Differentiation and Menus, and Why I took it further...

I tried menus, and I LOVE them! They are probably very useful in many situations, and they helped me move toward the choice that I have in my classroom now. Here is why I moved beyond the menu:

When I introduced menus I had put in a lot of time making the menus and designing the different options, and they were great, but in art education I encourage creativity, and my students were bringing their creativity to class everyday. When I presented menus, my students would always want to take it further. One menu I presented asked that students design an ad campaign for a company. The add campaign should be drawn or painted, options being: watercolor, colored pencil, or marker. Company choices included O'brien wake boards, ford car company, Nike shoes (or whatever they seemed to be into at the time). There were other details about contrast and other elements to use in their work included on the menu. When we began students would say things like, "Instead of watercolor, can I use Acrylic like we did earlier in the year?" "Instead of O'brien, can I do a motocross company?" "Instead of contrast, can I focus on Emphasis through color?"
I slowly realized that my attempt to move away from teacher designed projects was noble, but my students were clearly more creative than I was.  I kept making exceptions to the menu due to my students amazing ideas. This caused me to throw the menu out completely, since they took so much time, and I was going outside the menu all of the time anyways. I used the menu as a starting point to move toward choice, and I am grateful to the menu, and now I have moved past the menu to give my students even more choice.