Lesson design involves dozens of considerations. Do I start with bellwork? If so, is it better to use it for pre-questioning or retrieval? Do I hook students with a demonstration or story, or will that be a seductive detail? What are the best ways to encode information and engage students in deep thinking? Does my school expect me to use digital tools? If so, which ones are best? How do get and give feedback in efficient ways?
There’s a lot to think about, so when I find a way to involve students, engage in formative assessment, provide feedback, and serve as retrieval - all in one tool, I am interested. And, if that tool can be simple and inexpensive, consider me VERY interested.
The tool in this case is the mini-whiteboard. While I had used them occasionally in the past, I was mostly using them at the end of a unit to prepare for tests. It took class time to pass them out and collect them, and I was only getting an idea of their thinking the day before the unit test.
Near the end of last year, I observed a colleague who kept mini-whiteboards out on student desks at all times and used them daily. He told me he had been using them as retrieval practice for the past two years, but until I observed him, I didn’t know how much more he was getting from them than that. He began class by having them answer an introductory question as a hook for his introduction. In the middle of a lesson on animal behavior, he said, “On your whiteboard, write what you think will happen next,” scanning the room for insightful answers and misconceptions. At the end of class, he asked a few retrieval questions about the most important items he wanted them to have in long-term memory. I was sold.
This year, I began with whiteboards and markers on every table. I explained what they would be used for, and that they should not just be drawing pictures on them (I’m not against doodling, but it was going to get expensive if they were using the markers for that every class period). I start nearly every lesson with a question that either activates what I want to in their schema or assesses the prerequisite knowledge for the skill I’m about to teach. When I feel their attention flagging, I ask a few “whiteboard questions” because just the act of getting the boards out makes them more alert. That is also the point where I am able to identify if they’ve been tracking with me. I recently identified a few misconceptions in my first period class when six students wrote the same wrong answer. I was then able to avoid that misconception for the rest of the day, so it had been valuable feedback for me.
The best part of using mini-whiteboards in my class is that I get a visible answer from every student rather than just the one student I would have called on in the past. Misconceptions may have existed in past years without my knowledge because the students who held them might not have answered. Hearing from everyone has increased my ability to be a responsive teacher.
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