Using mini whiteboards in the MFL classroom (w) - Flipbook - Page 5
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Chain words
This activity is to help students understand the syntactical relationship between the
constituent parts of a sentence in a foreign language that is highly inüected for
number, gender or case. Write out your sentence on a number of boards where one
word is written on each board. The words should be written in the most simple form
found in the dictionary. Give the boards out randomly to students who then come to
the front of the room. Students ûrstly have to rearrange themselves so that the parts
are in order. Then a student facilitator, with the help of the class, has to make changes
to the sentence so that it is grammatically correct. This might involve conjugating a
verb, making an adjective agree or putting a noun into the correct case.
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Peer and formative
assessment of
writing
Students produce a piece of writing spontaneously i.e. 'my last holiday', 'what I did at
the weekend' on a whiteboard.. The teacher or peer underlines the mistakes but does
not correct them. Students then try to correct their mistakes. Other adjustments can
be recommended as well as pointing out where further details could be added. Once
this is correct, students can transfer their work to their notes copy.
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If this is the
question, what is
the answer?
Write a word or phrase on the board. Students should then write on their whiteboard
a question to which the word or phrase on the board is the answer. This can be in
the target language or in the mother tongue. The rationale behind this activity is to
enable students to demonstrate their breadth of knowledge of a topic.
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Drafting work
Whiteboards are great for getting students to draft their work before writing it up in
their notes.. This can be further accompanied by the teacher circulating the room
with a different colour pen, underlining errors or suggesting areas for improvement,
before transferring to a notes copy.
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True or false,
multiple choice,
higher or lower
Prepare a number of questions about a topic that are of the true or false variety,
multiple choice, etc. Pose these questions to students giving them time to write
down an answer. When students have written their answer they hold up their board.
This will give you instant feedback as to how they are progressing with a topic.
Sentence relay
Write out six or seven sentences in the target language. The class are split into
teams of two, three, or four. One player comes to the front from each team and can
see sentence 1. They have to get back to their team and tell them what the
sentence says. The person running is not allowed to write it down. When they think
they have it, they hold up their whiteboard for the teacher to correct. When it is
correct (spelling, capital letters, etc.), another runner can come up and see sentence
2. The ûrst team to have completed all of the sentences accurately wins.
Suggest a sentence
Write a keyword on the board e.g. sister. Students must then write a sentence on
their mini whiteboard that contains this word. This is a great technique to get
students applying previously acquired knowledge to new knowledge and thus
creating stronger cross topic links through language.
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