Make MINI whiteboards your BIG idea to know what everyone in the room thinks
One of the problems that lots of teachers face when asking questions in their classroom and trying to check for understanding is that many traditional questioning strategies involve only one student being able to answer the question. We’ll all be very familiar with asking a question and then selecting a student to answer the question. Yes, you try and get everyone to think by using the Cold Call strategy (because the students don’t know who is going to be selected to answer the question, hence they all have to think), but once you select a student to answer it, you limit your checking for understanding down to only that specific student.
So here lies our perennial problem…we often struggle to find out what everyone in the room thinks. If we go back to what our core role is as teachers, I’d suggest that it’s a bit of a problem if we only ever find out what a few students know, rather than everyone. How can we make accurate and intelligent decisions about when to move on, or move back within your lesson (or sequences of lessons) if you’re basing your inferences about learning on only a small sample of students?
Let’s look at how mini whiteboards can be the catalyst for further engagement and thinking from all of your students, together with an opportunity for you to check the knowledge, thinking and understanding of everyone in the room.
By asking a question and having every single student write their answer on their mini whiteboard, you can quickly scan the room and see which students understand the concept and which ones need more support. This can help you to quickly identify areas of confusion and address them before they become bigger problems. Another benefit of using mini whiteboards is that they promote much greater student engagement and participation. When students are asked to write their answers on a mini whiteboard, they are more likely to actively think about the question and engage with the material. This is because they know that their answer will be visible to the whole class and that they will be held accountable for it. There is nowhere to hide or to opt out.
Because as Daniel Willingham says ‘We remember what we think about’, this increased engagement can lead to a far deeper understanding and retention of the material. Further research also supports the use of mini whiteboards in the classroom. A study by the University of Cambridge found that students who used mini whiteboards in their Maths lessons had better understanding of the material and scored higher on assessments compared to students who did not use mini whiteboards. Another study by the University of York found that using mini whiteboards in Science lessons improved student engagement and participation.
So if you’ve got a pile of mini whiteboards and pens gathering dust in your classroom cupboard, now is the time to dust them off and get them out. Here’s how to make them a ‘go to’ resource when you want to check for understanding and get everyone to contribute:
Prepare the mini whiteboards and markers. Before the lesson, make sure you have enough mini whiteboards and markers for every student in the class. These might be placed on the desks ready for when they enter the classroom or handed out for a specific task.
Pose a question. Ask your question. Then provide students with sufficient thinking time (wait time) and then give them a time limit (maybe 15-20 secs) in which to write down their answer clearly on their whiteboard. Encourage students to use the whole board and write their answer big enough so you will be able to see it from your position at the front of the classroom when they hold it up.
Hide it. As soon as students have written their answer, get them to hide it from everyone else by holding it close to their chest. This way you protect the integrity of the class answers as much as you can, rather than a few people writing their answers and then showing everyone so that some students just wait to copy them.
3,2,1 Show Me. On your command ask students to turn their boards around and hold them at head height so you can see every answer. Students need to hold them still so you can read their answers easily. During this 10-15 second period you should scan the room to look at every single board and get a feel for the range of answers that your students are providing you with. This will show you what everyone in the room knows and will determine what you do next.
Highlight a selection of responses. Depending on the range of responses, it is good to physically take hold of a selection of different responses and then talk through why students might have come up with the answers that they have - or even better, ask the students in the class to take you through the metacognitive process of why someone might have come up with a certain answer and were they may have gone wrong.
Once you master the logistics of students having a whiteboard and pen on their desk throughout the lesson and you train students on how to use them effectively and appropriately, you’ll never look back. The ability to know what everyone in the room knows and understands compared to only knowing what a few know, will transform your teaching overnight.
