Is your slideshow too cute? 3 speech skills to help students understand
During the pandemic, Delaware’s high school English teacher Christina Scheffel is desperate to get students involved in the speech. As a solution, she began adding embellishments to the slide presentation, including a cactus themed slide with cactus borders, fonts and arrows. “Every cactus emoji I can find is placed on these slides, and I do think it’s a way to bring some joy to the classroom,” Scheffel said.
Students liked the novelty, but later, when Scheffel asked them to recall the information from the speech, one student said something about how she made her rethink her speech. She recalled: “One of my students looked at me and said: “What I remember in the last lesson was the cactus on the slide. ”
Designing visually attractive materials, such as slideshows and worksheets, is easier than ever. However, Scheffel points out that too much decoration can distract learning. She invites teachers to consider a universal design for learning the principle of representation, which requires teachers to provide information in a way that makes it accessible to all of their learners. Scheffel provides useful tips to keep classroom materials clear, accessible and focused on learning goals at the International Technical Society of Education 2024.
Choose a design that suits students
Scheffel emphasizes the importance of reducing cognitive load, the amount of information students can process at a given time. When the slides are distracted too much, such as GIFs or irrelevant images, “we ask students to take additional processing steps, so we are increasing their cognitive burden,” Scheffel said. Therefore, teachers may want to know in particular how they use important information slides. Jeff Kilner, a technology integration expert at Indus River School District, Delaware, said he benefits from putting the most important information on the prospect of the slides, so students have a clear understanding of what’s going to be prioritized.
Scheffel also recommends checking design options to make sure they support learning. The teacher can make sure that all students in the room have easy to read font styles and sizes. Additionally, teachers can check whether the color combinations in the material are easy to use and the contrast inspector guide is easy to read.
Limit text on slideshow
A slide packaged with information will overwhelm the students. “The brain’s language center doesn’t work properly. You can’t read information and listen to information and process it at the same time,” Scheffel said. “If our students are overloaded, they won’t be able to learn effectively.” Grouping relevant information together ensures that students are not required to learn too much at one time or at one time. This method is also called blocks, making it easier for students to move new information into their long-term memory.
