The love affair between teachers and stationery is well documented; a free pot of pens at a teaching conference is enough to get a staffroom positively salivating. It is no surprise, then, that Scandinavian high street chain Flying Tiger Copenhagen (think Ikea for knick-knacks) has had school staff abuzz with its latest offering: a “giant Post-it Note”.

It’s not just teachers that appear to have fallen for the warm glow of the repositionable note. Invented by Art Fry as a way to stop his bookmark falling out of his hymn book, the Post-it has since become ubiquitous in offices and on desks across the nation. Given that the manufacturer of the original and trademarked Post-it Note, 3M, now reportedly produces 50 billion every year, you can perhaps see why Fry was led to declare: “What we have here isn’t just a bookmark. It’s a whole new way to communicate.”

Whether you agree with such hyperbole or not, the possibilities for this sunny-coloured little addition to your classroom are vast. Here are 10 do-now classroom activities to convince you that Post-its are the most versatile tool in the teacher’s stationery drawer.

1. Annotation of textbooks and literature

As budgets tighten still further, you can avoid the cost of replacing texts or asking students to buy their own by using Post-its as a substitute for annotation directly onto the page. These notes also act as bookmarks to support student revision, flagging key pages.

2. Spider-web comparison

A tried-and-tested activity, this was born out of the challenge of getting GCSE English literature students to hold connections between 15 poems in their heads. By using string and Blu Tack to create a link between the titles of two poems placed around the edges of two desks, they create a visual map of connections. Each connection is explained via a Post-it folded around the string. In an age in which some worry that all learning and progress must be “logged”, there is a particular joy to be had in destroying the webs at the end of the lesson.

3. Feedback flags

Marking has rightly been under the spotlight in terms of its impact on workload compared with its output in relation to student progress; for a long time, there’s been an underlying sense that teachers have been working harder than their students. The answer to this in many schools has been to create a feedback policy that puts students’ responses to feedback front and centre.

However, what has not had quite so much attention to date is the nitty gritty of exactly how to get a full class of students responding. I’ve found with some classes that simply finding my comments in their books has been a job in itself; if you’re not careful, the process of checking that there has been a response can be almost as much work as the marking itself.

One potential solution to this is to use Post-it flags to show students where their response is required - and then only allowing them to remove the flag once they’ve done what has been asked. Absentees can easily be spotted and there’s far less wriggle room for the reluctant.

4. Essay planning

To avoid essays structured in a stream-of-consciousness style, and to underline the importance of argument, get students to write their key ideas on Post-its and then move them around on their desk until they are in a logical order. If desirable, the notes can then be stuck down, and additional evidence and information added to the plan.

5. Teacher feedback during written tasks

Feedback at the point of writing presents some challenge, which can go on to improve the final outcome. But it can feel horribly disruptive to stop a student to discuss their work when they’re in full flow. Post-it prompts can be discretely stuck on a student’s desk for them to read and respond to when appropriate.

6. Crowdsourcing starters

This is a great, quick way to recap prior learning or to quickly engage all students in high-level discussion. Ask a question and give two or more options on the board. Students then explain their choice on the Post-it and stick it under their choice to create an argument and counterargument with multiple justifications.

7. Exit tickets

Want to see how much has been understood or retained by the end of the lesson? Create a plenary task or question that can be responded to on a Post-it. Then ask students to stick their responses on the board as they leave. Alternatively, write the headings “Red”, “Amber” and “Green” on the board (or smiley, wiggly, sad faces) and ask students to self-assess their own progress against the learning outcomes, giving their reasoning to their Post-it Note. With either option, just don’t forget to remind them to add their name. 

8. Condensing information

When students have been given a large amount of information, you can use a Post-it to develop their ability to use brevity and succinctness through summary. This also forces them to evaluate what they see as the most significant aspects of that information.

9. Gallery plenary

I’m not a great fan of peer assessment, but one of the few approaches that has worked well for me has been the gallery plenary. Each student is given Post-its to place on the work of others with feedback. This works best when the note is placed on or near the line being commented on, with arrows encouraged. The Post-it Note format means that the writer is free to retain the feedback by gluing it in their book if needed or removing it if they didn’t find it helpful.

10. The Rizla game

One head of English, Sarah Barker, reminded me of this old party-game favourite in which a cigarette paper with a name on is stuck onto your forehead. Hilarity (apparently) then ensues while you have to guess who you are. Not one I’ve tried in the classroom, but I can easily see how it could be used for revision of characters in literary texts, but also other content that requires students to recall specifics. 

Caroline Spalding is director of English at Tupton Hall School in Chesterfield