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Jamboard through Google Classroom has become a cornerstone tool in my virtual ELA classes because one of my go-to strategies when we had students in class was to use sticky notes on the board. You can read more about the Board but NOT BORING: My Go-to Collaborative Activity for Secondary ELA strategy here.

But since many of us are teaching virtually or at least have some students online, we can use Jamboard much in the same way as a white board or chalkboard in the classroom.

I’ve been using Jamboards for all kinds of lessons and activities in my classes. These include:

Attention-grabbers
Brainstorming sessions
Essay outlining
Discussions
Categorizing or Mapping out Information
Group work
Presentations

And many more!

How to Set up Jamboards for Google Classroom

Setting up a Jamboard is super simple. Here are the basic steps.

The first thing you will need to do is go to Jamboard by clicking here.

Once you get to the homepage, it will look like this:

The homepage will showcase your recent Jamboards. You can click on any of the preexisting ones to reopen as needed, or you can create a new Jamboard by simply clicking on the plus sign in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen.

When you open a new Jamboard, it will look like this:

Once you have your new Jamboard open, you can use the features to set a background color or image. One of the things I like to do is use Canva.com to create a specific background image to fit the purpose of a specific lesson. To create a special background or backdrop for your Jamboard, you will need to use the custom dimensions: 1920 x 1080 pixels. This will assure that your backdrop image will fit the exact dimensions of the Jamboard slide.

If you’ve prepared a background image, you can add it to the background of your Jamboard slide by clicking on the “Set Background” dropdown menu and selecting the checkmark to upload your created image. This will set it as a non-editable background image that students can type on and add sticky-notes to.

Once you click on the checkmark, you will then have the option to browse your files and upload your photo as the background image.

Here is an example background image I created in Canva.com for a Venn Diagram on Jamboard.

With this image set as the background image, students can add texts and/or sticky-notes to the diagram in order to categorize and analyze information about the topic.

If you’d like a FREE copy of this template, be sure to subscribe to the Bespoke Blog by clicking here to unlock the Freebie Library.

Once you’ve set up your background image(s), you are ready for your students to Jam. Note that you do NOT need to create a special background image in order to use Jamboard. They give a few default background colors such as black, white, and teal to use in order to create a quick background.

Now that you know how to set up a Jamboard, let’s explore FIVE ways to use Jamboard in secondary ELA.

Five Ways to Use Jamboard in Secondary ELA

Graffiti Wall

My number one go-to strategy for Jamboard is the Graffiti Wall. This is my go-to strategy for in-class as well— but with a white board instead of a Jamboard. Graffiti walls are a quick way for students to share out information, brainstorm ideas, and grab attention at the beginning of a new unit.

With this template, students can simply add text ideas or sticky-notes to the board with their own ideas according to the assignment category. You can also find a free copy of this Graffiti Wall Jamboard in the Freebie Library when you subscribe by clicking here.

However, there is no need for a background image. Here is an actual Jamboard my students completed in class without a background template. Instead, they simply added sticky-notes with their ideas that fit the brainstorm assignment.

For this graffiti wall assignment, students read a literary criticism for homework and then shared out their main takeaways from their reading. We then went through and discussed some of their takeaways as a whole class.

Here’s another Graffiti Wall I had my students complete at the beginning of our Gothic unit. I simply asked them to brainstorm anything and everything that comes to mind when they hear the word “gothic.” Here are some of the ideas they came up with. This activity helped to tap their prior knowledge before we started the new unit.

Overall, the graffiti wall concept works really well with virtual learning and can be used for many different types of lessons.

Class Discussion

Another way you can use Jamboard is to facilitate class discussions. To do this, you can pose a discussion question on the Jamboard, and students can respond with their responses as text or as sticky-notes. Then, students can read through their peers responses and then use those ideas to discuss the question as a whole class.

For this discussion activity, you can see that I posed the discussion question at the top of the board. Then, students responded in sticky-notes using textual evidence. After they had added their responses to the Jamboard, I selected a few interesting points to discuss as a whole class. I advised students to take notes and then gave them the homework assignment to respond to the same discussion question in an analytical paragraph that used textual evidence to support the analysis.

To make this activity a more robust discussion assignment, I actually added three different boards with three different discussion questions and allowed students to respond to any of the questions and then write their analytical paragraphs over any of the three posed questions from the Jamboard activity.

There are lots of ways to use a Jamboard to facilitate a discussion effectively.

Reader Response

There are many different organizational forms that can help students respond to their reading, and these forms can be used on Jamboard.

One of these charts is the K-W-L chart (“What I think I know, “What I wonder about,” and “What I learned”). To do this on Jamboard, you can create a custom image to use as the background, or you can simply have students create their own charts. If you would like a pack of Jamboard templates that are all ready to go, then check out the Bespoke ELA Jamboard Bundle: 20 Lovely & Useful Templates for English Language Arts by clicking here. This pack of templates includes the one in the picture below.

Students can use this chart as an individual or group activity on Jamboard to record their responses by using the text or sticky-note features.

Another chart that students can keep on a Jamboard is a dialectical journal in which they respond to quotes from the text. Here is what it can look like on Jamboard.

For this reader-response activity, students can record their findings directly onto the Jamboard— either individually or with a group of peers. This template can also be found in the Jamboard Bundle: 20 Lovely & Useful Templates for English Language Arts.

Essentially, Jamboard is another tool that can be used for just about any reader-response activity you would traditionally complete in class on paper.

Book Club

Book clubs can be an effective tool in the ELA classroom, but not without the proper forms to keep students organized and on task. Enter Jamboard into the picture as another means of facilitating book club organization and discussion.

One of the things I like to do with Jamboard for Book Clubs is to have student book club groups create miniature portfolios of book club challenges as they move through the reading process. Then, at the end of the book club unit, I can assess each group’s Jamboard portfolio in order to assess the quality of the group’s analysis of the text.

Here are a couple of examples of templates found in the Bespoke ELA Jamboard Bundle: 20 Lovely & Useful Templates for English Language Arts.

There are lots of great ways to use Jamboard to facilitate book clubs in the ELA classroom.

Along with book clubs, teachers can use Jamboards for social emotional learning in order to check the status of the class.

Status of the Class (SEL)

Social emotional learning is a vital part of a teacher’s job in the 21st-century, and Jamboard can facilitate SEL in the classroom. I like to use Jamboard in order to check the emotional status of the class. I am always surprised at how open and honest students are with this— and that I always seem to identify a student who is struggling simply by checking in. Here is an example Jamboard template I use to check on my students’ emotional well-being.

This is a simple template for students to use, but it does the trick! Check it out as part of the Bespoke ELA Jamboard Bundle: 20 Lovely & Useful Templates for English Language Arts.

As you can see, Jamboard has a myriad of uses and functions in the secondary ELA classroom. How do you use Jamboard in your classroom?

Share in the comments below! We’d love to hear from you!

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About the Author

Meredith is the founder and creator of TeachWriting.org and Bespoke ELA. She has taught high school English for 10+ years in Dallas, Chicago, and New York City and holds a M.A. in Literature from Northwestern University. She has always had a connection to the written word-- through songwriting, screenplay writing, and essay writing-- and she enjoys the process of teaching students how to express their ideas. Meredith enjoys life with her sweet daughter and Yorkie.