The Magestic Menu

I'm a big fan of Paula Kluth's awesome website, Differentiation Daily. A few months back, she wrote a few blog entries about Choice Menus and how you can provide options for students to show their learning and understanding of a topic. This is great because it allows the teachers to naturally differentiate within the dynamic, inclusive classroom. Our amazing 7th grade social studies teacher and I created a choice menu and decided to try it out! 

1. We started out with three articles about the colonial times.
2. I downloaded this free choice board from Teachers Pay Teachers.
3. Co-Teacher Emily and I created a choice board using text centered comprehension activities. All of the strategies listed below have been explicitly taught and used throughout the school year. It was interesting to see which strategies students preferred.
 

4. Emily renamed the menu as the "Majestic Menu". Students had seven days to work on their choice board and earn up to 40 points using the three readings.

Easy ways to modify:
  • Use differentiated text on the same topic
  • Use iPad in order for students to hear an audio version of the text
  • Have a student choose 3 activities or work on 30 points instead of 40

Below are a variety of the activities completed by students. Students chose activities based on their strengths and interests.

 
Making a timeline to highlight how long colonial times lasted. We will continue to use and refer to this as a class for the rest of the school year. It stretches out all the way until 2015!

ShowMe Video after reading a text. Go here to watch the video!
 Informational Poster based on reading.
 Sketch annotation
 Annotation and Cornell Notes
 Cornell Notes
 Student pulled five quotes from the text and wrote they meant to her. She then drew pictures visually explaining each of the quotes.
 Majestic Menu
 Summarizing the text by using the 5 W's strategy (Who, What, When, Where, Why)


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