Meet. Source: UCToday.
After using both platforms for a few weeks, I can say that both are great platforms to communicate with your students from home. Zoom and Google Meet offer the possibility of video conferencing with your class and teach them remotely with useful tools.
Although both platforms offer similar features, it is true that Zoom has fixed its security issues and has always been ahead of Google Meet when incorporating new tools for teachers. For example, sharing a whiteboard, dividing kids into breakout rooms, tiled layout or reactions with one click. These have helped me with digital classroom management and student engagement.
Zoom has fixed its security issues and has always been ahead of Google Meet when incorporating tools for teachers.
For this reason, I choose Zoom as the best video conferencing tool for teachers! A platform that keeps offering solutions to teacher’s problems during this distance learning era.
And you? Which platform are you using?
I would love to hear from you and your distance learning experience. Which video conferencing program are you using? Have you discovered some cool features in Zoom or Google Meet not mentioned in the article? Do you use a different platform with your class?
Games are my favorite way to increase engagement and motivation in my classroom. Using class quiz games in my lessons always translates into 100% on-task students and a great learning environment. In the past few years, there have been several digital platforms that allow teachers to turn their lessons into game shows with their class quiz games. Also, class quiz games are great for distance learning instruction with video conferencing tools like Zoom or Google Meet.
In this article, we will explore the best 5 class quiz games that your students will love: GimKit, Quizizz, Kahoot!, Quizlet and JeopardyLabs. Let’s get started!
#1 GIMKIT
GimKit is one of my latest discoveries and my students love it! Teachers create kits of questions that students will be answering on their devices. Each right question gives them in-game money to buy upgrades and powerups. However, wrong questions cost them money. So it’s not only a game of knowledge, but strategy too!
GimKit is awesome because…
Questions show up in students’ devices over and over again. Perfect to ensure mastery!
Upgrades and powerups are super fun! Students can freeze a friend, send gifts or blur someone’s screen for 10 seconds.
“Reach a goal” option makes students collaborate instead of competing against each other.
KitColab is a tool that allows students to create a class kit of questions and play with it.
However….
The free version has limited kits and limited edits. If you are a GimKit lover, you will have to pay for a pro version.
#2 QUIZIZZ
I use Quizizz every week to conduct student-paced formative assessment in a fun way for my students. You can create your own questions and, also, add others from public quizzes. This feature makes Quizizz the perfect tool to create rigorous quizzes in a relatively short period of time.
Quizizz is awesome because…
Students answer questions at their own pace.
You can easily teleport questions from any public quiz to your own.
Teachers can create different type of questions: multiple choice, blank space, open-ended questions…
The “Flashcard Review” feature allows kids to review their questions while others are still working on their quiz.
However….
I didn’t like that there was not an engaging tool for early finishers. This was fixed with the new “Flashcard Review” option.
# 3 KAHOOT!
Kahoot! is one of the first game-based learning platforms and an inspiration of the newer ones. Actually, it was the first one that I used as a teacher, and I still use it nowadays to conduct assessments or review content. Since Kahoot! shows the results after each question, it is the perfect game to clarify misconceptions on the go.
Kahoot is awesome because…
It gives the opportunity to review after each question based on the results.
Students can play in teams using one device per group, if yours is not a one-to-one technology class.
Kahoot! is adding new features similar to Quizziz, although you may have to pay for some of them.
However…
Questions don’t appear on student’s device.
The original Kahoot game is timed, so some students will focus on answering fast instead of answering right.
#4 QUIZLET LIVE!
Quizlet Live is one of the several learning tools that Quizlet offers. After creating your own set of flashcards (or choosing a public one), Quizlet Live will group your students in teams. Each team must seat together, because the answers for each question will be divided into each device. So, kids will have to talk and discuss to find the right one.
Quizlet Live is awesome because…
Students must collaborate to find the answers in one of the devices.
You can use flashcards imported from Pear Deck Vocabulary.
When students choose the wrong answer, they go back to square one. This helps them to reinforce previous concepts.
However…
It is not a good option for classrooms that are not 1-to-1.
#5 JEOPARDY LABS
I really enjoy using JeopardyLabs when I need to teach or review several topics on the same day. The platform makes it easy to create online Jeopardy templates without using PowerPoint. And the students have fun playing the quiz game as they were in the actual TV quiz-show.
JeopardyLabs is awesome because…
Students don’t need a device.
You can download your template and use it without an internet connection.
However…
JeopardyLabs is develop by only one person, so it may have some bugs.
Which one is your favorite?
These five class quiz games are my favorite ones to increase engagement in my classroom. In future posts, I will review each one of them in depth as well as add new fun options to use in your classrooms.
If you liked this post, please, leave a comment below. Which game show is your favorite? Which one do your students enjoy the most? Do you know any other game not listed in this article? Let us know!
