Haylee Ziegler, OFLA Scholarship Chair
Spanish Teacher, Teays Valley High School

This school year, my district is implementing strategies that can help students with tier one and tier two interventions in the general education classroom. One focus area of support for students that I identified was self-motivation when it comes to studying class content in order to be prepared for class and assessments. 

(As the teacher) we know that the materials and resources we give our students are high-quality and will prepare them for success, but sometimes they fail to see that. Something I decided to implement this school year was a choice board of activities for learners to utilize if they finish a task early. My goal is that students will use the choices on this board to find ways to review materials or extend their learning outside of their assignments. Ultimately, this should result in higher academic success and increased language proficiency. 

The choices on this board include practicing with online platforms for Spanish such as Garbanzo and Duolingo, reviewing their bell ringers, creating a quiz for a friend to take, reading a Spanish CI reader, and more! I used a poster printer to print out the choice board and have it as a visual reminder at all times. Since implementing this, I have noticed an increase in student engagement and an increase in their assessment scores. A positive outcome has also been that their cellphones have stayed in their bookbags for the entire class! 

Another way I have assessed the effectiveness of the choice board is by giving a student reflection survey every Friday after completing a short quiz. Students know that they will prepare for and take this quiz every week. Students record their grade on the quiz and reflect on how they prepared. They are asked to give evidence on how they studied or what they need to do in order to study more. 

If you notice your students are quick to finish assignments and are off task, try implementing a choice board of fast finisher tasks that students will enjoy doing and see what results it can bring!