Creating Collaborative Slide Shows in Google Slides

Most third grade teacher and students are familiar with Google Slides. My students LOVE creating slide shows about their research or about other topics that interest them. (I can't tell you how many slide shows I've read about dogs!) However, this year I stumbled on a cool upgrade to Google Slides - the collaborative slide show!

In order to create a collaborative slide show, you create a slide show that has at least one slide for each student and you share the slide show, on edit mode, with the entire class. This way the kids can each work on their slide seperate of their friends, but they can see the work their friends are doing. This works great with a one-to-one device situation like having Chromebooks in the classroom, but I have used it in a classroom of just 3 computers. Students do not all have to be working at the same time, they can simply go to the slide show when they go to the computer center.


A few management tips:
 - Students need to know in advance which slide is their slide. In my classroom the students have numbers, so I often just have them work on the slide that coordinates with their number. However, students can choose a number from a hat or be assigned which number slide to work on, depending on the needs of your project. Some projects they may even need 2 slides.

 - Students will lose the link, so make sure that you post the link to the editable version in some place accessible to them - in your Google Classroom or Edmodo or even on your class blog, just some place they can access easily.

 - If someone's work "disappears", try going to File - Version History. You can then make a copy of the old version and copy and paste the deleted work back into the slide show. (This happens more than you think with 24 students all working in one document!)

 - When you are done working, it is possible to change the share settings so that students can no longer edit. This comes in handy if you want a finished product!


Collaborative slide shows have a lot of uses, here are just a few:

1.) Create a class book or "online magazine" where each student's slide is their writing on a specific topic. For example, my students each researched a different rock using my rock project. Then we used their informational writing to create a rock magazine.

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2.) Create a problem of the day (math word problem) slide show where each student's slide has the same problem (or different if you want to differentiate). Students can work on their problem, showing their work with sentences and drawings (insert drawing or insert shape). Then students can compare their own thinking with the thinking of their classmates. 

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3.) Create a slide show to completely explain and explore a story you are reading in class. Each slide can have a prompt or question about the story like characters or connections. Students can each complete one slide, and then as a class you have a full slide show explaining and describing the story. 
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4.) Create a vocabulary slide show for any subject. Type one vocabulary word in the title section of each slide. Each student explains their vocabulary word using sentences and images. You may give them a list of what needs to be on each slide (definition, examples, non-examples, etc.) or you may allow them more leway to describe the word in any way they see fit. Once all of the words are described, the class can review the slide show and add or subtract if necessary.
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5.) At the beginning of the school year (or any other time your students need reminding) have your students create an expectations slide show. In the title section of each slide, type an area of the classroom or school, or a material they will use. On their slide, the students define what the expectations are for using that area or material. Then as a class you can review the slide show and add or subtract if necessary.

How else could you use collaborative slide shows in your classroom?