Chalkboard Splash

Chalkboard Splash is a student participation strategy.

Steps:

1. Create a sentence starter, prompt, or question for which you would like all students to see all of their peers' responses (these can also be used with brief Quick-Writes and Quick-Draws).
2. As students generate responses, ask them to copy their responses onto random or designated places on the chalkboards, whiteboards, or chart papers.
3. Debrief by asking students to walk around, analyze, and jot down similarities, differences, and surprises, perhaps using a form such as the one shown below. Ask students to get into small groups and share what they noticed in terms of similarities, differences, and surprises, before asking for volunteers to share.

Discussion:

Excerpted from: Himmele, Pérsida; Himmele, William (2011-07-21). Total Participation Techniques: Making Every Student an Active Learner. Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development.

"What have you noticed about yourself as a reader because of this unit?"

"What do you think the main character will wish for? What makes you think that?" "What is the most important thing that you learned about today's topic?"

"Which of these forms of pest management do you think is the best? Why?"

These are all questions that you could ask students to consider in a Pair-Share or a Quick-Write, but if you want the entire class to see the collective responses of their peers, then the best way to ask these questions may be in the form of a Chalkboard Splash. In a Chalkboard Splash (which can also be a Whiteboard Splash or a Chart-Paper Splash), all the students record their responses (or copy their Quick-Writes or Quick-Draws) onto random or assigned spots on the room's chalkboards or whiteboards, or on pieces of chart paper. After recording their responses, students are asked to analyze peer responses for three things: similarities, differences, and surprises. If you don't have multiple chalkboards or whiteboards, or if you want to hold on to the comments for later reference, use several pieces of butcher paper or chart paper instead of the chalkboards or whiteboards.

For 5th grade student-teacher Heather Berrier, a Chalkboard Splash was a way to wrap up her lesson on Paul Revere's historic engraving of the Boston Massacre. After analyzing the event from two different points of view, students were asked to select a spot on the whiteboards and sum up their viewpoint with a Quick-Draw of their own engraving. Before students took their seats, they walked around to look at the various drawings representing their classmates' different points of view. In the classroom of 5th grade teacher Mike Pyle, the whiteboards were labeled with the names of five different characters from a historical novel being read in class. After students analyzed character traits in small groups, they were asked to write these under the whiteboards that were designated for each character. Similarities and differences were discussed as students explained their reasoning for choosing specific character traits. Chalkboard Splashes provide a quick way to debrief student responses, Quick-Draws, or brief Quick-Writes.

We absolutely love Chalkboard Splashes and use them repeatedly at the university level. They give a community-of-learners feel to whatever we teach as students find themselves genuinely interested in what their peers wrote. They are perfect for times when you want to get a feel for how every student in the class would respond to a question.

Sample graphic organizer: