Last year, I invested in some small A4 sized whiteboards. It's great because of so many variations of activities you can do; with minimal effort, it engages all students to write! (Even students who have dyslexia or difficulties with writing.)
Here are some activities I have done.
Mandarin Writing Practice
Whiteboards has been particularly advantageous for teaching Mandarin characters, and has allowed students to improve their handwriting and character memorisation easily. It is also highly motivating for them to practice , simply because they are using whiteboard markers, and can easily fix mistakes within seconds.
Grammar; reverse teaching.
I'm sure there is a technical term for this, but I just refer to it as teaching grammar backwards. This is where I provide examples of sentences with translation on the board in the target language, and the students work out what the pattern is, then create their own.
So an example of how I do this is such:
- Students sit on the floor in partners, one board, texta and tissue between two. (Cooperative Learning)
- Explain to students they need to swap the role of "penulis" (writer) between each turn, and that they will write their answers on the board. As soon as they have finished writing, they flip the board and show me. 3 points for the first pair to answer correctly, 2 points for the second pair, all other students will receive 1 point thereafter. This motivates the competitive side of some students, while others will still feel they are achieving because they receive at least 1 point for obtaining the correct answer. Sometimes the quick students will get it wrong, and the slower students end up with full points as they have considered it more carefully.
- On the class whiteboard, I write "Saya anjing. = I am a dog." "Anjing saya. = My dog."
- I verbally ask the students to write a translation of the sentence "My mum".
- As students show me their boards, I will give feedback; "Close! But one word is in the wrong place. / Too many words. / Punctuation. /That says I am a mum."
- I take in account punctuation to reinforce literacy skills.
- The students record their points in the top corner of their board themselves.
I have always preferred teaching grammatical patterns this way; I find it particularly effective for teaching possessive pronouns, as explaining the technicalities is actually more complicated than just showing them the pattern. Especially in Year 7/8.
It's also teaching students to problem solve in language and recognise patterns.
Variations of this activity are often revision activities.
Pair Pictionary- Vocab Practice
Students work in pairs and take turns to play Pictionary, and guess words from their vocabulary list. This ensures more students are engaged than Pictionary as a group.
Free Writing (Timed Write)
After completing a TPRS story telling, I ask students to create their own silly stories and take photos of their stories as a formative task. I set 10 minute timer, and they write as much as they can.
Let me know if you have more ideas about what to do with mini whiteboards!
PS. If your budget is tight, I previously laminated card, and was reasonably successful using that as a temporary solution.