Student: LUSELLA, HAZEL JOY A.

CHALKBOARDS

Chalkboards are reusable writing surface on which text or drawings are

made. It is mainly used for teaching purposes in educational institutions and is
intended to make the teaching and learning process more engaging and
effective. Thus, chalkboards are purposely designed for the teachers and the
students in a classroom setting.
Chalkboards can simply be a board painted with a dark matte paint
which is usually black or green. Matte black plastic sign material known as
closed-cell PVC foamboard is used to create custom chalkboard art. For
classroom uses, the usual size of the board may be as large as 120" x 48". A
more modern variation consists of a coiled sheet of plastic drawn across two
parallel rollers, which can be scrolled to create additional writing space while
saving what has been written. The highest-grade blackboards are made of
rougher version porcelain enameled. Porcelain is very hard wearing and
blackboards made of porcelain usually last 10–20 years in intensive use.
Chalkboards are purposely designed not just for teachers, but also the
students. Teachers use chalkboards during classroom discussions through
board works in order to stimulate students' interest and increase their
attention span.
Using chalkboards in teaching improves teaching effectiveness,
classroom management and student academic success. Writing on a
chalkboard makes it easier to control the pace of lecture since it encourages
writing while talking and also when giving a task that requires instruction at a
moderate speed which could result to effective teaching. Chalkboard
instruction assists classroom management because it keeps students’ attention
since students that see teachers construct diagrams on a chalkboard, witness
the process of turning written information into visual information are more
engaged in the teaching and learning process. Teaching with chalk is especially
an advantage for teachers of students with mixed learning abilities because
writing information on a chalkboard helps teachers take visible cues from
students in which teachers can immediately address students’ body language
and facial expressions that suggest confusion about the material.
Figure 1. Chalkboard