Would ‘mini-whiteboards’ allow all students to participate in question and answer sessions? Could I use them to gather effective feedback and assessment during the lesson? – CG
My Actions
- To phase in the use of mini-whiteboards in my lessons.
- Plan some tasks that allow for the use of mini-whiteboards.
- Canvas student opinion as to the effectiveness of the above.
My Observations:
- Using mini-whiteboards requires some prior preparation e.g. making sure all of the pens are working and there are enough cloths etc.
- Students can become a little distracted by the boards at times in the lesson when they are not required. They need to be reminded to “put pens down” and not doodle on them.
- Some students are reluctant to show their answers, often writing very small or waiting until they’ve seen other students’ answers before writing their own.
- It does allow me to instantly see which students, if any, have been caught out by common misconceptions. For example using the ‘slant’ height rather than perpendicular height of a triangle when working out the area.
- It gives a much better overall impression of the progress of the class towards the learning objectives.
- Mini-plenaries are much more effective using the whiteboards. I can see straight away if all/some/most of the students are comfortable with a particular topic.
Conclusions:
- Mini-white boards require an additional amount of preparation and a slightly different approach to the lesson but are definitely worth it.
- Mini-plenaries are much more effective using the boards and become a focal point of the lesson.
- There is scope to develop the use of the boards much more e.g. for peer assessment and whole class activities.
- I will try to build in the use of boards into all my lessons.
- I will feed back to the department on the INSET day 04/01/16