Agentes Secretos + Peardeck
Teenagers need immediate feedback–it’s just a neurological fact. I had been at a loss for how to make that happen with 30+ students, since Nearpod cut me off at 30 and I can only take hearing “You forgot to stamp MY paper!” 20 times a day, max.
Fortunately, I have an amiga with the same planning who had been playing with Peardeck! (I know, I know, Maris, you’ve been trying to tell me for years.) It turns out that I can just make a Google Slides presentation and then add open-ended questions or drawing prompts or pictures with little markers with a simple Google Add-On! Who knew? (You hush, Maris!) All I needed was something to prompt them about…
Let’s just say I came into a little Teacher’s Discovery money just in time for the AP to stop in for a walk-through observation. Mira Canion to the rescue! I had been on the fence about kids at my new school buying in like the WWII buffs at my old school did when I first dabbled with Agentes Secretos, but, really, what was I thinking? Who DOESN’T love superguapo spies spiced with sneaky history lessons and hints of magic and mystery? Just the character descriptions had half my otherwise too-cool classes hooked.
But let us not forget Peardeck’s role in this. I haven’t even been able to get through a whole One-Word Image story with some of these classes. What made me think I was going to get through a NOVEL? (Besides, let’s be real, desperation.) Honestly, it was the ability to break it up, to elicit–and provide–instant feedback via Peardeck.
Now there are three main things I have done with the novel and the typical Peardeck response doodads to make the first 3 chapter readings so magical
Open-ended responses – I think this is probably doing the most for my kids’ reading and writing–not to mention accountability. I tell them I’m “giving credit for your responses in my gradebook.” I’m making marks, and they’re in my gradebook, it’s true. But let’s leave it at that.
Doodled responses – I think a goodly amount of buy-in is generated when they get to draw the characters and see them projected. It’s not quite as fun as the Seesaw casting calls, but it’s a little more time effective. Also, when I “cannot resist” snapping a picture of my favorites, that is its own motivation right there. Also, I get to acknowledge some different kids who maybe aren’t as vociferous as their classmates.
Word counts – The first thing I had them do was count the words they understood on the first page, to give me and them a feel for what they could handle. I like how Peardeck shows the range, but them some doofus ALWAYS has to put like eleventy-billion in and throw it off. Usually I can just threaten to pull up the dashboard and see who put what, but between you and me, I JUST NOW figured out how to see that with number responses. Agentes Secretos hint: this works nicely for counting people and animals in the “Guernica” painting too!
In the honorable mention category, I will say I also use draggable responses, which is nice for, say, paintings and maybe maps and possibly, eventually locale photos. I find that the doofus effect is pretty irresistible there and frequently it just turns into a bunch of geniuses making all their icons wiggle on screen.
So, with the permission of the illustrious author herself, I present my most recent Peardeck, Chapter 3 of Agentes Secretos, complete with a “Guernica” warmup, a semi-prompt for a tableau-style freeze frame review of the first two chapters:
So what’s next? Well, we have successfully Peardecked our way through the first 3 chapters, and 4 is as far as we got the last time, but I think I have a plan that will get us further this time, possibly even to the end. You see, novel groups were such a hit in Spanish II last year, what with the Peardeck accountability and engagement, I think they just might work again. PLUS this gives me a chance to differentiate for those who need more personal teacher attention, PLUS it lets me reward those ready to work in a self-paced environment and reap the rewards of their attentiveness, perhaps with a little Duolingo or–dare I say–a few moments of time to just “chill.”
Now we’ve had a little breather from the fast-paced workaday Peardecking with an exhilarating district benchmark. When we come back together, I think I’ll pick out some special babies to start off in my teacher-group and allow the others to choose to work through the “homework” Peardeck during novel time, either with groups of 3 or 4 OR on their little lonesomes. I foresee, also, some dress-up and scene re-enactment in our future, but next week, we’re going to get PERSONALIZED!