Jamboard Alternative: Creative Whiteboard Templates for the ELA Classroom

Jamboard got many of us through the dark days of teaching remotely during a global pandemic. This simple but effective platform worked wonders in fostering collaboration in the 1:1 classroom as well as traditional classrooms. Now Jamboard is sunsetting, but that doesn’t mean you have to give up this amazing engagement tool. In fact, the Jamboard alternative I’m going to showcase may be even better than the original! Plus, if you are looking to harness the power of these collaborative slides without added screen time, I’m also going to provide ways to increase movement and tactile learning.

So with that, let’s jam, or now should I say slide on into it!

Jamboard Alternatives & Replacements

There are several digital whiteboard platforms vying to replace Jamboard. First, there’s Google’s own alternative, Figjam which I hear has a steep learning curve but is very powerful once you get the hang of it. Next, there are Jamboard alternatives like Whiteboard or Classroomscreen which look great but have limited capabilities with the free versions.

But for me, the best Jamboard alternative is a tool you likely already use every day– Slides. Yep, it can really be that simple. Whether you are a Microsoft school and use PowerPoint or a Google school and use Google Slides, you already have the perfect collaborative whiteboard at your fingertips. All you have to do is think about the function of slides a little differently.

In short, the margins of the slides will hold the digital sticky notes. The slide itself will be your blank canvas or will have your whiteboard prompts. You’ll share the collaborative slide with students, and they will write in the sticky notes and move them to the board. Though this is truly a simple concept, it makes for a powerful engagement tool by giving students thinking time, helping them organize their thoughts, and creating a space for all students to use their voices.

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A post shared by Ashley Bible 📚 ELA PD (@buildingbooklove)

Please ignore the typo in this reel. It was too much effort to redo and doesn’t take away from the purpose which is to show you a visual of how these whiteboard prompts work!

Jamboard Alternative Tech Help:

• How To Share Google Slides and Let Students Collaborate!
• Collaborate on a PowerPoint presentation in Office 365
• To keep students from editing the whiteboard prompt: Insert the image of your prompt into the blank background of a collaborative slides or PPT document. (PPT: Design> Format Background> Picture) (Slides: Background >Image) Now the sticky notes in the margins are editable and moveable, but the background will stay put!

Now that we’ve established the benefits and have our tech in order, let’s explore some creative whiteboard templates that will transform your ELA classroom!

Discussion Starters to Spark Conversations

One of the best ways to get students talking is by using discussion starters. If your whole class discussion questions are serenaded by crickets, then it’s time to try a new approach. While students are often reluctant to speak out in class, you are more likely to get students talking when you give ample thinking time and provide a low-stakes space for discussion. Digital whiteboards are perfect for this task! With a Jamboard alternative, students have already validated their responses and “put themselves out there” on the whiteboard, so it’s easier for them to speak up and elaborate with their voices once you bring it back to the whole class. A few of the prompts in this whiteboard collaboration pack include quick discussion starters like:

• Wisdom/Wonder
• Hot Takes/Cool Questions
• 3,2,1 Talk Takeoff

Screen-free Idea: Draw a T-chart on the board and let students use dry-erase markers to respond.

Reading Responses to Deepen Understanding

Color-coding is my love language. If there’s a way to color-code something, I’ll make it happen and the reading response prompts in this pack are no exception! Due to the blank slate nature of digital whiteboards, the reading response possibilities are endless, but here are some ideas:

• Reading Rainbow (prompts for each color)
• Red Light Reading (go, pause, stop)
• Shades of Sense (color-coded imagery examples)

Screen-free Idea: Provide crayons for color-coding the text and have students create a collaborative response on craft paper.

Formative Assessments to Track Progress

Collaborative Slides are fantastic for formative assessment because you assess and correct in real time. For example, give students a correct answer and have them explain why they other ones are incorrect. When you see illogical thinking on the board, you can use this as a teaching tool. In another example, you can have students write a thesis statement in their stickies. Next, you as the teacher can drag the stickies over to a target on the whiteboard. The ones on target serve as mentor thesis statements for the ones around the edges that need revision. You can also model this revision right there on the Jamboard alternative!

Screen-free Idea: Print out the worksheet and have groups discuss and write responses on the page.

Brainstorming Sessions for Answers or Ideas

One of the biggest benefits of collaboration is bouncing ideas off of each other. However, much of the time when you ask students to brainstorm, they will write down two or three things and call it a day. But I’ve found that when I give them a fun brainstorming goal, they fire off more ideas. You can simply use a traditional bubble to brainstorm, or you can shake things up with pixel images. The idea is that students add the color-coded responses to the whiteboard until a fun image appears. For instance, let’s say you taught a lesson on adjectives. Each student would add an adjective to their sticky note then move it to the board. Once the board is full of responses, the image will be complete.

Screen-free Idea: Project the slide, have students call out ideas or answers, and fill in the boxes until the image appears.

Collaboration Organizers for Group Work

Though there are a million ways to use these whiteboard templates, collaboration capabilities is where they shine! They can share opinions, ask questions, and build on each other’s ideas—all in real time. Or, if you’re looking to reduce screen time, these prompts work just as well with a physical classroom whiteboard or even craft paper. Flexibility is key! For example, groups can work together to find examples of Pathos, Ethos, and Logos using the digital whiteboard. Then, they can analyze which side of the rhetorical triangle is used the most and what that means for the argument and audience.

Screen-free Idea: Provide highlighters for color-coding the text and use real sticky notes to create a rhetorical bar graph for analysis.

By using creative whiteboard templates, you can engage students in meaningful ways, foster collaboration, and track their progress effectively. Whether you’re sparking discussion, assessing understanding, brainstorming ideas, or organizing group projects, these templates will make your teaching more dynamic and interactive. I hope you give this Jamboard alternative a try!

Enjoy!