How to Use a Smart Board

Ms. Marker considers Smartboards to be especially useful for her students with special needs. When she works with students whose learning disabilities or auditory processing issues make it important that they interact kinesthetically in order to learn, she is mindful of calling the students up to the Smartboard frequently and allowing them to touch and work with the images they are seeing. She uses video as well as auditory websites with these students so that they can access knowledge through multiple modalities. Ms. Marker color codes notes that she takes on the Smartboard to help students with visual tracking. She also likes that the Smartboard allows her to differentiate instruction, so that some students can do work with the board or following instructions on the board while she offers direct instruction to a separate group.

Students with special needs might especially benefit from interacting in close contact with the Smartboard.