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💡 A tip to try in class this week 💡
This newsletter has featured quite a few mini-whiteboard tips, including:
Well, here comes another one!
When you are circulating the classroom as your students are engaged in independent work, it is a good idea to carry a mini-whiteboard and pen with you. Here are two powerful things you could do with it:
Record things you see during circulation
This could be:
Examples of interesting wrong answers that you want to discuss with the class
A tally of wrong answers so you can tell if this is an individual student issue, or a whole-class problem
Names of students who have produced excellent work that you want to share with the rest of the class
Quickly writing these down on your mini-whiteboard stops you from having to remember them all, thus freeing up your attention to be responsive to your students’ needs
Aid teacher-student interactions
This is my favourite! Say you have spotted a student who has made an error. You crouch down next to them to go through their work and offer your support. Sure, you could do this in the students’ book, but perhaps there is no room next to that question, or the student doesn't want your scruffy writing messing up their neat work (I have been told this on several occasions).
The solution is to use the mini-whiteboard. For a start, you can ask the student to reproduce the solution on the board. Often the process of rewriting will result in them spotting their error, and then they can correct it in their book. But if they don’t, you then have a nice, big, editable solution that you can work with together. You can highlight a section to focus attention and the student can then rub working out with their finger and make a correction. You can model the correct method. Then - and I love doing this - once the student seems to understand, you can change a number in the question - rubbing it out and replacing it with a new number - and ask the student:
What happens if instead of a 5, this is an 8?
How about -5?
How about x?
The mini-whiteboard helps you carry out an additional check for understanding that can even take the student’s knowledge beyond what was originally being tested.
Do you like 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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🏃🏻♂️Before you go, have you… 🏃🏻♂️
… booked your place on our Marvellous Maths 3 CPD day?
… tried out last week’s tip about voting for the answer to multiple-choice questions?
… listened to my latest podcast about the impact of the home environment on maths attainment?
… checked out our free collection of quizzes, videos and questions for every maths topic?
… read my Tips for Teachers book?
… considered booking some CPD, coaching or maths department support?