Forgive me, readers, but I'm kind of hungry today. That's probably why I latched right on to Rick Wormeli's idea (shared in his awesome 2006 text, Fair Isn't Always Equal: Assessing and Grading in the Differentiated Classroom) about learning menus.
Here's how it breaks down. Whenever you are giving your students "choices of tasks to complete in a unit or for an assessment from a pre-determined list of options" (Wormeli, p. 62), you could arrange these choices or options as menu items. Sounds delicious, no? (This might also be a fun way to set up student options for anchor activities or for Learning Contracts).
Basically, you're listing choices in the style of a restaurant menu, "complete with appetizers, entrees, side dishes, and desserts" (Wormeli, p. 62). The "entree" tasks are required, but students can choose just one of the "appetizers" and two of the "side dishes." "Dessert" items could be for enrichment. (Or, really mix it up any way you'd like. This is just another fun way to provide some choice to students. See my previous blog on Tic Tac Toe boards for more fun!)
In addition to providing choice to students, you could further differentiate your menu by providing more than one. You might decide to present different menus to differently tiered groups. Or, you might use one menu, but "alter the choices differently tiered groups are allowed to make" (Wormeli, p. 64). Of course, as always, if a student wants to try something on someone else's menu, then I say -- go for it. As long as it's assessing the same objective, what is the harm?
This blog post sure does give new meaning to the phrase "food for thought," now, doesn't it?
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