I have to be quite honest that these moments seem to be
occurring more and more for me as a teacher. I have to give credit to where it
is due. I would like to share with you my insight.
Last year I was given the opportunity to teach in a
classroom with a colleague who was teaching a math course. Our math department,
phenomenal I might add, has been exploring an idea of how to get students more
engaged in Math. After attending a conference with Peter Liljedhal from Simon Fraser University, our math teachers were
inspired. Who can doubt inspired
education? Not me. As a result they have made a movement toward the
incorporation of the latest and greatest technological advance in teaching, the
whiteboard, and lots of them. The intention in their math classes is to have
students doing math up out of their
seats and doing it in small groups
on a whiteboard. They have put up whiteboards on all the walls of their
classrooms where there is space. The work that they are getting to do is
affectionately referred to as “Board-work”.
Board-work is
1.
Cooperative and active
2.
Visible for others
3.
A great opportunity for formative feedback
4.
Time saving
5.
Engaging
6.
Promotes risk taking
So what does board work look like in a classroom? Board-work
is corporative and active by design. Students are working together in small
groups. Often the teacher will have their students assigned into random groups
of anywhere from two to six students. These groups will be assigned a set of
problems for which all are responsible to try and solve. Students work together
on a whiteboard, one writing others helping, monitoring, learning in the
moment. If a group gets stuck, they can just look around the room and see what
other groups are up to. Group learning is at the forefront of this
organizational approach to learning.
Board-work is a visible for others and a great opportunity
for the teacher to provide formative feedback resulting in lots of time saved. Students
see that there are a number of different ways to solve a problem. As a teacher
it is mind blowing. Rarely is there such an opportunity to provide such instant
formative feedback to student work. Often we are organized in such a way that
students work at their desk, a teacher circulates, provides individual help,
and students may get some help from a neighbor. With board-work a teacher can
help four students at a time and neighboring groups can listen in. Common
mistakes become instantly visible for others to see and the teacher can address
the whole class quickly to correct the issue. Making student work visible for
others by bringing the work up off the worksheet and into a public form is
another of its strengths.
Students love it. In a conversation with a colleague out in
the hallway, I was asking, do you think that this approach could be extended
beyond math and be used in a science classroom? His response, “Let’s ask.” He
proceeded to stop numerous students in the hallway and ask them two questions:
1. “What do you think of board-work?” and 2. “Do you think that it could be
done in Science?” It was a fantastic insight for me as I listened to student
after student just light up and respond with how much they liked it.
Additionally it was an overwhelming yes to the thought of doing it in a science
class. One student even went as far as to say, “Could you convince my Chemistry
AP teacher to do it?” Board-work in my experience is engaging.
Finally, board-work promotes risk taking in the simplest of
ways. As students write on a piece of paper, and there is a mistake that needs
to be corrected it seems to be so much more difficult to correct. When writing
on a whiteboard, a student is more likely to feel the freedom to explore a
variety of different ideas. With others, students will explore these ideas
through conversation using the whiteboard as the visual for the exploration. Students
often will say that is it so much easier and acceptable to make a mistake on
the whiteboard as it is easily corrected. “I can simply erase it.”
It has been my goal has been to incorporate more board-work
into my practice as a science teacher. Recently, inspired by the work that our
math department has been doing I have discovered what structures might enhance
the opportunity for these moments. I have found that taking a large group of
students and dividing them up into 6 large tables (merging 6 individual desks)
I have created an environment whereby I have enough room to visit everyone
comfortably, students are ready to converse and get involved in group learning.
Having each of these groups sitting next to a whiteboard is an open invitation
for students to explore their ideas on the board. There is the opportunity for
peer teaching, collaboration on a problem and me as the teacher to provide
formative feedback.
If you are looking for one approach which can have a
dramatic impact on teaching and learning, making learning visible in a
classroom for you and others alike, I would have to say board-work is a great
answer.
