Probably,
almost anything you put on the board will be clear to you; the test that you
must pass is to make your chalkboard presentation clear to a student seeing it
for the first time. The guiding principle should be: Look at your writing as
though you were a student in your own class.
Keep these three points in mind while planning your board presentation:
1. Let your students see and
read what you have written. Illegible or obscured
work is valueless.
2. Give students time to copy
what you have written. Most students don't think
analytically while they are writing.
3. Organize your board work. It will help students interpret their notes and an
organized board models good notetaking.
These
points are taken up one at a time in the following discussion.
·Even
in an average sized room, students in the back rows may have trouble reading
words in a small handwriting, Unless the floor of the classroom is sloped,
students of average height sitting behind the first two rows will not be able
to see the bottom of the board. To find the effective bottom of the board, sit
in the last row while your class is occupied with some task and note the line
below which a student of average height would find it difficult to copy notes.
You might want to mark this line with a piece of chalk. If there is a desk at
the front of the class, keep it clear of objects (e.g., lectern or briefcase) that
might obstruct vision.
·Try
to keep your work visible for as long as possible. If you are right-handed,
fill the right-hand panel first, then move to the panel on the left and
continue your writing. This way you won't block students' view. If you're using
a sliding, three-layered chalkboard, fill the middle board first, then push it
up and pull the front board down. When the front board is full, push it up and
use the back board. And remember, students may not be able to read even very
large words if they are scrawled or written too lightly.
·If you ask them to analyze an idea, they won't begin to
think analytically until they've finished copying. When you want to make a
point, stop writing. Let your students catch up to you (they may be lagging
behind by two or three lines). Then begin your discussion. Similarly, if you've
engaged in a long discussion without writing very much on the board, allow them
time to summarize the discussion in their own minds and to write their summary
down in their notes before you again begin to use the board or to speak.
·Students are sure to be frustrated if the instructor
modifies part of his/her board work before they have a chance to copy it. A
physics instructor may reach a crucial point in the derivation of an equation
and then quickly erase and replace terms. A biology instructor may draw a
diagram and then rapidly change first one part of the diagram and then another
to show a process. A good rule of thumb is: Erase only when you have run out of
space to write (if you find that you've made a mistake, don't go back over the
last three panels madly erasing minus signs!). Then erase only the oldest or
least important work, and erase the entire panel to avoid implying a connection
between the new work and any unerased work.
·If you find that you've made a mistake, explain it, then go
back and make corrections. If you are modifying a drawing, use dotted lines or
some other technique to show changes. Remember, that a student can't make the
same erasures that you do without loosing his/her written record of
intermediate steps: you can alter parts of a drawing much faster than he/she
can reproduce the whole thing.
·Fill in one panel at a time, always starting at the top and
moving down. Underline, or in some other way mark, the most important parts of
your presentation -- the major assumptions, or conclusions, or the intermediate
steps that you plan to refer to later on. Colored chalk may help to clarify
drawings.
·At best, the chalkboard is only a teaching aid. It can't substitute
for a logical presentation of the material. Break your presentation into
manageable parts and give students a chance to deal with facts and concepts as
you present each part, or just afterward. Then verbally outline the next part
of your presentation. If you don't do this, your students may be copying
blindly, without any idea of where you are going.
·Maintain eye contact with your students. Do not talk
to the chalkboard and do not obstruct their view of what you have
written—write, then talk.
·Print large and neatly. Script is very difficult to
read. Use upper and lower case letters. The letters should be one inch tall for
each 10 feet of viewing distance.
·Check for glare on the board. Close the blinds if
necessary. If there are chalkboard lights, turn them on.
·Put material on the board before class.
·Use colored chalk only for emphasis. Be certain that
the colors used are visible from the back of the classroom. Do not use more
than four different colors at a time.
·If
you plan to draw a design on the board, outline it lightly before class. One
way to do this is with the "pounce" technique. To draw a map on the
board, find a map of appropriate size and use an instrument with a serrated
edge (like a pizza cutter) to trace around the borders. Tape the map to the
board and hit the hole with an eraser full of chalk dust. Remove the map and
the outline remains. You can easily "connect the dots" during class.
You can determine your effectiveness at the
board in several ways:
(a)
Ask two of your students (an "A" student and a "C" student)
to lend you their notes. If the notes seem incomplete, ask yourself: "What
could I have done to help them catch the points that they missed?"
(b)
Stop yourself twenty minutes into your presentation and ask yourself, "Are
all the major points written on the chalkboard clear and coherent?" If you
are not sure of the answer, ask your students.
(c) Have a TLC Consultant videotape your presentation, then
view it by putting yourself in the place of a student taking notes. Did you
violate any guidelines outlined above? If so, why?
You will become more effective in using a
chalkboard as you learn to look at your work from your student's point of view.
Comments: Webmaster - EOE - Privacy Policy - March 24, 2009