This study was designed to explore the lived experiences of elementary educators who utilized choice instruction in the classroom. This study utilized teacher interviews to determine the educational impact of student-choice-driven instructional strategies. To accomplish this objective, a qualitative phenomenological approach was chosen. The sampling used in this study was purposeful sampling which included twelve elementary educator participants from a rural school district in Southeast Missouri. The researcher conducted one-on-one, online, audio-video recorded interviews with participants. Interview transcripts were manually analyzed to establish codes, categories, and finally, emergent themes within interview data. William Glasser's choice theory, along with Deci's self-determination theory, were chosen to guide this study. Two central questions and three sub questions were used to address this study. Emergent themes included continual monitoring of student progress and behavior, modeling the choice-making process for students, setting clear expectations for what was expected upon completion of the tasks, setting time limits for choice selection, avoiding the use of too many choices, and introducing choice slowly over time. Recommendations for practice include the themes of best practice found through the analysis of interview data. Current and future elementary educators should consider the themes found from sub questions 1, 2, and 3 as recommendations for practice. Future researchers can build upon this study. Findings can be applied to strengthen choice instruction practices within elementary classrooms through the implementation of best practices. The study should be replicated with elementary educators within other US schools to compare data across a larger sample size. Further implementation of a mixed method design is necessary to examine how choice instruction may impact the academic performance of students over time using quantitative and qualitative data. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]