How are the slides structured?
These resources have been designed to maximise my efficiency and effectiveness as a chemistry teacher. With that in mind, the structure of each subtopic reflects my approach to teaching and learning. I have found it valuable to scaffold as much of the process as possible, but leaving space to build teacher explanations.
What is in the slides?
The slides are primarily colour-coded for my own reference, but with the additional benefit of building structure and routine for students. The colour-coding is as follows:
Teacher guidance and answers: I am currently adding these to the speaker notes under each slide to...
- Short-term retrieval practice (start-of-sequence): These questions address recent learning.
- Intro activity: These provide a basic starting point for the day's learning.
- Syllabus content/practice questions: These provide a starting point for a teacher's explanation OR practice questions for students. Content slides are intentionally designed with minimal information to avoid cognitive overload and allow freedom to build an explanation most fitting for your context.
- Quick check questions (mid-sequence): These can be used to gauge student understanding throughout the lesson.
- Nature of science (NOS) or theory of knowledge (TOK): These address the NOS aspect of the syllabus and/or also provide connections to the TOK course.
- Extension: These activities probe deeper or beyond the requirements of the course.
- Conceptual review (end-of-subtopic): This segment addresses the guiding question and explores the relationships between key concepts.
Teacher guidance and answers: I am currently adding these to the speaker notes under each slide to...
- Remind myself of key points/sequences required in explanations.
- Encourage students to engage with the slide decks as a review/revision resource.
- Support new teachers who use these resources.
How do I use the slides?
My current approach is to print off a student booklet containing the syllabus content/practice questions, NOS/TOK and conceptual review slides. The scaffolded design of the slides allows students to focus their note-taking/annotation on important details.
I intentionally leave out the other slides (e.g. Intro activities and Quick check questions) as I want students to respond to them in real-time. You could include Extension slides in the booklet, but many of them rely on links to articles and videos.
I intentionally leave out the other slides (e.g. Intro activities and Quick check questions) as I want students to respond to them in real-time. You could include Extension slides in the booklet, but many of them rely on links to articles and videos.