EDLD 5317
Resources for Digital Environments
In EDLD 5317, I developed a publication on the digital tool Pear Deck. My article is intended to support teachers in implementing this tool during face-to-face instruction. This article will help educators learn about a tool that enables greater student engagement and connection. For teachers who are already familiar with Pear Deck, I included ideas and examples of how to go beyond the basic question templates. By reading this article, teachers will gain practical ideas for how to incorporate the Pear Deck tool in a way that engages students in higher-level thinking.
My initial ideas were collected on my Publication Outline. In the outline, I included how this idea ties to my initiative to support emergent bilingual students started in the EDLD 5398 Internship for Principal course. The outline also included the publishing details for two potential publication options to whom I could propose my article. My ideas were then brought to life in my Publication Draft. In my draft, I fully explained my ideas and ensured my writing met the requirements for the publication options.
My Final Publication is the written form of what I will be submitting to the publication options described in the outline. To expand the reach of my article, I also created a Media Project. This is a short video I could post on my professional social media accounts to help promote my article. Between my draft and final publication, I worked with several peers to clarify my writing and focus on the ideas that would be most helpful to other educators. I describe the peer review and collaborative processes further in my Contributions to Learning and the Learning Community.
Media Project
Video Transcript
Hi, I'm Samantha Shaffer.
Have you struggled to involve all students in your classroom? Do the same handful of students always raise their hands to answer questions, especially ones that require critical thinking? Are there students who you want to hear from but seldom get the chance? Do you wish you could implement more social-emotional check-ins to get to know each of your students?
If any of these questions resonate with you, I encourage you to check out my article on using Pear Deck to enhance in-person learning.
Many teachers discovered this tool Pear Deck during digital learning. However, for many, it's been left in the past. In my article, I will highlight the benefits of using this technology tool in a face-to-face learning environment to involve all of your students in critical thinking and getting to know them better. I've seen tremendous benefits in my Advanced Placement and ESL inclusion courses. Using Pear Deck, I can involve all students simultaneously in developing their language in critical thinking abilities. I can even conduct content check-ins and social-emotional check-ins on sub days with Pear Deck.
Along with the article I'll share with you my go-to sub-plans and digital resources, which include how to get started with Pear Deck and a demonstration deck that shows you some creative ways to use the peer deck question types that you might not have thought of already. These will have examples across all content areas. I encourage you to read and share my article with any teacher who is seeking to increase participation or getting to know all of their students in their classroom.
Digital Resources
These resources are also linked within the text of the article.
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Get started with Pear Deck. I included this link at the beginning of the article to help teachers get started with Pear Deck. The purpose of the article is about how to integrate the tool into practice rather than how to get started. Therefore, I have included this resource instead of providing information that is already available elsewhere.
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Try out all the question types on this student-paced Pear Deck. I will include an example Pear Deck presentation with various interactive slides. These will consist of using all of the question types in at least two different ways. I will pull various slides from my lesson plans to create this deck.
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The Content Orchard (Content Orchard, n.d.) has discipline-specific templates for subject areas such as Science, Math, ELA, and Music that were also linked (Pear Deck, 2018). Pear Deck has recently partnered with educational groups such as PBS News Hour and Facing History to develop classroom-ready content, also available at this link.
References
Content orchard. Pear Deck. (n.d.). https://www.peardeck.com/content-orchard
Pear Deck. (2018, September 19). Heavy lifting: The exercise of critical thinking. Medium. Retrieved from https://medium.com/pear-
deck/heavy-lifting-the-exercise-of-critical-thinking-7786844a81d6
Pear Deck (n.d.). Help Videos. [Webpage.] Pear Deck. Retrieved August 26, 2023, from https://www.peardeck.com/help-videos
Final Publication
Pear Deck as a Tool to Enhance In-Person Learning
Introduction
Pear Deck is an instructional tool that was highly recommended during distance learning amid the COVID-19 pandemic (Eckert, 2021; Rothstein, 2020). Pear Deck is a student response system that enables teachers to ask students questions embedded into presentations. It integrates with Google Slides and Microsoft PowerPoint as an “Add-on” feature. Pear Deck is a freemium service, so teachers and districts can pay to unlock some features. However, purchasing a subscription is not necessary to acquire all of the benefits this tool has to offer.
In recent years, many educators have left behind several of the tools from online teaching. However, student response tools like Pear Deck are still relevant and beneficial to the in-person classroom. I want to encourage teachers to continue utilizing tools from digital learning in a classroom environment. Pear Deck can help educators answer the following questions: How can I know what every student understands? How can I incorporate more high-level questioning into my instruction? How can I meet the various needs of all my students? How can I check in with students academically and emotionally?
Hearing from Every Student
After returning from COVID, many students lacked the confidence to answer questions in a whole class setting. Using Pear Deck enabled me to hear an answer from every student in class rather than a few volunteers. Students are given a low-stakes opportunity to share their ideas. This is a great way to differentiate for students with social anxiety or developing English abilities. Teachers can also build students' confidence to share answers aloud by encouraging them to share an answer that has been previewed. Pear Deck also pairs well with the Think-Write-Share strategy that incorporates speaking after students write their initial responses.
Practicing Wait Time
Teachers often struggle with wait time after questioning students. However, by using the embedded timer in Pear Deck everyone can have clear expectations for time to answer questions. For example, when asking students to read and annotate a paragraph, the teacher can say: “You will have three minutes to do so,” and set a timer for 3 minutes. The timer will appear on both students’ and teachers’ screens.
Supporting Higher-Level Thinking
Pear Deck features 5 question types: free response, multiple choice, drawing, draggable, and number entry (Hipp, 2023). These five question types help to provide a variety of classroom activities:
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Free response: Students can type in an answer.
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Possible Uses: Ask recall questions, ask higher-order questions (evaluate, synthesize, compare/contrast), draft a thesis statement, or have students ask you questions.
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Multiple Choice: Students can select one option.
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Possible Uses: Multiple choice questions and polls.
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Drawing: Students can draw and add text boxes on the presented slide.
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Possible Uses: Practice graphing, illustrate terms, and annotate texts.
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Draggable: Students move labels to different parts of the screen.
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Possible uses: Check in on student progress, identify items on a diagram, chronology activities, and identify locations on a map.
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Number: Students enter a numerical value.
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Possible Uses: Answer a math problem, conduct a stress check, and ask how much more time is needed.
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Try out all the question types in multiple ways on this student-paced Pear Deck.
Figure 1. Screenshot of the student perspective on a drawing question type used for annotating text from the demo Pear Deck.
The Content Orchard is another excellent way for teachers to begin incorporating higher-level thinking in Pear Deck. Discipline-specific templates for subject areas such as Science, Math, ELA, and Music are available for teachers to add to their pre-existing lesson slides (Pear Deck, 2018). Pear Deck has recently partnered with educational groups such as PBS News Hour and Facing History to develop classroom-ready content. This prevents teachers from having to make everything from scratch!
Student-Paced Sub Plans
The student-paced mode allows students to take charge of their learning while their progress is monitored in real time. This affords teachers the ability to conduct one-to-one conferences or response to intervention (RtI) activities while still monitoring student progress and performance. Another use of this function is my current go-to sub plan. I simply start the Pear Deck of the prepared class materials and send students a link via email or LMS announcements. This enables me to ask students questions about the content and encourage interaction with what they are learning while I am not present. Additionally, I can provide a space for students to ask any questions they have for us to go over when I return. This has made emergency sub plans much less stressful!
Lessons Learned
It is possible to get answers from every student. Traditional call and response usually results in the same few students answering questions. Even with the cold calling technique, relatively few students answer the question. Pear Deck enables every student to answer, providing the teacher with valuable formative data to further guide and adjust instruction.
Using multiple question types can support higher-level thinking. Although there are only five question types, they can be used in a variety of ways that deepen student understanding.
Students can take charge of their own learning. Pear Deck’s “Student-Paced Mode” enables teachers to put students in charge of their own learning while tracking their progress in real-time. Teaching students to lead their own learning can become an asset on days when a substitute is needed.
Not all questions need to be academic. Teachers can use Pear Deck to conduct social-emotional checks with their students with stress meters or simply the Pear color when students join. These enable teachers to understand where students are personally before working with them academically.
Conclusion
While many teachers are no longer participating in online distance learning, blended learning is currently an ongoing initiative in many schools. Technology tools like Pear Deck can still be used to enhance student learning. The student response system enables teachers to hear answers from all students in real time. The various question types on Pear Deck can be used in multiple ways to build students’ higher-order thinking abilities. Additionally, teachers are able to use Pear Deck to check in on students' social-emotional needs. This former distance-learning tool still stands as a powerful way to enhance the student learning experience during in-person learning.
References
Content orchard. Pear Deck. (n.d.). https://www.peardeck.com/content-orchard
Eckert, J. (2021, February 5). 10 teacher picks for Best Tech Tools. Edutopia. Retrieved from
https://www.edutopia.org/article/10-teacher-picks-best-tech-tools/
Hipp, J. (2023, January 3). The benefits of using Pear Deck in the classroom. TechNotes Blog.
Retreived from https://blog.tcea.org/web-2-0-benefits-pear-deck/
Pear Deck. (2018, September 19). Heavy lifting: The exercise of critical thinking. Medium.
Retrieved from https://medium.com/pear-deck/heavy-lifting-the-exercise-of-critical-thinking-7786844a81d6
Pear Deck (n.d.). Help Videos. [Webpage.] Pear Deck. Retrieved August 26, 2023, from
https://www.peardeck.com/help-videos
Rothstein, S. (2020, November 13). 3 tech tools for distance learning and beyond. Edutopia.
https://www.edutopia.org/article/3-tech-tools-distance-learning-and-beyond/
TCEA (n.d.). Publication. Texas Computer Education Association. Retrieved August 26, 2023, from
Brief Author Biography:
Samantha Shaffer is a secondary social studies teacher in the Austin, Texas area. She began teaching in January 2020 and experienced the shift to online education in her first year. This led her to embrace numerous technology tools to create her flipped and blended classrooms for World History and AP Psychology.
Contributions to My Learning & the Learning Community
Self-Assessment Grade:
I have given myself a score of 99 for my collaborative efforts to enhance the learning of my peers and myself in EDLD 5317. After reflecting upon my assignments and interactions, I believe I have met all of the key contributions in this course by collaborating with my core group, completing all assignments and readings, and completing all activities by the dates in the syllabus. Furthermore, I actively participated in all formal and informal activities for the course including class meetings and I was an active member in the Blackboard, GroupMe, and Facebook forums for the course. Lastly, I took on the leadership role of organizing and hosting the weekly study group call with my core group and seeking out students who had recently switched from the administrative courses.
What is working?
Fall 2023 is the final semester in my journey toward a Master’s degree in Educational Technology Leadership. At this point in the program, I found systems and created collaborative groups with peers to support my learning. I have been a very active member of my collaborative group since the courses in the administration part of the program. This semester I continued to work with these peers, which included Veruschka C., Mesha S., Nikki (Angela) T., and Nneka G. from last semester. I was in contact with my core group members several times a week. However, I continued to expand my group to include additional peers including Taylor K., Jeremy R., Rosalyn P., and Jessica R. among numerous others. As a high school teacher, I have especially benefited from discussing assignments and educational issues with my peers who work at the lower grade levels.
At the beginning of the semester, I created a one-document "Media Guides" with all the readings required for each course to keep myself organized. I shared my guides with classmates on GroupMe and Facebook so they could benefit as well. The media guides allowed me to access all of the readings, videos, and supporting resources in addition to my notes from them in one place. The guides helped me stay on pace with the course and organize all of my notes for class on one page. I used these guides to ensure that all of my assignments were turned in before the due date. Below are templates of my media guides that were shared with peers.
Throughout the semester I sought feedback on each assignment through discussion posts, group messages, and Zoom study sessions. Throughout the peer review process in EDLD 5317, I had several peers give me feedback to help clarify my publication. Furthermore, I was able to discuss my assignments with the elementary and middle school teachers in my group to get their perspectives. This allowed me to adapt my publication to serve a broader group of educators.
What can be improved?
I will admit that I fell short of my personal expectation to finish all assignments early in this course. It was difficult to balance two graduate courses and teaching AP Psychology full-time. My primary area for improvement is completing the discussion boards earlier. If I had posted my initial posts to discussion boards earlier it would have given my peers more time to read and respond to. I did respond to posts on the Media that Engages discussion board after the media project was due in Week 5, which was not the intended order. I had written down Week 6 as stated on the syllabus. However, I still met the course expectations for all other discussion boards. I encourage the professors to put recommended due dates for the discussion boards to help clarify when they should be done. In an online class, it can be difficult to tell when non-dated assignments are due when there are conflicting dates in the syllabus and class instructions.
Connecting My Learning
To further my understanding of my publication’s topic, I also chose to investigate the digital tool Pear Deck for my Action Research in EDLD 5315. This provided me with a stronger background on the digital resources discussed in my publication. After I have conducted my action research plan from EDLD 5315, I will be able to create another publication with the findings of my research. Publishing the results of my action research would be the pinnacle of connecting and applying the learning from EDLD 5315 and EDLD 5317 together.
Highlights of My Further Contributions
1. Leadership
During this semester I took on the leadership role of organizing Study Group calls for classmates on the Facebook Group to collaborate. I hosted a weekly Zoom call in which we would review the course materials and assignment expectations. Whenever possible we would share our assignments with each other to give feedback through dynamic conversations. These meetings were consistently attended by Veruschka, Nneka, and Rosalyn every Saturday.
2. Discussion Boards
I participated in all discussion posts to maximize my ability to collaborate with my peers on the Blackboard Forum. For each post, I responded to at least 2-3 peers. I aimed to include at least one member of my core group and one member from outside to improve my understanding of my peers’ experiences. This pushed me to converse with peers outside of my familiar core group.
3. Supporting Peers
During class meetings, I sought out my peers who recently switched from the Educational Administration courses to help support them in the transition. Many of my peers were confused by the change in course structure. However, I was able to help several peers find their footing in the technology courses.
4. Active Contributions
As discussed earlier, I participated in all of the discussion boards on Blackboard throughout the course. In addition to the required discussions, I also posted access to the ETL Facebook group in the Student/Faculty Lounge discussion boards for both courses. I attended all class meetings hosted on Zoom throughout the course. Lastly, in the class Facebook group, I was labeled as a “top contributor” because I often posted resources, answered questions, gave feedback, and organized events. These resources included my media guides for EDLD 5315 and EDLD 3517.
Evidence of Collaboration
Below are a few screenshots that show my collaborative efforts throughout this semester.
The list of study group events I organized on the Facebook group.
