Mini-Whiteboards: My Weapon Against Lockdown Learning Loss

Reflecting back on the past term, I wanted to share some of the strategies I’ve used to make the most of the humble mini-whiteboard (the one thing you will definitely want in your classroom come January).

1. Routines

I’ve used mini-whiteboards a lot before, especially when it came to quizzing KS4/5 groups in the run-up to their final exams.  However, starting September with a Year 7 group (fresh from 6 months out of school) made me realise the importance of teaching routines when using mini-whiteboards; this was something I’d taken for granted with the older students, who’d handily already been drilled in these routines by the maths department.

The ‘Show-Me Boards’ routine in Oliver Caviglioli and Tom Sherrington’s Walkthrus book was perfect for this, so much so that I ended up embedding that and other walkthrus into our whole-school CPD programme (our current focus is explicitly teaching questioning routines).  Teaching and explicitly rehearsing the routines has helped my Year 7 whiteboard experience be much more efficient, especially now that they are able to put boards up at exactly the same time and let me read them without too much fuss.

2. For Quizzing

Multiple-choice quizzes, true/false responses, short written responses, pictures: the whiteboard is so much more versatile than verbal feedback.  It also has the added benefit that all students have to guess or contribute in some form (it’s definitely ‘no opt out’ for my classes, as a blank board is a sure way to get me to ask you some questions to help you form a response).

Using mini-whiteboards for this overcomes the tension between ‘hands-up’ and ‘cold-call’, as every student is able to share their answer, giving you a quick indication of what they do (or don’t) know.  With some many gaps in knowledge and misconceptions post-lockdown - as well as an increase in our lesson time to 100 minutes - it’s never been more important to be able to assess and plug gaps within a lesson.  Mini-whiteboards make that first step quick, easy and painless.

I also think there are benefits in terms of effective retrieval practice too: RP works best when the stakes are low.  Mini-whiteboard responses are temporary: perfect for guesses.  Low stakes can easily be, therefore, part of the package.

3. Drafting and Redrafting

This has been - by far - the best way I’ve used mini-whiteboards this term with my Y11 and Y13 groups.  At first, I struggled with not being able to hover over students and give ongoing verbal feedback as they practised essay tasks and exam answers.  However, with mini-whiteboards they’ve been able to draft a section, get instant feedback from a distance and then redraft it onto paper.

This has helped my students with focusing on specific elements of their writing (as we’ve used this method to deliberately practise our topic sentence structure and introductions) but it’s also meant that students can quickly make progress within the lesson, rather than waiting for me to take in books and get feedback a week later.  It’s certainly harder with my larger Y11 groups, but in this case I tend to use more whole-class feedback (though, again, I don’t need to wait to take in books for their responses).

I hope that some of this has been helpful.  Please let me know if you'd like to hear more, or if you have any other suggestions for me to make the most of the new-age slate.