[etni] Using Mini-Whiteboards in English-medium education
- From: Judy Yaron <yaronjd@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: etni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 26 Aug 2004 07:49:05 +0200
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The following message is fwded from
ELTECS-L Digest - 22 Aug 2004 to 25 Aug 2004 (#2004-58).
The activities are really super and the idea of making mini-whiteboards
for kids in class is so simple!
Enjoy!
Judy Yaron
Date: Tue, 24 Aug 2004 16:12:27 -0400
From: Keith Kelly <keithkelly@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Using Mini-Whiteboards in English-medium education
Dear all,
I've been working with a group of primary teachers working through the
medium of English in Northern Italy at NILE this summer and we have been
looking at using mini-whiteboards, "show and tell" boards, for developing
literacy skills in the classroom. It proved very difficult to find any ideas
at all for making use of mini- whiteboards in the primary classroom beyond
sound-spelling relationship activities, and those, on the whole, were limited
to
"write and show".
We found some inspiration and ideas on creating cheap versions of mini-
whiteboards at teachnet:
http://www.teachnet.com/how-to/manage/082398.html
We made the boards by laminating A4 sheets.
Another place with lots of literacy ideas which we recommend is
www.thevirtualvine.com/Literacy.html
The colleagues were very interested in using the boards in Italy where the
primary content curriculum is taught through the medium of English and
teachers are looking for help with developing second language literacy in
their children and they produced a large number of mini whiteboard ideas.
Here they are:
Ideas for using mini-whiteboards in primary learning
What comes next?
Begin with a song, rhyme and at a certain point in the repetition or
sequence stop and tell the children to write the word that comes next.
Sound-word relationships
Tell the students to write down all the words they know with the same sound
as "cow"
Pick the word
Teacher writes a list of similar words on the board and then reads out
one of them aloud to the group. Alternatively, teacher reads out the
whole list and then repeats the one that the students must write down on
their whiteboard. Students write down the word they think is the correct
one. cheap, cheat, cheek, steep, cheers, chest = cheek
Short story
Teacher reads out a short story to the class and then reads out a sentence
from the story and writes it on the board. The sentence is written with a
gap/word missing. The students discuss in their groups/pairs and
write down the word they think best goes in the gap on their wihteboards,
they show to the class and compare each other's words.
Category letters
The teacher gives a category and then a letter and then students are
instructed to write down as many words as they can related to this
category and beginning with this letter on their whiteboards. They
compare.
Sentence memory
Teacher writes a sentence on the board and students read to themselves
for a moment. Teacher erases the sentence and sticks up a piece of paper
with the words mixed up on the board. Then, in groups one student
from each group comes to the board to memorise a word and return to his/her
group and write the word down on the whiteboard. The next student goes to
read, memorise and dictates and so on until all of the words have
been written on the whiteboard. The students sit in their groups and try
to reconstruct the original sentence on their whiteboards.
Word boxes
The class is divided into 4/5 groups. The teacher has word cards in four
boxes: subject, object, verbs, connectors. A student picks out one card
from each box and they are stuck on the board for all to see. In
their groups, students must write a sentence on their whiteboards using
all of the words. They show their sentences to the class and they get a
point for their sentence with all the words and another point if they can
say whether or not it's a sensible or nonsense sentence.
(version 2: students choose their own words from the boxes to work on in
their groups, and then they show the words and their whiteboard sentence
to the class)
Categories game
Teacher writes category columns on the board: animals, foods, colours
The teacher picks a letter and tells the students to write a word for each
category and they get one point for each word shown on their whiteboard.
Guess the picture
Teacher draws a picture on the board and individually students write what
they think it is on their whiteboards, they show to the group.
(version 2: teacher begins to draw a picture on the board, students write
what they think it is on their whiteboards, they show the group. Teacher
adds a little more to the picture, students write, they show the class and
the teacher finishes the picture.
Unscramble the word
Teacher writes up a word on the board with all the letters mixed up.
Students try to write down the original word on their whiteboards, they
show the class (Teacher shows the original).
Scrabble
Students are given a number of letters on the board and they have to try
to write down the longest word they can think of on their whiteboards.
They show the class, teacher shows his/her attempt.
Anagram game
Teacher writes a word on the board and students write as many words as
they can on their whiteboards, they have a time limit. They show their
collections to the class. Best done in groups. Teacher collects
suggestions on the board.
Order!
Teacher writes up a mixed up sentence on the board and students discuss
in groups, and decide a sentence with correct word order. They write it
on their whiteboards, they show the class, teacher shows correct version.
Odd one out
Teacher writes down a number of words on the blackboard and students have
to choose which one they think is the odd one out of the list. They write
it on their whiteboards, they show their words.(It is useful to discuss why
they
choose the words they do, they may suggest reasons not thought of by the
teacher)
Flashcards
Teacher sticks up picture cards on the board and students have to write
which one is the odd one out, they show their words to the class.
Discussion.
Sentence drawing
Teacher prepares 3 boxes of words: adjectives, numbers, nouns and students
pick a word from each box and then they have to draw the object/s on their
whiteboards. They show the class and say the noun phrase.
Descriptions
A student describes another student in the class, the others have to write
down the name of the person they think is being described. They show the
class.
(version 2: teacher gives a description of an object, a place, a flower
etc and students have to write down what they think the object is on their
whiteboards. They show to the class and compare. Teacher shows original
version.
Relationships
Step 1: Teacher gives a word and students write down any related words
they can think of on their whiteboards in a limited time. They show the
class.
Step 2: Teacher gathers suggestions on the board and asks students to
suggest ways of organising the words, how they relate to each other.
Students play with the words on their whiteboards and suggest =91webs=92 for=
Organising the words. They show to the class. Teacher may like to create
a gallery of suggestions.
Step 3: from brainstorm to concept map to sentence. Following on from
the two steps above the students write one sentence based on one of the
maps suggested and describing the relationship between the core word
(animals) and a branch (fish) and sub branches (swim) = a fish is an animal
which can swim.
Picasso Dictation
Teacher gives prompts to students to draw something/s on their whiteboards
(draw 3 triangles, draw a house=85 etc). They show their pictures to the
class. Teacher shows his/hers.
Silent Bingo
Students can prepare a bingo card on their whiteboard and play bingo.
Alteratively, students prepare a bingo card and the teacher mouths words
without speaking and the students have to guess what it is and write the
word down on their whiteboard. They show and compare.
Alphabet Bingo
Students choose any ten-letter word and write it on their whiteboard.
Teacher picks letters from the alphabet and reads them out. Students
cross off the letter from their word if it is there. First word crossed
off wins. Check spelling as in normal bingo with numbers. In this way
another child gets to spell out the winning word so that you can check
from the front as each letter is shouted out.
Split in two
Split the class into two. Teacher reads out a definition, or makes up
a definition for items of vocabulary recently learned. Teams have to
write down the word for the item. First team to have the word written
down on all of their white boards wins a point.
Spelling quiz (non-competitive)
Teacher gives words for students to spell, they write, hide and then show
their word to compare with the teacher's version.
Spelling quiz (competitive)
Again in teams, teacher gives words to spell. Students write, hide their
word and then on the teacher's command, show their words together. Team
with most correct versions wins a point.
Columns
Teacher writes down two columns of half sentences on the board, perhaps
sentences split in two by a connecting phrase like "while" or "because".
Teacher gives first half of sentence and students write down the complete
sentence, hide, and then show their sentences to compare with the
teacher's.
(any version of this activity where two columns are used and students wait
for a prompt from the teacher to give a complete sentence)
20 Qs
Students write a word down on their board from words recently learned and
stands at the front hiding his/her word. The class have 20 questions to
guess what the word is using questions from language prompts provided
(any question form using a closed answer response). First student is only
allowed to say "yes" or "no". If the class doesn't guess, student can do
another word. If guessed, the student giving the correct answer gets up
to provide a new hidden word for guessing.
We'd appreciate any advice about using whiteboards from experienced
colleagues, as well as links to websites offering such hints and ideas.
very best wishes
Keith
Keith Kelly (Language Education Consultant)
FACTWorld Coordinator (www.factworld.info)
NILE Associate Trainer (www.nile-elt.com)
SAW Consultant (www.scienceacross.org)
Home address: 28 Ashbourne Ct, Ashbourne Cl, N Finchley, London, N12
8SA
Home tel: 0044 208 4453726
Mobile: 0044 778 2356776
email: keithkelly@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Please visit the ELTeCS website at
http://www.britishcouncil.org/english/eltecs/index.htm
You can find previous ELTeCS-L postings at:
http://mis.britishcouncil.org/archives/eltecs-l.html
which is also where you can invite your colleagues who
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