Whiteboard Meetings

I’ve used whiteboards more and more this year and it’s been really interesting.  The students automatically go for them, and enjoy working collaboratively.  One thing we need to improve upon though is our whiteboard meetings or summary sessions.  This is when we have completed some type of inquiry activity in small groups and now want to come together as a class to go over what happened.  I try to have as many students as possible present their work, but it seems like this leaves a lot of idle time for students while they are not presenting.  We’re still working on asking good questions and with lots of ESL students, there are many quiet kids.

It would be great to hear from other teachers as to how they handle whiteboard meetings.  How many groups present?  Do you get to re-arrange your classroom space to facilitate engagement? What happens in your classroom that you feel makes it successful?