I love giving students choice, but not total freedom. It's too risky to let a bunch of middle schoolers fully decide how they will show what they are learning, which is why I try to incorporate choice boards as much as possible.
It's the perfect balance between student choice and teacher control!
One resource I have started using is a Tic Tac Toe board from Teacher's Discovery that allows students to choose their own path to "winning" the game. But what is incredible about each of the paths students take is that each one incorporates an element of critical creativity!
Take a look at the example below to see what I mean:
Some of my favorite choices that get students thinking critically and creatively about what they are reading are:
"Get a Job"- Students choose a character from the book they are reading and write a resume for that character. They have to choose the industry that best suits their character traits, research a job within that field, and create a resume using examples from the text. Such an innovative way to think about a character's strengths!
"Trash Can Treasures"- Students imagine sneaking into a character's house and go through their trash can. What things would they find and what do they say about the character? This option allows students to draw a trash can and sketch out the found items with a caption to explain each item's significance.
"Pretty Please"- This activity asks students to write a persuasive letter to an abstract idea or an inanimate object from the novel. The character must present three strong arguments to get what they want based, of course, on the text. Students learn persuasive techniques, letter-writing skills, and character analysis all in one assignment!
Do you see how engaging these activities are while still maintaining academic rigor? It's the magical balance all teachers are looking for!
What I really appreciate about this set of Tic Tac Toe cards is that they are leveled, which means you can easily differentiate the assessments for every student.
In this pack of 35 cards, 9 are for below grade level readers (green cards), 19 are for on grade level students, (orange cards) and 8 are for above grade level learners (blue cards).
The tasks get increasingly complex and ask students to think more analytically, but even the green cards present a critical thinking challenge. For example, the persuasive letter activity is on part of the lower level cards as well as activities that get into the significance of point-of-view, the inner monologues of a character, and making text-based predictions. Another way to use the cards to differentiate the activities is asking students to choose one activity from each card.
Of course, you can use this as an individual project where each student completes their own board, but you could also use this as a part of a literature circle unit where the group has to get a "blackout" (all squares are completed). This allows students to divvy up the activities based on their strengths and interests.
The cards are packaged as either for middle school or for high school students. I teach gifted 7th graders and found the high school level cards are a perfect challenge for this group.
However you choose to use these Tic Tac Toe boards, it will be a winning activity. What can be better than teacher-curated, high level activities balanced with student choice and the opportunity to be creative?
Shop for the high school cards here and the middle school cards here and then email me with all the questions!
Teacher's Discovery sent me these Tic Tac Toe boards to try out in my classroom, but my assessment of this resource is honest-they really are excellent!
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