#61 Sometimes mini-whiteboards are not the best way to collect whole-class data

An example from a recent school visit

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💡 A tip to try in class this week 💡

Regular readers will know that I love a mini-whiteboard. I know of no more efficient way to ascertain the effort and understanding of all students than to ask them to write their answer to a question on a mini-whiteboard and show me on cue.

But mini-whiteboards are not the best tool for some questions. I am not talking about questions requiring long, verbal responses - Cold Call or Turn and Talk are best for those. No, I am talking about questions with a small, finite number of answers.

Example 1

Consider this multiple-choice diagnostic question:

When students write their answers on mini-whiteboards, it looks like this:

Notice how difficult it is to identify students’ choices of answers, especially those at the back. My preferred way of collecting data for multiple-choice diagnosis questions is to use coloured ABCD cards or head down first on head.

Example 2

Consider this question:

The teacher asked students to write their answers on their mini-whiteboards and then hold them up so he could check their understanding. The boards looked like this:

With 30 students in the class, there was too much data to identify who was correct and who was not. A better approach would be to ask students to raise their hand if they think A is written in standard form, respond accordingly, and then repeat for B. This reduces the flow of data, giving the teacher the best chance of accurately diagnosing the level of understanding.

Example 3:

Finally, take a look at this exercise:

Again, data was collected on mini-whiteboards:

This was difficult to see, compounded by dirty boards and small writing. A better solution here would be to ask students to put their thumb up if they thought a solution was correct, and thumb down if they thought it was wrong.

Conclusion

In each of the examples above, whiteboards could be used for students to do their working out on, but then another tool could have been used to make the required quick-fire analysis of the data more manageable.

What do you think of this idea?

What would you need to change to make this tip work for you?

When could you try it for the first time?

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