Daily 5 Choice Boards-Intermediate Style

In fourth grade, I do not do a choice board for Daily 5.  I really don't have the space or the time.  In the past, I have always just verbally asked students for their choices and recorded them on my clipboard.  It doesn't take too much time if they are quiet and prepared to give me their choice.  At this point in the year, if they can't tell me their choice when I call their name, they get skipped. If they don't get the choice they wanted, tough.  Yeah, I'm a hard a$$ like that.  Just kidding.  This year I have decided to introduce something new.  I'm calling it a choice board, but it's not really. I guess I just don't have another creative name for it.  

At the top, I have written 'Why?  To become better readers, writers, and spellers.'  If you've read the Daily 5 book, you will know this as our "sense of urgency."  This is really a motto in my classroom.  My school is an OIP school (Ohio Improvement Process-or something like that) and we have done Marzano training.  We have classroom walk-throughs in which data is collected on the Marzano strategies that are being used in the classroom.  One of the strategies is Setting Objectives.  During the classroom walk-throughs, the data collector is to ask a student if they know the goal of the lesson.  If a walk-through takes place during Daily 5, my students almost always answer "To become better readers, writers, and spellers."  It's not because I've told them what to say, they just know that is why we do Daily 5.  

On average, I usually only get to do two daily 5 choices each day.  My mini-lessons are not quite so mini, and my schedule really only allows for two choices.  You will see I have columns for two choices and two efforts.  Last year, I started recording students' efforts during Daily 5 (Another Marzano strategy!).  We created a rubric together (Marzano!) and I've used it ever since.  Well, my students this year think we created it together too, but it's really the same one.  Shh...don't tell!  My students are usually very good about being truthful with their effort.  It only takes a few times at the beginning of the year to call a student out on his/her true effort and they learn...yeah, that thing I said I was at the top.  I know.  On this new "choice board" or whatever fancy name you want to call it, I have also given the effort rubric.  So, each day, students are going to record their choices and their efforts.  At the bottom, I listed the choices and priorities.  I give my students a week to complete their weekly word work packet and some were still not turning it in.  It is now listed as a priority.  You must show me your completed packet before you can do anything fun.  I know...again.  My students must also do Read to Self at least once a day.  The only exception to this is if they are in guided reading group during one of the choices.  

Students will keep this in their literacy binders and turn in every Friday.  My hope is that they will be more aware of the choices they are making and the effort they are putting forth.  If you want a copy of this, just click the image and you can download it from Google Docs.  Oh, and now that it's driving me crazy, who has a fancy schmancy name for this choice board?