INTE 6710 ~ Creative Designs for Instructional Materials Project 3: Pecha Kucha Presentation Design Document

Robin Mosteller
April 28, 2013

1. Overview The focus of my presentation will be the 7 PEBC thinking strategies and how I apply the strategies in the math classroom. PEBC is the Public Education and Business Coalition that works with public schools to create better classes and techniques for student learning. One of the main focuses for PEBC is the use and naming of the thinking strategies. The 7 thinking strategies are monitor for meaning, activating background knowledge, questioning, inferring, synthesizing, creating mental images, and determining importance. These 7 strategies have been a key component in building community and learning culture within the classes at Blevins Middle School. By using the same vocabulary terms and meaning for skills and processes that help students be proficient learners the teachers can build upon previous use. The 7 thinking strategies are most commonly and successfully used in English classrooms since there are obvious and natural connections to reading text. In the Math class the students read a different type of text, if at all, and it doesnt seem as natural for the students or the teacher to identify the strategies. Students instead, might use the strategies to complete a problem solving exercise. When I first was introduced to the thinking strategies I struggled to understand how I could make a connection to math content. As such I want to create a presentation that will help students and teachers see the connection with the strategies they use in English and the Math content they are learning. I wanted to have general math strategies but did not get too specific because I know that teachers dont often use a suggestion that they have to put a lot of time and effort modifying. At the end of the presentation math teachers will be able to describe in writing how the 7 thinking strategies relate to math. Since I my audience is math teachers I assume that they know basic math topics such as systems of equations or how decimals and percents relate. The audience for this presentation will be math teachers at a school participating in PEBC professional development. The presentation will be general enough to any math classroom that teachers at other schools will be able to show the presentation to their staff. This means that the visuals and sound need to be of a quality to present in a large format to a large group of people. Since classrooms often use projectors in a darker room I want to make sure that colors and contrast are appropriate. I would like to explain to teachers how I specifically use the strategies in simple ways in order to show that you can start small. For this presentation I used a combination of powerpoint and iMovie to create my presentation. I used the traditional Pecha Kucha format of slides and timing. Since the
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presentation is shorter it is more fitting for showing in the middle school setting where attention spans are shorter and professional development is rushed.

2. Design Decisions When I began working on this presentation I knew that I wanted to keep the overall presentation simple and relatable to the professional development that PEBC already had presented at my school. Every teacher at school had a poster with the thinking strategies and many also have them posted on student tables. The link for a copy of the poster is located in the Appendix. Knowing this, I wanted to use the images that students and teachers were used to seeing. The poster did not contain the highest quality images so I tried to recreate the image in a higher resolution so that when shown on the projector the image would not deteriorate. I also wanted for the audience to focus on the specific examples I was giving in the audio and so I tried to keep the images simple and connected. I generally have two slides on each thinking strategy which allows for a total of 40 seconds on each topic. Within the same thinking strategy I used the same color font. This allows the audience to see the connection but also to track when the thinking strategy changes. By allowing this connection and flow of audio I feel that the presentation is less start and stop. Design Decision #1. Practice restraint. When I thought about the images and narrative I wanted to include in the presentation I thought about how I wanted to provide practical and simple context for the audience. As a teacher I know that sometimes the professional training requires a monumental shift in thinking and organization. In order to make the presentation worthwhile I wanted to avoid this complication and leave the audience with immediate things they can do. I went through several drafts of editing material to ensure that I had made the idea simple by finding the core of the idea (Heath and Heath, 2008, p.27). The core of the thinking strategies is that it can be applied in any topic to aide in communication of students thinking. I also wanted to demonstrate discipline of mind and strength of will to make the hard choices about what to include and what to exclude ( Reynolds 2009 p. 17). Since the thinking strategies are grouped into 7 skills I knew I had to include each skill but I also wanted to keep the material limited to only those skills and how they apply in my class. To cover every subject or possible scenario would have been too much. Instead each strategy follows the same overall layout. The first slides cover a basic introduction to how I interpret the strategy and the second slide covers the math application and has the original image. By following this pattern it was easy to stay focused and not stray on tangents. Design Decision #2. Narrative layout.

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I wanted to start with the general, then zoom in on the detail because most people have a basic understanding of the content of PEBC that to review the big picture shows them that I have the same idea of the overall concept (Reynolds, 2009, p.19). It also allows the audience to slowly move into the topic of the explicit examples. If teachers dont believe in the credibility of the source they are not normally willing to try the suggestion. To create a flow of the material I wanted to navigate between application and definition in a fluid manner. Daurte suggest that this navigation create interest and a pulse ( 2010, p.27). Design Decision #3. Type size As I thought about the objectives of the material I wanted to make sure that for the environment the material would be presented in the text would be readable. Although text, is not the larger focus of a Pecha Kucha presentation I felt that text would aide my audience the best. If I kept teachers looking and analyzing pictures while giving the narrative they wouldnt focus on either one. Duarte suggest projecting the words on a slide so they receive the message visually as well as orally (Duarte p.152). Since I was going to take the risk of having the focus not on images on every slide I felt that I needed to insure the text was large enough for instant reading (Reynolds 2009, p.35). To achieve this goal Reynolds suggest viewing the slides in a slide sorter and seeing if you can still read the text. I did this in Powerpoint and also took the extra step to go ahead and print the material out in a note taking format in order to ensure the font was of a decent size. Since the presentation might be used in a professional training environment the use of a print format would aide teachers in writing additional information from a discussion or from the narrative. Design Decision #4. Slide layout When looking at the next major decision I feel that the slide background and layout is the most obvious choice. For darker, and for larger venues, use a darker slide background (Reynolds 2009, p.82). I took this advice and used a black background. There have often been times that Ive been in a presentation and could not see the image or it was too bright and harsh on the eyes. As a result I went with a black background and images with less saturation. This meant that in order to keep the flow of images and text I needed the background to be black in the images. Since this is not how the original material was I used software to invert the colors of the all black images to get a gray scale image with a black background. This also allowed me to tilt or rotate images and have the edges disappear. This can be seen in the puzzle image and also in the question marks. From a later reading in Reynolds I also wanted to stick with the same color scheme and font. Reynolds says a common error that presentation designers make is throwing together too many color schemes, fonts, and graphs that contain too many style variations (Reynolds 2009, p. 198). I stuck with one font, Rockwell, through out all slides. I also then used two main slide layouts. For the first slide on every strategy I tried to mimic the layout and colors in the opening slide. This meant a gray background to black font and an image
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with the saturation decreased. The image was on the lower portion of the slide and was bled off the slide on three sides and up to the font box on the top side. Design Decision #5. Space is important Empty space, generally referred to as white space whether or not its white, is just as valuable as positive design elements (Reynolds, 2008, p.157). I used black white space in order to balance graphics and also text on the slide. Looking at the seventh slide, I tried to balance the image and the text with the empty space around the items. The use of the same background allows more space but it also allows the eyes to flow naturally and not hit a hard line. The space allows for elements such as text, images, and lines- to breathe (Reynolds, 2008, p.159). When the text was grouped closer together the slide looked to top heavy and the image was lost. Looking at the 10th slide, and other similar slides, I allowed space around the text by not having it overlap the image. This allowed the title to stand out from the picture and also allowed the eye to travel between the two elements. Design Decision #6. Providing visual cues In the original presentation I did not have any photographs but used a repeating graphic. After peer review I added more photographs. Vision is our most powerful sense. Therefore designing messages that include images is highly effective way to get peoples attention (Reynolds, 2008, p. 97). I think that the use of photographs compared to graphics allow for the audience to know that an introduction is starting and then the graphic image is used when giving more explicit content. The images I used are of students working on math in a classroom. They are authentic pictures (not posed). I hope that these images will create a story that illustrates causal relationships that people hadnt recognized before and highlight unexpected, resourceful ways in which people have solved problems (Heath and Heath, 2008, p.206). Although the images are students, I hope that they show that material can make class interesting but also have students working hard on content. I hoped that the subtle message would be delivered without directly referring to it in the narrative. Design Decision #7. Use of original images. When designing the presentation I decided to stick with the images found in the original document. You tap the existing memory terrain of your audience and since my audience is familiar with PEBC I wanted to trigger and tap into their schema (Heath and Heath, 2008, p. 52). I used these images as the second slide of each of the thinking strategies. I felt that this would allow teachers to concentrate on content that might be new and not on how the image relates to the poster they have. I did use inverted color scheme in order to have the images flow into the black background.

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I also thought sticking with the images that the audience already knows would follow the idea avoiding imagery only as ornamentation that Reynolds talks about (Reynolds 2009, p. 127). If I had inserted images of my classroom or students on these slides I was afraid I would be doing so at the consequence of the presentation as a whole. By keeping with the images teachers are used to I am triggering their schema and keeping it simple.

Design Decision #8. Material Flow When I looked at how to begin the presentation I thought the use of a personal story would be attention grapping. The first plot point is an incident that captures the audiences intrigue and interest (Duarte, 2010, p.30). Since the audience is used to boring presentations I thought the use of the personal story would bring in the audience. After I had their attention I wanted to make sure I prioritize the material and information without dumbing down the material (Heath and Heath, 2008, p.30). I started with strategies that were easy to incorporate into a classroom, such as asking questions, and eventually moved to the harder material. The harder material, although important, is presented last so as to not overwhelm the audience.

3. Formative Evaluation Response

Peer Review Question #1. What are some of the ways you can use the seven thinking strategies in math? Since my objective was to have people understand the thinking strategies I wanted to ensure that any audience member was able to achieve the objective. Based on the feedback it looks like the strategies were explained while enough for examples to be remembered. As a result I did not change anything specifically based on this questions feedback.
You can use them to solve story problems, create and test hypotheses, break down algebraic equations, and help check your answers. Ah, a test! Ask questions, infer and synthesize. First and last stuck with me but I recall more of the fill in the blank questions for each strategy, which is good.

Peer Review Question #2. I used the images on the posters that students are familiar with and added in the shadow images to keep track. How did the use of color and image repetition help your understanding of the presentation? I wanted to see if this design decision aided the concept or was just something I thought useful. I seemed to get mixed feedback about the material. As result I have explained more in the design decision why I kept certain images.
It made me remember the individual strategies were part of the same concept, but it didn t really advance the subject matter of your elements. If you used different photos or images for each stage of the strategies they would offer more contrast and individual definition for each of the phases. As is theres just a slight modification for each one. The repetition you used provides the presentation with a good cohesion, but it doesnt add impact for your individual concepts.

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This works great and is a nice design decision!

Peer Review Question #3. The audience is people who have some background about the thinking strategies. What would you suggest doing to enhance the story of the narration? I asked this question to see if the narration had sticking power and was of a quality that was clear and concise. I get told that I talk fast and it appears from the second comment that I did possibly talk too fast. As a result I have gone back and edited the content in order to make the speed at which I talk slower.
How about if you cited an example of a student employing one of the learning strategies youre talking aboutsomething anecdotal that illustrates the method instead of talking about it how it can/could be used? Maybe if you provide a concrete example a success story of one or more of the strategies in action with one of your students, then the audience might be able to draw parallels from their own experiences. I like how you pulled in that you are different with the puzzle solving slide and that you have given the audience examples for how to use the strategy. The only thing I noted on my first time through is the speed at which you deliver the narration. I didnt hear extraneous content but if you can chop a word here or there, it will help viewers.

Peer Review Question #4. How could I improve the image and text layout to make material less overwhelming or more interesting? I asked this question to see if there was a place I could be more consistent in order to improve the flow and quality of the presentation. When I read the comments in blue I thought about my audience some more and when this presentation might be presented. I did not want to overwhelm the audience or give them a chance to be distracted. I think teachers have an even shorter attention span then their students during professional developments so I wanted to provide a focus. I did take the CARP suggestions on aligning the graphics and writing more carefully.
Provide some photos of people using your strategies, or the products of people using these strategies. A magnificent bridge or finely engineered automobile are the products of math thinking strategies that stretch beyond pure numbers and tell a story. I like math so a lot of the concepts were interesting to me and they stuck, but there werent a lot of impactful images that had the same effect. At first, I questioned why you would use a unicorn instead of a graph but I think I get it. All of your images work and I didnt find any of the slides overwhelming. However, CARP wise I noted lines alignment issues and that you chose to display text in many ways. I recommend looking at the slide with question mark graphic and making the rest uniformly follow that design.

Peer Review Question #5. I tried to stick with images that were part of the PEBC material and also to use the face to allude to thinking, however I don't have a lot of photographs. How does the presentation meet the requirements without the use of real life pictures? When you look at some of the images they are possibly based off of clip art, however they are the images that are known for the thinking strategies and as a result I thought they were necessary to include. I tried to increase the quality but I didnt want to move too far away from the original. I was concerned about not having enough photo graphs so I have gone back and added more on slides I previously just had an introduction on.

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I dont know the precise definition of what clip art is, but you might be getting close with the question marks, the light-bulb, the detective, the unicorn, and the key. I like the logical flow, and your images compliment the narrative, but in more of PEBC way, I dont think they drive the presentation like the images are intended to in this format. Remember, Im a novice at these too so I could be off base here, but I recommend you take the time to ask Joni if you have any doubts about it at all. I misinterpreted the last project and Im in the process of resubmitting it, so Id rather you learn from my mistakes than repeat them. Good question. I feel that you met the requirements for Pecha Kucha because I learned from your presentation.

Bibliography
Heath, C., & Heath, D. (2008). Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Die and Others Survive. New York: Random House. Reynolds, G. (2009). Presentation Zen Design: Simple Design Principles and Techniques to Enhance Your Presentations. Berkeley, CA: New Riders.

Duarte, N. (2010). Resonate. Wiley. Appendix

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BzPm9oDdVSrMaC1DYmpJVVZURDQ/edit?usp=sharing

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