PREMIUM: More about mini whiteboard questioning

Part 12 of the My Teaching series.

The story so far…

I have been looking at how I used to teach (when my pupils achieved impressive results) and how I teach now. I don’t think I am doing anything impressive now, but I still think it’s worth reflecting on how I teach.

In Part 1, I described the context in which I work:

• I teach part-time and don’t have my own classroom.

• My school has policies that dictate many lesson features and routines.

• As part of those policies, all lessons are based on workbooks.

There have been eleven posts so far.¹

• Part 1: How I start a lesson

• Part 2: Taking the register

• Part 3: Handing things out

• Part 4: Completing and marking the Engage Task

• Part 5: Using the mini whiteboards

• Part 6: It's 2025 and I'm still using PowerPoint

• Part 7: Starting an explanation

• Part 8: How I try to make my examples work

• Part 9: The process of explanations

• Part 10: More on the process of explanations

• Part 11: Explaining to different types of class

In Part 5, I described how I use mini whiteboards:

PREMIUM: My teaching - Part 5: Using the mini whiteboards

In Part 10, I mentioned the following about how I use mini whiteboards as part of the explanations in lessons:

When the pupils are answering the question with the whiteboards, and I am giving them the correct answer, I don’t just display it, or say “the answer is 60,000”. Instead, I congratulate them on getting the right answer.

“Okay, well done if you got 60,000.”

“Next one… well done if you got 500.”

“Well done if you got 0.7 or seven tenths. Don’t put 0.70. In decimals, the extra zeros at the end don’t count.”

“Next one — excellent, it’s 0.007 or seven thousandths. Don’t lose the zeros.”

I consistently say “well done” when giving answers. I hope it adds to a positive culture, but I can’t make a causal claim about what effect it has on attitudes and behaviour. However, I have noticed that the “well done” tends to be the prompt for them to lower their boards and rub out their answers.¹ I also know that some of the weaker pupils respond well to the whiteboard questions, which can be pitched absolutely perfectly for them. The key point of using the whiteboards is to have everyone participate. This gets more difficult as they get older, particularly with weaker classes. I hope my praise keeps them involved. At the very least, it sets my expectation that they should all be making an effort and that I appreciate it when they do.

I think I can now add some more details to this, and also update it in light of changes I have made to my practice.