Our First Power Point!

Last week my lesson for Social Studies focused on explorers from Europe so I thought this would be the perfect time to integrate technology! My students had to create a power point presentation for the explorer they were assigned to. They were very excited to work on power point from choosing the font, layout, design, and inserting pictures that represented their explorer.

The students first had to read on their explorer, create their notes, and then finally create their power point slides. This whole lesson took me about a week, but at the end it was all worth it. The students were able to learn from one another by conducting these presentations.

However, I did have to spend a lot of time teaching some of my students how to create their power point slides. I alslo had to make sure that they were not entering too much text and entering only a few words. Many of my students were typing like they were speaking. This is something that adults might also do. Power Point should include highlights and the presenter is responsible to include the details as they are speaking. What I did to show them the correct way to present is I created my own presentation on an explorer and I modeled the incorrect way and the "correct" way of presenting.

I was kind of leniant on the grading, but as we include more power point in our lessons, I advised them my expectations would go higher!