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In Ch. 7, Katie Novak provided a list of "Twenty Fabulous Ideas for Choice Assignments." Which one did you like the most and how would you use it in your classroom?

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Analyze the Literacy Trekker on p. 157 and note how Novak strategically scaffolded reading strategies (e.g. activating prior knowledge, making inferences, visualizing, etc.) that students should pay attention to as they are reading a text. How might you use something like the Literacy Trekker in your class?

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My favorite one on the "20 Fabulous Ideas for Choice Assignments" is number 4 - writing and illustrate a children book. In my class we are starting a social studies unit on economics, and we are studying wants and needs, as well as the cost of the decisions that we make. I would love to have my students write a children's book about these concepts that I can save and read to future classes when studying this same concept.

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Out of the 20 Fabulous Ideas for Student Choice, I loved the idea of the "Dinner Party" prompt.  There are so many different ways you can go with it and I love that it can combine ELA with literally any other subject.  I have always been fascinated with the question "Which 5 people, alive or dead, would you invite to dinner?" and this is an awesome play on that.  In my current class, I think I would implement it with a lesson I am planning about the women of the American Revolution.  I want students to explore the various women of the time and recognize the importance of their specific contributions.  So, using the "Dinner Party" format, I would ask students to form a dinner party in which they need to invite 5 women of the American Revolution and reveal their contributions through the dialogue, menu, and other specifics regarding the dinner party itself.

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Jake: I liked the idea of having students tweet their responses.  I think this gives them the thrill of using a social media platform and would help them engage in the content.  I would use this when I ask open ended questions and use this instead of things like worksheets.

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Jake: I liked the idea of having students tweet their responses.  I think this gives them the thrill of using a social media platform and would help them engage in the content.  I would use this when I ask open ended questions and use this instead of things like worksheets.

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I love the idea of allowing students to make a graphic novel.  Many of my students love to make stories and draw. Anything that allows them to do this would greatly increase engagement.

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My favorite Choice Assignment is 3. Creating a graphic novel or comic strips, as my class are avid doodlers and they enjoy artistic expression. I would use this when students are responding to "Making Connections" during our Wonders ELA lessons, in order to give them an opportunity to demonstrate their understanding. For example, in today's lesson, students were asked to connect a free verse narrative poem to the essential question of How Can We Take Responsibility? by doing a jigsaw. Creating a comic would have been a great way to allow for choices as students go through the Jigsaw in true UDL form.

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The choice assignment that I liked the best was #4 , writing a children's book. I like this because they likely have quite a bit of experience with children's books through read alouds, reading with their parents and reading independently,, which makes the assignment more accessible to students. Additionally, it allows students to be creative with the text as well as the illustrations. I would use it in my classroom when teaching about text structure and story grammars. This would allow students to apply their knowledge in a fun and engaging way.

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I want to do the walking narrative with my kinders! I loved the idea of them moving, gaining first hand experience, and then taking that shared experience and turning it into their own words. I find that with writing, having a concrete experience to reference helps everyone write more authentically and thoroughly. I definitely want to try this, and maybe even have planned experiences at each stop along the way! It would also be great for Transitional words, first, next, then, last etc 

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I want to do the walking narrative with my kinders! I loved the idea of them moving, gaining first hand experience, and then taking that shared experience and turning it into their own words. I find that with writing, having a concrete experience to reference helps everyone write more authentically and thoroughly. I definitely want to try this, and maybe even have planned experiences at each stop along the way! It would also be great for Transitional words, first, next, then, last etc 

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I would like to have my students create graphic novels or comic strips. I have a lot of artistic students who love to draw in my class, so I think this would be an exciting way for them to show their work. I imagine students using this to create stories of moments in history during social studies. I also like that this type of assignment could be done in many different ways such as by hand or on the computer. This gives students choice and the opportunity to share their creativity.

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Katie Novak discusses different options for assignments at all grade levels. One that I would love to try with my students is the Dinner Party prompt. I think this is such a fun way for students to interact with story characters (both fictional and non-fictional), those peoples'  interests, and interactions between other people. Lessons could include students preparing their information while the final lesson could include the actual dinner party. Students would get such a kick out of this party especially if there was specific music or decorations related to the theme. What a fun way to interact with material!

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I like the idea of the Powtoons creation because it gives students a creative outlet to practice CS like skills in an artsy way. Furthermore, for students that might be shy, they will still be able to present without having to be in front of the classroom. I would use this site because I remember using it in school for a diabetes project and really enjoying it.

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I actually really liked the one where students create a facebook page and can personalize it and add photos depending on the task/content material. Since I am in sixth grade my students are familiar with social media and would be interested in creating a facebook. One area where I could implement this activity is in history, the students could create a facebook for a specific greek god or goddess and personalize it according to that god.

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I really liked the "Dinner Party prompt", where students write a skit--imagining a group of characters are out for dinner--what would they order, what would they say? I liked this because it is so unique and i have never seen it done in a classroom. And i feel like it would be a great assessment for students studying individuals in social studies

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I love the idea of having students create a Facebook or Instagram page for a literary or a historical character. Since they're mostly too young to use social media, but see older siblings/parents use it, I think upper graders especially would love being able to choose different pictures, statuses, etc. to post and share with the world.

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The fabulous idea of choice assignment I am actually planning to do with my students is creating a Facebook page of a historical figure. I am going to teach a unit on the Constitution, and I am going to assign each student a representative from the Continental congress. Students will then create Facebook page about their representative.

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(Lily) Out of the “Twenty Fabulous Ideas for Choice Assignments,” I liked Choice #3: create graphic novels or comic strips. I find that this choice assignment can be very applicable and easily adaptable to both lower and upper grade levels. I like this choice assignment for upper grade because it encourages students to really think about and analyze content with more depth. Although a graphic novel and comic strip may appear very simple, it actually requires students to think about how they can successfully express content with a few written sentences and visual images. I might use this choice assignment as a interdisciplinary assessment for upper grades. For example, if I was teaching a unit on explorers within History Social Science, I can use this assignment to assess students’ skills in narrative elements. To create a graphic novel, students will need to understand the different settings and character personalities of different explorers (narrative focus); students will also need to use their understanding of characters to successful include dialogue. A graphic novel also relies heavily on plot; students will need to be able to demonstrate that they understand what happened in these historical contexts. My kindergarten students are currently learning about different farm animals; they are specially learning about what farm animals ‘are’, ‘have’ and ‘can do.’ This choice assignment allows student to demonstrate their understanding of different animals; when they illustrate the novel/comic strip, they need to show what these farm animals look like, what would they say and what actions would they take. For my TK students, I would use this choice assignment as a way to introduce narrative writing, specially focusing on including details and background in their pictures. For example, I might scaffold/model how to get started on a comic strip. I would show a comic strip without a background/details and have a discussion on why it’s so hard to understand the story. I would then have students work on creating their own comic strip and work on what they can include so that the reader understands the story.

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I really like the idea of students creating a children's book about different topics. All students have prior knowledge about book handling skills and read books frequently at home and at school. I remember creating a book of poems in fourth grade and it was one of my favorite projects. It would allow students to have the freedom to be creative while still showing their understanding.

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I really loved the use of social media to create a active learning environment. I feel that today's students are just so adaptive to technology that it's a shame we don't get to use it more. I remember in my undergraduate studies that I designed lessons around using wikis or online writing sites to share stories or information.

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I like the idea of having the students create graphic novels or comic strips. A lot of my students enjoy reading those types of books. It gives the students an opportunity to visualize the content and also can creatively tell a story in a few words. I'm actually planning on including it into my UDL lesson as an option for my students. We will be working on fairy tales and fables so I"m going to allow them to retell the story in comic strip.

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I loved the idea of having the students use social media, like facebook and twitter in their learning. I'm in 5th, so most students have social media and this is a fun way to combine learning and their interests.

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(Lily) I analyzed the Literacy Trekker on The Outsiders; Novak starts the lesson by activating prior knowledge. She not only asks students the open question of “What does courage mean to you?” but she provides students with a clear definition that allows them to tap into their prior knowledge and think about when they felt courage or in what contexts do they understanding the meaning of courage. By stopping at page 91, Novak has students to apply what they read and make an inference on what Dally will do. Novak also walks students through the process of how to support their explanations with quotes from the text. She has students go back in the text and see how Pony describes the setting before having them visualize and illustrate it. In step 3, Novak provides students more scaffolding by providing concrete steps to take and hints. For #5, students are encouraged to think more independently and monitor their understanding throughout the text so that they can make inferences and answer the last question.

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One activity on the example Trekker that changes the way I think about literacy teaching is number 4: "draw the scene from the church as you visualize it." This scaffold allows students to stop and create an image in their mind in order to better understand the scene. I would use this in the current novel my students are reading, Because of Winn Dixie. In the chapter we just read, the author describes a 'mistake tree' full of empty bottles. I would stop here and have the students draw the tree as they image it because it is such an important symbol in the book.

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I really like the idea of leaving the assessment open ended and allowing students to choose any method of their choice to show their understanding.  I think students would be more invested in their work if they got complete choice. I like this idea because each student is able to show their own creativity in a way that interests them.

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I like the idea #17 of having students create an assessment that could be given at the end of a unit.  My kids keep asking me to write their own test,  and I was thinking of doing that in the form of a Kahoot that they could share with each other in groups if not whole group. 

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I like the idea #17 of having students create an assessment that could be given at the end of a unit.  My kids keep asking me to write their own test,  and I was thinking of doing that in the form of a Kahoot that they could share with each other in groups if not whole group. 

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I think having students create an a comic strip based on their content understanding would be really awesome. In my 5th grade classroom, students are studying the American Revolution so they could create a ton of different comic strips based off our Social Studies content. This way, students can communicate complex concepts in simple drawings and we could also create a book or cartoons as an entire class.

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I like #7 as an option - allowing students to demonstrate learning with slides and allowing them to choose a multimedia option. Platforms such as the ones mentioned allow students to express themselves creatively. I have noticed many of my students love to create slides to report information/learning.

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I like #7 as an option - allowing students to demonstrate learning with slides and allowing them to choose a multimedia option. Platforms such as the ones mentioned allow students to express themselves creatively. I have noticed many of my students love to create slides to report information/learning.

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The Trekker helps scaffold students through first telling them the objective of the task. It then prompts them to understand certain vocabulary, read a few sections prior to the actual reading, and answer several comprehension questions based on those pages. This also helps students practice visualizing while reading.

This would be useful in a classroom, especially after expectations and routines have been set, because it would allow students to work independently at a high level of understanding.

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I like how it starts with activating students' prior knowledge because that is how we're learning to teach, by engaging students and helping them to realize why we are doing what we do. I think having this step by step guide helps make the steps to being a critical reader very explicit so that students can start to internalize these strategies and become critical readers all on their own.

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I personally really like number 13 where students complete a Dinner Party prompt, write a skit, and act out their assigned historical figure, scientist, etc. They would have to imagine what that person would order and what kind of conversation that person would bring up. This would be perfect for a HSS segment Jessica and I are planning together. We will learn about historical figures that came to California and we could use it as an assessment to check for students' understanding of these figures.

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I really like this scaffold because it puts the responsibility of making sense of the text on the students rather than the teacher. I think this would be great in conjunction with a close read, in fact this is something I could add to my research intervention!

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(AJ) After reading the “Twenty Fabulous Ideas for Choice Assignments,” I really enjoyed the 2nd idea where the students can create a Facebook or Instagram profile to outline their understanding of a topic. I believe this is my favorite idea because I think that many of the students nowadays are using social media with their friends and family members to stay connected even if they are not physically with each other. I know that a lot of my students are active on social media and they have a great knowledge of all the different features that they can use on these apps. I believe that having the students use social media as a tool to show their understanding of a topic will really benefit their learning as they will be excited to learn when they are able to express their ideas using a medium they are comfortable with and enjoy using.

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In my class, I would use the literacy trekker to help my students analyze, comprehend, and really grapple with a new novel we will be starting soon: The Phantom Tollbooth.  This would be particularly helpful because they have not read a novel in this class since the fall and it might be a nice scaffold to provide a guided annotation/analysis list for a beginning passage of the novel.  I would hope it would engage them and bring them back into the practice/skill of reading text not only for immediate understanding within the plot, but broader understanding in terms of what the author was trying to convey about society.

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I would use a literacy trekker for students as they read through their end of Unit exams on Wonders. They get lost in the text as they read through the Test questions, and I could see this being a real asset to my students, especially EL's and Low Readers. This will help activate their prior knowledge and be active and thoughtful readers, so that they can be as successful as possible when answering comprehension and critical thinking questions.

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Looking at the literacy trekker on The Outsiders, I like that it scaffolds by asking the students what courage means to them. This helps students make a connection to the reading and gives them something to look for while reading. In addition, allowing students to draw a scene can create a deeper understanding of the text in a way that is meaningful to them.

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The literacy trekker reminds me of my very first science lesson that I did on my own. We had science lab at the school so the classroom science was regulated to just science readings. To prepare for the lesson, I went through the entire reading, and planned out topics for discussion and guiding questions. I also created a Powerpoint with extra visual supports. My plans ended up being too ambitious and I ended up getting through only half of the reading in my hour of instruction time. The next science lesson, I ended up under-planning and felt the lesson ended up being boring.

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In my current placement, I couldn't give this trekker to my students for them to read, but I might be able to modify it and implement it in a small group form where I know my students can read at an independent level and work independently. In upper grades, I really like how students can realistically complete this with the scaffolded support.

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The literacy trekker in my classroom would help students activate their prior knowledge and prepare them to dig deeper into reading comprehension skills. I like how students are prompted and guided to thinking about and answering questions that will ultimately deepen their understanding.

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I am about to start a new book with my class, which is a story told through a series of poems. We could preview the vocabulary whole group and then will give students something to look for as they read each poem.  Students will first read each poem independently and make a graphic organizer of their thoughts before going so that class discussions will be more thoughtful.  

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I am about to start a new book with my class, which is a story told through a series of poems. We could preview the vocabulary whole group and then will give students something to look for as they read each poem.  Students will first read each poem independently and make a graphic organizer of their thoughts before going so that class discussions will be more thoughtful.  

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In kindergarten, almost every read is some kind of a Litteracy Trekker. During read alouds we stop, ask questions, check for comprehension, model reading strategies and do guided retells. One thing that I would like to add in would be the aspect of starting to let the students take over some of the questions, or explanations as we go. For instance, asking the students to track the story the first time, in pictures, or ask them to raise their hand and stop for comprehension questions and explanations. Basically start to give our students more agency during the read aloud!

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In kindergarten, almost every read is some kind of a Litteracy Trekker. During read alouds we stop, ask questions, check for comprehension, model reading strategies and do guided retells. One thing that I would like to add in would be the aspect of starting to let the students take over some of the questions, or explanations as we go. For instance, asking the students to track the story the first time, in pictures, or ask them to raise their hand and stop for comprehension questions and explanations. Basically start to give our students more agency during the read aloud!

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My class of 2nd graders engages with many key points from the Literacy Trekker, but more in oral form. Rather than always having something written out on a worksheet, we discuss as a class questions regarding prior knowledge, key words and personal connections. Just today, we read the Name Jar to talk about problem and solution. While students used a graphic organizer to keep track of information important to them, I was also able to be strategic and pause at certain points to discuss themes the class would benefit from.

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I really like the idea of having a literary trekker for those big class novels. When I was teaching in the 4th grade class, we read Esperanza Rising, and I had never read it before, and I didn't think to preplan material to go with it. Instead, I would just stop for checks while we were reading. I wish I would have gone through the steps of creating a trekker. The book was difficult for them and I wish I could have help scaffold them so it could have been more framed ands structure so they could be looking for themes.

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We use something similar in my writing class. We give students a checklist of what is expected in an introduction, body, and conclusion paragraph. This ensures students are consciously think about these aspects into their writing while they begin the writing process.

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Literacy Trekker helps students annotate and analyze. We just completed Esperanza Rising and this would have been a great tool to help scaffold ELLs and struggling students. 

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Literacy Trekker helps students annotate and analyze. We just completed Esperanza Rising and this would have been a great tool to help scaffold ELLs and struggling students. 

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I think Literacy Trekker would work great for my students to do an SGRI (student guided reading instruction) especially modeling for the students, where I would stop and what I would reflect at then do a slight release so that I facilitate the instruction, until students can learn how to it independently--especially with dense content or texts

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The Literacy Trekker is a cool way to have students stop and respond to a text while the are reading it. I wonder what this would look like in lower grades, and I wonder if it would be used almost as discussion questions instead of written response questions. We are studying fairy tales in my class it could be a way to story map the elements of a fairy tale while students are reading.

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(AJ)  I really enjoy the 4th concept of the Literacy Trekker as I believe that it is important for students to be able to draw and describe what they visualize in their reading. This shows that they have the ability to illustrate what they read, which is an indication that they have comprehended the reading they have engaged in in the classroom. Also, I think this really would spark interest in many of the students as it gives them choice and the chance to show their artistic ability. I believe I could use this format in my classroom to help the low readers be able to express their ideas in a way that might be easier for them to do, rather than struggle with their words.

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Literacy Trekker would be beneficial for leveled book clubs. Each group will have a specific book and the literacy trekker can prep them for each chapter. It can link back to their prior knowledge, prompt them to focus on specific themes in the chapter, or have them come up with possible predictions. This will have them start realizing the why of reading and have them more engaged and involved with the content.

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One of the "Twenty Fabulous Ideas for Choice Assignments" that I would like to implement in my classroom would be to have my students create a comic strip to convey their understanding. I think that this could potentially be a really creative way to have students create timelines in social studies. Many of my students are extremely creative, and love to express their artistic abilities.

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(Bryn) One of the components from the Literacy Trekker that I believe that is an essential tool when reading a text is to "activate students prior knowledge" beforehand. This will help students make more meaningful connections between the text and their real-lives.  

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(Bryn) One of the components from the Literacy Trekker that I believe that is an essential tool when reading a text is to "activate students prior knowledge" beforehand. This will help students make more meaningful connections between the text and their real-lives.  