Student Contributor: Hannah Sale
Teachers can use light-up buttons to stick on the wall/whiteboard and have options next to each button. The teacher will then light up the options that they allow students to do once their work is finished. This allows the students to visually see their options without having to ask the teacher. To make it more student-directed/collaborative teachers can ask students prior in the day what they want the options to be.
In every classroom, there will at least be one or two students who finish their assignment(s) before the rest of their peers and will be wondering what to do next. It can be a bit repetitive for a teacher to repeat the options for each student after they have finished. So, teachers can instead stick light-up buttons on their whiteboard or wall and stick interchangeable options next to each light. The teacher will then decide what options they want their students to be doing and then will push the correlating buttons to light them up. This allows students to visually see what options they have without asking the teacher directly.
I placed this tool in the preventative phase because it prevents students from asking the teacher what their options are as well as preventing students from goofing off after finishing their assignment(s). This does not fit into supportive in my opinion because it is not supporting their content learning. This could be a corrective tool if your students are constantly asking what to do once finished, or are goofing around because they are unsure of the options they have once finished. But, from my own classroom experience, I would categorize this tool as preventative. This tool fits Teacher Directed and/or Teacher Directed/Collaborative because the teacher is deciding what options the student has. If students were able to choose their own options then this tool would fit best in the student-directed phase. I also chose collaborative because teachers can discuss the options students want with their students, so the students also get some say in the decision-making process.
More Information –
Tool Source: I found this on a website from a teacher named Libby
https://libbyklinnerteaching.com/classroom-management-strategies/
