Now that I’ve transitioned back to 100% in person learning this year, I’ve had to reevaluate what new activities from last year I will keep and which ones were better the way they were. I posted a lot on collaborative PowerPoints last year. In this post, I will share which collaborative PowerPoint activities, which I created with hybrid and virtual instruction specifically in mind, I think are still worthwhile for in person instruction, and also which ones I don’t think are worth retaining.
Collaborative PowerPoint Activities I Plan to Continue Using For In Person Instruction (click on the title or image to read more about the activity):
These activities save time from passing out little envelopes full of words that will inevitably get lost on the floor. However, since I can monitor their progress in person, for individual activities, I will give them a personal PPT to download and manipulate. For group activities, I will allow them to edit a slide together while they are sitting with their group. I also like the idea of having a group volunteer to have their slide be the example we go over. There are also still some activities that aren’t ideal in this covid world where we are still trying to limit how much shared materials are used, and these activities fill in the blanks. Recently I did a drag and drop activity with students and I circled around the room to monitor their progress but having the slides all up on the Smart Board gave me a quick and easy way to check how many groups were done.
Having the students all work collaboratively on one presentation is ideal for this project no matter the instructional model and creates a product that is ready to be made into a video. I anticipate that it will run even more smoothly this year with all the students in the classroom.
Rotating Questions
This is an activity I haven’t blogged about yet, but logistically it makes a whole lot more sense to do it virtually than on paper and allows for an activity at the end that wouldn’t be feasible on paper. Students start by opening the PPT and navigating to the slide with their name on it. First, they write an activity that they do frequently. Then they navigate to the person below them and ask them one question about it (what/when/where/why/with whom/how/at what time). They do not have to use complete sentences (they can just write the question word, but they have to be careful because not all question words are appropriate for the various activities) because they are still learning how to do that. Then they navigate to the person below that, and ask another question, and then to a third and, if time, a fourth person. Once every slide has 3-4 questions on it, the students return to their slide and answer the questions. Finally, when that’s done, they delete the questions so that all that’s left is their statement about their activity and 3-4 pieces of information about it (i.e. the answers to their questions). To top it off, I then navigate to the various slides and ask students questions about their classmates’ preferred activities. Because the questions themselves have been deleted, they see only answers and have to determine which statement answers my question. The GIF up above shows the progression of this activity on a single slide. This is one of the most engaging and fun ways I have reinforced this vocabulary. I love any opportunity to make the students and their own interests part of the lesson, too.
I used to have students do this activity on whiteboards, and then on the whiteboard app on their devices, and I have always loved this activity, but students struggled a bit with it. Doing in on PowerPoint allows me to provide them with a little more scaffolding (set up the tree, have a slide with sample questions, etc.), plus all group members can be working on it on their devices instead of huddling over one person’s device. For the part of the activity where they answer each other’s questions, though, I prefer to have them do that orally instead of in the comments, so that’s one change I’ll go back to this year.
This is another activity that is useful to do in PowerPoint, because it allows me to give students a template to fill in with sample vocabulary right in front of them, but instead of making it collaborative, I will provide a file for them to download and edit privately, because I would rather move around the room to monitor than sit at my computer and watch it on the screen.
Collaborative PowerPoint Activities I Will Not Be Using For In Person Instruction:
I think this activity is more fun to complete on paper (passing the sheets around the room in a specific order), and also more meaningful to have handwritten messages. I think it worked really well as a collaborative PowerPoint, but given the opportunity to do it on paper, that’s my preference. Click here to read about how I first did this activity on paper.
I have already had students complete this on paper. Really, there are benefits to both versions, but I think it’s helpful to give students some opportunity to hand write the vocabulary they are working with, plus this gives me instant access to student work I can adorn the walls and hallways with. Last year I had to pick a few and print them out, and it didn’t look as good. Many students also love to draw and color their work and that’s easier to do on paper. Click here to read about how I first did this activity on paper.
I will have my students do this on paper for the same reason. Also, students enjoy seeing all of the projects on the wall and trying to guess them as opposed to just looking at their own class’ PowerPoint. I also want students to present and guess on their classmate’s celebrities orally, instead of in the comments. Click here to read about how I first did this activity on paper.
This activity can easily be done orally and is good for speaking practice, so I don’t plan to do it again in PowerPoint. I usually have the students present their clues to the class and the class guesses out loud what the answer is.
The good news is that if the need arises for us to go virtual again, I still have these activities in my back pocket. What changes are you making as we mostly go back to in person instruction this year?
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