EIDT 6910 Capstone: Pract. App.

Instructional Design

MD1ProjP2EdingerA

Effective Google Slides Presentations for Middle Schoolers

Instructional Design

Adam Edinger
00380648
EIDT 6910 Capstone
Practical Application of Instructional Design
12/07/14

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Project Description/Goal Analysis

The teachers at Totem Middle School have a problem. Because of the newly minted
Common Core State standards, teachers are required to ask students to create visual
presentations that will both show the students knowledge and understanding of the subject but
also share their newly developed knowledge with the other students in class. The Common
Core Speaking and Listening standards say an 8th grader needs to Integrate multimedia and
visual displays into presentations to clarify information, strengthen claims and evidence, and
add interest (National Governors, 66).
Totem Middle School, of the Marysville School District, in Marysville, Washington is
made up of a student body that comes from both diverse ethnic and economic backgrounds.
Students come to the school with a wide variety of life experiences, which brings new and
different challenges for the teachers. After discussing these challenges with both the
administration and staff of Totem, one challenge that we decided that needed to be addressed
is introducing and developing the students 21st century skills. With our students only a year or
two from becoming high school students, it is becoming increasingly important for them to
become comfortable with technology. In order to meet the needs of as many students as
possible, Totem Middle School created a semester long Technology class that introduces and
allows students to practice using the Google Drive Platform that includes the Google Docs,
Google Slides and Google Sheets programs.
Instructional objectives identify information necessary to solve the performance
problems. Objectives are based on the results of the task analysis and provide a refinement
and implementation of the needs of and/or goals for a project. (Morrison,113) In order for
students to be prepared for high school, they need to both understand and know how to use
presentation tools while also understanding what makes up an effective presentation.
The Instructional objectives of this module are to teach middle school students how to

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create Google slide presentations that are:

1. Readable: The Fonts color, type, style and size have proper contrast with
background and/or images so that they are visible and not distracting to the
audience.
2. Summarized: Text is condensed or a summarized version of the presentation.
Text uses lists and space in order to pull the eye to important information.
3. Visually Pleasant and on Topic: Presentations uses visuals/graphics that provide
the audience with a visual connection to what is being verbally presented.
The students in the Technology class have spent the last two months working with and
developing an understanding of how to use the Google Docs Program . Their final project with
this aspect of class was writing a 3 page paper about themselves; called their Paper About
Me, describing where they are from, where they are now, and where they think they will be in
the future. Recently, the class transferred their focus to the Google Slide Program. As a preassessment, students were asked to create a three page slide show for their Paper About Me.
Students were given no instructions and no expectations, they were only asked to create a 3
page slide show that visually represented their paper and could be used as a presentation to the
class. The goal of the pre-assessment was to determine the students ability to create an
effective and visually pleasant presentation slide that could visually represent the content
delivered in a verbal presentation. From the pre-assessment, we hope to find out the students
ability to create presentation pages that are visually pleasant to the audience, that use
summarized or condensed text from the presentation, is readable, and includes elements that
are connected to the presentation.
The pre-assessment showed that 85% of the students copy and pasted directly from
their paper onto their slides, meaning they did not understand how to or why they should
summarize the text. 75% of students filled the slides with texts, writing in full sentences and

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using very small fonts, meaning they struggled with making their slides visually pleasant . 50%
of students used unique backgrounds that visually contrasted with the texts font and color,
making it difficult to read and fully understand the text. The pre-assessment showed that many
students do not understand the main objective of a presentation slide, which is to visibly support
information that is being verbally shared by a presenter. That they need to understand that the
presentation they are creating should not be designed for themselves but for the audience in
which they are presenting.
Because of this pre-assessment, we have created a learning module for Totem Middle
School that will help students acquire the knowledge and understanding of how to create
classroom presentations using the online Google Slides tool. The students will develop an
understanding of how to create visually pleasant presentations, develop an understanding of
what and how much information is displayed on presentation slides, develop an understanding
of how text/fonts interacts with elements of the slide that can confuse or hamper the audiences
ability to read the slide, and develop an understanding of the relationship between both the
visual and verbal portions of the presentation.
In a perfect world, students would be asked to participate in online activities from home
in order to prepare for the weeks training. Beginning with observing various presentation
examples and asking students to use an online journal, tracking their thinking about the different
presentations. Asking them which presentations were more effective, what they liked, what they
didnt like and discuss why. This would allow us to give students some experience with the
concept before coming to class. But Totem students come from diverse technological
backgrounds as well, ranging from everyday access to their own personal computer to only
having access at school or their friends house. So when it comes to technology, asking
students to do work outside of class doesnt always work.
Students will meet in a Face to Face classroom, made up of around 25 student in a
computer lab with each student having their own laptop computer. The course will be a week

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long and made up of 4 thirty minutes sessions. Instruction will include periods of direct
instruction, mirrored or imitation instruction, individual manipulation of the Google platform with
students creating their own individual Google Slide Presentation and sharing their presentation
pages with other students through the Google Drive share app, allowing them to not only learn
from each other but also give them the ability to provide suggestions to each other on how to
improve their slides.

Learner Analysis
Our learners are middle school students, ranging from 11 to 14 years of age, in the
Marysville, Washington School District. More importantly or precisely, they are middle
schoolers at Totem Middle School. We say this because Totem Middle School has a different
population than the other 3 middle schools in the district and thus different than most middle
schools in Washington state. The population boundaries of Totem Middle School includes the
southern third of the city of Marysville, this includes families from the expensive homes on the
hill to the families who live in the homes next to the highway. In short, the socio-economic
differences of the families who send their students to Totem is quite diverse. The boundaries
also include the entire middle school population of the Native American Tribe from the local
reservation on the other side of the interstate. All in all, the schools population is just over 50%
Caucasian and just under 20% Native American. Add in 15% Hispanic, 10% Russian or
Eastern European, and the final 5% made up of Asian, Pacific Islander, and African American,
and you have a very diverse middle school only 35 miles north of Seattle, Washington. Gender
wise the population is fairly even with the student body being made up of 50.2% female
students. (OSPI Report Card)
Cultural and social differences should be recognized because they can affect such
things as the ability to take responsibility for individualized work or to engage in creative
activities(Morrison, 61). As stated before, the Totem population is quite diverse, its economic

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background hits all parts of the spectrum. Totem Middle School has nearly 50% of its students
on a Free or reduced meal program. Along with that, nearly 15% of its students have special
needs or have Individual Education Plans (IEPs). With only 60% of its students working at
grade level in reading and less that 40% of its students working at grade level in Math, the
students come into the school year with many academic areas to improve on, so technology is
really not an area of interest or school level potential development. (OSPI Report Card)
After interviews with students, staff, and administrators, we found that a high
percentage of students were quite lacking in experience when it came to working with
technology. Students shared that they struggled when it comes to working with word
processing or presentation software, like those provided in the Google Drive platform. Teacher
interviews also found a wide ranging lack of student competence when it comes to working with
presentation programs and creating presentations of their own. Teachers remarked that many
students would just type out all the information from their presentations, filling up the screen with
text and making the audience read everything that they were saying. Students also lacked an
understanding of visual presentation properties. From contrasting colors, to text on top of
pictures, to too many pictures, current student presentations are visually unpleasant and hard to
read.

Contextual Analysis
Cognitive science research has found that embedding the instruction in a familiar
context enhances both student achievement and student attitude(Morrison, 65). The middle
school learners have been participating in a Technology course, learning and using the Google
Docs and Google Drive platforms, creating and editing word processing content. The training
module that we are implementing will be the next step or a continuation of the technology
course the students are participating in. The students will meet during their regular technology
class time and will use 30 minutes of the class period to work through the training module.

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Since the goals of this modules are to create presentations using the Google Slides platform
and the students are meeting at their regularly scheduled time, they should feel quite
comfortable with what is being asked from them during the class.
The classroom is a computer lab with three rows of computers and a teachers station
that is connected to a projector. Each student has his/her own computer station to work on and
will use the Google Drive platform that is available through the Google Chrome internet browser.
Once students have signed into Google Chrome, they can access Google Drive by
maneuvering through one of the two available apps menus. The teacher will present
information and instruction using the same Google Slides platform that the students will be
working with during class.
Since the module is a part of a larger technology class, the students will not only
understand how they will be held accountable for understanding the content, but also how they
will be given a number of opportunities to show to their understanding of how to use and create
effective presentation. By taking the course, the students will have an opportunity to feel
successful in there other classes. Because they were given multiple opportunities to create
presentations in their technology class, when they are asked to create similar presentations for
their other core classes, like History and Science, they can limited their worries to content and
not have to worry about how to access or maneuver around their presentation tools.

Task Analysis
Before this module begins students will have been introduced to the Google Slides
platform. They will have an understanding of what multiple menus offered on the website and
have a basic understanding of how to maneuver and use the tools offered in the program.
Students will access all information through the Google Classroom app. Students will continue
their work with all aspects of the Google Drive platform including sharing documents with each

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other, allowing multiple students to work on and comment on the same document at the same
time.

Procedural Analysis

Procedural Analysis Table

Step

Cue

Finding Ineffective Elements

- Small fonts
- Lack of contrast between font color and
-

Naming Google Slide Expectations

background (hard to see)

To much text
No Visuals
Improper Grammar and Capitalization
Distracting graphics or backgrounds
Improper layering
Proper Grammar and Capitalization
Make Fonts Readable -Size, style, color
Be creative with colors, visuals, style
Stay on Topic - Text and Visuals
Condense or Summarize text from main
presentation

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Procedural Analysis Table

Create Effective Google Slide

Readable
Summarized Text
Visually Pleasant
On Topic

Day One: The teacher will break students into groups of 4. Groups will not need to
change seats, they will be grouped by working on the same shared document. The teacher will
send each group of 4 students a different poor example of a Google Slide Presentation. Using
the shared document, students can comment on the document discussing what aspects of the
slide were ineffective and explaining why. From here students work on a second shared
document and list of ways and reasons why the slide was ineffective. The teacher would then
share the slides on a whiteboard, allowing/asking groups to verbally share their thoughts with
the rest of the class and opening a verbal discussion around each slide.
Day Two: To start the class, the teacher will share a Powtoons video that gives a very
nice visual representation and scientifically explains some of the effective strategies of creating
effective Google Slide presentations and why they work and don't work.
Then with the groups from day 1, the teacher will share a new document with each
groups. On this shared documents, the groups would be asked to create a list of expectations
for effective Google Slide presentations. The teacher will display the students lists, allowing
groups to explain their decisions and allowing others to ask questions. Together, the class can
create a lists of expectations for all students to use. (Teacher would lead discussion, and move
conversations toward the correct expectations.)
To finish day 2, teacher would use classroom suggestions in order to create a Google
Slide following the newly minted presentations expectations. Students would follow along on
their own computers, and create an similar page, mimicking the actions and movements of the
teachers.

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Day Three: Students are given their first opportunity to create a slide on their own.
Students would be given a 30 second speech that is in need of a Google presentation slide.
Students would take the knowledge they built yesterday and create a Google Slide Presentation
that meets the Google Slide expectations that the class created the day before. The teachers
can physically walk around class and give students positive support, or he can use the Google
Classroom app and leave messages on their pages while the students are working on the
document. If time allows, the teacher can share different student examples and discuss the
positives and negatives of each slide.
Before class is dismissed, students are given homework. Students are asked to revisit
their Paper About Me that they used in the Pre-Assessment, and be prepared to create a 3
slide Google presentation around the three pages the three areas they discussed in the paper,
their past, present and future.
Day Four: Students are asked to show their understanding of their Google Slide
Presentation expectations and how to create and effective Google Slide Presentation by
creating a 3 slide presentation that meets the expectations created by the class on Day two.
Students will do the same assignment that was used in their pre-assessment. This would allow
the instructor to measure the growth they have made over this module. Students will create an
attractive, easy to read and understand 3 slide presentation that will provide a visual
representation of their Paper About Me, the paper they created as a final project for their
Google Docs portion of this class.

Instructional Objectives
The objectives of this instructional module are to help middle school students at Totem
Middle School to demonstrate their ability to visibly express their understanding of how to create
effective multimedia presentations with the Google Slides program.
The students will develop an understanding of how to create visually pleasant

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presentations, develop an understanding of what and how much information is displayed on

presentation slides, and develop an understanding of the relationship between both the visual
and verbal portions of the presentation. Students will create presentations that
1. Readable: The Fonts color, type, style and size have proper contrast with
background and/or images so that they are visible and not distracting to the
audience.
2. Summarized: Text is condensed or a summarized version of the presentation.
Text uses lists and space in order to pull the eye to important information.
3. Visually Pleasant and on Topic: Presentations uses visuals/graphics that provide
the audience with a visual connection to what is being verbally presented.

Instructional Sequencing and Strategies

Students will come into this module with a basic understanding of how to access,
manipulate and maneuver around the Google Slides App. They will have already gone through
intensive training on how to place text, images, and maneuver information on the Google Slides
platform.
Our instructional modules will use a number of different forms of instructional
sequencing. Day one, the teacher will use Class Relations. By having the students observe
poor examples of presentation slides, and then having students comment and collect
information on why the slides were ineffective, the teacher is able to teach the characteristics of
an effective slide without using direct instruction and straight up giving the students the said
expectations. (Morrison, 140)
In Day Two, the teacher will use propositional relations, the class will create presentation
expectations and then be provided examples of not only what an effective presentation looks
like but actually develop and create the presentation with the help of students in class.
(Morrison, 140)

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Days Three and Four, the teacher will then move to Sophistication, where the class will
start by creating singular slides representing a shared text. Then through discussion and
shared student work examples, students will have an opportunity to recreate more complex,
creative and visually pleasant presentation slide. Students will have two opportunities to show
their understanding of the concept, on day three they will create a single slide from a script
provided for them and on day four with a script they had written themselves. (Morrison, 140)
This instructional module will give students the opportunity to create their own
understanding of what makes up an effective multi media presentation. The students will
observe poor examples and develop or show their understanding of why the examples were not
effective presentations. Students, along with members in their groups, will then create a list of
expectations for effective multimedia presentations. The students will then demonstrate their
understanding by creating presentations for scripts provided to them and for scripts they created
on their own.

References
Morrison, G. R., Ross, S. M., Kalman, H. K., & Kemp, J. E. (2011). Designing effective
th
instruction (6 ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
National Governors Association Center for Best Practices & Council of Chief State School
Officers. (2010). Common Core State Standards for English language arts and literacy in
history/social studies, science, and technical subjects. Washington, DC: Authors.

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OSPI Report Card. Retrieved from http://reportcard.ospi.k12.wa.us/summary.aspx?group

Level=District&schoolId=2561&reportLevel=School&year=2013-14 on 11/7/2014

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