Show-Me Boards

The steps

1. Choose a question with a short, checkable answer. A board works well for a number, a word, a labelled sketch, one step of working or a letter from A to D. A good board question is one you can assess from two metres away.
2. Ask the question and explain the writing routine. Ask the whole class the question, then explain the routine: boards flat on the desk and answers hidden until the cue.
   On your boards: seven times eight. Write it, keep it hidden, and wait for 'show me'.
3. Give thinking time, and watch the pens. Allow a few seconds for a fact and up to half a minute for a step of working. When most pens have stopped, say: "Five seconds."
4. Use one cue for everyone to show. Use the same words every time, and ask students to hold their boards high until you say "down".
   Three, two, one: show me.
5. Scan every board in one sweep. Check the corners as well as the front row. Sort the responses into correct, nearly correct and incorrect, then identify one board worth discussing. With practice, scanning the boards in a class of thirty takes about ten seconds.
6. Act on what the boards tell you. If nearly all are correct, confirm the answer and move on. If the responses are divided, put a common wrong answer to the class:
   A lot of boards say 54. Talk me through 54.
   If most are wrong, reteach the point and ask again in five minutes. Then say: "Boards down. Wipe."

How you’ll know it’s working

• Boards rise together on the cue and stay up, without students looking sideways while they write.
• After each question, you can give a figure for the whole class, such as 24 of 30 correct, and adapt your next step when that figure is low.
• Students who never raise a hand answer every question, and you check their responses as often as anyone else's.
• Misconceptions are identified and addressed in the lesson in which they appear, so there are fewer surprises when you mark the books that evening.

Weigh it up

Why it’s worth it

• Each question allows you to check every student. A spoken response reveals one student's thinking; thirty boards show the whole class's responses in the same ten seconds.
• Misconceptions become visible while there is still time to address them, reducing the number of surprises you find later when marking.
• A board question on previously taught material also provides retrieval practice: the whole class recalls the material, records an answer and sees it confirmed or corrected.
• One wrong answer among thirty boards feels less exposing than giving a wrong answer aloud, so reluctant students may attempt questions they would otherwise avoid.
• It helps students remain attentive during whole-class teaching because a board question can come at any point and everyone is expected to answer.

The costs

• There are practical costs: boards, pens and wipes must be bought, stored, handed out and replaced, and the distribution routine can take a week or two to become established.
• Boards are limited to short answers. Full-sentence reasoning needs discussion or written work, so boards cannot be your only way of checking understanding.
• Thirty correct boards do not prove that learning is secure. Students may still copy answers, and knowledge demonstrated today may be forgotten by next week without further retrieval.