The Choice Basket

Last week, I created a choice basket in my classroom. I asked my students to think back on all of the activities, songs, games, and dances we had done all year long.

"Pretend I am a genie, and I am going to grant you one wish," I told them. "What is the one thing you would choose to do again before this year is over?"

Alright! I thought slyly. Now I am going to find out how awesome I am at making my curriculum fun!

Not so fast, Mrs. Duggan.

All my students wanted to do was sing Christmas songs and have "game days."

My classes earn "game days" after they fill up the behavior chart with stars. I set up centers around my room, and the kids get to choose from about ten different activities.

The younger kids wanted to perform all of their Winter Program songs again. In other words, they wanted to sing "Hip Hop Elves" and "Rudolph" in the middle of May.

The sixth graders wanted to make music videos, an MTV-inspired (I'm from Generation X, remember?) project I do during the last few weeks of school to keep those older kids from ruining my life. They have been asking about it since the beginning of the year. Forget everything I taught them about the Baroque and Romantic Eras. Now the fifth graders have already started asking if they get to make videos next year.

You can see where all of the wonderful standards-based lessons, that took me so much time to research and develop, rate.

One student did say she wanted to play the "Families of the Orchestra" again, an assessment I made into a game with fly swatters. At least one of my kiddos likes to learn.

After the final choir concert, I did a similar thing. I asked my third graders, who will be the right age to join choir next year, what songs they liked the best. It's a sneaky trick I like to call, "Making Sure I Choose Choir Repertoire the Kids Will Like."

Almost every single third grader said, “On Top of the World” without hesitation. I had tracked down a decent choral arrangement of the Imagine Dragons song as our one pop standard to keep the kids' interest, but all of our other music was much more artistic and technically difficult.

Then, out of the blue, one little girl raised her hand and said, "I liked the piece you sang in French the best."

"Oh yeah, me too," the other students agreed. "That piece was also cool."

There we go. Finally. Maybe these kids are developing an appreciation for high art after all.

The Choice Basket

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