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For example, if a teacher is focused on guiding students through creating a story using a sequence of events, they may offer students the option to draw their story, use a variety of materials to construct it or engage in dramatic play to act it out. "These all bring us to the standards, but they bring us there in a way that leverages kids' natural inclinations to play," said Mraz. She recommended Susan Harris MacKay's book Story Workshop as a resource for using play to meet learning standards related to storytelling

Mraz also encouraged teachers to be flexible. Initially, she required students to select a path and stick with it. However, she has since realized that being adaptable can improve student engagement and creativity. "Some days [students] just might need to move around, or sometimes doing something in one area actually inspires [them] in another area," she said.

Gathering: Construct ideas

After students have played, the gathering phase provides time for students to share their thoughts, reflect on their experiences and collaboratively build knowledge. Mraz suggested that students sit in a circle for this phase. Teachers may guide students to explore various content areas, reflect on themes from the play, address problems that came up or discuss the materials being used. "In order to construct knowledge, you have to have opportunities to process it with people," Mraz said.

In one class, Mraz used gathering time to talk about different ways to share materials. Students identified different sharing strategies they used during their play, such as taking turns, splitting items or finding additional materials. Mraz created a chart with these strategies and asked if any students had experiences that could be addressed with those ideas. The activity built on students' reading and problem-solving skills, Mraz said.

To help teachers build their facilitation skills, Mraz recommended Hands Down, Speak Out: Listening and Talking Across Literacy and Math by Kassia Omohundro Wedekind and Christy Hermann Thompson. "[It's] a brilliant text on how to develop these circle conversations in your classroom with tons of practical strategy," said Mraz.

Clean up: Collaborate toward a shared goal

The clean-up phase of the play workshop structure is not merely about tidying up but about instilling a sense of responsibility and cooperation. While the usual approach might have each child cleaning up their own play area, Mraz suggested organizing clean-up to reflect how it works in the real world. For example, in a family, clean-up tasks are often shared: One person might clear the table, another might wash the dishes and another might dry them. Students can follow a similar structure.

Instead of "clean up your own mess," Mraz uses the message, "our community works to make our space clean." She assigns specific roles to small groups of students, such as table wipers, block cleaners and a timer setter. "Every child is able to contribute to clean up in a way that plays to their strengths," she explained.

Mraz acknowledged that while play-based learning is familiar to many early childhood educators, incorporating these strategies can be daunting for teachers who rely on traditional methods. Even small shifts can make a significant difference, she said. "Is there one small movement you can make that brings us closer to a world that values children in their natural state, so that children grow to be the people who value one another in their natural state?"

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Want to Incorporate More Play in Learning? Try the Play Workshop Structure | KQED

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The play workshop structure uses guided activities, reflection and cooperative clean up to foster academic and social-emotional growth.

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(Jacob Wackerhausen/ iStock)

Excerpted from
"Nathan, I really want you to do well today. How can I help you with that?" instead of, "Nathan, you have an F in my class, don't you want to get a good grade? Why can't you behave?"
Serena Pariser is the best-selling author of several professional books for educators. She taught English language arts for many years, primarily in San Diego, California, and in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Pariser has experience working with most grades and was honored as Teacher of the Year at Gompers Preparatory Academy in San Diego. She served as assistant director of field experience at the University of San Diego, where she taught graduate and undergraduate classes for teachers in training. In addition, Pariser was selected to be a national evaluator for Schools of Character.
Both statements show Nathan that he is accountable for his behavior. The first statement, however, shows him you believe in his success and it is his choice how he behaves. You are rooting for him, yet he has agency. The second statement puts a student on the defensive, which rarely works. Be smart with your words and work on the relationship. The way you communicate makes a big difference in how your words are received by the students.

Be the teacher you are.

This seems like a simple statement, but I have always found it profound. Be your best self inside your classroom. What excites you that you can use in the classroom to accelerate learning? Use your personality strengths in your teaching. Do you love acting? Then use it in your teaching. Are you a great artist but feel insecure teaching math? Draw out some math problems! Do you love playing the piano? Why don't you play to the students as they are working? Your strengths are one of the biggest assets to your classroom. I love being silly and playful in life, but for many years I tried to run a very serious classroom because I was afraid of doing anything different as a new teacher. Once I brought my silly side to the learning, my students' test scores jumped, the students were happier, and I was a happier teacher. We know there are still serious times in the classroom, but we also know when we can laugh together. Weave your personality into the lesson. If you are a golf-loving science teacher, why not bring in your nine irons on the day you teach force? If you do this, you are much more likely to be a better and "real"-as the students like to say-teacher.

Work on your weaknesses.

In addition to using your strengths to become a "real" person in the students' eyes, you have to be willing to work on your weaknesses if that is what the students need. Let them know you learned how to do this specifically for them. You are a student as well. Think of yourself as a caretaker. This is the work you have to do outside of school hours (or during your prep if you're super efficient). This is what your students need. Say two inexperienced teachers are discussing groupwork. One teacher says, "Groupwork is just not my thing. It's easier to just have them work independently." The second teacher says, "I know groupwork is better for the students but I also know this is my weak spot. I'm going to learn how to do it." Which teacher do you think the students will respect more and will have more prepared, engaging lessons?

Use discipline sparingly.

If you discipline, do so for a specific purpose and tell students why. They will respect your authority and admire that you rarely have to use your power. Anger or disappointment can be effective only if used very rarely. Anger used often is completely ineffective. Discipline once, within the first two months of school, and only after you have taught the structures of your classroom. This establishes boundaries. Students need you to be stern when they cross your boundaries. For example, you could address your class with, "Do you remember the classroom agreements we discussed? Do we need something added to address side conversations? I want to make sure we're on the same page. If there's a misunderstanding, I can certainly address that. I know you're not trying to be malicious, but you are in fact breaking an agreement." Learn to pick and choose your battles. I always asked myself, Is this affecting the learning of the whole class? If the answer is yes, it is your job to correct the behavior. If the answer is no, do not stop the classroom for just one student. It's not fair to the other students, unless you are using it as a teachable moment.

According to one metastudy, teachers who have strong relationships with their students have 31 percent fewer behavioral issues in their classrooms. This statistic has a huge impact on the amount of learning that goes on in the classroom and the amount of quality teaching that happens, as well as on your general well-being. Building a mutually respectful relationship with a student starts the minute they know you know their name and you use it often when speaking with them. Strong relationships with students don't happen by chance. They happen through the way we decide, consciously or unconsciously, to interact with students from Day 1.
Real Talk About Classroom Management: 57 Best Practices That Work and Show You Believe in Your Students, Second Edition (Revised and Updated Edition) by Serena Pariser. Copyright (c) 2024 by Corwin Press, Inc. All rights reserved.
Does Amazon sell respect? It seems like some teachers have it from their students and some do not. How do those successful teachers do it? Let me start by saying if the students respect and like you as a person, your job will be a lot easier. Unlike a boss who doesn't like an employee, you can't fire a student. You can spend your entire year trying to fix a fractured relationship that is broken due to lack of respect. Here are some guidelines to help earn the respect of your students (not an easy task):

First: You are part of the class. It's not you versus the class.

Is your goal to get the kids to listen to you or to help each of them succeed? Think hard about this. Do you have the same goals in mind? Now, you may be thinking, "Yes, but how do I help them succeed if they don't even listen when I am talking?" You're not the only one who's been on the verge of tears. I soon learned that when there is a battle in the classroom (you versus them), they can and will overpower you. They outnumber you. Scary thought, right? The secret is that you can't let them know that. That's the difference between an unsuccessful teacher and a successful one. Successful teachers know this and work with their students. Unsuccessful teachers seem to fall into the trap of testing their power, using a loud voice to try to overpower. Power struggles rarely work in the long run. It leads to intimidation, which isn't an ideal learning environment. Yes, I've been overpowered. I've had students walk out of my classroom, curse in my face and laugh when I discipline them. It's not a pleasant situation when a student or whole class shows disrespect. It's also hard to earn respect back once it's lost. However, once the students trust - yes, trust - that you have their interests in mind, they will let their guard down and get ready for the educational journey. They will want you to lead them. They will ask you what they are going to learn today.

They will give up the fight because they realize you are both on the same side. How do you do this? You don't tell them, you show them that you have their interests in mind by using the following tips.

Focus on your goal.

Know that whatever you focus on is what will thrive in the classroom. If you focus on negative behaviors, that is what will thrive. If you focus on classroom rules, students will learn those rules, but when will they learn content? My advice is to always have your lesson prepared. Focus on the learning. Show students that learning is always the first priority. That is your job. If you want them to take seriously their job as a student, do your job by being prepared to teach. If you focus on your lesson plan, you will feel confident and the rest will follow suit.

Let students know you believe in their success.

Tell your students that you believe in their success. Do you think they will rise to the occasion if you challenge them? Here's a secret: If you believe in them and tell them so, they will believe in themselves. If you don't believe that your students will succeed, they won't believe either. For example, say

lower waypoint

next waypoint

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How to Build Mutually Respectful Relationships With Students From Day 1 | KQED

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To earn students' respect, successful teachers foster trust, maintain clear goals, leverage their strengths and use discipline sparingly.

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What are they and how do I write them?

If you've spent any amount of time studying the best practices for teaching English Language Learners (ELLs), you've likely been told to write content and language objectives for your lesson plans. After hearing this suggestion, you may be wondering "What are content and language objectives?" "How do I write them?" and "Do I really need to write both objectives for every lesson?" Let's get you some answers to these burning questions!

Already a content-and-language-objective-writing pro?

Grab this FREE set of Google Slides to display your Content and Language objectives digitally for your students.

What are content and language objectives?

To put it in the most simple terms, the content objective of your lesson should tell students what they are going to learn, while the language objective should tell them . Content objectives can be written for any subject area, including ELA, math, science, or social studies. Teachers use the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) or other academic content standards to determine the content objectives for their lessons. Language objectives are usually guided by English Language Development standards and the language proficiency levels of the students in the class. They give specific information about how students will interact with the new content through listening, reading, speaking, or writing.

Do I really need to write both a content and language objective?

I hate to break it to you, but, yes. You do. That's because content and language are never separate. No matter what age level, subject area, or population of students you are teaching, the content you are presenting will always come with its own unique language demands.

If anyone understands the fact that teachers do not need any more to-do list items added to their plates, it's me. Writing out two different objectives for each of your lessons may sound time-consuming, but getting in the habit of intentionally planning your lessons this way and communicating these learning goals to your students will make all the difference in the long run.

Want to save time with a digital solution for planning and displaying your objectives?

But really, why?

One of the best examples I can think of is from my years as a first grade classroom teacher. I'm thinking back to math time and the lengthy worksheets that I would have to assign my students from our math curriculum. One of the concepts in math that was always the most difficult for my first-graders was solving word problems. It's hard to think of a more demanding combination of content and language. Our first graders are expected to:

Read the story

Identify what the question is asking

Decide what kinds of operations they may need to do to solve the problem, and then finally

Express their answer and show their work

The demanding worksheets for this math concept always seemed to contain at least ten different word problems for my students to fight through. The end of the page usually presented some kind of "extension activity" that asked students to explain their problem-solving process. When asked "How did you solve this problem?" at least one student would respond with, "I used my brain." As an added bonus, they would often include a self-portrait with a thought-bubble over their head that read, "The answer is 8" (or something of that nature).

As amusing as these responses were to read, they were also a little soul-crushing. After all of our math talks and small group guided practice, many of my students still seemed to have no idea how to explain their mathematical reasoning. I felt like I had failed my young mathematicians by not helping them fully grasp our math content standards. However, it wasn't the content that was the issue. It was the language.

Saved by language objectives

My Math learning target (the equivalent of a content objective) for that lesson probably said something along the lines of "I can solve word problems in which I add three numbers." After all, that's all that my students were doing, right? Wrong. Although this nice, tidy sentence was easy to fit onto my whiteboard, it didn't truly reflect my linguistic expectations of my students. It didn't tell how they should go about explaining their thinking, and it didn't give them the scaffolds they needed to be successful. Hence all the "I used my brain" responses.

I now realize that equipping our students with the precise vocabulary and language patterns they need to complete a task is essential to helping them succeed in any content area. If I were conducting that same lesson today, I would certainly add a language objective to the mix. Here are a few examples that could have applied to this math activity:

"I can...

visually represent my thinking by drawing a math picture to match the story problem."

write the steps I took to solve a problem, using sentence frames for support."

verbally support my answer by explaining the equation I wrote."

Keep reading to learn the ins and outs of writing content and language objectives.

How do I write a content objective?

The formula for writing a content objective is pretty straight forward. It is likely similar to learning goals that you have written for your students before. I always write my content objectives in the form of an "I can..." statement so that students have a sense of ownership over their learning. I then choose an appropriate verb from one of the six levels of Bloom's Taxonomy and finish it off with an academic content stem that I pull straight from CCSS. They usually end up sounding something like this:

"I can justify my opinion by using facts and details."

I often struggle to choose the most precise verbs as I am writing my lesson objectives and I got tired of googling lists of Bloom's Taxonomy verbs every time I lesson planned, so I created by own resource to help me. You can find word lists and other tips and tricks for writing content and language objectives in this TpT resource.

How do I write a language objective?

Writing a language objectives takes a few more steps than writing a content objective, but I promise you that it's not as intimidating as it might sound! As always, start your objective with an "I can..." statement. Then decided which of the four language domains your students will be using (listening, reading, speaking, or writing). After that, you will identify the language function that you want students to practice. These are often similar to Bloom's Taxonomy verbs. Add a content stem that you pull from your ELD standards and then choose the support or strategy that you will use to scaffold student language. You can differentiate your lesson by providing different scaffolds for students at different proficiency levels. Here's an example:

"I can verbally defend my position to a partner, using sentence frames for support."

You can see more examples, tips, and tricks in my Content and Language Objective Google Slides™ resource.

How should I display my content and language objectives?

When I landed by first official teaching job, I remember spending hours on Pinterest looking for pretty ways to display my learning targets and lesson objectives. I discovered and tried so many unique ways of posting them in my classroom from taping off sections of my whiteboard, hanging patterned paper in frames and using the glass as a dry-erase board, and (attempting to) print off all of the objectives I could possibly need for the entire school year in advance.

Unfortunately, none of these methods worked for me. The perfectionist in me would get too obsessive about my handwriting. I would end up having meetings before school and run out of time to change the boards before students arrived. The frames would get knocked off their hooks and break. Displaying my objectives in this way led to a whole lot of wasted time and energy. Eventually, it got to the point where I stopped posting my objectives unless I knew I had a formal observation that day. I would address them with students at the beginning of the lesson with my administrator in the room, and the process ended up meaning literally nothing to my young learners.

So what did you do?

When I entered my position as a small-group ELD interventionist, I knew I needed a better way. Having to plan, write, and post at least two objectives for twelve different groups of students every single day sounded so daunting. There was also no way that my tiny room in the corner of the library had space to display all of these objective statements. So, I turned to digital. Let me tell you-it was a game. changer.

Now, when I sit down to lesson plan-whether that's in my classroom, at my home office desktop, or on my couch-I always have access to my content and language objectives in my Google Drive™. They are quick to update, easy for my students to read on our projector, and make me happy to look at because, you know, rainbow. 🙂

You can get your own digital content and language objectives slides to use in Google Slides™ or PowerPoint™ by clicking on any of the images below.

Any questions?

I know this blog post covered a lot of information about content and language objectives. If you still have more burning questions about this practice, leave them in the comments or connect with me on social media. I'm here to help!

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Content and Language Objectives - A Unique Little Teacher

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If you've spent any amount of time studying the best practices for teaching English Language Learners (ELLs), you've likely been told to write content and

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How to Implement Learning Intentions & Success Criteria in the Classroom

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Learning should not be a mystery to students. Yet, too often it is. Walking into a classroom, you might hear a student respond to the question: "What are you learning?" by describing the task at hand:

"I'm completing a worksheet," or "I'm writing a book report on this book," or "I'm completing a report on a our science experiment."or "We have to do these math problems."

In every case, the student is describing the task, not the learning. What if instead we heard the following answers:

"I'm learning how to solve two-step math problems"

"I'm learning how figurative language influences the plot"

"I'm learning about dark matter and why it is important"

The difference between the first set of answers and the second is that students are clear about the purpose of their learning. This is a critical difference, according to John Hattie, whose meta-research has found teacher clarity to be one of the most important learning interventions available to us.

Clarity: Learning Intentions/Targets PLUS

Teacher clarity is more than simply posting student-friendly learning targets. It's also about helping students gauge their own progress through the use of success criteria and intentional and deliberate feedback.

If you are interested in learning more about using clarity in your classroom or across your school and district, I have a book for you: Clarity for Learning: Five Essential Practices That Empower Students and Teachers, by John Almarode and Kara Vandas.

With a foreword written by John Hattie, the book is perfectly aligned with the professional learning we've facilitated over the years, from Ron Berger's Leaders of Their Own Learning to Antonetti and Stice's Powerful Task Design.

Best of all, what really grabbed my attention in the book is the emphasis on the use of success criteria, accompanied by countless authentic examples from real classrooms at every grade level.

Five Essential Practices

The authors suggest five practices that, if used consistently and accurately, will result in greater teacher clarity and the ability of students, over time, to self-manage their learning. The practices are:

Crafting learning intentions and success criteria.

Co-constructing learning intentions and success criteria with learners.

Creating opportunities for students to respond (i.e. formative assessment).

Providing effective feedback on and for learning.

Sharing learning and progress between students and teachers.

Two chapters address each practice. The first chapter explicates the practice, and the second chapter provides examples of teachers and students using that practice. Additionally, the book features two very useful appendices. The first is a quick reference guide providing the definition of key terms and clear examples to help the reader quickly understand concepts like learning intentions, success criteria, learning progressions, etc.

Using GPS (Gauging the Progress of Students)

Throughout the book, the authors suggest teachers use the following questions with students to move toward clarity:

What am I learning? (learning intentions/targets)

Why am I learning it? (both clarity and motivation)

How will I know I have learned it? (success criteria)

These questions may remind you of Rick DuFour's four big questions for a Professional Learning Community: (1) What is it that we want students to know and be able to do? (2) How will we know if they get there? (3) What do we do if they don't get there? and (4) How do we accelerate the learning for those who do get it?

Categories of Clarity Problems

Answering the three questions proposed by Almarode and Vandas requires clarity for the teacher and understanding by the students. Unfortunately, this is not yet the rule in many classrooms.

According to the authors, the frequent lack of clarity presents itself in five different ways:

(1) Fragmented teaching and learning;

(2) Activity-driven instruction;

(3) Misaligned strategies;

(4) Lack of progress monitoring of learning; and

(5) Unhelpful assessment data.

In C larity for Learning, each of these problems is thoroughly explained, and helpful examples are offered. The book also provides strategies and examples of how to overcome clarity problems. Readers are encouraged to self-assess using tools like:

Practical Examples. Common Misconceptions.

Throughout the book, the authors leave nothing to chance. They provide a wide variety of examples of how to identify learning intentions/targets and the accompanying success criteria. And they address common misconceptions. For example, they help the reader differentiate between success criteria and learning progressions (p. 41):

In short, success criteria and learning progressions are connected. If the success criteria represent what students will do to achieve the learning intentions, then the learning progression represents the pathway or incremental steps that begin with prerequisite skills and concepts and progress as we travel forward through the learning process to achieve each success criterion.

Video Clips

Nothing beats seeing a practice in action. The book gives the reader that opportunity by providing access to online videos. For example: click on the image below to watch a conference between a teacher and a fourth-grade student about writing. The conference is organized around the success criteria the teacher and class co-developed covering important aspects of narrative writing.
Source
Antidote to Students "Playing School"
To learn more about teacher clarity,
watch this free Corwin webinar with co-author Kara Vandas.
Clarity for Learning provides a roadmap for teachers and schools interested in deeply engaging their students in learning. And, it might ensure that when students are asked about their learning, they're able to quickly respond with what, why, and how I will know, rather than just describing the task - or worse, responding by saying, "I don't know. Ask the teacher."

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Hattie Says Teacher Clarity Is One of the Top Learning Interventions. Here's How It Works.

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Learning should not be a mystery to students. John Hattie's research shows that changes in practice to produce "teacher clarity" can have a huge impact on student success. A recent book from Corwin, Clarity for Learning, provides a roadmap for teachers and schools interested in engaging their studen

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Talking Circles: For Restorative Justice and Beyond

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A
TT awardee discusses how Talking Circles empower her middle school students.

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Restore Your Focus after classroom incidents 

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Restore Your Focus after classroom incidents 

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"I feel frustrated and confused. I don't want to do the work because I have no idea what I am supposed to do or what to even ask my teachers."
When do you feel the most motivated in school?

"It's when I am going deeper and deeper in the learning, and I can show that I am actually learning."
Interview with an 8th Grade Student

What may seem like a comment from one student, echoes through the research as a common issue for all learners. Learners want clarity; they need it and so do teachers.

My first years in the classroom, I felt like I was stumbling around in the dark when it came to having clarity about what my students needed to learn. I felt like I was looking through a pair of borrowed glasses that had a much stronger prescription than I needed. It felt out of focus, fuzzy.

You might be thinking, "Read your standards, use your curriculum documents." I assure you, I did. I just didn't find the level of clarity I wanted; I needed. I felt I was often trying to engage students in fun activities or interesting anecdotes but that we all lacked a true purpose and meaning in the learning, other than to complete assignments.

What I came to learn years later is that the struggle to find clarity is a worthy one. In fact, when teachers and students have clarity about what is to be learned, why it matters, and what success looks like, it can more than double the average rate of learning (Hattie, 2023). I don't know about you, but when I learned that it could accelerate learning in my classroom, I was all in. What powerful magic was this and how could I get it?

Why Clarity Matters

I knew that not having clarity was anxiety causing for me, but what I didn't realize was that it was for my students as well. According to the book, Clarity in the Classroom by Michael Absolum, "When we are clear, research shows that there are important shifts for the students. Their motivation improves, they stay on-task, their behavior improves, and they are more apt to engage in self-regulation. In other words, they take more responsibility for their learning."

Interestingly, clarity impacts both the outcomes, or effects of education on achievement, but also students' affect, or feelings, motivations, and dispositions to engage in meaningful learning. In addition, it dictates whether or not students will invest and reinvest in experiences, including productive struggle.

Achieving clarity can be energizing for everyone. In this reflection from Susie Mauldin, she explains her why for focusing on clarity.

Once we understand the impact of students and teachers having a shared understanding of what is to be learned, we can still be overcome by all the information to sort through from standards, curriculum, other educators, etc. So what do we need? A few simple, doable steps that can make a profound difference.

How Does Clarity Happen?

First, determine 3-5 big-picture learning outcomes that students must know and be able to do in one course or subject for the grade level. While there are a great deal of standards, memories and recall depend on how strong neural networks and connections are in our brains, and so, students need us to connect skills and knowledge to big concepts. The concept serves as a coat hanger of sorts to hang ideas, emotions, connections, skills and knowledge to.

Then, use the concepts to develop Learning Intentions or goals for the year. These serve as destination statements and answer a critical question for students, "Where are we going in our learning?"

For example, if the concept is to understand the impacts of weathering, the Learning Intention might be: "We are learning to ________." It could also be put in the form of a question, "How does ______?"

Consider this grade 5 example from Van Buren Elementary School in Caldwell, ID. Notice two Learning Intentions for the second quarter of the school year. No matter the grade level or subject you teach, the same can apply to providing students with big picture Learning Intentions that they have time and support in making progress toward and achieving over time.

Next, pair the Learning Intentions with Success Criteria, which describe the ingredients to meeting the intention so students have a pathway to meeting the expectation. Notice in the example how several Success Criteria are paired with the intentions to provide students with additional information about how they will meet the expectations. Shirley Clarke explains, "The worst learning scenario is to be unaware of the expectations or how your work will be judged and to have no guidelines about how to achieve the objective in the first place (Clarke, 2008, p. 81).

Once the basic expectations are established, learners require a few additional, student-friendly ways to understand what successful work looks like for each Success Criteria, to know how they are making progress, and to be continually informed about their next steps in learning in order to meet the Success Criteria.

Check out a few additional blogs to explore such next steps in developing clarity for learners.

Bottom line: Clarity matters! With a few simple and doable steps, students and teachers can set their anxiety aside and dig into learning together.

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The Power of Gaining Clarity for Purpose of Learning - The Core Collaborative

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When teachers and students have Clarity about what is to be learned, why it matters, and what success looks like, it can more than double the average rate of learning

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A sense of predictability can help facilitate deep thinking, and teachers can also use routines to promote student agency.

Routines establish a sense of predictability in the classroom that supports students' learning. By knowing what to expect, they're better able to engage in curricula without being thrown off by unexpected activities or scheduling shifts.

Below, I share instructional routines used in my practice that are relatable to teenagers, require higher-order thinking, and kindle voice and choice. They're applicable across educational frameworks, from project-based learning (PBL) to Common Core and International Baccalaureate (IB) standards.

Meme Monday

In China, where I currently teach, memes are ubiquitous. To leverage students' interest, I created Meme Monday, a routine in which two students work together for a week to find a meme that needs editing. The pair keeps some considerations in mind while searching: Is this meme appropriate for school? What message is the meme sending to readers? How can this meme be improved? What are the meme's strengths?

Students send me an image of the meme and a brief response to each of these questions. The following Monday, they display the meme, and a class discussion ensues.

First, the class discusses the meme's message. How effectively is the message conveyed? Who is the meme's target audience, and how do we know? Students provide feedback from the perspective of the target audience or from the perspective of an editor considering options to enhance the meme's message; feedback includes image selection, word choice, and tone.

After students share feedback, those who found the meme edit it-an activity that lends well to formative assessment. We display the finalized meme and pick a new pair for the following week.

Spiderweb Discussions

Alexis Wiggins, international IB and AP educator, created the spiderweb discussion, in which teachers have two options: remaining silent or tracking student-led discussion. I've found that the first approach motivates students by putting them in charge, but some drop non sequiturs. When teachers track discourse, they introduce a level of accountability and create documentation that facilitates group reflection.

Tracking means that each interruption, comment, joke, and textual reference is documented using Wiggins's coding system. I've made slight adaptations, such as using the model to provide instant feedback via a Smart Board spiderweb so that students can make real-time adjustments as they talk. You might ask students if they are comfortable having feedback displayed or prefer to receive private suggestions. To further promote agency, you might nominate a student to draw the discussion web and/or provide feedback.

Save your spiderwebs as tools for reflection; showing students their first spiderweb alongside their most recent provokes rich discussion and writing about their growth.

Sustained Silent Reading

Reading can expose students to more robust vocabulary than screen media, and repeated exposure to robust vocabulary can facilitate greater retention, moving complex words from short-term memory to students' working lexicons.

Sustained silent reading is one way to promote this process. It involves making time during school for students to read. Protect time during class, preferably one day a week, for students to bring a book they enjoy and wish to silently read.

Fridays work best for my students, and I've found that they're more eager to engage when they're allowed to select their text (within reasonable grade-level parameters) and have access to many genres-exposure that helps augment analysis skills.

Wonder Wall

Author and educator Kelly Gallagher assigns his students an article to read every Monday morning, an important literacy routine. I practice a subtle adaptation of this method by creating a wonder wall.

Students pose a question related to our unit question (for PBL educators, this would be the driving question). Students pen their questions on a section of the bulletin board (I've found that black paper and white crayons or glowing markers make the wall unique).

They then try to answer their question by finding a related article, pasting it into a Microsoft Word document, and providing a link to their source. Students send their documents to me, and I print them for annotation. Or students may choose to print their own or annotate electronically.

What argument or purpose does the creator have for writing this piece?

What text features are used by the creator, and how do these features aid meaning and/or impact the audience?

How does this article compare and contrast with a reading in a different genre?

How does word choice impact readers of this text?

How does the organization or structure of the text impact readers?

What opinions do I have about the section I read?

Which textual evidence supports these opinions?

What section(s) of the reading did I find difficult, and why?

I provide an exemplar for annotation by penning my own question on the wonder wall and doing the assignment myself. I give students a copy of my annotations and share the following questions as guides (aligned with Middle Year Programme (MYP) IB frameworks):

How did the article answer (or not answer) a curiosity or question you had?

What reading strategies did you use?

What was one difficult word in the article, and what did you do to aid your comprehension?

Which annotation are you most proud of, and why?

Would you recommend this article, and what makes you say that?

Who in this room would also like this article, and what makes you say that?

I ask students to engage in the same process with their articles for homework or invite them to bring articles to class for group annotation. Once they've done so, they present their annotations using guiding questions to support metacognition and critical thinking:

Once students are comfortable with this routine, I enhance the process by asking them to compare and contrast their current articles with previous articles.

This routine, like those above, empowers students' voice, choice, and higher-order cognition while keeping learning interactive and rooted in predictable structures-lessening extraneous processing and facilitating students' deep thinking.

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Classroom Routines That Support Students' Voice and Choice

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Classroom routines help to keep students engaged. See how one teacher brings joy to literacy through the use of consistent practices.

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Learners thrive in environments where there's structure and familiarity, and implementing classroom routines provides students with a sense of predictability, where they feel safe and secure in the classroom. Studies have routinely shown that students learn better when they feel safe. However, this type of classroom climate doesn't magically happen, it has to be cultivated through expectations, rules, and routines.

Routines provide a framework for structure and consistency and offer students a classroom environment where they can learn and thrive. Here we'll take a closer look at why classroom routines are so vital, what types of routines are common in classrooms, as well as give you ideas on how you can establish a routine in your classroom.

Why Routines are Essential

Classroom routines are rituals or actions that are repeated time and time again. These routines that are repeated regularly provide students with a sense of security because they know what is expected of them. This predictable schedule makes it easy for students to navigate their learning environment. Additionally, it helps with time management by establishing a seamless flow and reducing disruptions during transitions when students are aware of the typical duration of an activity or task. The consistency of a routine can also reduce disruptive behavior because students know what is expected of them at all times of the day.

Routines teach important life skills such as responsibility and independence. Once students become familiar with the expectations of the procedure, they will take ownership of their responsibilities. Ultimately, students will spend more time learning instead of asking what they need to do next, all because a routine was set in place.

Types of Routines

Classroom routines don't have to be limited to the beginning or end of the school day. They can be used for transitions, to get students' attention, or in many other ways. Here are a few common ways classroom routines can be used throughout the day.

Entry and Exit Routine

Younger students can learn a procedure on how to enter and exit the classroom, while older students can learn what materials to grab to get started or how to put materials away before exiting the classroom.

Transition Routine

Students will move through transitions many times throughout the day. Learning a routine while moving from one activity or subject to another will make the transition smoother. Many teachers like to use signals or cues like a bell or timer to help the transition move along.

Student/Teacher Attention Routine

Establishing a routine to gain student's attention or using a signal so students know how to get the teachers attention can prevent classroom disruptions or distractions.

Establishing expectations and teaching students how to form groups will help to prevent classroom chaos. It also established clear expectations on communication, collaboration, and students overall learning experience while in the group.

Homework Routine

Providing a consistent method for submitting homework assignments and or reviewing homework assignments provides structure and contributes to improved academic performance. Not to mention that it will make everyone's life much easier.

In addition to these routines, you can also have a routine for when students finish work early, how to collect and distribute materials, classroom jobs and responsibilities, using the bathroom, how to work independently, how to use classroom technology, or just about anything you can think of that you do daily and want it to go smoothly.

How to Establish a Routine

If you're looking to establish and maintain a successful classroom routine, then consider following these steps.

Identify Your Goals

The first thing you want to do is think about how you want your classroom to function. Ask yourself what skills and habits you want your students to develop as well as what tasks and transitions you want to run smoothly. Once you decide upon your goals, this will help guide your choices for a predictable routine that you can set up and teach your students.

Choose Your Routines

You don't have to choose a routine for every single goal you have in mind, but it also doesn't hurt. The more routines you have implemented, the easier it will be for students to move about the classroom independently as well as limit the number of disruptions and distractions that are occurring.

Teach Your Routines

Next, it's time to teach your routines. It's wise to start with one or two each day because you don't want to overwhelm your students. First, explain the reason for the routine, then go through each step of the procedure giving examples and non-examples of what it should look like.

Practice Your Routines

Give students plenty of opportunities to practice their routines. Consider hanging visual aids like posters, charts, or checklists in the classroom for students to reference.

Monitor the Routines

Once students have learned the routines, keep an eye on how they are working. If you notice they are not meeting your expectations, then revise or reteach them. You can also ask for assistance or suggestions from your colleagues or ask students how they think the routines are working or if there is anything they would change about the routine.

As you progress through the school year consider revisiting your classroom routines. Some routines may no longer be needed or just aren't working like they used to. Or you may want to change some of the routines to give students more responsibilities. Remember, consistency is key when it comes to routines. Try and stick to each routine as closely as possible because predictability fosters a sense of security in students, and when they know what to expect each day it will make for a more productive and successful learning environment.

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Establishing a Smooth Flow: The Power of Classroom Routines - TeachHUB

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Learners thrive in environments where there's structure and familiarity, and implementing classroom routines provides students with a sense of predictability.

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Copy of Group Classroom Commitments and Values

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Best Practice

Classrooms that have clear and easy routines tend to see better behaviour from the students within. Jon Tait looks at how and why we can establish routines for behaviour and routines for learning

Image: Adobe Stock

In the complex world of education, pedagogy, and evidence-informed practice that we find ourselves in, sometimes going back to the simple basics of human behaviour is what brings out the best in students and teachers alike.

We are all creatures of habit and, just as we find in our own lives away from the classroom, routines are often the things that we crave to pave the way for a structured and coherent day-to-day life.

Our classrooms are no different. Without clear and consistent routines, a learning environment can be unorderly, unstructured, and chaotic.

Classroom routines are therefore the unsung heroes of effective teaching, providing a structured framework that enhances behaviour, fosters consistency, and lightens the cognitive load on students.

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Classroom routines: The habits your students' brains crave - SecEd

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Classrooms that have clear and easy routines tend to see better behaviour from the students within. Jon Tait looks at how and why we can establish routines for behaviour and routines for learning

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Giving students options for how they demonstrate their learning is a good way to ignite their curiosity.

How do you make learning effective, engaging, and student driven when students aren't physically in the classroom? That's been the question on our minds for quite some time now. One team of education leaders in North Carolina found a solution that drastically changed instruction throughout the state, and it's something you might already be familiar with.

As teachers and students transitioned to fully remote instruction, the English language arts (ELA) team created choice boards that teachers could copy and adjust to meet the needs of their students. The boards-which could be assigned virtually or printed out in packets-were organized by grade band and filled with standards-aligned activities as well as scaffolds that enabled children to be able to complete the work alone. Check out the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction's ELA choice boards here.

Choice boards improved remote learning in our virtual classrooms, increasing student engagement and ownership, and even making our students more eager to dig into their assessments and homework.

Here are some tips to get started with implementing choice boards-whether students are in person, learning remotely, or a mixture of both-as well as some lessons learned along the way.

Choice boards add a new dimension to your classroom, offering an alternative to standard assessments and empowering students to choose how they show their mastery of a topic. Additionally, they provide educators with a variety of ways to check for student understanding. If you've ever had your eyes glaze over as you regarded the night's looming stack of 120 freshmen essays to grade, this could be the refreshing twist you're looking for.

Imagine that you're working with your middle school English class on analyzing complex characters in The House on Mango Street. You can unpack the standard with your students and create a rubric with them (or we love this idea of success criteria), then brainstorm ideas for activities.

Keep in mind, some learners do prefer traditional assessments, so leave those as an option in the choice board.

You don't have to start from scratch; there are free choice board templates available online.

Try incorporating your students into the process and get their input on how they'd like to demonstrate what they've learned. For example, students might suggest developing a movie trailer to illustrate their mastery of the standard, drafting a series of diary entries from the main character, or creating a series of podcast episodes. Allowing for student involvement in the creation of the choice boards increases their ownership and follow-through.

Choice boards can be used in place of a homework packet-giving students the autonomy to choose how they practice skills they learned during the school day.

But choice boards can also serve as a way to engage with parents and caregivers. A family homework choice board can encourage education-centered family time at home, while simultaneously informing caregivers about topics and skills their child is learning at school.

Before sending home a homework choice board, allot time to guide your students through the process-practicing it in the classroom first. Think of it as a mini-lesson.

Evaluate limitations or access issues that may arise for some students when working at home. Things to consider include access to technology, access to materials, and time asked of the parents/caregivers in assisting.

What might this look like? Let's say you are teaching a third-grade class and a parent has asked you for the homework. Share the optional homework choice board-activities might include finding three examples of this week's syllable type in books from their book bin, reading high-frequency words to a family member, or practicing the high-frequency words on an online app.

Remote learning days are far from a thing of the past. Whether these days are scheduled ahead of time in the school's calendar or utilized as an alternative to closing the building for severe weather or recurring outbreaks of Covid, schools can be proactively prepared by creating district or schoolwide choice boards that teachers can easily access.

Move from fluff to rigor by being intentional with learning outcomes and alignment to state standards. (Find tips at Aligning Curricular Decisions with Student Voice). Make sure that you aren't just creating busywork but are truly creating assignments that are standards aligned.

Get a team involved to make the lift lighter. The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction had teams of educators work together to create a universal set of choice boards that could be accessed by teachers statewide-many hands make short work.

We've used choice boards not only with K-12 students but with our teachers in training as well. Offering people choice in assignments does equate to a lot more emails to answer from our graduate students. But that's something we were more than happy to take on.

Ideally, these can be tweaked by teachers themselves easily so that students can complete them over and over again. Educators can switch out the text and activities at their discretion to update them.

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Using Choice Boards to Boost Student Engagement

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Giving students options for how they demonstrate their learning is a good way to ignite their curiosity.

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Choice boards give students the freedom to decide on learning activities that interest them and they're perfect for learning in-class or at a distance.

In this post we'll explore what choice boards are, how to make a choice board, some example choice boards and more! Let's dive in.

What is a choice board?

Choice boards are graphic organizers that empower your students to take an active role in their learning by choosing the activity or activities that they are going to complete. These boards can be physical or digital and include different activities around a particular subject area for students to complete in a given timeframe. While as the teacher you select all the possible activities, your students are given the choice to pick from the list to decide how they want to continue engaging with the lesson.

How to make a choice board

There is no one right or wrong way to make a choice board and thankfully there are a ton of great examples to help inspire your creativity. That being said, here are a few guiding principles to help get you started:

1. Determine the purpose of your choice board

2. Align your choice board with specific learning outcomes

3. Select activities for your choice board that fit your learning outcomes

4. Determine your choice board rules including the number of activities to be completed and if there are any must-do activities

5. Select your choice board layout and style

6. Put your board together

It's also important after using a choice board to make time to reflect afterward to see if there are any changes or improvements you want to make for the next time you use a choice board in your classroom.

Choice board examples

There are a lot of ways to set up a choice board for remote learning, depending on how creative you want to be and how much time you have.

Below are 7 choice board examples ranging from short and simple to ultimate creativity.

Bitmoji Virtual Classroom

"Most teachers I know use Google Slides to make choice boards. There are lots of fun templates out there", says Carrie Willis, Technology/STEAM Director from Redlands, CA., "plus, it is fun to add bitmojis to the boards!"

Google Slides are a great option for choice board examples when you want to get creative. If you're not familiar with Google Slides, they work just like Powerpoint, but are all online, so you can easily share it with your class. Google Slides allow complete freedom to get creative with your theme and add your own backgrounds, images, and add links to anywhere.

Virtual Makerspace Choice Board

"I like Google Slides because it's directed while also giving students freedom. It's very contained and students can't click out to something else," said Ms. Miller. Read Ms. Miller's tips for creating a virtual makerspace choice board here.

Tic Tac Toe Choice Board

How to make a choice board with Google Slides

Step 1. Outline your ideas

Get started by mapping your ideas on paper. Think about what theme or learning goals you want your board to center on.

Step 2. Decide what activities you want to include.

Try to include a mix of activities that your kids are familiar with, but also some new items too. You can always change it up later.

Step 3. Sketch it on paper

Think about the way you want to organize information. The way your board is organized helps students find an activity to meet their learning goals quickly. Here are some ideas:

Activity type - robotics, coding, drawing, building

Learning concept - counting, reading, science

Theme - outside, animals, oceans, space, family

"Virtual classroom" with activities are organized like they would be in a real room

Step 4. Make the Choice Board Slide

When you're ready, set up a slide with the same layout that you sketched on paper. Add text boxes to label each of the areas or activities. To add a text box, go to "Insert" then "Text box". I used a table to make my tic-tac-toe board.

Give your students direction by adding images they're used to seeing. They'll know what to expect when they click on the activity if they see the app icon, character, or book cover they already know.

PRO TIP! You can search for images to add to your choice board directly inside Google Slides.

Finally, add links to each of your activities by selecting the images, then clicking the insert link button on the menu.

When you're finished, you can share the link to your slides with your class, or you can save the slide as a PDF and all the links will be clickable.

All About Dinosaurs Seesaw Choice Board

Seesaw is a great place to add your choice board so that you can easily collect student responses and your kids can easily interact with the activities.

Seesaw's Community library has tons of choice board examples for you to choose from. The example above focuses on dinosaurs and allows students to decide what part of the dinosaur they want to learn about, as well as what activity they want to do. Then, students are required to label each part of the dinosaur to demonstrate their knowledge, all within the Seesaw activity.

How to embed links in a Seesaw activity

In my tic-tac-toe example from Google Slides, I could export the final design as a PDF, then upload it to Seesaw and all the links would still work for my students to click on. See how here. See more Seesaw choice bard examples that include links here.

Kodable Bingo Seesaw Choice Board

Bingo is another style of choice board that is easy to use with your students. Samantha Selikoff, technology teacher in New Jersey shared her design for Kodable Bingo earlier this summer. Using the Seesaw activity creator, it is easy to create the bingo design for kids to complete on their own.

Step 1. Create the bingo board in Word, Google Docs, or any editing tool you're comfortable with. Perhaps give Google Slides a try!

Step 2 Take a screenshot and add it to your Seesaw activity using the image upload option.

Step 3 Add dauber shapes for students to add to their completed board.

Change the color and transparency by using the styling tools below the shape. Duplicate the shape 10-15 times.

Symbaloo Choice Board

If you're looking for a simple solution to direct student learning. Symbaloo is a fast and easy way to set up choice boards for remote learning this school year.

The no-frills interface uses a simple grid, but also allows customizations like backgrounds and custom colors. You can add links to all your relevant activities as bookmarks or shortcuts for your class.

It is important to think about how you want to organize the information on your choice board so that it is easy for a student to figure out where to go. Both teachers chose to include sections for each of their classes in the above examples, while also including a section that links to the "approved" activities directly.

Learn more about using Symbaloo for your remote learning choice boards in their instructional video here.

Choice board template

As you can see from the examples above, there are a lot of choices for you to make for your own choice board! Thankfully there are a lot of great choice board templates available online for you to help you get started faster.

Here are a few online resources that provide choice board templates:

Frequently asked questions about choice boards

What are the benefits of using choice boards in the classroom?

Using choice boards in the classroom offers several benefits including:

How many choices should be on a choice board?

The number of choices you give on a choice board should give students the opportunity to feel like they have a choice in their activity without overwhelming them with too many options. This will depend on the type of choice board you are using as well. For example, a tic-tac-toe choice board will have nine choices while a bingo choice board will have 25 options available. When in doubt, use less choices to start and see how students respond before adding in additional options.

How do you implement choice boards in the classroom?

Just like with any classroom activity, choice boards should be implemented by clearly explaining guidelines and expectations for students to follow. This includes the activity options, the timeframe allowed, and any other specific requirements including cleanup or turn in responsibilities. After the activity starts be sure to monitor progress and support any students who need assistance. Finally, once your choice board activity is done give students (and yourself) a chance to reflect on activity.

Choice boards are a great classroom resource for you to empower your students to take an active role in their own learning. Plus, they are so much fun for everyone! If you're looking for more fun and educational classroom activities try out Kodable's free educator plan to help your students learn the basics of computer programming. It also makes for a great choice board activity!

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7 Choice Board Examples to Bring Into Your Classroom | Kodable

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Choice boards give students the freedom to decide on learning activities that interest them and they're perfect for learning in-class or at a distance. Learn how to make a choice board and see great choice board examples in this post.

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Studies have shown the benefit of giving students choice in their learning. One of the ways teachers do this is by implementing the use of choice boards in the classroom.

A choice board is simply a collection of activities (they can be digital, nondigital, or a combination), usually formatted visually on a grid. Students are then invited to choose one or more of those activities to complete. They are the ones choosing which activity interests them. So - right away, they are taking ownership of their learning.

We know that choice is a powerful motivator. And, not only is it a powerful motivator, but developing our students' ability to make key decisions about their learning experience is an essential component to a 21st century classroom. We want our students to be confident decision makers, choosing activities and projects that they think will best represent themselves as learners.

Now, 5 or 10 years ago I would have said that choice boards help support the diverse learning styles in your classroom (learning styles like visual learners, auditory learners, kinesthetic learners, and so on) - but recent studies have shown that learning styles are actually not a critical factor in student learning.

But - what we do know is that not all students enjoy doing the same types of activities to show their learning. Choice boards make it easy to support the diversity in your classroom - specifically diversity as it relates to how students like to learn.

Choice boards also allow students to take more control of the pace of their learning. As teachers, we're not trying to herd students along at the same pace, keeping students together. But instead, we give them their choices, and the support they need, and let them set the pace.

Finally - choice boards free the teacher up for having to orchestrate a whole-group activity and instead allows them to support individual students, and provide on-the-spot feedback.

One of the beauties of a choice board is that there is no-one way to make an effective and purposeful choice board. They can come in all shapes and sizes - and serve different purposes.

One of the initial decisions that need to be made by you, the teacher, is determining the learning objective you are trying to achieve.

For example, you might design you choice board to be aligned with a certain set of standards.

Maybe your choice board is designed to give students a variety of choices centering around a specific strategy that students can use again and again.

You can also design thematic choice boards.

Or, you can create choice boards that are used as end-of-unit project boards or choice boards that are used as a way to review content.

Let's dive in a bit into each of these.

Standard-Aligned Choice Boards

I first mentioned standard-aligned choice boards. The purpose of these choice boards is to provide students with several activities and tasks that allow them to practice and engage with target standards. You might choose 2-3 focus standards and have several activity choices for each. That way, students practice those strategies in a way that is most appealing to them.

Let's say you have 3 math standards you want students to review. Create 3 columns on your choice board grid, and then create 3 or so different rows under each standard with related activities for that standard.

Strategy-Based Choice Boards

For your strategy choice boards you'll want to develop a board that presents students with a variety of strategies that they can use again and again. This would be ideal for something like reading strategies. Place critical reading strategies in a grid format, illustrating how to use that strategy and then allow students to refer to the strategy choice board to use the strategies as needed.

Or perhaps you have a math strategy choice board with a grid of several math strategies that can be used to solve a particular type of problem. Again- strategy choice boards are used repeatedly because the choices on these boards can be applied to many learning experiences.

You could even create a large strategy choice board to display in your classroom for easy reference.

Thematic Choice Boards

One of my favorite types of choice boards to create are thematic choice boards. These are choice boards that have activities that all center around a particular topic. These are great when you want to highlight a certain holiday or season, or even just a special topic.

One of the things that I started doing this year for our LINKtivity® Learning members is to create thematic choice boards. Each month, I email them a choice board centered around a theme.

For example in January, I created a Winter Olympics choice board. In the center square of the choice board was a link to the Winter Olympics LINKtivity® available inside the membership site. Then the rest of the activities all provided students with activities to choose from related to the Winter Olympics.

One activity had them watch a video of a figure skating performance and then write their own commentary as if they were there. Another activity had them read an article about one of the athletes and then have them create a list of facts that they learned about them. Another activity had them create and design their own Winter Olympic sport. There was a wide-range of activities that would appeal to different learners.

I did another thematic choice board on plants. Again in the center of the choice board was the plant LINKtivity® and then a variety of other plant-related activities to choose from.

Review or End-of-Unit Choice Boards

Finally, we have those choice boards that are used as a way to review content or wrap up a unit with project choices. These are great alternatives to a traditional assessments. They are a perfect way for students to uniquely communicate their learning. By providing them with choice, they are way more likely to enjoy the process, and do their best work.

Your review or project-end choice board may include activities like:

There are all sorts of activities that you can include to appeal to different learners. The more tech-savy students might choose to make a movie or a Google Slides presentation, while another students might want to make a brochure.

The format of a choice board lends itself to easy differentiation. You can create 3 or more versions of the same choice board. One choice board might include more options with more advanced tasks, while another choice board might be more simplified and include less choices to help with students who may be overwhelmed by too many options.

It's also a discrete way to provide differentiated instruction because the choice boards will all look similar, but have tailored activities based on the student.

As an alternative to multiple choice boards, you might even choose to just include a few challenge squares on your choice board grid for students who are capable of more advanced tasks to choose from.

Be sure to include both digital and nondigital activities on your choice boards, as well to be sure that you are catering to both tech-loving and not-so-tech-loving students.

Let's cover a few logistics for using choice boards in your classroom. Since students will be doing different activities, you'll likely need to have a variety of supplies and resources on hand that students can help themselves to.

You might consider having an area in your classroom stocked with supplies that could be used for a variety of tasks.
The obvious supplies might include: But you might also include:

large chart paper

construction paper

other random craft items that could be used

digital devices for any online activity choices

a poster or reference card with commonly used passwords for any activities that might need a password. For example, if one of the activities includes watching a brainpop video or something else that is protected by a password - you'll want to have those passwords easily accessible.

Keep in mind, you may have all your students working from a choice board at the same time, but you may also just have certain students working on a choice board while others are not. Keeping these supplies on hand will allow students to have easy access to them, and rely less on you.

I hope I've got the wheels in your head spinning a bit on how you might use choice boards with your students. It truly is a great 21st century tool to use in the classroom to help motivate and support your students.

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Using Choice Boards in the Elementary Classroom With Purpose! - THE CLASSROOM NOOK

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We know that offering choice to students is a powerful motivator. Choice boards provide a simple way for teachers to encourage students to ownership of their learning and helps develop students' abilities to make key decisions. In this episode we explore how to use choice boards with meaning and p

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11 Tried and True Strategies for Getting to Know Your Students

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Successful school years start, build, and end with creating connections and caring relationships with every single student.

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When students begin to plan, monitor, and evaluate their learning, they develop self-regulation and can set more ambitious goals.

Davor Pavelic / Ikon Images

As a special education teacher and K-12 tutor, I found that students were often told what to learn but were rarely taught how to learn, which had the potential to leave them stuck, anxious, and disengaged. My desire to teach students strategies they could use to develop their own agency and independence led me to write my book, The Independent Learner.

Metacognition refers to a student's knowledge of their own thought process. A metacognitive thinking process allows students to self-regulate and direct their thoughts, behaviors, and actions toward their goals. As early as kindergarten, teachers can instruct students in how to build their metacognitive skills through a process of planning, monitoring, and evaluating their learning. Once students reach third grade, they can begin to use these strategies with increased choice and independence.

When students begin working without a plan, they become easily confused and overwhelmed by the task. They may give up, get distracted, or become off-task very easily. Taking time to plan can help students avoid these issues. Planning can include previewing the task, setting goals, deciding how to approach the task, and connecting to previously learned information. The following strategies help students to plan.

Building prior knowledge: Teachers can help students build prior knowledge by connecting new information to what students already know. This might look like having students brainstorm in groups to answer a question, watch a short introductory video clip or demonstration, or look at and discuss pictures or objects related to the topic that will be studied. A strong foundation of background knowledge can help students to accurately make predictions and prioritize information during the lesson.

Goal setting: Having students set goals and track progress is linked to a 32 percent increase in achievement. Teachers can help students to set short-term goals related to the skill they are learning as well as the student's long-term personal goals and values.

Planning the process: We have all had the experience of setting goals, only to lose the motivation and follow-through necessary to make them a reality. Teachers can help students think about the changes they need to make in their daily behavior and habits in order to get from where they are now to where they want to be. Students can make a plan or checklist and use this to monitor their daily progress or the baby steps toward their goal.

Students who are having trouble monitoring don't know when to seek help or may be overly dependent on the teacher to make sure they are doing their work correctly. They may lack a sense of self-efficacy or the belief that their efforts affect their actions or fail to change their approach when it is not working. When a student is monitoring their learning, they are assessing their level of understanding and trying to determine whether the strategy they have selected is working. The following strategies help students monitor.

Metacognitive talk: When students are learning a new skill, the teacher can model thinking aloud to make the thought process visible for students. This helps them to develop the complex thinking skills necessary for that subject area. The teacher can encourage students to use discussion to construct knowledge instead of just participating to display what they know. Strategies like think-pair-share or visually explaining the steps of their thinking help students to understand that there are many ways to approach a particular problem or task.

Analyze, prioritize, summarize: Students can be taught various methods of summarizing information and isolating key facts, details, and keywords. One method that students enjoy is a one-pager.

Diversify: When approaching a new learning task, it is important for students to know many ways to solve a problem or approach the skill. Strategies that mix verbal and visual information make learning more memorable. When students are familiar with many strategies, they have the tools necessary to exercise their own agency in selecting what works best for them.

If students are not evaluating their learning, they often do not understand how to use strategies in other contexts or for future problem-solving. They may know that they got something wrong but are not able to tell you why or what they should do differently next time to avoid that same issue. To evaluate their learning, students consider whether the strategy they chose worked and what they would change for next time. The following strategies help students to evaluate.

Assess: Testing should be used during learning, not just once learning is complete. Students can create their own practice tests or test questions, or teachers can use pre- and post-tests with clickers to find out what students know, help students to prioritize important information, and assess learning during the lesson.

What am I working toward?

What progress have I made so far?

Where do I go from here?

Seek feedback: In the classroom, the teacher acts as a coach to students, providing information about learning goals and progress. Successful feedback should not shame students or focus on personal qualities but instead should answer these questions:

Reflect and revise: After assessment, self-assessment, or feedback, students reflect on whether the strategy they are using is working. Then they decide what changes they need to make. Students may also consider areas where they need to seek out help. When they revise, students consider what did not go so well and fix it. They should be able to explain their mistake or what did not work and then select a strategy to correct their work. As you might notice, this starts the metacognition cycle back at the planning stage.

The only way to make learning truly relevant to each student is to teach the tools and strategies they will need to take a more active role in their learning. Incorporating metacognitive skills and self-regulated learning strategies has helped my students to become more independent, engaged, and capable of exercising their own agency.

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How to Get Students Thinking About Their Own Learning

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When students begin to plan, monitor, and evaluate their learning, they develop self-regulation and can set more ambitious goals.

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A 4-Part System for Getting to Know Your Students | Cult of Pedagogy

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Relationship building is key to good teaching. This system will help you quickly get to know students and benefit from those connections all year long.

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Edutopia is a free source of information, inspiration, and practical strategies for learning and teaching in preK-12 education. We are published by the George Lucas Educational Foundation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization.

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When student engagement is going downhill, we often find ourselves reaching for the prop box.

We pull out random videos, time-sucking resources, overly complex activities... anything to get and keep attention. But even these can't compete with our students' pen tricks, doodling, and discussions of what happened at recess. And there's a simple reason why:

Our students aren't engaged by things. They're engaged by us. That's why the best (and easiest) ways to increase student engagement come from you.

We compiled 20 essential strategies that generate lasting engagement, without the flashy props and hours of post-school prep.

Let the countdown begin!

20. Connect learning to the real world

We've all heard it before: "When am I ever going to use this?" Answer this question and you'll engage students with content that they know is relevant to life beyond school. Use anecdotes, case studies, and real-life examples from outside the classroom to root your teaching in "the real world".

19. Engage with your students' interests

Find out what already engages your students and build it into the learning process.

Using mathematics as an example, you could have students chart their performance in a video game over the week. You might even get your budding social media influencers to calculate a projected number of Instagram followers.

Learning what excites your students does more than just engage them. You'll build strong relationships and rapport, too.

18. Fill "dead time"

"Dead time" is any point in a lesson where students are left without something to do. You might be handing out a worksheet, getting a presentation set up, or waiting interminably for a YouTube video to load. These are brief windows that leave just enough time for students to tune out, after which time it can be very difficult to get them back.

Fill these blank spaces with low-order activities to hold students' attention. These should be quick, easy, and require minimal follow-up. For example:

Think Pair Share: students reflect on something, discuss with a partner, and then share with the rest of the class once everyone is ready

Quickwrite: write down three questions or points that have been raised by the lesson so far

What I know already: if you're just about to dive into new content, ask students to identify three things they already know about the subject and jot them down as bullet points.

17. Use group work and collaboration

Collaborating with small groups gives students a welcome break from solo bookwork. They'll benefit from each other's perspectives and the ability to express their ideas.

Use your judgment and knowledge of who works well together when organizing group work. Engineering the groups might avoid troublesome partnerships, while allowing students to work with friends might generate the buzz you need for more productive activity.

16. Encourage students to present and share work regularly

Giving students a regular opportunity to share their thoughts and demonstrate learning in front of their peers drives engagement in two ways:

it makes students accountable

it lets them hear from someone other than their teacher.

If your students quiver in fear at the thought of speaking in front of the class, combine presentations with group work. A few ideas:

Have students present in groups after a group task.

Let students share each other's work within smaller groups before asking them to choose one piece to share with the rest of the class.

Let students read or present their work while sitting down. It avoids the pressure of having to "stand and deliver".

Ask for one contribution from each group after discussion, with each group nominating a "spokesperson".

Above all else, make presenting and sharing a regular part of class activity. Your class will become an equitable and engaging space that echoes with the voice of every student, not just your own!

15. Give your students a say

If you don't know how to engage your students, let them tell you! Give your students a say in classroom activity by:

providing a choice of different activities (e.g. group work or solo)

seeking student input for assessment design (e.g. students can choose a final product, provided it meets the criteria)

periodic check-ins to monitor the pace of delivery (e.g. "do we need to go over this a bit more slowly or are we feeling pretty confident?").

Giving students a choice also fosters their sense of ownership over their learning. They'll move from passive consumers to active learners with a stake in classroom activity.

14. Use mixed media

Present learning content in a variety of mediums, including video, audio, and digital resources. Using such tech-rich resources is engaging for two reasons. It's a welcome change from the stacks of paper our students are usually saddled with, and it establishes a direct and relevant connection with the digital world they inhabit.

13. Get your students moving

If your students struggle to sit still for an entire lesson, get them moving. All that pent-up energy can be channelled into a learning activity that puts them on their feet. Try the following.

Have students come to the front and brainstorm together on the whiteboard.

Have students rotate through different stations around the room over the course of an activity.

Have students split into groups or arrange themselves in different areas of the room.

Take a stand: have students move to a particular area of the room to indicate their thoughts on an issue (e.g. "everyone who thinks x, move to the right side of the room; if you think y, stand on the left").

Movement works equally well to engage sluggish or weary students. A quick bit of physical activity will leave them more alert for the next phase of learning.

12. Read the room

If you're steadily losing students to doodling, off-topic chatter, and the pervasive "need to tear and ball up little pieces of paper", it's time to shake things up.

Cut the activity short if it's dragging, clarify instructions if there's confusion, or switch to a more student-centered activity for greater engagement.

Remember: it's impossible to have every student engaged 100% of the time. The next best thing we can do is to notice disengagement and respond to it quickly.

11. Scaffold tasks with checkpoints

If you dump all your instructions on students at the start of a lesson before turning them loose with an activity, confusion and disengagement will likely follow.

That's why it's important to scaffold larger tasks by breaking them into achievable steps. Each of these can be separated by brief "checkpoints" of instruction reorienting students and reminding them of what needs to be done next. They also serve as a periodic call to attention when students are liable to go off track.

10. Focus on discovery and inquiry

Sometimes the best thing you can do for engagement is to get out of your students' way.

Let them discover learning for themselves without being spoon-fed. They'll exercise critical and creative thinking, and pursue the lines of inquiry that interest them.

This doesn't mean you should retreat behind the teacher's desk. Observe your students, listen to them, and talk to them about what they're thinking. Be their guide as opposed to their instructor.

9. Ask good questions

Ask good questions of your students and you'll drive rich, engaging discussions that are open to everyone.

Good questions should be:

open-ended: to avoid "yes/no" answers

equitable: open to answers of varying depth and complexity

legitimate: asked because you want to hear students' thoughts and opinions, not because you're fishing for a correct answer.

When students answer a question, engage with their response. Even if it's incorrect or misinformed, recognize their effort and use it to refine the question further (e.g. "you're on the right track, but could we also think about...").

8. Allow for think time

It's gratifying to see hands shoot up as soon as you ask a question, but letting your students think it over has two benefits. It leads to more considered responses that drive engaging discussions, and it also makes the conversation accessible to those who don't have an instant answer.

After you ask a question, insist on a twenty-second pause and give students an opportunity to extend their standard responses further. For example, you might ask "See if you can explain how you came to your answer, too". You'll receive better answers and start to notice some new hands going up.

7. Shake things up

Predictability is safe, but it can get boring. Mix up your staple teaching strategies with new and novel activities from time to time. Talk to other teachers for ideas. In addition to engagement, you'll also be giving your students an example of what it means to take a risk and try something new.

Experimenting with some new parts of the teacher toolkit also makes it easier to differentiate your instruction. A new activity or delivery method might be the trick to engaging that student who has been a tough nut to crack all year.

6. Give brain breaks

Periodically give students a breather with brain breaks. These are short activities that allow students to stretch their legs before returning to work feeling focused. You can find a list of 20 brain breaks at Mind Bloom.

Meritopia in Mathletics is gamified learning at its best and keeps students engaged! When students earn enough points in Mathletics, they get the perfect brain break in Meritopia by discovering new lands and unlocking characters.

5. Be personable

Relationships and rapport are pillars of lasting engagement, and you can't have either without being personable. This means getting to know your students and letting them get to know you.

While enthusiasm for the learning content might ebb and flow, your smile, laughter, and conversation will engage students every time they walk through your classroom door.

4. Encourage friendly competition

Use in-class games, quizzes, or gamified learning programs to engage students with friendly competition. For example, Live Mathletics (a feature in Mathletics) allows students to test their mathematical skills by competing in 60-second quizzes against peers in their class or around the globe in real time.

"Friendly" is the keyword here. Make sure competitive activities are low stakes and put the emphasis on learning instead of winning.

3. Start lessons with introductory hooks

Engage students from the outset of your lesson with an introductory hook. This could be anything that piques interest, establishes relevance, or inspires curiosity in the subject of the lesson, for example:

a personal anecdote connected to the subject

a brain teaser or challenge question

a historical example

a multimedia source.

Keep your hooks short and segue them directly into an overview of the learning goal. It's an effective opening that engages while setting students up for the main instructional component.

2. Laugh together

Weaving humour throughout your lesson lightens the mood and makes for a more fun experience. Laugh with your students, and don't be afraid to let them laugh at you from time to time!

1. Gamify learning

Games are the most powerful source of engagement for students outside of class, and they're equally effective at driving engagement in learning. Transform activities into games by including levels of difficulty, rewards, and competitive elements. You can read more about gamifying learning here.

You don't have to invest hours in creating rules and drawing up game boards, either. Gamified learning programs can do the work for you. The learning programs in the 3P suite, for example, provide a host of student-friendly games for mathematics, literacy, and science. All you have to do is select the appropriate curriculum and grant your students access.

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20 Student Engagement Strategies for a Captivating Classroom

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Here's our list of the best student engagement strategies to help you create an engaging classroom and better connect with students.

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Go-To Strategies that work for Multi-Language Learners

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Go-To Strategies that work for Multi-Language Learners