Options that heighten salience of goals and objectives

Examples:  prompt students to restate goals, divide goals into shorter objectives, use digital scheduling tools

CAST explanation

Options that vary levels of challenge and support

Examples: differentiate by degree of difficulty and complexity, permissable tools and scaffolds, collaboration

CAST explanation

MS Word contains a built-in AutoSummarize Tool which allows the user to reduce the size and complexity of a written text.

The Virtual Museum Box  is a great example of an engaging online tool that is completely customizable to the user.  Because the tool is content-independent, users choose what they want to put into their virtual box and also have the option of deciding how many objects they want to contribute (up to 6).  Since each object also has 6 cube faces, students can decide how much detail they want to contribute about each object.  A variety of media including text, picture, videos, and links can be used.

The Fairview Community School Poetry Unit organizes activites by beginner, emergent, capable and advanced.

Options that foster collaboration and communication

Examples:  cooperative learning, peer tutoring, virtual learning communities

CAST explanation

The Reciprocal Reading Project provides instructions for setting up student-led scripted activities for learning reading comprehension strategies.

What better way to practice your foreign language skills by connecting in a social network designed specifically for language learning?  Livemocha provides free online lessons and an opportunity to interact with other students and native speakers of the language you are trying to learn.

Options that increase mastery-oriented feedback

Examples:  offer feedback that encourages perseverance, emphasizes effort, informative rather than comparative or competitive

CAST explanation

At the socially-responsible Free Rice website, students can play vocabulary and other learning games and donate rice with their correct answers.  The website adjusts to the student's level and the student can also set the level of difficulty.  If the student enters an incorrect answer, the correct answer is given and the question reappears later in the game until it is solved correctly.