How to organize the board?

by **BILLAL** Thu Nov 17, 2011 11:15 pm

Do you have a blackboard, or a whiteboard ? Whatever type of board
you have in your classroom it is important to be organised and to put
yourself in your students' shoes for a moment. What do they see when
they look at your board? In this article we will consider ways of
getting the best use out of your board and perhaps give suggestions for
exploiting your board in a different way.

Board basics

Your
students should have a clear, uninterrupted view of the board. Be
careful that you don't block learners sitting at the sides of the room.
When you write something on the board move away quickly so that students
can see what you have written.

Especially with
classes of Young Learners you need to develop the ability to write on
the board with eyes in the back of your head. Don't turn your back on
the class for too long. Good teachers have the ability to write on the
board while still keeping a sharp eye on their students!

Write
clearly on the board and make sure that you have written words/text big
enough for everyone to see from the back of the class. With chalk and
blackboard make sure that you wash the board often so that the writing
stays clear. With a whiteboard make sure that the pen you are using is
in a colour that everyone can read - black or blue are best.

Practise
writing in straight lines across the board, particularly if you have
students who are not used to Roman script. In some languages letters may
look slightly different or handwriting styles may be different. Point
out the differences to your students and make sure they can read clearly
what you have written.

Check what you write as you
write. Many students have visual memories so we must be careful about
accuracy of spelling and grammar, especially if we intend students to
copy it down in their notebooks to learn.

Check with
your students that they are ready for you to clean the board. If you are
waiting for some students to finish copying or doing an exercise don't
leave the others twiddling their thumbs. Ask them to make a personalised
example or start the warm-up for the next exercise orally.

Organising your board
If your board is messy and untidy then what your students write in their notebooks will be messy too.

It
is a good idea to divide your board into sections. Have one part for
use during the lesson which can be cleaned off and re-used. Use another
part for important information which can stay there for the whole
lesson. For example, you could write up a list of the basic
aims/activities for the lesson so that your students know what is
coming. Tick items off as they are achieved during the class. At the end
you can review the lesson aims for students to evaluate what they have
learnt.

For older learners you could write up other
important information - key grammar points or vocabulary needed for the
lesson, or test dates etc. With Very Young Learners it is better to
write this kind of information at the top of the board. Leave the lower
part empty for you and the students to write on. Remember they probably
won't be able to reach the top half of the board.

What we can do with the board
We
can use the board in many ways in the classroom, not just for writing
up new vocabulary. You can use your board for giving instructions,
reinforcing oral instructions. For example, just writing up the page
number and the exercise on the board in a large class saves a lot of
repetition! When doing group work or project work use the board to
organise your class - write up a list of who is doing what in each
group.

You can write up messages, exercises, short texts or
items for correction from oral activities. Coloured chalks or pens are
very useful for writing up dialogue parts.

Use your
board to provide records of new words, structures, how a word is used.
Or brainstorm new vocabulary with the class in a spidergram. With more
advanced classes you can provide a record of a class discussion, or give
help with planning for writing e.g. for exam tasks.

How to organize the board? Gif_flower_15

The notes discussed above seem to be restricted to Algerian educators since educators in other countries have turned to an
effective alternative which is the SMART BOARD. The Smart Board is an interactive whiteboard that uses touch detection
for user input – e.g. scrolling, right mouse-click – in the same way
normal PC input devices, such as a mouse or keyboard, detect input. A
projector is used to display a computer's video output on the
interactive whiteboard, which then acts as a large touch screen. The
Smart Board interactive whiteboard typically comes with four pens, which
use digital ink and replace traditional whiteboard markers. Most Smart
Board interactive whiteboards register only one touch at a time however,
in June 2009, Smart Technologies introduced their first dual-touch
interactive whiteboard.