Anticipation guides at the beginning of a unit are now a staple in the teacher’s tool kit. However, I “techified” my Macbeth anticipation guide with the help of Pear Deck.
To be honest, I started with paper. I used Jim Burke’s Macbeth anticipation guide as a starting point for my own. I made copies and students circled their answers. Then they broke into discussion groups of 4-5 classmates, where they had to come to a consensus for each question.
Afterward, each group logged onto Pear Deck, and a member from each group, using the “draggable” tool, dragged the red line to their group’s response. I then called on random groups to explain and defend their responses.
This activity could easily be done individually, too, rather than in groups, especially if you have classes who are very open and enjoy discussing. For classes that are more reticent, however, the groups work well as a springboard into the overall class discussion. I hear stronger comments in the small groups, and I also find more members of small groups are willing to share with the whole class because they’ve already “rehearsed” their responses in small groups.
Pear Deck provides a great visual aid for anticipation guides and emphasizes how beliefs can range throughout a class.
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