Making use of my Big Whiteboards

One of the Principles of Great Teaching that I have chosen to focus on this year is Checking for Understanding. This is something that I have not always used as effectively as I could have, and in particular, I have relied on a few students answering questions to imply the whole class has "got" an idea.

One thing I started to play around with last year, and have already been using this year, is making use of the 6 big whiteboards I have around my room. When I have shown students an example, I initially get them to complete a very similar example in their work booklets. As they do this I walk around looking for any problems and addressing them with the individuals concerned.

After this I have started to get students to do a series of questions on the whiteboards, in pairs.

There are a few benefits to this approach that I have seen already. First, students seem more willing to answer 10 questions when they are working on boards than in their copybooks. They are getting more practice. Second, I am able to see everybody's work at all times. It is easy for me to spot errors, or indeed particularly excellent work. Third, the students can see each others work, which allows them to not only self check a little, but when I do spot something that I think the whole class would benefit learning from, I can ask them all to put their board pens down and look to a particular board. It is there for everyone to see. If it is a mistake, students can correct it (and erase the wrong bit) live, showing they have learned from the mistake. If it is an excellent piece of work, other students can see what I expect of them.

I have already built this into the younger classes, and now I want to work towards making more of the big whiteboards in my IB classes.