In our ‘making thinking visible’ e-series last term, we explored the use of the mini whiteboard (MWB) for making the thinking of all students visible. The graphic below shares a reminder about just how useful the humble MWB can be at illuminating the thinking of all students.
In my PLP group, we have been exploring the concept of ‘ratio’. You can read more about this concept here in an excellent blog post from Adam Boxer.
In short, it means how many students are thinking at one time, and how hard each of them is thinking. As a group, we discussed how MWBs are also a great tool for building ratio in our lessons.
To embed what I’ve learned about ratio and making thinking visible as part of my PLP this year, I’ve been working on my use of MWBs with my grade 9 GCSE Economics class.
In the remainder of this post, I will talk through each aspect of my start of lesson MWB routine and why I’ve made these choices. I’ll finish with some FAQs and responses. Although I use this in Economics, the routine is certainly replicable (with teacher and subject specific adaptations of course) to any classroom-based subject. So, if this sounds at least somewhat appealing to you, please read on!
The MWB routine
For context, this happens at the start of every lesson and then is used regularly in shorter formats at planned (and unplanned!) points in the lesson. For clarity, the whole process below is what happens at the start of each lesson. I’ll do another post at some point to talk about my MWB routines in other parts of a typical lesson.
| What do I do? | Why do I do it? |
| Planning phase: Design questions that can be answered in silence | I love a silent lesson start. It focusses student attention and sets up an ideal opportunity for students recall information independently from long term memory. We know that giving students the opportunity to do this regularly strengthens learning in the long-term memory as well as other benefits such as highlighting potential gaps in knowledge for the student and the teacher. |
| Planning phase: design short questions with short answers | they are easier to read, they are easier to answer on a MWB (as in, they can fit!) and they can be completed quickly – no one likes a do now that takes forever. |
| Planning phase: make the first few questions easy | There’s a lot of research that suggests success leads to motivation and that motivation can lead to later success. I like to think that gaining early success means that students are more likely to be motivated to engage in the lesson. |
| Planning phase: make the questions require prerequisite knowledge | What knowledge do students need to even access this lesson? By requiring prerequisite knowledge, you can tell which students are able to access your lesson and whether anything needs reteaching before you begin to introduce new content. |
| Planning phase: space the questions | Spaced practice allows forgetting to happen so that more meaningful learning can take place when students are required to recall from their long-term memory. It’s also a great revision technique to highlight to students. |
| In the lesson: project the questions onto the board prior to students entering the room | Students are aware of your lesson expectations – they start each lesson in a calm and purposeful environment that optimises learning time, rather than faffing about and having a jolly old social as they wait for you to sort your life out at the front. This eats into valuable learning time and can make the start of the lesson chaotic, making it harder for you to bring students back down to a level suitable for purposeful learning. |
| In the lesson: ask students to collect their MWB and pen before they sit down. Ensure this happens in the same way each lesson e.g. pens and whiteboards are in the same place and returned to the same place after (I like to count them in and out!) | |
| In the lesson: give students a clear time limit to complete their questions | This focusses student attention and gives them a sense of urgency and the task a higher sense of importance |
| In the lesson: be clear with your rules of engagement – repeat these every time a student does not engage with them correctly: attempt all questions, cover your answers, do not copy others etc | This increases the reliability of your data. It also shows students that copying from a partner gives them a false sense of knowing (the same false sense they get when they read over notes as a revision technique!) |
| In the lesson: circulate – be deliberate with this, who is most likely to know the answers? Who is least likely to know? Who will need a prompt? Which questions will you go over with the class? Which ones will you skip over as most students seemed to remember the answer? | This is great for adaptive teaching. It allows you to pick up any common errors and individual gaps in knowledge. |
| In the lesson: “hover your boards… 1,2,3 show me!” – I ask students to hover their boards face down once they have finished and then ask them all to show me at the same time. | Asking students to hover their boards minimises copying (increasing reliability) and shows me when a student has finished. It also allows me to scan a whole class worth of answers. Of course, I can’t read them all, but I know who to target e.g. checking my higher ability first and then moving on to my lower ability. Or checking student X first as I know they struggled with this last week etc. |
| In the lesson: project/go through the answers to each question one by one – again you don’t need to go through every question, just the ones you might have highlighted as | This manages student attention and reduces cognitive overload as students only have one answer to focus on. It also allows you as the teacher to decide where to dwell. E.g. in circulation, you notice most people got Q4 wrong, so you dwell a little longer here and spend more time correcting misconceptions. |
| In the lesson: at the same time, ask students to tick what they got correct and add in/correct anything they didn’t get | I like to do this because it builds student ability to reflect on their own learning. What do they know? And more importantly, what didn’t they remember? It’s this sort of thinking that I deliberately try to develop in my students to become better self regulated learners. |
| In the lesson: after going through each of the answers you selected during your circulation, ask students to write the number of each question on their board, with a tick next to it if it was correct and a cross for incorrect. Follow the same “hover, 1,2,3 show me” … | Again, this makes it easier to spot common errors. Based on this, you might want to reteach something, or go back to a question you should have dwelled on or put it in your back pocket to address at a later date. I always find this more enlightening than asking students to put a score /10 for example, as it tells you exactly which questions students went wrong on, and more importantly, who went wrong and where! |
| In the lesson: Make a mental (probably better in physical form though) note of any errors that may need reteaching at another point. Again, it could be a wider curriculum issue that you may want to address at planning or review level. | Again, it could be a wider curriculum issue that you may want to address at planning or review level. I like to use the traffic light system to focus my thinking here: Red = reteach now, students won’t be able to access the lesson otherwise Amber = it’s important that students know this, but not in this lesson, so I’ll come back to it at another point Green = it’s ok that students don’t know this, but I need to teach it better next time – is it a planning issue or a curriculum issue etc? |
The routine:
Now I know what you might be thinking, “my, there are quite a few steps in that routine”. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither was this routine. It’s something that I built with my classes step by step e.g. initially sitting students down, explaining that in future they will need to get a whiteboard and pen when they enter, sit down, and answer the questions on the board in silence. This took a few weeks of practicing until we got it right. Even when we did get it right, I constantly thank students for getting it right e.g. “well done Claire, you’ve got your board and have made an excellent start on the questions”.
After I’d established this, we spent some time (it was weeks…) getting “hover your boards… 1,2,3, show me”. Again, every time we didn’t get this right, we practiced again, praising those that got it right and reminding those that were yet to be successful e.g. “thank you Claire for hovering your board to face the desk, just waiting for a few more people…. 3 more people…. Thank you everyone… now show me!”.
The final step in establishing the routine, and I think probably the most important, is explaining the ‘why’ to the students. For example, why silence focusses attention, why copying your partner gives me and you a false sense of knowing and therefore gives us both inaccurate information about our gaps in knowledge, why repeating questions and recall is good for long term memory etc… this has established buy in, with this activity being the most popular with this class in the recent student perception surveys.
Has it been effective? I think so.
Effective for me because:
- It has given me a better picture of whole class understanding and misconceptions – making thinking more visible than before
- It has ensured that I have 100% participation ratio (at least for this phase of the lesson!)
- It has given me a better picture of individual understanding and misconceptions, which has meant that I’ve been better able to tailor my support to these students more accurately, allowing me to create a more inclusive classroom.
- It has given me a better picture of curriculum quality e.g. what in this lesson/unit do we need to tweak so that students better understand next time? Do we need to introduce this concept sooner/later? Is this unit sequenced logically? What are we missing etc?
Effective for my students because:
- Misconceptions are less likely to be embedded leading to a greater chance of success and subsequent motivation.
- They have a clearer picture of their own understanding. This allows them to develop their own knowledge about their learning, set more accurate goals for themselves and close gaps in knowledge.
- More recently, we have been turning some of the questions and answers into flashcards, allowing students to make and use effective revision materials.
FAQs
| Question | Answer |
| I haven’t got MWBs, can I use the whiteboard desks/large boards instead? | No. these tools serve a different purpose. Students use them to collaborate, and they would be able to see each other’s answers. This reduces the reliability and validity of your data on student thinking. |
| They steal my pens | Make it a routine – count them in and out |
| They copy each other | Explain to them the importance of you getting accurate data to make their lessons as worthwhile as possible. False sense of knowing doesn’t help the student or the teacher! |
| Don’t they find the same activity at the start of every lesson really boring? | No – they love it! How do I know? They tell me in the perception surveys, in the lessons and at SPTCs! |
| Finally, is the juice really worth the squeeze? | Yes – it takes time initially, but stick with it, don’t fall back into old habits! Whilst it takes time initially, students get very quick at it and the impact on learning in the long term makes it more than worth it! |
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