Individual Whiteboards

Though utilizing questions can be a very effective formative assessment strategy, when a teacher asks a question that is answered by one student, the rest of the class can use the opportunity to tune out.  Not if you use individual whiteboards (or mini-whites as those in my department call them).  I have seen these used to great effect in math and English classes; however, they could be used in any class.  For more info, check out this link.  To create inexpensive whiteboards, Dave Carroll, a teacher at my site showed us plastic sheet protectors with a piece of white paper inside.  They can be written on and erased, but if you want to put one on the overhead, you just remove the paper inside: instant transparency.  Brilliant and so easy.

The video below is of a Spanish teacher using whiteboards with her class.