After our Billy y Las Botas 3 lesson on making predictions using Peardeck, some teachers wanted more information about PearDeck. So here’s a brief tutorial:
If you prefer to read, PearDeck is a FREE tool that integrates with Google Slides. Open up a presentation with google slides and you can make it interactive by using the the Pear Deck add-on.
With the add-on, you can add polls, questions, and other interactive formative assessments to your presentation. You give the students a code to join the presentation and you can have them work at their own pace or you can control the presentation so they can only see the slide that you project.
For each slide that you added an interactive component, you can see the students’ responses LIVE on the teacher dashboard.
The student will see the slide on their screen as well as a space to type in a response. As the students are typing it will appear on the teacher dashboard. You can choose to project the classes’ answers if you wish to have a discussion.
When you close a session you can save it. For example, I save a separate session for each class. This is where I can turn on student-paced so students can work through the entire presentation at their own speed or end the session so students can no longer submit responses.
When you end a session and publish takeaways, responses from each student will appear in your google drive in the Pear Deck folder and students will receive an email with all of their responses.
If you are a 1:1 school, this is a great way to use technology in a formative assessment. It is also a great way to reduce handouts. For example, I was originally going to print out a handout of the slides and have students handwrite their responses. Now, I can have them see the image more clearly, and in color, on the screen and type their responses.
I’ll be updating my De Que Me Sirve la Vida lesson by using PearDeck instead of printing out a 3 page packet to have students translate the messages.
And if you use screenshots to have retell a story of a MovieTalk, try this paperless option.
SpanishPlans.org 
I am new to Pear Deck, haven’t used it in a classroom yet. Immediately this sounds great for my students since they work at very different paces. I was wondering if you can use it for substitute days. Have you tried that?
Have only used it twice, but definitely could see it working with a sub. You just need to make sure to leave the join code(s) so students can access the presentation.
I’ve used edpuzzle before with subs and it’s worked fine.
So it does not have to be displayed on a screen in class? I should have asked that before…
As long as you start the presentation on your end(and be sure to turn on student-paced) and then have the students go to joinpd.com and enter the code, you don’t need to project anything. Just be sure to Instruct them what to do on each slide. (If it is a question to answer, then you’ll need a text box with the question on the slide)
I have heard of Pear Deck many times at Tech conferences. I thought it was something that looked great but I would invest time and not keep using it. This looks great though! Right away I am thinking it will work best for my students because they work at different paces. Have you ever left it as substitute plans? I have to be out for a week and was wondering how that might work,. No Spanish speaking subs… 😦
Just commented on your other post that figuring out Pear Deck was on my list of things to do.. poof, I see this post. Thanks Justin!