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ATRICLES

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Practical articles for English language teachers of adults.

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30 creative ways to use Padlet for teachers and students

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30 creative ways to use Padlet for teachers and students

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30 creative ways to use Padlet for teachers and students

by Lucie Renard — Aug 09, 2017

I’m always excited when I’m using Padlet. Is it the interface, the way everything is designed, its purpose or the fact that I’m organizing things smoothly? I don’t know. It just makes me happy.

And today I’ll try to make you happy as well. How is it that this online Post-it board can make your day? How to use Padlet in your classroom? What are the best lesson ideas with padlet? How can you use Padlet in the elementary classroom and in high school? I’ll tell you right away…

But first:

What is Padlet?

Padlet can be used by students and by teachers. With padlet you can create an online post-it board that you can share with any student or teacher you want. Just give them the unique Padlet link. Padlet allows you to insert ideas anonymously or with your name. It’s easy to use and very handy.

Whoever has the Padlet board opened on his smartphone or computer, can see what’s on it and what everyone is writing. Students just have to take a device and start adding little sticky notes online. They can see all the ideas gathered on the teacher board immediately.

How to use Padlet?

Using Padlet in the classroom is easy. You can install the Padlet app for Apple or for Android on your phone or just go to the Padlet website.

Here you create an account and make your first board. Once that is settled, you have to get the board to your students. Sharing a Padlet board is easy; choose for a QR code or a link. There are more sharing options, but these two are the most obvious.

Let your students insert the link in the browser or in the Padlet app. They can ‘continue as guest’ so they just have to scan the qr code with the Padlet app or type in the URL, without creating an account. Shortly after, they will be directed to your first Padlet board.

Then there’s one more question that needs to be answered: How to post things on Padlet? Well, there are a few ways to do this:

double click anywhere on the board;

drag files in;

paste from clipboard;

save as bookmark with Padlet mini;

or just click the ‘+’ button in the lower right corner.

30 Ways to use Padlet in the classroom

Padlet reaches as far as your imagination. It’s you that makes an educational app like this really powerful. So, let me give you some padlet ideas for in the classroom.

1. Brainstorming on a topic, statement, project or idea

This lesson idea is probably the most popular among teachers. That’s why I’ve put it first on this list.

Give a statement students have to discuss or a project about which students have to brainstorm. Share the board and let students share their ideas and comments. This way, every student can see what the others think. You can discuss a few of the given answers with the whole class.

Let’s try it out for this post. I listed 30 ways to use Padlet, but there are so much more lesson ideas with Padlet. Why not share them with everyone? How do you use Padlet in your classroom apart from the ones that are already in this list?

Just click on this link, and start collaborating. I’m so curious about how many ideas we’ll get! Nothing to contribute? Then just take a look! After a while, the board should contain a lot of fun classroom Padlet ideas.

2. Live question bank

Let your students ask questions during the lesson. It’s very handy when students don’t understand something or need a better explanation. Stop your lesson 10 minutes early and go over the questions.

This way students who are afraid to ask questions can still ask their questions anonymously. It gives a voice to every student in the room, even to the shy ones.

3. Gather student work

Use Padlet to gather student work, all in one place. Don’t use it for ordinary homework, because all the other students can see what the others have done. Use it for articles and research on a topic.

When you let your students do some research on, for example, ‘great historical poets’, you have all the articles and research on the same place. Other students can take a look at the research of someone else as well.

When it’s international poem day, you could ask your students to post a poem they really like.

4. Online student portfolio

Use Padlet as a student portfolio tool. Create boards for every student and let them post assignments, articles and projects on it. As a teacher, you can comment on each one and give meaningful feedback.

Whenever a student finds something helpful for his portfolio, he just has to save it on his portfolio Padlet board. No more editing and printing articles.

5. Exit Ticket Padlet

Let your students answer some important exit ticket questions like “what did you learn today?”, “What didn’t you understand?” or “What questions do you still have?”.

It gets better…

Here are some other exit ticket promts your students could answer:

Write down three things you learned today.

If you had to explain today’s lesson to a friend, what would you tell him/her?

What question do you have about what we learned today?

What part of the lesson did you find most difficult?

What would you like me to go over again next lesson?

Write down two questions you would put in a quiz about today’s lesson.

What were the main points we covered today?

Did the group activity contribute to your understanding of the topic? Why?

Read this problem … What would be your first step in solving it?

I used app X extensively today. Was it helpful? Why or why not?

6. Icebreaker: 2 truths and 1 lie

Let your students post a selfie and add 2 truths and 1 lie about themselves. It’s up to the other students to find out which one is a lie. You’ll be surprised by how well students can lie!

7. End of the schoolyear: Give a compliment

Add al the headshots of your students on the Padlet board or let them add a picture. Then, everyone has to write at least one compliment as a comment beneath everbody’s picture.

This is a fun goodbye as they are going to the next year. Everyone loves compliments!

8. Graduation time

When students graduate, you would like something to remember them. What better way to let them fill in their best times as a student in your school.

Simply create a board with the question “what’s the most fun thing you did in this school?”

Other questions could be:

Who’s your favorite teacher? Why?

What would you do over again 100 times if you could?

What will you never forget?

What are the things you will miss the most?

What do you love the most about this school?

9. School events

When its open house in your school, you could leave a tablet at the exit point, so parents could add a post on your Padlet wall. Ask for a comment on your “guest wall”, or for their first impression of the school. You could even ask for some innovative new ideas that would make the school a better place.

10. “Thinking” maps

Use a Padlet wall for students to create various thinking maps or mind maps. You can upload a custom background to help them with the layout and they can start adding Post-it notes to a flow map, tree map, or even a circle map format.

11. Classroom communication

Familiar with the Google Classroom stream? Well, you can do the same with Padlet. Use the Padlet stream layout and communicate assignments and important lesson material to your students by adding posts to the communication stream.

You can even add some fun BookWidgets exercises in the stream.

12. parent communication

Use the same stream layout like in the classroom communication idea to communicate with parents. Enable email notifications so you receive an email whenever parents post on the Padlet wall. This way you stay on top of all the posts and potential questions.

Use the stream for fun classroom updates. Having personal conversations is not the best idea because any other parent can see them.

13. Book discussions

When the complete class has to read the same book, it’s fun to create a discussion about the characters, things people do in the book, hidden meanings, plot twists, etc. You can even let them invent a sequel to the book.

14. Prior knowledge

Try to figure out what students already know about the topic you’re about to teach. What prior knowledge do your students have about that particular topic and what don’t they know? Students just post their knowledge on Padlet, so you can see how to build your lesson.

15. Analyze a quote

Start the lesson with a quote that concerns the lesson topic. Let your students brainstorm on what the quote is about and if it has a hidden meaning or not.

Students will start digging really deep looking for hidden meanings, even if there are none. You’ll laugh with the stories and theories they came up with!

16. Current events

To speak about current events, you could let a student add an article on the Padlet board for the next day. Every day a different student has to add another article. A fun way to go through the current events of the week.

17. Birthday wall

When its a student’s birthday you could create a Padlet wall on which every student has to write some nice birthday wishes.

You can do the same for a sick classmate. Instead of birthday wishes, you let them write some get well notes or add some nice drawings.

18. Classroom newsletter

Let your students be the reporters of the classroom newsletter. Gather all the articles and games on a Padlet board, and when it’s finished, share the link with their parents or the complete school.

19. Gather teacher feedback

Once in a while, you should ask your students for feedback. Create a Padlet wall just for that and make sure to let students comment anonymoulsy. This way they will be more honest. Don’t foget to really do something with the feedback they gave you.

20. Book Wishlist

Students may not always choose their own book to read for a book review because the teacher hasn’t read them yet. That’s a pity, because students won’t be eager to read that way.

Let your students add some books on a Padlet wishlist board. You can choose 5 books (or more if you want) that pass your inspection.

21. Suggestion box in the library

Just like with the book wishlist above, students can make some suggestions of books they want to read. The library will look into the books and purchase them if it are some good suggestions.

22. Tops and tips

Use Padlet for peer assessment. Let students add two ‘tops’ and one ‘tip’ on the Padlet wall of their fellow student who just finished his presentation.

Tops are things the student did well and a tip could be something the student should improve the next time.

23. Geocaching

For physical exercises, students have to go walking more. Let you students do some geocaching and let them post pictures of themselves and the treasure to the Padlet board. It will encourage the others to find the treasures as well.

24. Notetaking

While listening to the teacher, students can work together and add notes to a Padlet wall to create a wall with resources they can use later on.

As a teacher, you could do the same thing in staff meetings.

25. Class agenda

Use a Padlet board to share every important date with your students so they have something to look forward to. These can be holidays and free days, field trips, school events and students' birthdays.

26. Free time funny videos

Having fun between two lessons should be allowed from time to time. Let your students add funny videos to a Padlet board. So every student can have some fun during the lesson breaks. Make sure to put in some rules and to check the videos on the wall.

27. Complete the story

Create a story and ask students how it should continue. Students can post their ideas on the Padlet. Finally, take some of your students' ideas and complete the story. You’ll have some funny stories!

28. Event Planning

When you’re planning a field trip or a class party, you can post everything you need to think about and to arrange on a Padlet board. This can include pictures of the destination, a list of who’s bringing what, links to important websites and more.

29. Crafty ideas

Share a Padlet wall with your teacher colleagues and let them post crafty ideas for father’s day, mother’s day, valentine’s day or just for the weekly craft class. This way you get inspired by other teachers and try out new things.

30. Bookmark with Padlet mini

Use

Padlet mini to bookmark interesting articles on the internet. That way, you won’t have to search for that article or creative ideas again. Most of the times you can’t find it again anyway. Create different Padlet boards like “Classroom management ideas”, “Classroom decoration ideas”, “educational apps to try out”, etc.

So now it’s your turn! How do you use Padlet? Let us now and contribute your ideas on this Padlet.

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Many scientists believe that knowledge of another language can boost your brainpower - so what are we waiting for - we should all be learning another language. But that's easier said than done as acquiring this new skill can be hard. 6 Minute English looks at the reasons for learning a new language and hears from an expert who has a tip for making it easier.

This week's question:

Approximately how many languages there are in the world altogether? Are there...

a) 70

b) 700

c) 7,000

Listen to the programme to find out the answer.

Vocabulary

master
learn thoroughly or learn well

fluent
speak well and without difficulty.

frequency
how often something occurs

inflections
changes to the basic form of words to show changes to the way they are used in a sentence

lemma
the simplest form or base form of a word

Transcript
Note: This is not a word for word transcript
Rob
Hello and welcome to 6 Minute English- the show that brings you an interesting topic, authentic listening practice and vocabulary to help you improve your language skills. I'm Rob...

Neil
Watashi no namae wa Neil desu. And that means 'my name's Neil'.

Rob
So Neil, here's a question for you - can you speak any languages other than English of course? I think you can!

Neil
Un poco de español that means a little bit of Spanish. Some Japanese, which I tried at the beginning and also a bit of Czech language - Dobrý den, jak se máš?

Rob
Very impressive. So what tips can you give for learning to speak another language?

Neil
Well, practise, practise, practise - and don't be afraid of making mistakes as I no doubt have.

Neil
Muy bien! Well you're not alone. A survey by the British Council found learning a language is a new year's resolution for about one in five Britons in 2018. So learning Spanish is a good start Rob but do you know approximately how many languages there are in the world altogether? Are there...

a) 70
b) 700
c) 7,000

Rob
Well I know there are many but surely not 7,000 so I'm going to say b) 700 - but don't expect me to learn all of them.

Neil
I won't Rob. But I will give you the answer later. So, we all know learning another language is a good thing - it brings us many benefits.

Rob
Yes, we can communicate with people from other countries and when we're travelling we can understand what signs and notices say. So we don't get lost.

Neil
That's right - but many scientists also believe that knowledge of another language can boost your brainpower. A study of monolingual and bilingual speakers suggests speaking two languages can help slow down the brain's decline with age.

Neil
Well this depends on your mother tongue. In general, the closer the second language is to the learner's native tongue and culture in terms of vocabulary, sounds or sentence structure - the easier it will be to learn.

Rob
But whatever the language, there is so much vocabulary to learn - you know, thousands and thousands of words.

Neil
Maybe not Rob. Professor Stuart Webb, a linguist from the University of Western Ontario, may be able to help you. He spoke to BBC Radio 4's More or Less programme and explained that you don't need to do that...

Rob
Right, and frequency here means the number of times something happens - so the important words to learn are the high frequency ones - and how many are there exactly?

Neil
Here's Professor Stuart Webb again...

Professor Stuart Webb, linguist, University of Western Ontario
For example, with English, I would suggest if you learn the 800 most frequent lemmas - which is a word and its inflections - that will account for about 75 per cent of all of the English language. So that learning those 800 words first will provide the foundation for which you may be able to learn the lower frequency words.

Rob
Fascinating stuff. And good to know I just need to learn about 800 words - or what he calls lemmas.

Rob
Thank goodness I am learning just one new language!

Neil
But how many languages could you potentially be learning Rob? Earlier I asked you, approximately how many languages there are in the world altogether? Are there...

a) 70
b) 700
c) 7,000

Rob
And I said 700. Was I right?

Neil
No Rob, you were wrong. There are around 7,000 recognised languages in the world but UNESCO has identified 2,500 languages which it claims are at risk of extinction.

Neil
To master a new skill, in this context, means to learn thoroughly or learn well. "Rob hopes to master Spanish before he starts a new job in Madrid."

Neil
That just leaves me to remind you that you can learn English with us at bbclearningenglish.com. That's it for today's 6 Minute English. We hope you enjoyed it. Bye for now. Na shledanou. Hasta luego. Ja-ne.

Rob
And in English, goodbye.

Neil
Goodbye.

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BBC Learning English - 6 Minute English / How do you learn to speak a language?

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Many scientists believe that knowledge of another language can boost your brainpower - so what are we waiting for - we should all be learning another language. But that's easier said than done as acquiring this new skill can be hard.

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HOW CREATIVE SHOULD WE  BE ?

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The World Economic Forum forecasts that by 2020, creativity will be in the top three most important skills for future jobs. This is particularly relevant for younger people who will be entering the world of work soon. BBC Learning English's very creative scriptwriter Rob and Neil discuss what it takes to be creative - and they also teach you related vocabulary.

This week's question

Banksy created a well-known piece of artwork that has been in the news recently. Do you know what it is called? Is it...

a) Girl with Balloon

b) Girl with Red Balloon

c) Balloon Girl

Listen to the programme to find out the answer.

Vocabulary

a creative (noun)
a person whose job is to use a lot of imagination and come up with new ideas, such as someone who works in the media or advertising

legitimately
describes doing something fairly and reasonably

think outside the box
find new ways of doing things

redress the balance
to make things fairer and more equal

lifeblood
the most important thing to make something a success

disparate
very different and unrelated

headspace
when your mind is in a good state and you can think clearly

Transcript
Note: This is not a word for word transcript
Rob
And hello, I'm Rob.

Neil
Now Rob, how creative are you?

Rob
Very creative, I think. Creativity is in my bones! Look at this wonderful script that I wrote and we're presenting right now.

Rob
Creativity is becoming more important for everyone. The World Economic Forum forecasts that by 2020, creativity will be in the top three most important skills for future jobs. This is particularly relevant for younger people who will be entering the world of work soon - and that's what we'll be discussing today. But before we do, Neil, have you created a question for us to answer?

Neil
Yes, and it's about the very creative artist Banksy. He created a well-known piece of artwork that has been in the news recently, but do you know what it is called? Is it...

a) Girl with Balloon

b) Girl with Red Balloon

c) Balloon Girl

Neil
OK, and we'll find out the answer later. But now back to our discussion about creativity. Experts say that students need to focus more on creativity to help them get a job. That's perhaps surprising in the UK, when some of our creative industries - that's businesses that make music, art and TV for example - are world famous. We are creative people, Rob!

Rob
Of course, but there's not such a focus on being creative in education now and that might have an effect in the future. It's something Bernadette Duffy, an early years consultant, has been discussing on BBC Radio 4's Bringing up Britain programme. What does she say we have been focusing too much on in schools?

Rob
So we mean things like problem solving. I guess, even tasks like data inputting and preparing spreadsheets can be approached creatively. In any job, it's sometimes good to 'think outside the box' or find new ways of doing things.

Neil
Rob, I can see creativity is in your blood - but on an everyday level how can we all improve our creativity - be more like you?!

Rob
Well, Neil, I'm no expert but Innovation Manager, Nick Skillicorn is. He's also been speaking to the BBC and explaining what we can do to help ourselves. What does he suggest?

Neil
Well, you certainly don't get your ideas sitting at a desk, focusing on one task - we all need some downtime to get creative. But children going into school now will grow up to do a job that doesn't yet exist. And faced with the challenges of AI, automation, green issues and an ageing population, creativity and imagination will be vital.

Rob
Right, well, let's get back to talking about the creativity of Banksy now.

Neil
Ah yes, because earlier I asked you which one of his well-known pieces of artwork has been in the news recently? Is it...

a) Girl with Balloon

b) Girl with Red Balloon

c) Balloon Girl

Rob
And I said c) Balloon Girl. I know it was a girl and a balloon.

Neil
Before we head off to find some headspace, don't forget to visit our website at bbclearningenglish.com for more great learning English content. That's all we have time for now. Do join us again though. Goodbye.

Rob
Bye bye!

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BBC Learning English - 6 Minute English / How creative should we be?

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The World Economic Forum forecasts that by 2020, creativity will be in the top three most important skills for future jobs. This is particularly relevant for younger people who will be entering the world of work soon. BBC Learning English's very creative scriptwriter Rob and Neil discuss what it takes to be creative - and they also teach you related vocabulary.

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LONELINESS

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We all live in an over-crowded world which is fast approaching eight billion people. Despite that many individuals feel alone and isolated. The BBC did a survey about loneliness involving 55,000 people from all over the world. Neil and Sam discuss the findings and teach you new vocabulary.

This week's question

Where is the most isolated inhabited place on the planet? That's the place furthest away from anywhere else with the fewest people living there. Is it:

a) McMurdo Station in Antarctica

b) Siwa Oasis in Egypt's Western Desert

c) The island of Tristan da Cunha in the South Atlantic

Listen to the programme to find out the answer.

Vocabulary

isolated
far away from other places and people

stereotype
a simplistic view of person or group based on certain characteristics such as nationality, age, profession

intensely
strongly

to be plagued by something
to be tormented by something; to have it causing you problems and difficulties

figure something out
try to understand something

to regulate
to control

Transcript
Note: This is not a word for word transcript
Sam
And I'm Sam.

Neil
Does that mean then, do you think, that you can't be lonely here, with all these people around and all these things to do?

Neil
Well, loneliness is today's topic. The BBC has just completed a big survey about it which we will learn more about shortly. But first, of course, a question: Where is the most isolated inhabited place on the planet - by which I mean the place furthest away from anywhere else with the fewest people living there. Is it:

a) McMurdo Station in Antarctica

b) Siwa Oasis in Egypt's Western Desert, or is it

c) the island of Tristan da Cunha in the South Atlantic

What do you think, Sam?

Sam
I've got absolutely no idea, so this is just a guess - I think it's the one in Antarctica. I'm going to go with that.

Neil
Well, we'll have the answer later on in the programme. Loneliness is seen as a big problem for the mental health of the population, so much so that the British government has a minister for loneliness. But which age group suffers most from loneliness. Here is a BBC report about the research.

James Gallagher, BBC Health and science correspondent
There is a common stereotype that loneliness affects only the old and the isolated. It does, but what this experiment also shows is that loneliness is felt throughout life. People aged between 16 and 24 experience loneliness more often and more intensely than any other age group.

Neil
So according to the research, Sam, which section of society is most affected by loneliness?

Sam
This might be a surprise, but it's 16 to 24 year olds.

Neil
I was surprised by that because like many, I would've guessed that it was older people.

The reporter did say that that was a stereotype. A stereotype is nothing to do with stereo music, but it's the noun we use to describe a very simple and basic judgement of someone and their character and personality based on their age, nationality, profession and so on. So a stereotype of British people is that we can't cook, we have bad teeth, we are very reserved and never say what we mean.

Neil
The reporter goes on to give some explanation for why young people might be more lonely.

James Gallagher, BBC Health and science correspondent
Researchers from the University of Manchester who analysed the data, suggested feeling lonely may plague the young because it's a time of identity change. Figuring out your place in the world and of learning to regulate emotions.

a) McMurdo Station in Antarctica

b) Siwa Oasis in Egypt's Western Desert or

c) the island of Tristan da Cunha in the South Atlantic

What did you say, Sam?

Sam
I said a).

Neil
Well, I'm afraid to say the answer is actually c) the island of Tristan da Cunha in the South Atlantic. It has a population of fewer than 300 and it's only accessible by a 6-day voyage by ship from South Africa.

Sam
So not a popular place for a weekend break!

Neil
Intensely means strongly.

Neil
Well, sadly, that's the end of the programme. Hopefully you won't feel too lonely without us, remember we are always here on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, our App and of course the website bbclearningenglish.com. See you soon. Goodbye.

Sam
Bye!

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BBC Learning English - 6 Minute English / Loneliness

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Can people feel lonely in a crowded place?

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BBC Learning English - Course: The Grammar Gameshow / Unit 1

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PHONOMIC CHART

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About the chart

Pure vowels are arranged the same way as in the IPA chart: according to mouth shape (left to right, lips wide / round - top to bottom, jaw closed / open).

Diphthongs are grouped in rows according to their second sound.

Try some pronunciation activities

Downloads

You can download a non-interactive image version of the British Council's phonemic chart below.

Sounds Right app

The interactive phonemic chart is available for you to download from the Google Play store for Android devices or the App store for Apple devices. Find out more about the interactive mobile app version of the phonemic chart

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About the chart Pure vowels are arranged the same way as in the IPA chart: according to mouth shape (left to right, lips wide / round - top to bottom, jaw closed / open). Diphthongs are grouped in rows according to their second sound. Try some pronunciation activities Telephone number pronunciation What's the pronunciation?

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KIDS CLASSROOM RULES (from BBC)
We have a fantastic new range of motivating and colourful classroom rules posters for your primary classroom. Our posters are available to download in four colourful themes, all featuring characters from our LearnEnglish Kids website.

These posters are designed to be used on your classroom walls with young learners aged between 5 and 12 years old. This Under the sea theme poster comes with speech bubbles completed giving five key classroom rules:

Speak in English

Listen to your teacher and you classmates

Try your best

Put your hand up when you want to speak

Respect each other

Classroom activity - create your own rules poster

We also have a blank version of the under the sea poster. Print copies of this out and give it to your students as a first class activity.

Ask your students to work in pairs and fill in the blank speech bubbles with their own ideas about what they think the five golden classroom rules are. Put the students' completed under the seaposters around the classroom and ask everyone in the class to vote on the best five... or ten... or twenty!

Our under the sea poster is designed to help you in the classroom and remind your students about how to behave in class. All our themes are bright, colourful and kids will love them.

Download and print your own under the sea poster below.

Why not have a look at our other themes:

In the jungle

Among the planets

Space ship

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WHY WE LIKE SOME WORDS MORE THAN THE OTHERS?

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Language: why we like some words more than others | ELT Academia

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When we listen to a foreign language, we may hear sounds which do not exist in our mother tongue, and may sound different from anything we have ever heard before. The first time we hear something new, a foreign sound or word - even an unknown word in our own languages - something in it may provoke delight or revulsion.