You Choose

Allowing students to choose the type of assignment can increase their sense of autonomy which is more motivating than simply being told to do something.

Strategy summary:

When providing opportunities for students to practice skills, create different types of work for a single assignment so students can make a choice as to which to complete.

How to:

1. When creating a practice assignment, create two different types of assignments in which students can then choose from.  For example, in a math class, students could choose between doing straightforward math problems or do word problems.  In English class, students could write definitions and sentence for new vocabulary, or write and illustrate a story using the words.

2. Track the choices student are making and the rate of completion.  Talk with students about these.

Commentary:

I have done this with in-class activities and homework. I have been keeping track of the assignment completion totals where I give a choice on homework for all four of my freshman Algebra 1 classes. So far, the completion percentages for the 4 weeks that I collected data on are as follows:

With Choice:  84.43%

Without Choice:  77.39%