Ideas For Using Student Whiteboards

This is Mrs. Harris and I’m so excited to be back at the Organized Classroom with Charity. I find whiteboards to be a budget-friendly and versatile tool in my classroom.

I often use whiteboards daily. Each day I like to utilize whiteboards for a different reason to keep things fresh.

When I ask a question in class, students often look like this.

Or students often look like this.

Whiteboards are a great tool to help students organize their thinking.

To facilitate a discussion, I sometimes have student go to the whiteboards for 3-5 minutes to share with their group and create a bulleted list of ideas related to our topic. When students return to their seats to start the class discussion, everyone is ready to share.

Concept map creation is a great way for students to show their understanding. I have had all the way from my third graders to twelfth graders create concept maps.

For students unfamiliar creating concept maps, it is helpful to provide a list of words that must be included in the map. This can provide a good review of vocabulary terms.

Whiteboards are also a great way to review multiple choice answers.

My favorite way to review is to have students independently answer all the review questions.

Next, in groups of two to four students, each group comes to a consensus on the correct choice for 3 or 4 of the questions.

They also analyze the question by writing why each choice is correct or incorrect. This gives me time to go around and make sure each group has the correct answers.

Then, all the groups visit the other boards to check the rest of their answers.

Last, we discuss any questions as a class that students missed the most.

With all this groupwork, I have a question for you. What suggestions do you have for creating student groups quick and efficiently?

P.S. Come visit me at my “home” at Mrs. Harris Teaches Science!