Three-Column Choice Menus for Easier Differentiation

Renata Salas

So, uh, I- I was reading this piece on Edutopia by Lauren Kaufman, and- and it honestly made me want to hug the screen. She- she basically says the reason differentiation feels like a slow march into madness for most teachers is because we are doing it entirely wrong. We- we try to build three separate lessons for thirty different kids, and the whole system just collapses under its own weight. It’s unsustainable.

Colin Whitfield

Oh, absolutely. I mean, the sheer cognitive load of- of planning three parallel universes for one fifty-minute period—it’s a recipe for teacher burnout. You end up with, what, three times the preparation, and half the efficacy because you're running around like a headless chicken trying to manage it all.

Renata Salas

Exactly! Yes! And- and her solution is so beautifully simple. She calls it the Three-Column Choice Menu. The big shift here is that you keep one—just one—learning goal for everyone. Everyone is headed to the exact same destination. But you shift choice to three specific phases of the lesson: how they access the information, how they process it, and how they demonstrate what they learned.

Colin Whitfield

Right, so, rather than changing the destination, you're, uh, you're just changing the doors they walk through to get there. It’s- it's differentiating the route, not the target. Am I getting that right?

Renata Salas

Yes! That is it exactly. You aren't lowering the bar for anyone. You’re just giving them different tools to climb over it. Everybody is looking at the same target; they just get different ways in, different ways to think, and different ways to show they got there.

Colin Whitfield

Hmm. That makes a lot of sense. And, you know, there is some serious theory behind this. Kaufman actually points to George Couros, who argues that when you give learners meaningful choice, you're not just making them happy—you’re actually deepening their engagement. They retain more because they have agency in the process, which allows them to- to apply the learning in entirely new contexts later on. But- but there is a massive caveat here, isn't there?

Renata Salas

Oh, there’s a huge one. Otherwise my eighth graders would just choose to do nothing.

Colin Whitfield

Precisely. And that’s where Dr. Katie Martin’s work comes in. She draws this very firm boundary line: choice has to be structured, or it just turns into noise. If you give kids unlimited options—like "do whatever you want to show me you understand this book"—most of them actually freeze up. The executive functioning required to design their own task takes over, and they lose the actual learning goal in the process.

Renata Salas

Oh, I have seen that happen so many times. If I say "write whatever you want," half of them spend forty minutes choosing a font. We need the rails. We need the structure.

Renata Salas

So, how do we actually do this tomorrow morning without losing our minds? Kaufman’s setup is incredibly concrete. You grab one lesson already on your planner for this week. Just one. And you write the learning goal in one single, clear sentence. For example: "Analyze how a character changes across a chapter." Then, you build a grid with three columns and two choices in each column. That’s it. Six boxes total.

Colin Whitfield

Six boxes. Okay, that sounds manageable. Walk me through what actually goes into those columns. Let’s make this real.

Renata Salas

Okay, so Column One is "Access"—how they get the information. Option A could be reading the full chapter. Option B could be a shorter, high-impact excerpt paired with a quick summary of the rest, or maybe listening to the audiobook while they read along. They’re all getting the plot, just through different doors.

Colin Whitfield

Right, right. So you're not watering down the content; you're just removing the decoding barrier for the students who need that. And then Column Two?

Renata Salas

Column Two is "Process"—how they make sense of it. Option A is they annotate the text directly for character changes. Option B is they use a structured graphic organizer, or maybe they partner up and discuss it using a specific sentence stem. They're all doing the heavy cognitive lifting of analyzing, but the *way* they organize those thoughts is up to them.

Colin Whitfield

That’s brilliant because it scaffolds the thinking without dictating the exact format. And then, I assume Column Three is the output?

Renata Salas

Exactly. Column Three is "Demonstrate"—how they show you they got it. Option A could be writing a short paragraph with a claim and evidence. Option B could be creating a visual character timeline, or even recording a quick two-minute audio explanation on their device. Again, same rubric, same standard, just different modes of expression.

Colin Whitfield

See, what I love about this is that the choices are narrow. It's not a free-for-all. You’re preserving the rigor of the standard—character analysis—but you’re stripping away the unnecessary friction that stops kids from starting. It’s brilliant. But, uh, Renata, how does this actually play out in a real, chaotic classroom? Like, say, your third period on a Tuesday?

Renata Salas

Oh, third period. My lively bunch. Well, what actually happens is really cool. On Tuesday, I had kids who chose completely different access columns—some were listening to the audio, some were reading the print—but they ended up converging on the same level of analysis. And the secret sauce? It’s not just the paper menu. It's that because the menu manages the directions and the choices, I am free to actually confer one-on-one with students while they work. I'm not standing at the board directing traffic; I'm at their desks having actual academic conversations.

Colin Whitfield

Ah, yes! The teacher becomes the facilitator rather than the bottleneck. But how do you stop them from spending the entire period arguing about which column to choose? Because that’s the classic trap, isn't it?

Renata Salas

Oh, you have to be disciplined about the launch. Here’s the practical move: you post the menu on the board before class starts. You say the learning goal out loud so everyone is grounded. And then—and this is key—you give them exactly ninety seconds to choose their route down the columns. Ninety seconds. No agonizing. They write down their choices, they grab their materials, and the lesson starts. It keeps the momentum high.

Colin Whitfield

Ninety seconds. I love that. It turns choice into a quick checkpoint rather than a- a major life decision. Well, I think that’s a perfect place to leave it. Build the menu, keep the goal, and limit the time. Good chatting, Renata.

Renata Salas

Always a pleasure, Colin. Talk soon.