Pear Deck

You may have heard something about Pear Deck since we have been talking about it lately, so I was surprised to realize that we hadn't done a blog post about it yet!  Pear Deck is an interactive slide presentation tool that can be used to engage and formatively assess students throughout your lesson. You can create your presentation within Pear Deck or upload a PowerPoint presentation, Google Slides or a PDF (note that you have a limited number of these uploads with the free version).  The picture below shows what your presentation edit screen looks like. In the middle is the projector view that students will see projected during class, on the right is the screen that students will see on their devices as you go through the presentation. You can have the same content on the student screen and the teacher screen for some slides, but then add questions, drawings or other interactive features for students on other slides.  Once you click "Start Presenting" students will access Pear Deck with a quick join code (or with the premium version it will be in their Google classroom).  

Why use Pear Deck?  

Pear Deck offers instant feedback for teachers so they can see whether or not students are understanding a lesson and can adjust the lesson appropriately.  It gives students more of a chance to be active during class presentations and thereby, helps keep them more engaged in the lesson. Teachers often struggle with having only a few students responding to discussion questions and this tool offers opportunities for all students to respond and be heard.  I read an article a few weeks ago about how Pear Deck is a good for introverted students because they don't have the pressure to raise their hand to respond to teacher questions, they can stay in their comfort zone and still express their ideas.  After students have responded, you can project their responses anonymously, which allows you to give a public voice to those quieter students who might not otherwise want to share their opinions aloud.  

Pear Deck is also a great tool for a student who doesn't always think through their responses before speaking in class. With a think-Pear-share strategy, students can think first, then respond to a question or prompt in Pear Deck and then orally share their responses. The traditional think-pair-share model is effective at getting more quantity and quality of student participation, though again, you don't always hear from each student. With Pear Deck, you see all the student responses in Pear Deck so you know what all students are thinking and can assess their understanding of your lesson.

Getting Started

Please see us in the library if you would like assistance getting started using Pear Deck. If you are interested, we still have a few premium Pear Deck subscriptions available as well.

Here is a link to many resources for Pear Deck to help you get started and learn about the features.

Short video about Pear Deck: