I Was Wrong About Mini-Whiteboards

How a Simple Tool Unlocked the Most Important Factor in Learning

I have to start with an admission. Before last week, I had never purposefully used mini-whiteboards with intention in my classroom for anything other than review games. Specifically, the timeless classic trashketball. The concept was a little “elementary-ish” to me.

After viewing Episode 1 of Steplab’s Great Teaching Unpacked, there was a paradigm shift in my perspective of what and how mini-whiteboards could be leveraged as an “assessment for, not of learning” tool. I saw the simplest of technologies being used in the most powerful ways. With students the same age that I teach. Not elementary students practicing their addition or writing their name. They were being used strategically at critical points in the lesson to determine what students knew and understood.

The boards became a window into the “black box” of student thinking, knowledge, and understanding. A way to assess what was going right, going wrong, and teach adaptively based on the data in the “black box”.

My mind kept going back to Chapter 11, What You Know Determines What You Learn, in Paul Kirschner and Carl Hendrick’s masterpiece, How Learning Happens. The chapter centers David Ausubel’s seminal work, “The use of advance organizers in the learning and retention of meaningful verbal material”. In which he wrote:

”The most important single factor influencing learning is what the learner already knows. Ascertain this and teach accordingly.”

Not an important factor. The most important single factor. My job as an educator is to influence learning. If I am not doing that then what exactly am I doing.

But how can I quickly and effectively “ascertain” what every single student in my classroom knows at any given time? And adapt my teaching based on what students know or do not know?

The lightbulb went off. mini-whiteboards.

The next question became strategy. How can I deploy mini-whiteboards to influence learning?

It became apparent that mini-whiteboards are not only extremely simple to use but there is nothing you cannot do with them. They are versatile in a way that many other assessment strategies are not. Any question. Any prompt. Any task. Assign it. Write it. Show it. Adapt.

I realized this is how I should have been teaching all along. In a way that influences learning by determining what students know and teaching based on the “most important single factor influencing learning.”

How did I do this? See below for a thread of mini-whiteboard strategies I have been posting on X. This is just the beginning however. Once you realize the power of the mini-whiteboard, there is no turning back. The black box has been opened.

MWB Strategy #1: Assess/Activate prior knowledge and understanding

✅Ask students an essential question for a key concept you will be teaching them. Think…what’s the question I want them to be able to answer coherently at the end?

MWB Strategy #2: Chunking/Processing new information using dual coding.

✅After explaining a new concept to Ss, have them draw a visual representation and explain how it represents the concept to a peer.

MWB Strategy #3: “Ruler” for ruler readings

✅When doing a read aloud as a class have Ss use the mini whiteboard as a makeshift ruler to help with tracking and annotations. This eliminates the need to have surplus items on desks reducing distractions and split attention effect.

MWB Strategy #4: Retrieval Practice

✅Ask students comprehension questions to gauge understanding from the previous day. Review/reteach as necessary based on Ss responses (i.e., “Assessment for, not of learning”).

MWB Strategy #5: Harness Attention

✅When a lesson hits the inevitable peak of energy and attention and starts to decline, strategically and purposefully plan a series of quick hitting MWB “this or that” questions to engage students cognitively.

MWB Strategy #6: Model Exemplars

✅After scanning Ss responses, select one board to share with the whole class. Facilitate a discussion using a think aloud explaining the strengths of the Ss response.

MWB Strategy #7: Mini-Debates

✅ Have Ss formulate an evidence-based argument using “Claim-Support-Question”. Divide the class into the two opposing claims. “Thrash out” their perspectives and evidence.