Blog Posts

Think, Make, Innovate: Creating Questions

1/4/2021

Good questions are at the heart of good instruction. They are also at the heart of creativity. This month we would like to encourage you to create questions that will get your students thinking and creating! Go a step further and write questions that you might use while students are creating so you are prepared to ask thought-provoking questions!

Question Stems

GWAEA has an amazing Critical Thinking Flipbook that provides a huge bank of questioning stems. We particularly love the Creative page! You can find this printable flipbook here.

Student Questions

Benton Community students wrote their own questions to ask one another while making! We love the responsibility and community this can help build! Learn more about their Maker Mentor Program here.

We'd love to see what you make!

We'd love to see the questions and prompts you share with your students! Please share them with us @DLGWAEA on social media or email us at makerspace@gwaea.org

And as always...

#HaveFunMaking
~Mindy and Amber

0 Comments

Pear Deck in the Classroom

12/17/2020

0 Comments

This blog series has examined the how-tos of Pear Deck, digging into the process and the application in a variety of situations. To bring the series to a close we offer to you a variety of examples of Pear Deck in ‘real’ life. These examples have been gleaned from Twitter with the #peardeck hashtag and we offer them to you as a starting point.

Pear Deck and Student Reflection

Laurie Foss, 5th grade teacher, has paired Pear Deck with student reflection. This combination is a powerful tool to for individual student reflection as well as whole class understanding. Laurie introduced the "Learning Pit" to her students as a way of describing their own learning process. Using pear deck - students added a dot to their place in the pit. She followed that with a graphic of the 4 stations and asked which of the stations they struggled with the most. This data helped her plan as a teacher. It also helped students understand the learning process for the entire class.

Finally, she asked for feedback from student about the process - which stations helped and which were a struggle.

The options for reflection and discussion in pear Deck transformed this process. Being able to share student responses anonymously opened the door to conversations in a completely new way.

There are many, many different ways to use the drawing question with students. Check out these examples with an open mind. How could you use a drawing question in your own classroom situation?

Drawing Questions

Math teacher, Hannah Hale uses Pear Deck to ask her students to review and show their learning. The drawing response gives students that option.

Not every student has access to math manipulatives at home. The Irvine Math Project from the University of California, Irvine opens the door wide open with this group of 4th grade students - allowing them to solve with illustrations of their own.

These two examples demonstrate different ways of solving the same problem. Giving students an opportunity to explain their thinking is key - and these illustrations show that progression perfectly! The one of the left is from 8th grade Math teacher David A. Trez, nd the right is from a Kindergarten classroom in Texas.

Drawing options are not just for math. This is an interesting take on a music lesson from Ms. Munson, a MS music teacher. Students add their own note drawings to demonstrate a percussion rhythm.

Drawing also adds to class discussions in Language Arts. Above are two examples of illustrations depicting student understanding of images from text. Ms. Burns teaches in Canada and the Cyclops drawings come from Strongsville, Ohio.

More than just Drawing

Another example comes from a 9th grade teacher, Ms Jones. Ms. Jones' class uses color to annotate in Language Arts. Be sure to click on the actual link here to see a video, scrolling through all the student responses.

Ms. Zehr, a high school librarian uses Pear Deck for scavenger hunts.

Especially in Covid times, there is a heightened need for Social Emotional Learning options in our classrooms. Fifth grade teacher, Stevie Frank includes popular "either or" choices into a Pear Deck to help students get to know one another as well as checking in with them.

And Finally...

Pear Deck brings out both the generosity and the creativity in teachers! This seasonal 'Find the Hidden Objects' activity was created by a 7th grade teacher named Karie. She used this image with her class as an attendance bell-ringer. And then shared then shared it as a google slide for anyone to use.

Dalton Tedder, a 7th grade math teacher, has taken this a step farther and created a series of slide deck templates. Some are timely, like this Grinch example, and others are more timeless. Each includes question placeholders and is very open for teachers to add their own content. Use this link to connect to the Google Drive folder

Our hope is that this blog series has provided you with food for thought and examples to move your use of Pear Deck forward. Do not be afraid to share your examples with the #peardeck hashtag on twitter. Or send them our way, we love to show off what is happening in classrooms across Grant Wood Area Education Agency!

Additional Resources
DLGWAEA's Pear Deck One-Pager
DLGWAEA's Pear Deck Handbook
Edtech Take Out: Episode 81: Perfect Pear Deck Presentations

Connect With Us
We'd love to hear how you are using Pear Deck. Please share with us in the comments!

~Amber, Beth, & Mindy

0 Comments

Empowering Students: Utilizing Flipgrid for Student Feedback Teams

12/15/2020

0 Comments

Over the last month, we have discussed how students can become more engaged, self-directed, and responsible for their learning. We’ve shared ideas of how to get started with these ideas.

As a quick refresher of the past episodes...

First, we introduced students self-assessing using a single-point rubric. This helps students become more self-directed and reflective in their learning, which, in turn, helps promote motivation. Then, using the single-point rubric as a guide, students record evidence of their learning in a digital portfolio. Using portfolios places the responsibility on the student to reflect and communicate their understanding. In addition, using a single-point rubric keeps the focus on specific parts of the learning and makes the process less overwhelming. Next, we shared resources to build student feedback teams. This step has a strong emphasis on the building and less on the feedback. Even as adults we know that one must have solid working relationships with those that are providing feedback for it to be effective. These long-term teams need to be developed over time before they can be utilized.
Finally, we are partnering student feedback teams with a digital tool, Flipgrid, to make feedback attainable anywhere and at any time. After students have documented their learning within their student portfolio, the conversation is just beginning. Students can share their learning with peers by creating a screen recording explaining their artifact. Student feedback teams are created by the teacher in the Flipgrid dashboard. Students share and provide feedback within these pre-created groups. Teachers are able to moderate and monitor student responses. Below you will find more in-depth details about how to use Flipgrid with your students in student feedback teams.

Recording Your Screen

A great opportunity you have by using Flipgrid as your tool is the opportunity to record your screen. This functionality allows you take the portfolio that you created in Google Slides, that we mentioned earlier on in the series, or any other creation tool and share it and also explaining your perspective of that digital artifact.

Once you click on Record a Response on your Flipgrid, click on the triple dots Options next to your Record button. Here you'll find Record Your Screen. From here you can choose to record your entire screen, a Chrome tab, or an application window. After you create your screen recording, you'll get the opportunity to do some simple video editing to shine up your video response.
Watch the video below for all the steps towards getting your digital artifact shared.

Creating Groups

Groups in Flipgrid keep student feedback teams private and easily accessible. Creating groups allows the teacher to provide a small group space for students to share their learning and gain feedback from their team in a safe space. Teachers are also able to moderate videos, as needed.

Create a Topic: The teacher will want to create an overarching topic for student feedback teams. For example, let’s call the topic: Feedback teams.
Turn on Video Moderation: Especially if you are just getting started with feedback teams on Flipgrid, you may want to turn on video moderation. This will allow you to view videos before approving them to be seen by the teams. As you become more comfortable and get to know the team dynamics better, you can turn this off for a more immediate feedback experience.

Create a Group: These groups will each need to be named and will be private to the members of the group, but will fall under the one overarching topic.
Invite Members by email address or password
Add Topics: Since you created a topic before organizing your small groups, you can choose the ‘Feedback Teams’ topic from the drop-down menu.

Stickies and Backgrounds

STICKIES
One of the hidden gems in Flipgrid is sticky notes! One of the issues when creating a video is where to put your notes. Sticky notes to the rescue.

Step 1: Student jots down notes as they interact with another student’s work
Step 2: Student opens the Flipgrid topic and clicks “Record a Response”
Step 3: In the top right corner there are two icons - the top (book) will open the original topic video the other opens a sticky note.
Step 4: Student would type or paste the feedback notes into the sticky. This can be moved around the screen AND like magic it does not appear on the final student response!

Why would this be helpful?
Not everyone feels comfortable just talking on the screen, sticky notes eliminates some of the jitters around filming. It would also help with remembering key points and details - adding specificity to the feedback.

BACKGROUNDS
Although our teens live in the digital world, many would prefer not to have their faces recorded for class work. Flipgrid has them covered as well! With one click they can convert their image into a a lego block or a pixelated lock

Step 1: Student opens the Flipgrid topic and clicks “Record a Response”
Step 2: Click on Effects and Filters
Step 3: Choose the Lego block or the pixelated options to blur your face
Step 4: Explore the other options to be able to add stickers, or frames or even a board where you could type out the points to be made in your feedback

Why would this be helpful?
Feedback depends on trust and comfort between peers. Being able to customize your video and add your own personal flair helps that connection. On the flip side, if students are self-conscious about their home environment or themselves, being able to blur details may help them be more honest in their on screen feedback.

An Additional Gem!

Wakelet is a bookmarking tool that allows you to save anything with a link. It can be used in a variety of ways! Wakelet takes bookmarking one step further by integrating Flipgrid 'Shorts'. Because of these additional tools, Wakelet could also be used as a student portfolio. This could be a powerful way for students to add voice and feedback!

0 Comments

Pear Deck in a Blended Classroom

12/14/2020

0 Comments

And a Pear Deck in a Classroom. A December Blog Series Pear Deck in a Blended Classroom

The goal of a blended classroom is to work to personalize instruction for students. This is a lofty goal and there are many levels of personalization. We focus on providing more student control of pace, place and path as an entry point so that teachers’ time is freed up to connect with small groups or individual students. It is sometimes hard to visualize how a classroom can be transformed from a traditional model to a blended model. The student-paced mode in Pear Deck is the perfect tool to begin that transformation.

Student paced mode is basically a playlist. Think of a playlist as a GPS that guides the student through the learning. The path the GPS follows will be the same for all students, but the pace will vary depending on the student. The nice thing about Pear Deck is that the voice of the GPS is yours!
How does that work? As the teacher you will create the Pear Deck that leads the class through the learning. These steps lead you through the process.

Create the slide deck in Google Slides of the content - I would start with the same slide deck you have used previously, or at least the same progression you have used for creating slides. Make sure you add links to outside sources, video clips and bulleted slides of information.
After the basic slide deck is created:

Step back and think about the questions you would want students to answer or reflect on to show they are interacting and learning the content. Use the Pear Deck ‘Ask Students A Question’ options to add specific question types.
Add check in points. Where in the content do you need students to check in with you or with a peer to make sure they are on the right path? Add a slide to remind students to sign up to check in with you. Or, add a SEL template slide to see responses from the entire class.
Need to explain something in more detail? Add Audio to slides where your words would help clarify the process or assignment or ask the probing question in your words

3.  Give clear deadlines and expectations to students. Before students begin to work at their one pace, make sure that you have clearly defined what you expect of them, and when this entire module is due. You should also remind students that you will be interrupting them during their work time to connect with small groups or individuals.

Now the magic can happen. After all the work of creating the Pear Deck and getting the students going you can see everything in real time.

By opening the Teacher Dashboard you can see what students are doing. You are able to see which slide each of the students is working on and the responses to the questions. That is very helpful from a management standpoint. Seeing the slides in real time provides a little more classroom control. But, Pear Deck doesn’t stop there. In addition to seeing what is happening, the teacher is also able to provide feedback to the students in real time.

In a blended classroom we talk often about the need for feedback in two ways - it should be in a timely manner and it needs to be able to drive instruction forward. That seems impossible in a traditional setting and somewhat overwhelming in most classrooms. But, Pear Deck allows both of these to happen in one!

As a student moves at his/her own pace, the teacher can see their work and add encouragement, ask additional questions, or interject a new thought. Both the student and the teacher can see where the learning is progressing at the same moment. That is a powerful opportunity!!

What does this actually look like?

Open the Teacher Dashboard
Move to a slide which has students’ responses to a question.
Click on the grid view

You see each of the students’ slides side by side.
Click on the speech bubble below a specific student’s slide and leave a comment.
Or click on the star to show that you support their work.

Student response view

When you leave a comment the student gets a grayed speech bubble on whichever slide they are working on to indicate that there is a message from the teacher. When they click on the bubble the message appears, including the slide that the feedback was connected with.

One additional note: This feedback lives only in the student-paced mode, not in the Takeaways. Students will see their responses to all questions in the Takeaways, but not teacher comments. Both student and teacher will be able to access comments as long as the student-paced Pear Deck is still open. If the student has closed down the presentation - they have only to log back in with the same code and the comments will be available.

Personalization continues to be a bit of a ‘holy grail’ for classrooms. The need to both interact with students and provide them with their own path has been a barrier for teachers, and blending technology and various instructional models seems more attainable. But, the options embedded in a basic student-paced Pear Deck change all that. Being able to add interactivity with ease and comment to students work in real time transforms the process! It is safe to say, the possibility of personalized learning through playlists comes a step closer through the use of Pear Deck.

Additional Resources
DLGWAEA's Pear Deck One-Pager
DLGWAEA's Pear Deck Handbook
Edtech Take Out: Episode 81: Perfect Pear Deck Presentations

Connect With Us
We'd love to hear how you are using Pear Deck. Please share with us in the comments!

~Amber, Beth, & Mindy

0 Comments

Pear Deck Blog Series: Takeaways

12/10/2020

0 Comments

Graphic of And A Pear Deck in a Classroom Blog Series titled Takeaways

Special Note: This blog is about the Premium Pear Deck Feature of Takeaways™ in Pear Deck.
All Grant Wood AEA Schools have access to the Premium version of Pear Deck.
🛠Important Note:You do need to enable Takeaways at Peardeck.com under My Account → Settings.

Pear Deck Takeaways™ are this great little present that you can offer your students after they have had the experience of a Pear Deck. When you end a Pear Deck session, you can choose to publish Takeaways to your students. If you check this box, it will deliver an individual Google Doc that includes images of each of the slides of the Pear Deck along with the responses that the student entered, as the picture below shows.

Image of a Pear Deck Takeaway that has the slide on one slide and the responses on the other

You would use Takeaways when you want to be able to offer students:

access to the content that was presented in class
a record of their work within the Pear Deck

Takeaways includes a copy of all of the slides and any links you’ve included in your Pear Deck as you can see below in the image from the Takeaway Doc.

Image of a Takeaways Doc with a Picture of the slide on one side and the links on the other

There is so much potential with the use of the Takeaways. So, let’s consider some ways that we can keep engaging in the learning with Pear Deck Takeaways when you set-up your Pear Deck as...

Pre/Post Assessment. Pre-assessments can be great ways to help teachers better understand what your students know. Allowing students to access the answers from a pre-assessment through a Takeaway can help them to self-reflect as the unit progresses and focus in on areas where they need assistance. You, as the teacher could refer to the Takeaways throughout the unit of study by either having students use the Takeaway as they are learning about that piece OR have students be reflective and add to their responses directly on the Takeaway after completing different lessons.
Homework. Use a Pear Deck to deliver the lesson and add on some Pear Deck Interactives for students to complete on their own. This way, students will be able to access any of the materials you presented as you shared information to assist them with their Homework. Plus with the Teacher Dashboard, you can get a sneak peak into your students’ work. Close the session before class begins. *Note that Pear Deck says it can take up to an hour to send the Takeaway, so don’t put it off until right before! However we have not had it take more than a few minutes. When students come into class, you could structure the class to use the Takeaway in different stations to help them expand on or review different content. Have students use the commenting feature built within Google Docs to bring the Takeaway into an interactive document with you or other students.
Content Review. Whether you facilitate it as a whole group, in-class review in Instructor-Paced Mode or self-paced review or practice assessment in Student-Paced Mode, Pear Deck can be a powerful tool to check on students’ understanding of the content. When you close the session and send the Takeaway to your students, they can use it as a review guide to help the students prepare for the test. With the side-by-side view of the slide and their answer, students could even print off the Takeaway and fold the paper in half to create a physical flashcard.

Bonus Ideas! Consider this:

Standards-Based Grading: Do you ask your students to provide evidence of learning for different standards? Use the record that is provided within the Takeaway.
Parent Teacher Conferences: Share examples of Takeaways at Parent-Teacher conferences to help parents better understand what their child is working on in class. Did you know that each teacher gets a copy of all of the Takeaways shared in their Drive?

*Slide Deck shown in Takeaways was created by Lori Price & Kristan Hunter from Mid-Prairie Schools

Additional Resources
DLGWAEA's Pear Deck One-Pager
DLGWAEA's Pear Deck Handbook
Edtech Take Out: Episode 81: Perfect Pear Deck Presentations

Connect With Us
We'd love to hear how you are using Pear Deck. Please share with us in the comments!

~Amber, Beth, & Mindy

0 Comments

Empowering Students: Student Feedback Teams

12/8/2020

0 Comments

In a time when we are feeling overconnected to our devices and disconnected from one another, it is immensely important to establish and foster the relationships of our students with one another. It has become glaringly obvious how reliant our learning can be on the discussions we have with one another. As educators, we know that the more our students talk about their learning, the more powerful the experience becomes. Even in face-to-face environments, it may have been difficult to establish a classroom culture that thrived on students discussing their learning. In hybrid and virtual classrooms, this may seem practically impossible. But yet, there’s hope. In a time when nothing is normal, maybe it is time to try something new-- to build something different for our students that will provide a variety of opportunities for the future of their learning and also offer a space for students to feel connected and accepted. These relationships, however, are not built in a day and will progress through a variety of stages before becoming a successful factor in the learning process.

Student Feedback Teams (or Covid Cohorts) are teams created for the long haul. These are not the on-the-fly work groups created to perform a given task, but long term groups created to bridge the need for social learning that often disappears in our virtual and hybrid environments. The purpose of this team will ultimately be for peer feedback. But that can’t happen immediately. Just like many things in school, this takes time. And when try to cut time the results do not meet our expectations.

Student Feedback Teams can function in many ways. The primary focus will be as a place for students to connect with one another and work through or discuss a learning task and provide feedback to one another on their work. This is not "group project" work, where the task is divided between students, rather this is a space for reflection and deeper conversation about the learning. This team provides a way for groups of students to move their learning forward, releasing the teacher from that role. In effect, Student Feedback Teams is a way of handing some of the learning back to student groups.

It may be helpful to think of these Student Feedback teams through the lens of a sport team. In a basketball team, each player knows their roles and responsibilities. Their place on the team is built on their personal strengths, and they practice and hone their skills through that lens. Thinking about the Student Feedback Teams, the teams should be created with that in mind. Including students with a variety of strengths to work together to form a functioning team.

For Student Feedback Teams to be successful, there must be student buy-in. Students need to have a voice in the creation of the teams. That means including some student choice. After explaining the goals and process of the Student Feedback Team ask students to name one person in the classroom they would choose to be on a work with an another student they would struggle to work with. Use that data to create teams.

This visual was created for a presentation in one of the districts we support. It illustrates key components in a strong team, snuggly fitting together as pieces of a puzzle. Each piece is vitally important for the team to function to its full potential. Of all the pieces, TIME may be the most important. This is true because time is in the such short supply in most classrooms and because it will take time for teams to grow together.

Helping students understand the commitment to a long term team is vitally important. Based on research from psychologist, Bruce Tuckman, teams go through specific stages: Forming, Storming, Norming and Performing. Knowing about more about each stage helps the teacher support students in each team.

During the forming stage students tend to be very polite to one another as they get to know each other better. The feedback at this stage will be very surface level, lots of "good job." Students may be self-conscious and hesitant to be honest and open - or be overly honest and open. The team isn't a team, just a group of individuals sitting in the same place. That will change as they move into the storming stage. In this phase students begin vying for their place in the group. They are trying to figure out their roles, some tending toward over involvement and some checking out. Members are getting on one another's nerves and feedback may be very negative at this stage. Students may ask to be removed or have someone else removed from the group during this phase. It is very important for the teacher to be present, but not in charge. Providing a framework or protocol for students to help them focus on the job at hand, rather than personalities is essential at this stage.

Most groups will work through the storming stage and enter the norming stage. It is helpful to think again of a sporting team. Each person on the basketball team knows their position and the team works best when there is trust and respect between players. The same is true in the norming stage. Student Feedback Teams are building on one another's strengths, trusting and respecting one another. Feedback at this stage becomes more specific, helping one another move learning forward. It is important to note that many teams will move back and forth between storming and norming, just as most adult teams do.

Performing is the final stage. In this stage all the moving parts fit together well. Students are working to their potential, problem solving and moving forward. This is the epitome of group dynamics, and to be honest, many groups do not get to this stage. That is ok. Give your student and yourself grace if the Student Feedback Teams don't make it to the performing stage.

A teacher's role in this process is to be very aware of the stage each team is and nudge them toward the next phase. It is difficult to not 'save' a storming team. Handing the responsibility to students is all part of the Student Feedback Team task. How exactly does a teacher do that?

We’ve all tried getting students to give feedback to each other. And it may not have always gone as expected. You may have seen students end up with 10 post-its that read “I like your project.” Even in classes for adults, leaving the door wide open with no parameters is an overwhelming prospect. The giver of feedback asking “What do I say?” The receiver of feedback wondering “What am I supposed to do with this?”. If you haven’t set up your teams to firmly establish that you are giving feedback on the work, not the person, it can seem personal, or not specific, or helpful in moving someone forward. Feedback needs to aim towards improving understanding by helping students to focus where they are currently at and offer avenues to improve. By incorporating other students in the process, it empowers students to be active in the learning process in the classroom. A student’s voice is powerful when we as educators allow it to be. Students can explain things in ways that teachers can’t to other students. As teachers, we need to establish an effective way to avoid the pitfalls that come with open feedback.

How can we make this practice effective? Use a feedback protocol. It’s simple. Choose one protocol and ask that everyone follow it. Check out these resources to learn about some different feedback protocols.

From Better Lessons: Giving and Receiving Peer Feedback: a variety of strategies
From Edutopia: 60-second strategy: Respond, Reflect, and Review
From the Open Sharing Strategy: Talk Moves

One I’ve used before is I Like, I Wish, I Wonder (you can find out more about it under the Better Lessons link above). Each learner is asked to give feedback using a simple sentence starter.

I like… which gives an opportunity to highlight something great about the project and set a positive tone to the interaction.
I wish… offers an opportunity to address an aspect of the work that could be stronger.
I wonder….a moment to clarify a piece of the project or lean towards a suggestion.

Giving this simple frame helps to establish momentum and focus for the feedback to help it become clear for the learner who is giving the feedback. It also helps the person receiving the feedback to see what others see in their work and gives them thoughts to consider for improvement.

--> Want to learn more about COVID Cohorts, check out this link.

We'd love to hear more about how you involved students in the feedback process. Please leave us a message at this blog post.
~Amber, Beth, and Mindy

0 Comments

<<Previous

Forward>>

Think, Make, Innovate: Creating Questions

Question Stems

Student Questions

We'd love to see what you make!

Pear Deck in the Classroom

Pear Deck and Student Reflection

Drawing Questions

More than just Drawing

And Finally...

Empowering Students: Utilizing Flipgrid for Student Feedback Teams

Recording Your Screen

Creating Groups

Stickies and Backgrounds

An Additional Gem!

Pear Deck in a Blended Classroom

Pear Deck Blog Series: Takeaways

Empowering Students: Student Feedback Teams

Connect

Blog Feed

Like Us on Facebook

Our YouTube Show

Our Podcast

Our Tweets!

Authors

Archives

Categories