You may already know how and why to use choice boards in your classroom, but let’s talk specifically about math.
Math is my favorite subject to teach, but I absolutely hated it as a student.
Why? In elementary school, it was all skill and drill. Think: multiplication facts and timed tests. In middle school, I had to complete math packets for homework each week. In high school, I took notes during lectures and struggled to get my homework finished before the late bell rang each morning. (Evens only though, because the odd answers were in the back of the book, right?)
I think my disdain for math as a student is what has motivated me to make it an entirely different experience for my own students. I also had wonderful teacher education professors in college and even grad school that taught me how to truly explore mathematics and to improve my practice as a math teacher.
In order to increase intrinsic motivation in math, we want to increase students’ engagement. How do we do that?
First, make it fun. Second, make it relevant.
Relevancy is so important. Math concepts are often taught isolated from real world concepts, so it’s important that we show our students why math skills are important and how those skills will help in daily life.
This is where choice boards come in.
When I design choice boards for my students in any subject area, I make sure to cover all of the standards and the entire range of Bloom’s Taxonomy to make sure that students are met at their levels yet able to be challenged appropriately.
For math choice boards, I also make an effort to include the following:
- Real life connection(s)
- Career connection
- Art connection (visual arts or more often, music)
- RELA connection
I think it’s so important for students to see how everything is interlaced, but that this is especially true in math.
Think about it: How often do we do math, career, or RELA activities in math class?
To take it a step further, what is that telling our students about math?
How else can I help?
