Whiteboard Graffiti: A Full-Participation Review Strategy

Try this fun review strategy to engage your students!

Switch things up next time students walk into your class with “Whiteboard Graffiti.” Hand them an expo pen at the door or have them share one with their table partners if you're short on pens, and task them with adding one thought, idea, or reflection to the whiteboard before finding their seats.

On the whiteboard you want to create a big grid with different, simple prompts for students that looks something like this.

Create different prompts so that there is something for all learners- ones who struggle, artistic students, and high flyers. 

This quick activity gets full participation from students while getting them to contribute (in however small a way) to the learning space. Though its a quick and simple task, I still believe inviting students to share something that hit them from the unit, while giving them choice on what they want to share, is no small thing. 

After a couple of minutes your board might look like this:

Then give your students a couple of minutes to talk in small groups about “what they notice on the board”. This could turn into a quick and low-risk classroom discussion. Hopefully, it opens them up to reflect more about what they learned, what stood out to them, and why certain things seemed to resonate more than others. 

This is great feedback for you about which lessons and topics really resonated with students. That’s valuable data that can improve your teaching as well. 🙂

That’s it for this week’s teacher tip! Simple but hopefully some of you find value in it! 

And if you’re looking for more simple but powerful (and no to low-prep) strategies to get students more excited and interested in history, join my course, “Make History Engaging, Exciting, and Empowering!” I guarantee it will help get students more engaged and help you have more fun teaching!

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