Nearpod webinar starts in two minutes!

It's a snow day for our district so I'm spending the day, ... taking a nearpod webinar!

Here's the link to the class: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/rt/5402020844954035202

My lessons on the Progressive Era

Certain things came together in planning my unit on the Progressive Era.

First, I'm working on integrating more EdTech into my teaching.  Second, a blizzard is heading our way so I wanted to create something that students could start in class and then work on while we are out for any snow days.  Finally, my students are all over the place in terms of interpreting primary sources and in structuring and writing essays.  To address that, I'm going back to add a high-degree of scaffolding, to reteach the weaker writers and reassure the stronger writers that they are doing it correctly.

Here's the workflow:

1. Essential vocabulary knowledge: I wrote a list of essential knowledge on a Google Doc and posted it to Google Classroom.  I then created a review game using BrainRush to help them learn the vocabulary.  (If you're not using BrainRush yet you should; it's terrific--fun for the students, and easy for you to create the activities as the teacher.)

2. The Progressive Era presidents: I wrote an alphabetical list of all the accomplishments of the Progressive Era presidents in a Google Doc and posted the list to Google Classroom.  Students were to take that list and, using their textbooks, sort the list to learn which accomplishment goes with which president.  I created a different review game using BrainRush to help the students learn the sort.

3. How effective was the Progressive Era in achieving its goals?  We will read and analyze documents from the 2003 AP U.S. History DBQ on this topic.  (The Scoring Guidelines for that DBQ are particularly helpful in highlighting the outside information, document information, and document inferences that your students will need to know.[*])  This will be a heavily scaffolded lesson; I will analyze the question and most of the documents with the students and give them a liberal opportunity to rewrite their work.

[*] Yes, yes, yes, this is an old-style DBQ.  But you can use it here as generic practice. 

4. Did it happen before or after the Civil War? My students are having difficulty keeping these two eras (Antebellum Era and Gilded Era) straight in their heads, so I wrote a list of events that first occurred either before or after the Civil War in a Google Doc and posted it to Google Classroom.  I created a different BrainRush review activity to help them practice.

5. Yes, I will be lecturing (a bit) for background information and to tie everything together into a narrative.  When I do, I will be delivering the presentation directly to students' smartphones using nearpod.  Like BrainRush, I love nearpod!  As I swipe the screen on my iPad, the lesson advances on the smartphones. 

6. And yes, my students will still have to read their textbooks.  But I wrote a Reading Guide for them to help them focus on what really matters. 

At the end of the lesson we'll have two quizzes: one on the material posted to Google Classroom, and one based on the textbook reading.

So, in sum: Essential learning conveyed to the students; technology to help them learn it; a whole-class lesson on using primary sources and practice writing an essay; limited lecturing but pushed directly to their devices; textbook reading; and some review (also using technology).

It will be a busy two weeks.

My favorite tool for creating interactive PowerPoint presentations

PowerPoint has lots of problems, one of which is the inherent challenge of keeping students engaged when they are watching a distant image on a screen at the front of the classroom.  But there are tools to make those presentations more engaging.  My favorite one right now is Nearpod.

With Nearpod you take your existing presentations (PowerPoint, Google Slides, or PDFs) and make them interactive.  You do that by uploading your presentation to the Nearpod site, then embed interactive components like open-ended, poll, or quiz questions throughout.  You make them available to your students by giving them a PIN code for the presentation.  They then follow your presentation on their personal device or computer.  Some students don't have a device?  Let them share.

What makes Nearpod cool #1: It's a great formative-assessment tool.  Try to add a question to check for understanding every 5-6 slides.  Now you can monitor student understanding in real time.  Did they actually understand what you just presented?  As students answer each question, each student's response is displayed immediately on your tablet or computer.  This allows you to see how well the class is doing generally, and which students need extra help.  You can adjust your instruction (maybe by reteaching that last segment) accordingly.

What makes Nearpod cool #2: Students can show what they know by drawing it.  Another interactive component is called Draw-It.  With Draw-It, students draw answers on their screen (with the mouse on computers, and with their fingers on smartphones or tablets).  In this example below, a student is drawing and labeling a pie chart showing popular voting results in the Election of 1848.

What makes Nearpod cool #3: I have their complete attention.  They are watching the presentation in front of them, on their own devices.  And I am controlling their phone!  When I swipe my iPad to advance to the next slide, that action is duplicated on their device.  No more (or much less) off-task texting to friends during class.

Nearpod runs web-based or as an app.  I use the web-based site to add the interactive components to my presentations, then use the app on my iPad when I am instructing my students. 

If you want to learn more about Nearpod, this tutorial (2:29) can help you get started.