Increasing Student Engagement Using Pear Deck

Happy Friday!! I’m here with another tip for your virtual classroom! This week we are talking about all things student engagement.

One of the most common struggles I see with virtual learning is student engagement. Teachers are worried that because students aren’t turning on their cameras, they aren’t engaged. As teachers we are used to seeing our students and being able to gauge their engagement easily. However, I’m here to tell you that students don’t have to turn on their camera to be engaged. I won’t go into detail, but I wholeheartedly believe we should not force students to turn on their cameras. You cannot invite yourself into their home, by forcing their camera on you are inviting yourself into their home.

Anyway, there are so many different options for student engagement during distance learning. What I have found to work THE BEST is Pear Deck. Pear Deck makes google slides interactive. As the teacher, you can open a dashboard and see students responding in real time. At the end of the lesson you can pull up a report that shows everything from the lesson.

The best part of Pear Deck is that the basic features are FREE. That’s right, you can increase student engagement and it won’t cost you a penny. Pear Deck is an add on to google slides and I will explain how to install it at the end of the blog.

There are 6 interactive options to use with students. I will show an example of what it looks like for students, but you can open a separate dashboard and see students responding in real time.

Text

1. When you choose this option it allows students to write in a response. This is great for language arts or writing when you need to see students' understanding of the text or the writing skill you just taught.

Choice

1. This is essentially a multiple choice question. I use these frequently for listening comprehension skills. It’s a great way to use a quick check with students.

Number

1. The number response is a great one to use for math. Students must type in a number based on the prompt on the screen.

Website

1. I use this frequently with google forms for exit tickets, but there are endless ways to use this feature. You could insert a website you’d like them to explore or you can link a passage you would like them to read.

Draw

1. This is my favorite option to use for math because it forces them to draw it out on the slide. You have to make sure they have room on the slide to show their work, but it allows you to see the process and not just the answer. There are many different ways you can use this slide and you can use it with any subject.

Draggable

1. I often use the draggable option with math and when we are comparing numbers. The draggable option gives students a shape to drag to the correct answer.

To use Pear Deck the first thing you will need to do is create an account on peardeck.com using your school email address. Start with the free version if your district does not pay for the premium account. Honestly, I used Pear Deck frequently before my district started paying for the premium package and was still able to use it successfully!

After you have signed up for a pear deck account you will need to add the Pear Deck add on to google slides. You will click on the “add-ons” drop down menu at the top of the google slide, click “get add-ons,” search for pear deck, and install. Once installed you will be able to open Pear deck and use it on your google slides.

Once you’ve installed and opened the add-on, the possibilities are endless. To add an interactive slide, all you need to do is choose the slide you want to you and choose the interactive slide you want to use. Some interactive slides require you to enter some information and some will automatically apply.

Using Pear Deck has improved student engagement drastically. Students have stopped instruction to tell me they love doing lessons using Pear Deck. It takes some time to learn, but the more we’ve used it the quicker students get at using it.

If you use Pear Deck, find me on Instagram (@elementarymayhem) and tell me how it went! Also, follow me on Instagram for more tips and tricks for virtual learning.