One thing that saved me during hybrid teaching is Jamboard™️. Jamboard™️ has been such a great way for my students to actively participate whether they are at home or in the classroom. And yet, as we transition back into a more a “regular” school year, Jamboard for teaching English can still play a significant role. So I thought I would share 17 ways that you can use Jamboard™️ in your classroom.
What is Jamboard™️?
Jamboard is a digital whiteboard program that can allow you and your students to collaborate. It is a Google program so it works seamlessly with Google Classroom and Jamboard for teaching is a great way to get your students actively involved. It includes the ability to use sticky notes, text boxes and shapes.
The Pros of Jamboard for Teaching
Jamboard™️ is a digital whiteboard program that easily allows people to collaborate on projects. It has all the features of an actual white board or a SMART™️ board along with the additional feature of adding images. This means everyone can add text, shapes and sticky notes. Students can even add their own images and then make additional comments. Like Google Slides, you can use an image as a background that student cannot move.
The Cons of Jamboard for Teaching
It wasn’t originally designed for education, so there is no way to prevent students from deleting material that is posted including that of other students. I have not found this to be a problem, but I am working with upper level students and and primarily use Jamboard ™️ for my AP class, although I have used it with my regular English 11 students without issue. I do believe there is a maximum number of people (20?) you can have on one board which is less than a typical class is many places.
Possible Drawback/Possible Feature
One thing about Jamborad™️ for teaching is that the stickies and other aspects are anonymous. This could be a benefit, students feel less pressure without names, but if you want to know who wrote something you will need to have students include their names.
How to Use Jamboard for Teaching
Like most Google programs, you have the option to “share” the materials you create in Jamboard. You simply create your slide deck in Jamboard and then share it with your students through the link. Be sure to change the share mode to “editor” or they will only be able to view the slides. If you want to insure that students cannot move something, you will want to save it as the background. To do this, I generally create something in Google Slides, download the slides as PNG files and then upload them as the background image. You can even just create text in a slide and then add it as the background. It does not have to be fancy.
When you need to use the same Jamboard with multiple classes or multiple groups, you will want to make copies and label them appropriately. I have taken to labeling anything that is an original “master,” but you might also want to put “make a copy” the title or make the first slide “make a copy” which will remind you to make a copy before sharing with students.
17 ways to use Jamboard in Your English Classroom:
- Discuss Round and Flat Characters.
- Characterization Notes.
- Annotate passages. Post a passage for close reading. Have the students then use the tools to circle, box, underline, etc. The sticky notes work great for this.
- Group Annotate Passages. The same as above, however students work in small groups. Try this with some of the Poetry Analysis Ideas in this post.
- Stations. Have students work in groups to go complete station work together. Each station would be on a different slide. You can add links in Jamboard too.
- Four Corners Discussions. Instead of posting the statements for students to move to around the classroom, you can have them add their name to the statement in one corner of the Jamboard slide. Here is an example of my Ophelia Four Corners activity for Act 4 of Hamlet.
- Post Discussion Questions. Students can add their responses to stickies. And you can get a good feel for whether their ideas and level of competency.
- SEL. We made hand turkeys in November to share what we are grateful for. But you could also use these hands to do the hand brainstorming activity.
- Task cards. Upload the image of digital task cards (like my How to Read Like a Professor Task Cards). And have the students work alone, in small groups or as a full class to respond to the prompts in the task cards.
- Thesis Party. My students shared their thesis statements in groups and then left post-its for the group members to identify the complexity, what makes it a strong thesis and what is unclear.
- Gathering Evidence: Post a question or a central idea statement then have students use stickies to add quotes that prove the statement.
- Debate. Draw a line down the center then put topics on two sides at the top and have students collect evidence to support one or both sides.
- Student Created Jamboards™️. One of the options that my AP students had for their recent Reading Like a Professor Book Clubs was to create their own Jamboard™️. One group posed the following topics: Important Quotes and Why; How did Kali grow and change throughout the novel? (Super pumped about that question because we just finished talking about round/flat, static/dynamic characters!); Examples of Taoism throughout the novel and its significance.
- Good News Share. Have students share good news.
- Three-two-one or other type of list. I love to use 3-2-1 as exit tickets, you can change it up a bit by having them write them on a Jamboard. Or have students create top # (3, 5, 10) lists in text boxes and then use stickies to defend their order.
- Student Book Commercials. Give each student a slide. They add the picture of a book they want to share. They can write a 3 sentence summary, share a favorite quote and/or use a star rating system.
- Image Response: I adapted an Ophelia Art Work Assignment to Jamboard. I posted the images and then students completed the responses using stickies. In the past I would have projected the image using Slides and students would respond on paper.
Thinking about Jamboard™️
If you haven’t used Jamboard™️ yet, I hope this will encourage you to give it a try. It is a great tool to get students engaged and working together in English classes. The versatility will have you swooning, so don’t wait until you next unit, go ahead and try it tomorrow.
