Why are Whiteboard Wall Storyboards Effective Teaching Tools?

Whiteboard paint installed in any grade-level classroom is a great boon to creativity. It gives students a dynamic artistic outlet and a fun place to connect. Doodles, drawings, symbols, and words filling a wall coated with whiteboard paint represent a kind of controlled chaos. Students take delight in such a sight and are always eager to share their creative skills with their teacher and peers.

This type of wall might be called a “living whiteboard” as it changes constantly and learners use it regularly. Teachers also find pleasure in seeing their students’ creative talent expressed on a wall coated with whiteboard paint. It’s fun for everyone to observe the new additions as any available white spaces continue to be filled. 

Some teachers might find it hard to give students the freedom to add whatever they want to the classroom whiteboard wall. However, doing so gives learners a great chance to share their talent with one another. Having a living whiteboard in the classroom is only one way to promote student creativity with whiteboard paint. In this blog post we’ll explore other strategies to get students’ creative juices flowing and enhance learning on whiteboard walls storyboards.

 Storyboarding in the classroom

One highly useful way to use a whiteboard painted wall is for storyboarding. Students can use the walls’ vast surfaces to plan and sketch the parts or sequence of events for a story, play, presentation, or project. In the classroom, storyboarding for such activities is hugely effective.

Storyboards, which are essential tools for filmmakers, can be adapted to any grade level or type of lesson content. Using the flexible storyboarding strategy, teachers can help students organize ideas, break down concepts, and visualize what they are learning.

A storyboard is a visual representation of any action or sequence of events. Filmmakers use storyboards to help envision every shot of a movie. Each box or frame in a storyboard captures one so-called “beat” or moment of the film with a sketch. It also contains notes on the dialogue, special effects, props, and other key features.

In general, storyboards expand and shrink based on the length or size of the task or project they’re intended to portray. A 90-minute movie will have a longer, more intricate storyboard than a ten-minute short. Likewise, storyboards for the classroom can be as short or long as your lesson’s task demands. Four to eight squares on one part of a whiteboard painted wall can summarize a concept or outline an idea. However, a more complex task might require creating dozens of squares across the entire wall.

Why are whiteboard wall storyboards effective teaching tools?

Number one, storyboards help students think about lesson content in easily managed chunks. At the same time, the boards arrange the content in a logical sequence. First comes this step, then that; this input leads to this step, then that. This step starts like this and ends like that, and these steps are necessary in between. 

Number two, storyboards’ visual character helps students see concepts and helps teachers observe students’ thinking processes. Feedback can be instantaneous, and revision options are endless on a whiteboard painted wall. If students mess up the sequence, they can just erase parts of their storyboard. Then they’ll be able to reorder the parts in their minds, and put the parts in a different order on the wall.

Similarly, learners can easily expand and connect one storyboard with the ideas contained in other storyboards. This feature allows concepts, projects, and narratives to grow and develop as students come up with new information and opinions. 

Finally, storyboards are visual. Thus, even young students or those who struggle to put their ideas into words can use the boards to share their thoughts. Learners can draw the images themselves. They can also take photos of props they manipulate and then sketch the pictures on the whiteboard wall. Otherwise, they might find images on open-source sites and recreate them in their storyboards. In any case, the objectives and learning outcomes are the same. The storyboards require students to process and show their thinking in graphic form. 

When to Make Use of Whiteboard Wall Storyboards 

Since storyboards are so flexible, you can use them at any point in a lesson and for teaching any type of content. Before, during, or after a unit, employ storyboards to sum up, explain, or outline. Subjects might be a short novel, a historical period, a person’s life, or a biological cycle. If the lesson involves a sequence of actions, ideas, or events, storyboards can help students arrange and encapsulate their thoughts.

Use the boards with students of any grade level to convey the “story” of how to solve a problem in math, of how cells divide, or of how atoms combine. Storyboards can also tell the “story” of students’ collaborating on what they learned on a particular school day. Ultimately, anything can be a story. 

Science teachers might use storyboards to help students grasp processes like photosynthesis. Before the unit, ask students to do a “What I know about photosynthesis” activity by taping pictures and writing keywords on a storyboard. Learners rearrange their storyboards, correct errors, and add definitions, examples, and connections as the class goes through the unit.  

Students can draw sketches, cut out pictures, or copy images from the internet to build their boards. They can add text, captions, and headings to fill out information and expand on details. The tactile approach of doing a storyboard on a whiteboard painted wall is ideal for short tasks that can be done right in the classroom.    

Collaborative Murals

Whiteboard painted walls represent the truest form of unfiltered creative expression. There’s no barrier to entry. If students have an idea or image in mind, they can write or draw it on the wall. It’s that easy.  For longer creative lessons, students can collectively draw, design, or map out concepts or stories as part of a larger whiteboard painted wall mural.

On the vast canvas of the whiteboard wall, your learners will be able to create large murals on themes like springtime, Valentine’s Day, their birthdays, the first day of school, or an unforgettable family vacation. The murals can also relate to specific topics from their lessons, like historical events, scientific discoveries, or geographical regions.

Nature-themed collaborative murals

Having students work collaboratively on murals is both stimulating to their creative sides and calming to their minds. This is especially true when learners create artwork inspired by scenes they’ve experienced in nature. In fact, creating images of natural scenery has been shown to be mentally and emotionally pleasing to both artists and viewers.

So, why not have your students use the classroom whiteboard painted wall to create large, attractive, nature-themed murals?  The learners can periodically revise their work by drawing with multi-colored dry erase markers and erasing with a microfiber cloth. In this way, the class can produce an endless series of landscapes or seascapes to inspire their imaginations and calm themselves down.

Points to consider before having students create murals

A whiteboard painted wall is perfect for all types of murals. Any theme or topic can be used for a mural, but it’s useful to consider the following points before letting the students begin work.

1. The amount of space available for drawing and writing – Make sure there’s plenty of room available on your whiteboard painted walls for the class to draw their murals freely.

2. Dark dry erase marker colors – Have your learners use new markers with dark- colored inks, such as black, green, blue, and purple, so that the images they create can be easily seen and they’ll have enough ink to finish their murals.

3. Themes with educational benefit – when having your students do themed murals, make sure the theme has an instructive message, such as environmental conservation, the value of helping others, the virtue of patience, or the importance of a healthy diet.

Collaborative murals are perfect for the middle and high school levels and for other grades as well. Through murals, students will be able to demonstrate their understanding of lesson content. They’ll also have a chance to work together to create informative artwork and share some information about themselves.

Summary

Article Name

Why are Whiteboard Wall Storyboards Effective Teaching Tools?

Description

Enhance learning with whiteboard wall storyboards! They boost creativity, collaboration, and engagement—perfect for interactive teaching.

Author

Susan Anspach

Publisher Name

ReMARKable Whiteboard Paint

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