If you are teaching remotely or in a Hybrid format and have not tried Google Jamboard yet, or if you have tired Jamboard and are searching for more ways to implement this tech tool in your classroom, look no further. This post is for you.

What is Google Jamboard?

Google Jamboard is a digital tablet that you can download as an app or utilize from the web that allows multiple people to collaborate at the same time. It is great for real time visual collaboration between students.

With Jamboard, you can:

Write and draw on the board.
Search Google and insert images or webpages.
Drag and resize text and images with your fingers or mouse.
Share your jams with collaborators. Up to 50 people can work on a jam at once.

We recommend checking out this site or follow along on this slideshow to learn all about the basic tools and features, as well as peruse the free templates provided to get you started.

Build a Class Community

In order to use the Jamboard and all of its fun features, students are provided with a lot of power. They can delete the background image, delete each other’s comments, and just wreak havoc on the Jamboard in general. (It has been known to happen.) One way that we like to introduce the Jamboard, its awesome features, and build class community, is through our Meme It! Activity. Our students LOVE when we provide a few minutes one day a week for the Meme It! Activity. Students learn the Do’s and Don’ts of the Jamboard and you can come up with rules and procedures together as a class.

When you add the assignment to Google Classroom, make sure to click “student can edit.” If you choose “Make a copy for each student”, they cannot work together on the same Jamboard. Once students click on the Jamboard, we have them use the “sticky note” feature on the left hand menu tool bar of the Jamboard page to write their captions for the meme. Again, students must realize that with editing privileges comes great responsibility. Make sure you have set up rules and expectations about how to properly work together on the Jamboard prior to this activity.

Note: Middle and High School teachers - Do you teach more than one period of the same class? If so, make sure to create a copy of the Jamboard for each period you teach. Otherwise, all of your classes will be writing on the same one and it can get really crowded.

SEL Check-Ins

Unquestionably, this has been a very hard year for our students.Whether they are back face to face full time, learning in a hybrid setting, or still learning remotely, students need a space and place to check in and share their feelings. The website Ditch That Textbook has some super fun getting to know you style games and even some nice SEL check in’s on this post. Check it out to download some free Jamboard style templates.

Picture of The Day

If your students struggle with making inferences or determine the difference between an observation and inference like ours do, this is the lesson for you! We got this awesome idea from the amazing Jen Jones and her Hello Literacy blog post. If you do not follow Jen Jones on Instagram, you are missing out on all things Jamboard related. The picture of the day activity is really simple. First, find a picture. You can use Unsplash, Nasa, The Guardian, National Geographic, Time, or just google search an image. We like to add that image into Keynote (Power Point of Google Slides work just as well) for design and formatting purposes. We place the image in the middle of our presentation. Next, we add the headings, “Observations” on the left half of our presentation and “Inferences” on the right (see image). We take a screenshot of our presentation and then add it as a background on a new Jamboard.

Once you have created your Jamboard, assign it to Google Classroom as “student can edit.” We like to start the day with a Picture of the Day activity at least once a week. Students’ observation and inferencing skills grow so much throughout the year when they are practicing these skills daily or weekly.

Engage Your Students With These Reading Activities

If you like to start your new units with a quick check in to see what your students may already know about a topic, Jamboard can be an awesome tool. Try these activities:

KWL-You can whip up a quick KWL chart in no time. Like a giant piece of chart paper, the Jamboard acts as the same resource. Students can write what they Know about a topic, Want to Know about a topic, and when the unit is over they can return to the Jamboard and include what they Learned.
Brainstorm - this can be a preceding activity or something you utilize throughout a lesson.
Lists - Pro/Con, Compare and Contrast, Problem/Solution lists all make an awesome reading activity or lesson for your classroom. Choose two different color sticky notes to reflect the two opposing sides and have students write their notes of any given situation using those preselected color choices. It keeps the Jamboard highly organized and students are easily able to discern the two choices.
Make predictions - Keep track of all the predictions your students have while reading a picture book short story, or novel on the Jamboard. You can even create a quick template using the headings, “At First I Thought…” and “Now I Think…”
Exit tickets - One awesome way to check for understanding is to provide students with a quick formative assessment. You could throw one of these exit ticket images in the middle of the Jamboard and have the students use a sticky note or another tool (think drawing) to answer the prompt.

Grammar Activities For The Win

Do you explicitly teach grammar? You could have your students diagram sentences on the Jamboard. Just create a template using Keynote, Power Point, or Google Slides. Write your sentence to be diagrammed or that needs editing. Take an image of the template, place it in Jamboard and have your students Jam away.

Another activity could be having students rewrite or compose sentences. We L-O-V-E Paragraphs for Middle School: A Sentence-Composing Approach By Donald and Jenny Killgallon…and pretty much all of their other books. Their book provides a ton of amazing mentor sentences from popular fiction and non-fiction books. They also do a great job of explicitly teaching sentence composing strategies such as the opener, closer, and s-v split. Teach those strategies to your students and then add a mentor sentence to the Jamboard and have your students compose the new sentence by adding an opener, closer, or s-v split. Student work is always next level when they are emulating amazing writers.

These are just a few activities to get you started with Jamboard. Really, the sky is the limit when it comes to this awesome website. We hope you find it to be as amazing as we do!

Until next time teacher friends!

Bottoms Up!

Jam Board Activities for English Language Arts Classes