Mini Whiteboards

The strategy, as published

Exactly as it appears on the card

Part of Elicit Evidence of Learning in 02 Formative Assessment, where it sits alongside its neighbouring strategies, the infographic and the thinking for the whole area.

Why you might use it

The problem it may help with

The classic weakness of classroom questioning is that you hear from a handful of pupils and make assumptions about the rest. Mini whiteboards remove the assumption: every pupil answers, every answer is visible, and you read the whole room in seconds.

They also change who participates. There is no waiting for a turn and no hiding behind the confident few, which is why this one strategy appears in so many of the routes through this site.

What it might look like

One version of it, in a classroom

A languages teacher checking verb endings asks the class to write the conjugation and hold boards up together on a count of three. Thirty answers appear at once. Two errors dominate, so the next five minutes deal with those two errors rather than moving on.

Try it

A way to begin

One all-write, all-show question at tomorrow's key checkpoint. Showing together matters; staggered reveals let pupils copy the early boards.

What to notice

Reading what happens

• The answers from pupils you would never have called on. That is the evidence you have been missing.
• How quickly you can read the room, and what you do when the room disagrees with your plan.

Things to think about

Before and while you use it

• Boards suit short-form answers. For extended reasoning you will need a different route to the same visibility.
• The point is the evidence, not the equipment. If the routine drifts into a game of speed, the quality of the answers, and the diagnosis, goes with it.

Related strategies

Where this connects

• 🃏 ABCD Response Cards Give each student a card: A, B, C and D. Pose a question and all students hold up their answer at once. No hands, no opt-out. The spread of responses shows instantly where misconceptions lie. 02 Formative Assessment · Elicit Evidence of Learning
• 🌎 Every Voice, Every Time Eliciting evidence only works if every student can respond. Offer written, verbal, visual and digital means of expression. The method you choose decides who gets to show what they know. 02 Formative Assessment · Elicit Evidence of Learning
• 🔀 Hinge Questions A hinge question is a diagnostic question at a lesson turning point. Wrong answers each map to a known misconception. Responses tell you whether to move on or go back. Never improvise it. 02 Formative Assessment · Elicit Evidence of Learning
• 📝 Write Before You Speak Ask students to write before any verbal response is taken. Writing prevents the quickest from foreclosing others’ thinking. The pen democratises the room before the voice takes over. 04 Questioning & Discussion · Wait Time & Thinking Space

Inclusive practice

The lens this connects with

Through the inclusive practice lens, this is one of the approaches that may reduce barriers around:

• Access and participation

Technology second

Where technology fits

Multimodal response tools, through the approved tool in your setting, do the same job when you need typed answers, anonymity or a record: every learner visible at once. The test is identical either way: a screen full of responses has done nothing until it changes what you do next.

The wider thinking

Where the evidence sits

Eliciting evidence from every pupil is one of Wiliam and Black's core formative assessment moves; the whiteboard is simply the cheapest reliable way to do it. The card’s attribution stands as published: Wiliam.

The fuller picture, sources included, is in further reading and evidence for Formative Assessment.