Motivating Students Through Choices

Offering choices is one of the simplest ways to encourage student involvement in your classroom. Unfortunately, I talk to many students who feel as though they never have any choices. I spoke with one student who told me he felt that school is a place where “they tell you what to do all the time.” Feeling a lack of choice is disheartening and frustrating for anyone.  

There are many opportunities for students to have choices in your classroom. It’s fairly easy to give students choices; it just takes a little extra planning. You can allow students to choose what they read, how they respond to the reading, how they learn, or what topics they research. One of the most basic ways to give students a choice is to allow them to choose how they will demonstrate their understanding of the content. When I assigned a book report, for example, my students could choose the desired format. Imagine the depth of understanding needed for a student to summarize a book in a two-minute commercial or the creativity involved in developing a music video to explain the content. If they are allowed to choose how they will show that they understand the content, many students will invest more time and effort in the task.