Using Pear Deck to Enhance Class Lectures

Students can sometimes struggle to stay engaged during lengthy class lectures. They may be distracted by their phones, playing Candy Crush, or lucid dreaming. Fortunately, Pear Deck offers an excellent way to upgrade presentations and make them more interactive so that students are able to focus on learning.

Using Pear Deck is easy, even for young students. Teachers can simply share a short code with their students, which they enter into their web browsers to join the presentation. The app is compatible with Chromebooks, Macs, PCs, and iPads.  joinpd.com Students who are new to this type of interaction may need some guidance getting started. Fortunately, the Pear Deck website has helpful tutorial videos for just about any problem that might arise.

To start a session, click the green Present button in the add-on or go to Files and select “Start a Pear Deck Session.” Then choose between Teacher-Paced Mode or Student-Paced Mode. When you select Teacher-Paced Mode, the slides appear on the projector (Projector View), allowing you to flip through them as you present. When you select Student-Paced Mode, the students will receive a Join Code and be able to access your Pear Deck presentation from their own devices.

Once a session is created, you can use the Teacher Dashboard to monitor student responses in real time. You can also use the Dashboard to lock students’ screens, give feedback, or end a session. Additionally, you can review the students’ answers in a single Google Doc that is shared between you and each student. This feature is only available for Premium accounts.

Besides the standard question slides, you can also create interactive text and drawing slides. You can ask a multiple-choice question and display all the options for students to choose from (personal favorite). Or you can have students write out an answer by adding a text slide. Lastly, you can add a draggable or drawing slide and have students solve a math problem or draw the flow of blood through the heart.

Another great feature is the ability to use Immersive Reader. This allows students to hear the text read aloud, which is particularly beneficial in language learning. This is a premium feature, but it can help students stay engaged and focused on the lesson during class lectures.

Pear Deck also lets you integrate with SeeSaw, which makes it a great tool for classroom collaboration. You can post a Pear Deck link to a SeeSaw class as an announcement or activity and then have students view and answer questions in the same way you would during a traditional lecture. You can also grade the answers to your questions with Flubaroo, which is an add-on for Pear Deck that works with SeeSaw. You can find this add-on in the Add-ons menu of the Teacher Dashboard.