The Technique
In the past, to help my learners capture their thinking and to conduct informal assessment, I have used Mentimeter and other tools. However, I’ve found that it is difficult to unpack the question at hand with tools that collect anonymous results or that encourage being funny as part of the focus.
One change I’ve made to improve student responsibility/ownership in response to questions is to use portable, letter-sized, dry-erase whiteboards for student participation during classroom lectures, discussions, and/or assessments. I use this tool/technique as part of team-based learning when my students are split into groups.
Depending on the time/length of a class, we can go from one group to the next to share the process/resulting answers shown on the whiteboards. I can also note patterns in their responses and ask for further detail in groups that break from the norm. I also use other forms of discussion/debate, but written responses on whiteboards prevent each group from openly revealing their answer/discussion through verbal sharing – a practice that can easily lead to repetitive comments among group answers or potentially enables another group to not engage in the discussion and simply piggy-back off an earlier shared answer.*
When used in teams (one board per team), whiteboards require students to determine group answers with a recorder for each team. This technique engages the class as a whole, focuses on topic-specific learning, and allows students to use “doodle speak” in discussions as capturing responses on their teams’ whiteboard gives students some freedom of expression in their replies.
Posing discussion questions is one way of using the whiteboards, but a class favorite is to use whiteboards to answer topic questions in the form of a Jeopardy game. This is particularly effective for definition recall or identifying theories. I post the answer on a PowerPoint slide, and teams have 30-45 seconds to write down the completion of a “What is …?” statement on their mini whiteboards.
There can also be anonymity in the whiteboard use as all boards face forward with the answers, so I can see all the results while the other learners cannot (unless they turn to look backward). From this perspective, I can see patterns in the responses and, when disparity exists, initiate discussion to work through this.
* The use of a physical portable whiteboard also means that the whole classroom space can be used.
How I Use It
My learners are already set up in teams before we begin doing in-class group work. As a result, all learners know to move into their teams when we start with in-class group work.
Supplies needed: Whiteboards, dry-erase markers, and erasers (1 per group)
Step-by-step instructions for group informal assessment using whiteboards include the following:
- I pair each of the in-class group activities with a PowerPoint in which I present a topic briefly.
- I include questions that encourage discussion (Jeopardy questions, brainstorming, fill-in-the-blanks, textbook-provided questions, etc).
- It works well when I ask for identifying characteristics, definition recall, or the addition of new, relevant examples.
When I use whiteboards for competition, I do the following:
- I explain to the class that this round of learning will be a bit different and share that I’ve come to class (sometimes extended across two classes) with small (fun/sweet) prizes. **
- I explain we will tally points across multiple questions, and I share that I will be assigning points in a manner similar to how The Debaters tallies points.
- Once the period of competition ends, the team with the most points gets to choose their treat/prize first, then the team with the second most points, and finally the team with the third most points.
** To do this safely, at the start of the semester I ask my students if any/what food allergies they might have.
Feedback from Learners
The majority of the students have really responded well to the competition moments that we’ve incorporated. They have been fully engaged, and I’ve seen them respond differently to this activity than they do with those involving more formal team responses.
A Short Task to Challenge You!
A game of Jeopardy: Find one to two people close by, and see if they will be your team members. Help your team gain 1000 points!
One Final Task
Is this something you can use in your classroom? How might you utilize it? If you share your results somewhere on social media, share a link to this lesson for context.