Padlet

Do you struggle with the same students participating in every lesson? Do you want students to have an outlet for sharing ideas and collaborating? Padlet is a great tool to create a “wall” where students are able to respond to topics, prompts, and/or questions. The site allows for total class participation and holds all students accountable for sharing their thoughts or opinions. Padlet walls are very easy to create and can be implemented with students in ALL subjects and ALL grade levels. I love this tech tool because it is incredibly versatile in how it can be used and set-up for the classroom. Here are just a few examples of how I use Padlet with students K-12:

K-W-L Charts In Padlet start with a blank “Shelf” template. Create your three columns for Know - Wonder - Learn. At the beginning of a lesson, have students add comments to the Padlet wall with things they already know about the topic and what they are currently wondering. Then as learning progresses students can return to the Padlet wall and add what they learned or add more questions that are sparked by their learning.

Share Student Work Have the students post an image to a Padlet wall for everyone else to see! For example, my third grade students were doing a mind-mapping activity about quadrilaterals. I had the students take a screenshot of their mind maps from Popplet and post it on the Padlet wall. Then everyone could see each other’s work and we were able to discuss similarities and differences between student creations. Recently, I worked with an art teacher, who had students take pictures of their artwork and put it on the Padlet wall for peers to see and comment on the work done.

1 | 3 | 6 Protocol Sometimes I want my students to answer a question and then collaborate with peers to see if they can deepen their understanding or come up with an even better idea. I use the 1|3|6 protocol for this. First, I have students jot down an idea on a post-it individually. Then they get with two other peers to form a group of three and they come up with an even better idea that they then post on a Padlet wall. The group of three then joins another group of three to form a group of six. The new group shares their thinking and brainstorm an even stronger idea to post on the Padlet wall. I love the fact that Padlet is digital but it can work with collaborative activities, too.

Check out these two additional resources that offer great ways for how to use Padlet in the classroom: 20 Useful Ways to Use Padlet In Class Now 30 Creative Ways to use Padlet for Teachers and Students