Are you looking for new ways to reach students, especially those fast finishers / high-performers? Do you need ways to differentiate tasks without requiring a ton of extra time? Maybe you need something for your students to work on that is meaningful and not just a time-filler? Why not use a choice board!

Choice boards allow students to make choices in their learning, which amps up motivation and engagement. When students are given a menu of options, they feel more in charge of their learning and often put forth more effort. As a teacher, I also like how I can build in levels of differentiation for all learners and learning styles.

Check out these reading choice boards I made on Seesaw. Once you click the linked image, tap the ❤️ to add the boards to your library and assign to students.

Ways to Use these Reading Choice Boards

There are many ways to use choice boards in a classroom that give students the ability to choose how they practice skills and save time for the teacher. Consider using these six reading choice boards in any of the following ways:

Guided Reading Table: Use when wanting to teach certain concepts or ways to respond in a small group setting. They can be used with writing responses or an oral discussion.
Independent Reading Time: Students have several response choices to use at the end of their independent reading time. Students can even share with a partner.
Turn & Talk: You, or the students, choose a question, then students take turns responding orally.
Partner Time: Students respond to your read aloud by pairing with another student and working on a question from the choice board together.
Literature Circles: Predetermine boxes for select students to answer that will guide oral discussions/written responses.
Morning Work: Want quiet activities to start off the morning while students are arriving? Students can respond from a book previously read, or from a fresh morning read.
Homework: Students will stay engaged when selecting a question from a choice board to enhance their nightly reading.
Early Finishers: Are your students completing classwork at varying speeds? Give them a choice board while they wait for others to finish!
Quick-Check Assessments: You can easily take a reading/writing grade based on their quality and depth of writing and response.
Challenge: High-performing / high-ability students can deeper their understanding through creating with choice boards, which expands student learning and synthesizes their learning.

Customizing the Choice Boards

These reading choice boards can easily be customized to fit your needs. Perhaps you want students to choose two or three box instead of choosing one box. Just change the directions and duplicate the pages for student responses. Maybe you want to control which boxes your students choose from? Differentiate the choices by skill or level of difficulty by adding a different-colored translucent square over each choice and instructing students to choose a “green” box first, a “pink” box second, and a “blue” box last.

gif showing how to add a translucent colored square over each choice

I also love the feature of being able to copy and paste pages from one Seesaw Activity to another! Consider adding this Reading Response Activity to your choice board as an additional page to complete before/after students work on their choice board.