Shooting the Moon Choice Board and Rubric

Choice boards are a great way to reach many interests and abilities in diverse classrooms. Whether needing to differentiate higher or lower, the variety of assignment options allows for student choice at their appropriate response level, and allows teachers to see what students truly grasp from the texts they are reading.

Shooting the Moon, written by Frances O'Roark Dowell is a novel appropriate for 4th through 6th grades. The choice board includes nine activities and multiple rubrics for teacher choice in grading. The tasks are as follows:

• learning how to play gin (following directions)

• putting together a timeline (social studies cross curricular)

• letter writing (plot)

• collage options (2 - one text related one personal)

• research and reporting (plot + nonfiction reading)

• supporting veterans research and presentation (persuasive writing)

• compare and contrasting (characters)

• paragraph writing

Each activity included either has a direction sheet with specific instructions or an actual worksheet to guide them through the tasks they fill out. The expectation is set for students to complete three activities in a tic-tac-toe format, but can be utilized in different ways in each classroom.

Rubrics are included that allow for open response (and more information included from students), as well as teacher choice in how to assess student knowledge.

Tags: choice boards, reading, writing, social studies, differentiated learning, student choice, rubrics, cross curricular

File Types: PDF

Number of Pages: 20