Flipchart Fundamentals
Building a better flipchart begins with having the right tools.
We've assembled a list of steps to help you create great flipchart lessons for your students. Regardless of age level or curriculum area, these suggestions should provide you with the right tools to make your flipcharts powerful, engaging and pleasing to the eye.
Following some of these simple suggestions will undoubtedly improve your ability to establish student interest, maintain enthusiasm for what is being taught, and maximize interactivity between you and your students.
Let's Get Started!
Before You Begin
Have you got the right tools?
In order to get the most out of your Activboard and software, you need to make sure that you are running the latest version of either Activstudio or Activprimary. Also, are you running the latest drivers? You can find all of this type of information out by visiting the Support section on the corporate website.
Once you are up and running, why not supplement your image library and resources with some of the resource packs that are available to download from Promethean Planet? Whilst you're there, why not browse through the hundred of pre-prepared flipcharts that have already been submitted by other teachers?
Use proven lesson planning strategies
When constructing a flipchart lesson for use on the Activboard, begin by using the same lesson planning strategies you would typically use when building a lesson that is not being delivered on an interactive whiteboard. Establish lesson/activity objectives, expected outcomes, attainment targets being addressed and description of specific material to be covered during the lesson. A good lesson is a good lesson, regardless of the vehicle used for delivery, and it always begins with the aforementioned core elements.
Be sure to have a look at the Teacher Feature section for great examples of outstanding lessons and classroom videos showing award winning teachers in action.
Maximize student participation
When considering the role of the student in the lesson, attempt to create multiple opportunities for interaction, response and feedback. You want the students actively participating in the lesson, not just serving as a passive audience to a presentation.
Try to “mix up” the types of interaction as well. Students can interact verbally, come up to the board individually, work from their seats with the Activslate, or participate as a group using Activotes.
A great way to keep students on task is to keep the Activotes out all the time and ask students to agree or disagree with what an individual has contributed to the discussion or lesson.
With experience comes confidence
It's often daunting when you see other peoples' advanced flipcharts and you wonder 'how will I ever achieve that?!'
The answer is, in time you will! Any beginner can advance their own Activboard skills by experimenting with the software and starting with the more basic tools, such as rub and reveal.
Here's an easy three-point guide to this simple, but effective, technique:
- Type some text on the page.
- Write over the text with a pen.
- Then, in the lesson, you can use the eraser tool to erase the pen, 'revealing' the text beneath...
Once you have mastered the basics you can then try and move on to the more advanced techniques, most of which are covered in our online training courses at www.prometheanlearning.com.
Take advantage of what you already have
The new and improved resource library features more than 15,000 teaching resources including images, backgrounds, lessons, sounds, shapes, lines, grids, annotations, and flash activities...all searchable by keyword.
It also contains lesson-building templates for creating whole-group assessment pages including voting buttons, question page layouts and backgrounds. Before spending hours looking for resources elsewhere, have a look in the resource library first!
There are also thousands of pre-made flipcharts, weblinks and resource packs ready for download in the Resource Section on Promethean Planet. Planet offers teachers a place to upload their flipchart lessons and share them with others around the country. Search for ones you want and download them to use with your students. Once you download the lesson, it's yours to modify, add to, and use as you wish!
Sharpen your skills
Once you are familiar with Activstudio or Activprimary, you’ll be ready to move on to more advanced skills and techniques. Planet's Activtips section offers quick tips for integrating tools and techniques into various curriculum areas. Inspired by user suggestions and questions, the Activtips section has something for everyone.The Forum and Blog is another fantastic area for sharpening your skills. With users just like you looking to sharpen their skills, there's always someone ready and willing to share an idea and offer a helping hand.
Share ideas and lessons with others
Perhaps the greatest resource for creating top notch flipcharts are your colleagues. Several schools, via their network servers, create a school wide 'drop box' where teachers can place flipchart lessons for mass consumption. Divide and conquer is their motto and teachers are able to share the load when it comes to lesson planning. In doing so, they also tend to learn new techniques, master new Activsoftware tools and develop consistent, proven methods for lesson construction and delivery.
The Promethean Planet online resource library is a great place to post lessons as well, particularly because we ensure they are aligned to curriculum topics and student age ranges for you.
And don't forget...
The Planet forum is a superb place to start sharing ideas and lesson plans with other Activboard users from across the globe!