#Choice

Last blog post I wrote about how I have created an hour of play in my classroom. In that post I
refer to menu’s and choice which has opened up the opportunity for students to have more play
time throughout the day.  This post I am going to break down the importance of choice even at
the Kindergarten.

I am currently reading Jane McGonigal’s book Reality is Broken:Why Games Make Us Better
and How They Can Change the World (Penguin,p 21, 2011) at the beginning of the book she
breaks games into four traits, one of them is “voluntary participation”, which is “that everyone who
is playing the game, knowingly and willingly accepts the goal, the rules, and the feedback.”
McGonigal goes on to talk throughout the book that this choice in participation is part of the buy
into to games and ultimately one of the driving factors behind driving focus, motivation, and
internal reward systems.

In my classroom McGonigal’s voluntary participation is called choice. In my classroom, students are
given a lot of control. I guide students to understand topics like rules, social emotional interactions.
technology, engineering, science, mathematics, and language arts. Students are the ones that make the
rules with some guidance from the teacher. I try very hard to not solve problems for students but to ask
them questions about the topic. Giving them the choice of how they are going to solve a problem gives
them ownership of their learning. This also helps to promote critical thinking skills, perseverance, and
responsibility, When students are given a choice research has shown that students are more invested in
the outcome and feel more involved.

Giving students choice in all these areas also means a mind shift for the educator in the room. You
are no longer the leader of the classroom, you are a facilitator, coach, guide to their learning,
cheerleaders and the students are the leaders of their learning.

Now that I have laid out a pretty educational foundation let’s get to the good stuff, the concrete examples
of how I enact choice in my classroom.

1:Menus : Students have Menus or choice boards for things that need to be accomplished throughout
the day. Each week students are given a packet for the week for ELA and Math. Students are given a list
of 4 MUST DO’s and 4 MAY DO’s for each day of the week. The rules that I lay out is what each center
should look like or consist of, for word work they need to complete 2 of the options, for writing there is a
certain task, then we model things like read to self and buddy read at the beginning of the year, then
there is one technology must do a day. Students are given an hour and a half in the morning to get what
they can done, they are allowed to do it in any order and as long as they meet the rules I laid out can take
as much time as they want at each station. Once students have meet the requirements of the centers
they are allowed to choose any of the 4 May do’s to participate in, May do’s are usually fun, unstructured
play activities, creation station, legos, blocks, etc.

#REALTALK: Yes, I have had students that just color in and say they did centers that they did not do,
when called on it they have lied and said well I forgot or yeah. Once I recognized it I incorporated several
talks into our morning meetings.We talked about why it is important to do all our work and all centers, the
importance of telling the truth even about something little, and what to do if we make a mistake. With
choice comes the opportunity for lots of little life lessons, embrace them! These are important skills that
they will need for the rest of their lives and academic careers please take the time to teach these skills!

2: Social Emotional Issues: In Kindergarten one of the greatest lessons students learn is the idea of
school, and social rules. In an effort to help students take ownership of these lessons, I very rarely solve
problems for students. A phrase that is commonly heard in our classroom is, “how can you solve that
problem?” “What is something you can do to accomplish that?” “Is there someone in our classroom that
already knows how to do that?” These questions put the issue back in the students court and let’s them
choose how to solve their problem, building problem solving skills, and learning independence. Also most
of the classroom management courses/ books I have read say that even when students are given choices
in how to solve a problem they are more invested and more likely to make a positive choice in the future
to solve that same problem.

#REALTALK yes, this can backfire and students can use it as a social time or there are times when I
have had to step in because hitting and biting someone is not the time to ask questions but to intervene.
As a teacher and adult I totally believe that you will know how to respond to each behavior.

3:  STEM: one of the major things that drives the STEM fields is questions. So again I let inquiry
drive a lot of these teachable moments as discussed above I ask students a lot of questions about
what they observe, what they think it means, after a lesson so what do you think this means now?
While questions are a huge part of choice so is exploration.  In Christine Pinto and Alice Keeler’s
book Google Apps for Littles they talk about letting students explore within a technology
atmosphere. After showing students some very basics like how to access a file, students are given
time to press buttons, make choices, mistakes, and explore. You will be amazed at how this will
encourage collaboration with no teacher direction. One student will be able to color something,
make something bigger and soon their friend is asking them questions or they are enthusiastically
showing others. This same concept of exploration and choice is a great reminder for Science,
Math, and Engineering. When introducing a new concept I will often give students time to play and
explore with the materials we are going to use, so they can start to fire up those synapses to make
connections to the lesson that is about to be taught, creating more buy in from students when they
are learning.

#REALTALK: Sometimes ground rules need to be set like Popsicle sticks are not light sabers,
swords, or go in our mouths. I recently had to to remind students exploring building materials
(including bamboo skewers) that it is important to be careful of our bodies in space, so that we
don’t poke or hit others on accident.

Choice is a powerful tool that helps me to create a flexible schedule in my classroom and to
empower my little learners. I want to reiterate that like with all things balance is key. Choice is a
powerful tool that will help to internally motivate students and help to create an atmosphere of
ownership. I encourage you to start small letting students have a choice of books in a book box, or
give your students time to explore. I hope this gives you some insight or ideas of how to
incorporate choice into your classroom.