PowerPoint to the Rescue

I did it. I figured out what works with my kids. For the past three months I have been struggling to keep them on task during reading, focused and engaged, and monitoring that they are all getting the correct information. Well, I did it. I mentioned in a previous post that I showed a power point presentation last week on Antarctica (that they loved) which led me to creating one for the new book we started reading today, Amber Brown is Not a Crayon.

I set the projector up ahead of time while they were at Islamic Studies and had a simple slide up on the board that said, ‘We will begin once everyone is in their seat and showing me that they are quiet and ready to learn.’ Being the anxious little bunch that they are, they quickly filed into the classroom sat down and showed me that they were ready.

This weekend I read through the 80-page chapter book and created a reading guide with 8-10 questions from each chapter. I then copied each question onto an individual slide in power point, jazzed it up with some animation and clip art and that was that. At least two weeks of Language Arts lessons all set. Although I’m making it sound easy, to give myself credit I spent my fair share of time in front of the computer putting the presentation together. I used custom animation, shapes and colors in hopes that the slides might hold their attention.

I’m not sure why I hadn’t thought of this before. It’s perfect. I can stand in the middle of the classroom, next to the projector and easily see who is on task. I set the power point slides up so that at the beginning of each chapter I tell them what page to open up to, remind them to put their listening ears and thinking caps on and to give me a thumbs-up to signal when they are ready to learn.

Students and I took turns reading and then we moved on to answering the questions from their reading guide papers. I posted the question at the top and then paused for the students to provide the answer. To help my student with dyslexia I bolded the most important words and told him that those were the words he should copy down and focus on.

Perhaps my students responded so well because it appeals to my visual learners or maybe it is just that this is something new, either way at the end of Language Arts Ms. Rebecca sure was happy.