British Council Malaysia - PDP 4 ELT - B2 - Selangor 14

1. Organizing Board Work
British Council Malaysia
PDP4ELT
Selangor 14

2. Points to ponder...
Using the board encourages students to remember what they hear, illustrates and
clarifies information, and increases students' interest about the input they
receive.
Avoid “talking to the board” as giving your back to students is not a good idea. You
should be facing learners most of the time and what you have written on the
board must be visible to them.
It is a good idea to divide your board into sections. One part for use during the
lesson which can be cleaned off and re-used. Another part can be for important
information which can stay there for the whole lesson (to review at the end of the
class).
Use lots of colours to make the content clear and memorable for learners.
Regularly go to the back of the class and judge your board (honestly!).
If your board is messy and untidy then, what your students write in their notebooks
will be messy too.
Invite your students to write on the board more often.
Reference: OTA Brazil 2011 Handouts (complete set) by Oxford University Press,
2009.

3. We use the board to...
- list some words students have problems with
- call students' attention to some mistakes they have made in some sentences
- help students to understand our lessons better
- list down questions
- write more examples
- write new vocabulary students are learning in that lesson
- help visual learners learn better as they see everything explained by the
teacher on the board.

4. Important things to keep in
mind...
- We must really plan and organize our board work.
- We must also make sure that our handwriting is clear and readable.
- It is also good to have a space for students’ work. Students feel appreciated
when their work is displayed on the board and they will feel motivated to learn
more. It will somehow motivate and encourage others to do their best so that
sooner or later, their work will also be displayed.

5. Some examples...

10. Picture from
http://theadventuresofbear.blogspot.com.br/2012/06/whiteboard-work.html

11. Food for thought...
Read more about it at
http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/tips/improving-my-board-work
Watch some videos and pay attention to how teachers organize their board at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rv_Ud2lq-Ww
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lX05JsVnMWw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRXTN7HwCTM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xxu4N2blHLg
Videos from the book The Practice of English Language Teaching by Jeremy
Harmer (4th Edition, Pearson Education Limited, 2007)