Learning Menus
Learning menus, choice boards, or Tic-Tac-Toe boards are great ways to give students choice in their learning. Travelers take different routes to get to their designated location and students should be able to achieve their goal using differentiated means. The teacher can design a range of possible activities in order to target students' needs. While the processes and products may differ, the concept or topic is the same. Learning preferences and styles can easily be taken into account in the use of learning menus.
One way to create a menu is by using Bloom's Taxonomy:
One way to create a menu is by using Bloom's Taxonomy:
- Appetizers: knowledge and comprehension (ingredients - who? what? when? where? recalling and understanding information) (selections - worksheet, quiz, poster, diagram, report, summary, response, drawing, outline, conclusion, speech)
- Entrees: Application and Analysis (ingredients - how many? which? what is it? why? using old ideas in new ways, understanding the parts of a whole) (selections - model, plan, prediction, demonstration, survey, construction, solution, diagram)
- Desserts: Synthesis and Evaluation (ingredients - what would happen if? how can we solve? what do you think? putting parts together to for a new whole) (selections - invention, play, game, ad, critique, review, editorial, recommendation, song, discussion, experiment)
Another way to create a menu is by using the multiple intelligences:
- interpersonal
- linguistic
- intrapersonal
- musical
- naturalistic
- spatial
- bodily-kinesthetic
- logical-mathematical
- artistic
Here is an example of a learning menu about start unknown word problems I created using the multiple intelligences. I have also included the whole differentiated lesson plan it went with.
learning_menu_-start_unknown_word_problems.docx | |
File Size: | 14 kb |
File Type: | docx |
crowea.difflessonplan1.docx | |
File Size: | 27 kb |
File Type: | docx |
References
Karnes, F. & Bean, S. (2009) Methods and Materials for Teaching the Gifted. Waco, Tx: Prufrock Press Inc