Today I want to write about a simple change I made in my classroom that has been one of the most impactful - it's my graffiti board.
When my smart board was replaced with my flat panel I had this white board moved over by my door. The first year I used it to hang up student work. But I realized that most kids were not looking at or interacting with the board much. I wanted something that would get them excited. Cue the graffiti board...
How does it work?
I post a question and a sentence frame for the answer as well as a poster with any vocab they might need. I have a large picture of myself and my dog, Zoey, and sometimes Frida.
I answer the question and then set out a bunch of different colored expo markers and let the students answer as they leave the room.
Once the board fills up, I erase it, and add a new question.
Setting up the expectations
Only 4th and 5th grade students get to write on the board. I might expand that to 2nd and 3rd at some point but right now it's just the intermediate grades.
They write on the board when they are lined up and we are waiting for their classroom teacher.
If students aren't answering the question in Spanish then whatever they wrote is erased and they risk losing the privilege.
Under no circumstances are they allowed to erase anybody else's writing. (I have one class that is not allowed to use the board because one sneaky kid keeps erasing people's answers.)
So there you go. It was a small change but I've noticed that students who don't usually get very excited about Spanish class always rush to write on the board. Many students will also add to their answers every time they come to class. The younger students will try to read the answers or they look at the vocabulary posters. It's a win-win-win!
