How to Create a Grammar Board with Padlet

Padlet is a great tool for creating a simple grammar board for students. I have to come clean: I hadn't used Padlet for a long time, and I recently came back to it because some of my colleagues love it. So I'm definitely coming at this as a novice. But that might actually be a useful perspective because I was surprised by how easy it was to create something useful. In fact, after making my first board, I thought, "I need to start using this more."

For my grammar board, I created a series of posts. Each post has a short grammar video, an explanation below it, and a prompt asking students to use the grammar themselves. Students can then leave their examples in the comments. Padlet also makes the board easy to share. You can give students a link, control who has access, and even add a password if you don't want random people getting into the board.

Creating a grammar post is pretty simple:

1. Create a new post. Open your Padlet board and click to add a new post.
2. Add a video. You can paste in a link to a video you've already made. In my example, I added a Loom video explaining past participles.
3. Add the grammar explanation. Paste the key information below the video so students have something they can read and refer to.
4. Add a prompt. For example, you might write, Add a sentence using the grammar.
5. Publish the post. Students can watch the video, read the explanation, and then add their own sentences in the comments.

What I especially like is how you can combine tools. You can record a quick grammar explanation in Loom, put that video into Padlet, add the important information underneath, and then finish with a task for the students. Instead of the video just being something students watch, it becomes the starting point for an activity. Students can post their own examples, and you can respond to what they write.

This is really just scratching the surface of Padlet. I know a lot of teachers use it for vocabulary and many other types of activities as well. I'm using a free account here, so you can already do quite a bit without paying. I'm certainly not a Padlet expert yet, but after trying it again, I can see why so many teachers like it. If you already use Padlet with your students, I'd love to hear how you use it.