10 lesson ideas for IWB (try one a week for the next half-term)

1. Focus circle2. Categories3. Label race4. Kim’s game5. Mix, match and memorize6. Guess the sentence7. Celebrity speech bubbles8. Scratchcard9. Box of truth10. 9 lives

I have demonstrated each technique with a different topic, but bear in mind you can adapt the content as you please (or even better, work together as a team with other colleagues, assistants, older students, to build up a bank of these activities throughout your Scheme of Work).

Examples of each activity are to be found as PowerPoints on www.scribd.com. Search for Magpie41 and click on the “people” tab and you will have access to all my documents on scribd. The document relating to this sheet is called “10 IWB lesson ideas”. You can download this as aPowerPoint and then import into your whiteboard software. Bear in mind you may need to do some “chunking down” of the material for it to work interactively.

Focus Circle

Drag an empty circle from “shared shapes” in the resources area and enlarge it. Now scatter a number of words and pictures connected to your topic around the circle. In my example I have chosen environment. You can use different fonts and sizes to make it more attractive. Challenge students to write as many sentences as they can within an allocated time. Each sentence must use one of the words from around the circle. The pictures are for inspiration! Tip: once they realise they can get more points simply by using different parts of a verb you will find them surprisingly keen to conjugate! Insist every sentence be written out in full.

Categories

Establish 2, 3 or 4 different areas on the board by dragging in shapes, drawing shapes or colouring in freeform areas of highlighter. Provide up to 16 labels of typed text. For example my categories are rooms in the house, and my labels are household chores that are usually done there. Ask students to drag labels into correct area. Refinement: sometimes your categories may overlap, like a Venn diagramme, which is also a great way to approach it. You can “programme” your flipchart to make incorrect items jump out of an area if you have some time and are confident with IT, but it works just a well led by the teacher.

Label race

Take a camera shot or shots of an item or items from your topic (in my example, classroom objects). Create separate vocabulary labels and ask students to drag them into correct position against the clock. Refinement: you can colour code your labels to emphasise gender if appropriate. You could hide labels under a locked shape so that students have to find them first. This works particularly well with finger-sensitive Smart boards when you can have two teams dragging at the same time onto identical pictures.

Kim’s game

Assemble 10 images you have perhaps already used as flashcards onto one flipchart page (in my example, shops). Duplicate that flipchart page several times. Now go back to your second page and remove a picture. Ask students to work out which image is missing. Tip: once you have removed an image, move the others around a bit so it isn’t too obvious what has gone. You can increase the number of images depending on the level of the class.

Mix, match and memorize

Divide your flipchart page in half vertically (you can use the pen modifier tool). Create seven question labels on the left side, and seven answer labels on the right. My example is on where you live. Now mix up the answer labels so they are in the wrong order. Drag a rectangle onto your flipchart from shared shapes and stretch to the right size to blank out the questions only. In the lesson, drag the rectangle down a little to reveal the first question. Invite students to find the answer. Now get the class to repeat the question and the answer. Move on to question two, and get students to repeat question and snwer two, followed by question and answer one. Continue down the page until the class can repeat the whole series of questions in reverse order with appropriate asnwers. They should then be able to have a go without seeing the flipchart! Tip: do not reorder the answers at any stage! The game element of this is maintained by students having to find the answer quickly every time they repeat it. Don’t be put off, this activity isn’t as complicated as it sounds!

Guess the sentence.

Type two similar sentences one above the other onto the flipchart page in very large font with words spaced at identical intervals. My example is on daily routine. Divide the class into two teams, one working out the top sentence, one working out the bottom. Use the blind tool horizontally from the left (or a shape you have dragged on or even a relevant image) to reveal one word. Allow each team in turn to predict what their next word will be and award points (2 for correct, 1 for incorrect but plausible and maybe bonus points for a “better” word than yours in terms of scoring points at GCSE if appropriate). This develops essential predictive and deductive reading skills as well as creativity and independence in writing. Tip: stop the activity after two or three words and ask students to make explicit how they are “guessing” what comes next. This will help the weaker students to learn to apply the logic themselves.

Celebrity speech bubbles

If your software allows it, take a “cut out” or “freehand” snapshot of two celebrities (choose two with contrasting lifestyles, appearance or values). If you can’t do a cut-out an ordinary image will do. Now draw or drag on large speech or thought bubbles for each of them. Provide a range of labels below, sufficient to make a variety of complete sentences on your topic (my example is daily routine). Now ask students to drag on words to make sentences the celebs might say about themselves. Refinement: this can be played as a team game, if you ask team captains to drag on one word at a time, taking it in turns. A team concedes a point to the other team if they choose an incorrect or inappropriate word.

Scratchcard

Drag a number of pictures from your topic onto the flipchart and type labels beneath. My example is with food. Then colour the page background to a shade exactly matching one of your pen colours (you may need to customize the number of colours available in your floating toolbar to do this). Now select the same colour pen and a sufficient pen width to blank out your labels easily. Your labels should now be invisible, as they are the same colour as the background. Now when a student “scratches” over the label area with the erasor s/he will reveal the hidden answer. Refinement: you can use this technique on flashcards too, as a way of gradually revealing an image and eliciting a number of guesses from students, or on quizes.

Box of truth

This is probably the most challenging technique on the list, so try it after you have mastered a few others. Drag a rectangle onto the flipchart. Double click on it to see the “object edit” box, and select the properties or appearance to add an outline to the shape. Now colour the page the same colour as the rectangle (in Promethean the obvious thing to do is make the page black to match the black rectangle, with an outline of a contrasting colour). Now create some labels, some of which are true, and others false. My example deals with healthy and less healthy food. As things stand, all the labels will slide on top of the rectangle. To make the false labels “disappear” double left click on them to get the “edit” box, then click on the symbol to “send to back”. You will need to do this to each false label separately. You can now ask students to move the correct labels into the box. They will be amazed to see false labels apparently disappear!

9 lives

Type two set of 5 sentences or words onto a flipchart. Now blank over parts of the sentences or words using the pen tool. My example deals with the future tense. Divide the class into two teams and give each team a short time to study the sentences or words. Then ask one team to fill in the gaps. They have “nine lives”, or nine changes to alter what they have written if you indicate it is not correct. Cross lives off at the top of the board (or delete pictures of cats if you think they will get the reference!) Then repeat with the other team. The most

accurate offering at the end wins. Now take time with a red pen to correct any remaining errors. This is a good simple activity which encourages students to focus on details of spelling. Because of the competitive nature of the game and the safety net of the lives it is a fun and non-threatening approach.