Peardeck is an add-on via google slides. As the teacher, you take a normal google slideshow and add different opportunities to respond to slides that you select. The formats of response are: multiple choice, written response, draggable, numerical response and drawing slide. In my math classroom, I’ve most frequently used the drawing slide. I like that I can see student responses in live time.
Peardeck also allows the teacher to star student responses (example of responses in picture) and then anonymously present those to the class. I gave students the problem 3x + 6 = 18 or 3(x+2) = 18 last week and I wanted them to realize they could solve it in two ways. All the student responses I saw solved it by first subtracting 6. So I quickly wrote down the solution of dividing by 3 as the first step. I anonymously presented my solution and told the class about this super awesome creative incredible student who came up with this other method. They thought I was being very silly. I eventually revealed my identity.
One challenge to Peardeck is it is challenging to grade students on participation. Each slide shows a list of students who have not yet answered the question. It’s easiest to note those not participating as you go along, but that is one more thing to keep track of during the lesson.
I like that Peardeck gives an option to have the lesson be teacher paced or student paced. I’ve turned on student paced when we hit a series of practice problems and I want kids to be able to go at their own speed. It’s also been helpful when I wanted them to be able to go back and forth between two slides to check their work.
Peardeck sounds like a great way to keep kids engaged, and I like that you're able to see their work live. I feel like this could help with holding students accountable for participating. It's similar to using a whiteboard to solve problems, but this is digital and allows you to really see what they're doing, what mistakes or misconceptions that might have, and I love that it allows you to show an individual student's work anonymously in front of the class. That's something I've really missed about being in person, is showing a student's work under my document camera, so that other students can see strategies they might not have thought of using, but that work all the same! I've never heard of this tool before, thanks for sharing!
ReplyDelete- Courtney Cunningham
You should look it up! It is fairly easy to learn and my students have really liked it. I think it's much more engaging than having students complete the lesson on a pdf writing platform. Preparing the pear deck also makes me think more carefully about how I want to teach certain concepts in the lesson.
DeleteI appreciated you mentioning the importance of sharing students' work with their peers. I think there is a lot of pride when students see their work displayed as the exemplar.
DeleteHello, Grace!
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing your experience with Peardeck. I use the free version of Peardeck but it seems pretty limiting. It sounds like the premium version is the way to go! That is awesome your district supplied that for everyone. Because your district purchased it for all the teachers did you have a professional development on Peardeck too? I feel like that would be the best way to go about it. Thanks again for sharing!
-- Hannah Ball
Yes! Optional synchronous professional development was offered and asynchronous is available. I have found pear deck has some great easy to understand resources on their website. That has been my go to so far.
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