Think Tac Toe Choice Projects

Who doesn't like having choices?  Students often thrive and are engaged when they have choice in their learning. 

I've been reading the book, "Teach Like a Pirate" by David Burgess. This book inspired me to create a choice project board for 5th grade.  Choice project boards like "Think Tac Toe" and "Menus" are not new; they have been around for a long time.  Now, that we have more technology in our county, this type of choice activity can be even more varied and interesting for students.  Student, choose 3 projects from the board in a row, column, or diagonal to complete in a designated period of time.  

If you would like a copy of this project click here.

Tomorrow, when our 5th graders return, they will continue in their fraction unit, specifically multiplying fractions.  So, I created a choice board for that topic.  This board gives students the choice of projects to show what they know about multiplying fractions.  

This project board, that I created, has a mixture of presentation, video creation, extended task problems, and open-ended problems.  You will notice that in the Dog House task students are ask to choose a dog and then will need to use the internet to find that dog's "average" height, length, and width.  This is something, before we had widespread technology, that would have been difficult but now is possible.  Students should and need to be able to use google to find information, even for a math task.   

Teachers can choose to give students a full week of time to work on and complete 3 projects or a short period of time can be given each day (or every couple of days) over the course of a couple weeks.  Teachers can assign separate due dates for each of the three choices or give students one deadline for all of their choices.  

Regardless of how teachers schedule time to work on the projects, teachers should pull small groups and conferencing with students as they are working on their choices.  

In addition to the choices I created, I included a rubric from Elmwood Park Schools.  This rubric scores students on math concepts, explanations, effort, neatness, use of time and completion.  You certainly could use other rubrics but I thought this one was nice for this project. 

If you would like more information and additional samples of choice boards this website might be helpful:  Choice Boards - Tic Tac Toe and Menus.

Please note that these boards can be used in all subjects and can be much broader than just one topic (like multiplying fractions).  This is just one example that I created since we might be able to use this in our school.  

Side Note:  If you haven't yet, read Teach Like a Pirate! Whether you are a new or seasoned teacher, this book is FABULOUS and INSPIRATIONAL and if you haven't read it you should!