Choiceboards

One of the staples of the ASPIRE 5 class is a choiceboard of tasks or activities.  According to gifted specialist Bertie Kingore, taskboards "provide multiple options to stimulate student interest and choice through learning products with a high likelihood of eliciting content depth and complexity."  The first advantage of choiceboards is how they empower students.  When gifted students feel in control of their learning, they are more likely to produce a product they are interested in, and complete it at a high level.  Second, I believe that the variety of choices allows students to use their talents and strengths when demonstrating their learning.  Students in our class have a variety of interests and abilities.  Some are talented writers, while others like to draw, act, or use technology.  When our choices take advantage of their skills, the students show a higher level of excitement and enthusiasm for the assignment.  In addition, choices are very effective when the students present their work.  The variety of presentations allows the students to learn from multiple perspectives, and about details they may not have considered before.  It is always an enjoyable experience watching the students put their personal touch on a topic for all of us to see.

Typically, I like to offer five to seven tasks each time I create a choiceboard.  Sometimes I offer tiered assignments for differentiated levels of difficulty, but most of the time, the tasks are similar in rigor and complexity.  I believe it is important not to offer the same kind of choices every time so that students will use different strategies to demonstrate learning.  It is obvious at this point in the year that most students have a favorite set of tasks, so I am careful not to repeat them too many times.  Finally, it is important to use rubrics to assess most of the work from a choiceboard.  While the students have not helped design as many rubrics as I had hoped in the beginning of the year, I believe that when students read the criteria before they start a task, they produce more high quality products that truly demonstrate the depth and complexity of their knowledge.

Overall, I believe that choiceboards have been an effective tool in the ASPIRE 5 classroom.  The students enjoy the power to choose, there is usually a wide variety of work samples, and the quality of the products is high.  We will continue to use them on a regular basis across the disciplines, and I am looking forward to watching the students use their unique talents to demonstrate what they are learning throughout the year.

What If?

In science this week, the ASPIRE 5 students made their second "What If?" presentation of the year.  After spending the first part of the week learning about fossil fuel formation, students applied their knowledge to a hypothetical situation.  Students were presented with four hypotheticals, and also had the opportunity to create one of their own.  One example was, "What if coal, oil, and natural gas were boundless?"  Students were required to create a digital product to present to the entire class.

The presentations were very entertaining.  Students created videos, slide shows, Prezis, and more.  This was an effective activity for gifted students in my opinion because it allowed them to synthesize the information and create something new and original.  Their creativity, sense of humor, and critical thinking were all on display.  Our showcase day was one of those special times where everyone enjoyed sharing their work and learning from other with a sense of family and unity.

As I said earlier, this was our second attempt at this activity.  Overall, there was a significant improvement in the quality of the students' work.  The presentations showed evidence of more thoughtful analysis and critical thinking than the first time.  However, I believe we can do even better.  Although we had a discussion about what an effective presentation would look like, I will devise a rubric for the next round.  We use rubrics on a regular basis in the ASPIRE 5 classroom (perhaps a blog entry for another day), and the students are usually successful at meeting the listed criteria.  Next time, we will place a greater emphasis on content and demonstrating a conceptual understanding of the given topic.  However, I was very pleased with what I saw yesterday, and I feel this was a successful assignment worthy of our time and efforts.

So, what if oil really did run out tomorrow?

Let the Games Begin!

This week the ASPIRE 5 students created games in math and science.  In math class, students created three large cubes to help practice writing and solving equations.  On the first cube, they were required to write 6 word problems to represent equations.  On the other two cubes, they wrote the corresponding equations and solutions.  When the cubes were complete, students played the game by rolling them and looking for matches.  Two matches earned 5 points, and three matches earned 10 points.  The first player to 30 points won the game.

The design of the science game was left to the students.  The primary requirement was to create a game that reflected our Changes to Land unit.  Landforms such as sand dunes and processes such as erosion had to be included.  The students designed a wide variety of games.  There were card games, board games, computer games, and games that don't even have a category.  After a day of creating the games, students were able to spend the next day sharing and playing them.  A rubric was used by the students to self-evaluate their own game.

Creating games can be a very effective strategy for gifted students.  It allows them to use their creativity as they design the rules and procedures.  Next, the activity is differentiated, as students can adjust the complexity of the content to meet their needs.  In addition, this activity required them to practice presenting the game with clarity so that other students could play it.  Overall, the ASPIRE 5 class designed a set of very impressive games.  The content showed evidence of higher level thinking, and the rules and procedures were very creative.  On top of it all, they were fun to play, and were part of a positive learning experience.  Make sure you ask your child to tell them about their game this weekend, or even ask them to bring it home.  You will not be disappointed.