25 Ways to Use Pear Deck in an English Class

You've probably heard about the latest trend, interactive slideshows, and yes, I have a favorite. I recommend using the Google Slides Add-On Pear Deck for any class. If you're an English teacher, and you're not sure what you could do with Pear Deck, take a look at my favorite ways to use it in my high school English classes.   


Multiple Choice Slides

The free version of Pear Deck allows you to add multiple choice questions to your slides that students can answer live during your lesson. You can then show a summary of their answers. 

This basic feature can be used in a variety of ways, including:

Text Response Slides

Another feature of the free version of PD is the text response slide, which allows you to put a question on your slide and give students a place to enter their typed response during your lesson. You can then choose to show particular responses or show all of them. Even better, you can see a list of who didn't respond, so you can prompt them to participate! 

I use this for:
  • Open-Ended Questions
  • Grammar Checks
  • Writing Games
  • Reading Reactions
  • Literary Analysis

Drawing Slides

If you're like me, and you're willing to pay for the Premium version of Pear Deck ($149.99/year), then you'll have access to a feature that allows your students to draw, type, and highlight on your slides during the lesson. It's fun to show what the students created or to overlay all of the answers to see how they match up. 

Here are just a few ways I like to incorporate drawing slides into my lessons:
  • Drawing Reactions to the Reading
  • Filling out note charts
  • Highlighting Key Quotes
  • Fixing Grammar Errors
  • Drawing Lines to Matching Concepts

Draggable Object Slides

My favorite feature of the Premium version is the Draggable slide. This allows you to place an object or avatar on your students' screens that they can drag and place somewhere on your slide. You can even lock their screens to prevent cheating when you show the answer! 

There are lots of fun ways to use this, including:

Website Browsing Slides

Another engaging feature I use is the website browsing slide. This allows you to embed an entire navigable website into your slide. Students can actually click through the webpages without ever leaving your slideshow! Unfortunately, not all sites allow for this kind of embedding, so check to make sure the site you want to use works in Pear Deck before presenting! 

This feature is great for:
If you haven't tried Pear Deck yet, hopefully, this shows you what you're missing and why I'm such a fan! 

If you're ready to get started, but would like a jumpstart, try these FREE Pear Deck English lessons from Teachable Tech:

Need help using Pear Deck? I'm happy to help get you started! Just comment below.

Please note: I am in no way affiliated with or compensated by Pear Deck.

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