Support Knowledge-Building by Using Choice Boards for Science and Literacy Integration

Choice boards are a powerful tool in today’s classrooms for encouraging student agency, differentiation, and deeper learning. When designed thoughtfully, choice boards offer students multiple ways to explore a concept, apply their understanding, and practice key literacy skills such as reading informational text, summarizing, identifying key details, and writing about what they’ve learned.

Integrating science content into literacy instruction can sometimes feel like a challenge—especially with tight schedules and standards to meet. But choice boards offer a flexible solution. They allow students to explore scientific concepts at their own pace, in a way that suits their learning style. Whether students are working independently, in pairs, or small groups, choice boards create space for inquiry, creativity, and collaboration.

When a science-based choice board includes tasks like reading nonfiction texts, creating visual representations, writing summaries, or researching a question, students not only build their understanding of science content—they also strengthen comprehension, vocabulary, and writing skills in meaningful ways. This interdisciplinary approach supports knowledge-building by inviting students to learn through doing, reading, discussing, and creating. And as teachers, it gives us space to differentiate, observe how students process and apply information, and create a more student-centered classroom.

How This Works in Practice

A science and literacy choice board is essentially a menu of learning opportunities that connect a science topic with reading and writing tasks. These activities might include:

• Reading research cards or informational texts

• Creating a pamphlet or a tabbed booklet to record findings

• Designing a slideshow or visual display to explain a concept

• Working with a partner to complete a project

• Planning and creating an art-based model to demonstrate understanding

The structure allows students to choose how they want to engage with the topic, while still covering the key vocabulary, big ideas, and essential questions. Some teachers offer all the choices at once and allow students to complete a set number of activities. Others guide the class through the board over several days, using each option as a station or small-group task.

Classroom Applications

This type of learning experience can be used in a variety of instructional settings:

• Whole class instruction: Introduce the topic and complete activities together or in rotations.

• Literacy and/or Science centers: Let students rotate through tasks in small groups or pairs.

• Independent work: Ideal for early finishers, enrichment, or self-directed learners.

• Homeschool settings: Parents or tutors can support students in pacing their learning through the menu of tasks.

  
  

Choice boards also allow for easy integration of read-alouds, mini lessons on text features or summarizing, and collaborative learning routines like turn-and-talks or peer feedback.

Why It Matters

Science choice boards that include literacy-based tasks do more than just make learning fun—they help students build background knowledge, develop content-area vocabulary, and strengthen literacy skills in context. Students learn how to:

• Read to gather information

• Identify and explain key ideas

• Organize their thinking through note-taking and graphic organizers

• Write with purpose and clarity

• Speak and present their ideas with confidence

By providing multiple entry points for learning, choice boards also help meet the needs of diverse learners, including English language learners and students with varying readiness levels.

Using the Weathering and Erosion Activity Kit with Choice Boards

One example of this approach is the Weathering and Erosion Activity Kit, which combines hands-on and literacy-based learning opportunities centered around the earth science concepts of weathering and erosion.

This ready-to-go product includes:

• A Weathering and Erosion Choice Menu with six varied activities

• A printable pamphlet for recording research

• Research cards, posters, and a slideshow activity

• A research booklet and an open-ended art project planner

Teachers can use the activity menu as a built-in choice board, allowing students to pick activities based on their interests and learning preferences. Students might start by reading and highlighting facts on the research cards, then write a summary in the pamphlet or design an art piece showing different types of erosion. The activities support whole-group, small-group, or independent learning formats and works well in stations or science-literacy centers.

You can implement the activities over the course of a week or spread it out across your unit. It also works beautifully in homeschool environments, where students may want to go deeper into the content and express their learning in creative ways.

Final Thoughts

When we give students meaningful choices in how they learn and show what they know, we’re encouraging them to take ownership of their learning and make connections that stick. Whether you’re exploring the layers of Earth, the water cycle, or energy and motion, choice boards can be a powerful way to integrate science and literacy in ways that are authentic, engaging, and rigorous.

If you’re just getting started, try building a simple board around one topic with a few different activity types—research, create, reflect, and share. Over time, you can adapt and expand the approach to meet the needs of your learners and your content goals.