Collaborative Meme Template in Google Slides
Who doesn’t love a meme? Memes can be creative critical thinking (of course, it depends on the effort the student puts into it); 2 of the 4 C’s. To write a really clever meme the student would have to understand the concept. Previously I blogged on how to create an educational meme in a Google Drawing.
The 4 C’s
[tweet]When creating an assignment for students consider “Does this have at least one C?”[/tweet]
- Collaborate
- Critical Thinking (at least DOK 2)
- Clearly Communicate Ideas
- Creative Thinking
Template
Meme the C’s
Using this template you have the potential to hit all 4 C’s.
Collaboration
This is a single Google Slides for all students to contribute their meme. Share the Google Slides with edit access to allow all students to add a slide and insert their meme. This by itself does NOT cover collaboration. Ever watch 2 year olds play? They play near each other but not necessarily with each other. Just having students put their work on a collaborative Google Slides is like 2 year olds playing; not collaboration. How are students providing feedback, encouraging fellow classmates, making connections with their memes, and generally helping each other to be better?
Insert Comments
After adding their meme to the Slides template students should add feedback comments to the slides of peers. Comments are an opportunity for students to demonstrate their understanding of the concept. By reviewing peer memes this is an opportunity to further review the concepts and to develop deeper understanding of the concept.
Each meme should be considered a first draft. Using the feedback from peers and the teacher, students would update their meme (or start completely over). Using the tiny arrow next to the add a slide button, students can add a layout to indicate an updated draft. If you would like to customize how the layout options look go to the View menu and choose “Master.”
Critical Thinking
Creating a meme is not automatically critical thinking. Teaching students critical thinking can require feedback and students responding to the feedback, updating their work.
Creative Thinking
If every student is submitting the same thing it is not creative thinking, and probably not critical thinking. Asking students to create a meme that demonstrates their understanding of a concept will require some creative thinking to choose an image that not only connects with a concept but to come up with a phrase that is a clever way to look at the concept.
Clearly Communicate Ideas
Creating the meme does not tell the whole story about the student’s understanding. Students will use the text box on the slide template to explain why the meme is funny/clever/connects to the concept.
Add Your Meme
If you (or even better your students) create an EduMeme and would like to add it to my sample Google Slides please use THIS LINK.