Mini whiteboards are the Swiss Army knife of classroom kit: one tool, a dozen routines. Here are twelve that earn their place in any subject, and each one works just as well on a digital board as a physical one.

Checking understanding

  1. Retrieval starter. Three quick questions from last lesson, last week, last term. Boards up after each one.
  2. Hinge questions. One carefully chosen multiple-choice question mid-lesson. The spread of answers decides where the lesson goes next.
  3. Exit tickets.One question before the bell. You'll know exactly how to open tomorrow.
  4. Confidence continuum.Students draw a line and mark where they sit: “I could teach this” to “I'm lost”. Honest, fast, anonymous-ish.

Practice and fluency

  1. Maths working out. Not just the answer: ask for the method. Wrong answers with right methods and right answers with wrong methods both show up instantly.
  2. Spelling and vocabulary drills. Say the word, students write it, show me. Brilliant in MFL for verb conjugations and genders too.
  3. Sentence upgrades. Give a boring sentence; students rewrite it better. Share the best three you spot.
  4. Diagram sketching.“Draw a plant cell. Label three parts.” Science, geography and DT are full of these.

Thinking and discussion

  1. Predictions.Before the demo, the experiment, the next page of the novel: “What happens next? Commit to it on your board.”
  2. Odd one out.Show three items; students pick the odd one and write why. There's rarely one right answer, which is the point.
  3. Peer critique.Show one (anonymous) answer to the class: “What's good? What would make it better?”
  4. Vote with reasons. Agree or disagree, but the board must show a reason, not just the verdict.

Make the routine frictionless

The activities only work if getting boards out costs nothing. With AnswerBoardsthere's nothing to hand out or collect in: students open one page on their Chromebooks and every activity above is ready, with hide-and-reveal built in for a clean “3, 2, 1, show me!”