-Power Points-

This week, the students are creating a Power Point pertaining to a book of their choice that they are reading. They are to inform the class of the characters, the setting, and the plot along with a "cliffhanger". The students have enjoyed being in the computer lab working on something that they are going to present, however, they are more focused on making the "coolest" slideshow than getting the information down to present.

While at recess, I was discussing with another fourth grade teacher of the issues of getting the students to complete their work in a timely manner. She gave me really good advice, which seems basic but I did not think of before! She said that when her class is creating a Power Point, she gets them to write out everything that they are going to put in their slideshow on a piece of paper. Once they show this to the teacher, she allows them to move on to creating the slideshow. However, they are not allowed to add details until they get all of their information down on the Power Point.

When I took the students into the computer lab, they had a very detailed sheet explaining the purpose of the activity and what was needed on the Power Point. The first things the students did was to go through and change all the colors of the background, the font of the title page, and looked through clip art for pictures. This took the students almost an entire class period!

In the future, when I want to do this activity again, or one that is similar, I will make sure to have steps that the students take before they begin their Power Point. Having steps before allows the students to really brainstorm what they are going to write before they get distracted by various aspects of Power Point.