Flashcard Factory: A POG Hero

Which skills should define the portrait of a graduate?

So many programs claim to promote 21st century thinking or what my district calls Portrait of a Graduate Skills, but this unsung hero is quickly becoming one of my favorite programs because of how seamlessly it helps students reach these goals. I have to be honest — I had never even heard of this component of this program until this summer when I attended a Pear Deck training by Robert Yoo.

So you might be wondering what Pear Deck has to do with Portrait of a Graduate skills (aka 21st century skills).

In my district, five skills make up our Portrait of a Graduate:

1. Communicator
2. Collaborator
3. Ethical and Global Citizen
4. Creative and Critical Thinker
5. Goal-Directed and Resilient Individual

So when I was initially introduced to Flashcard Factory, a part of Pear Deck, I wasn’t really sure how to use it or why others at the training liked it so much. But I took the words of others at the training and decided to try it.

Flashcard Factory in Fourth Grade

My first experience with this program was in a fourth grade class at my school. They were studying Caesar’s English and their teacher and I had decided this was a good way to have them practice their words. As we began the activity, I wasn’t sure exactly how this would work. Sure, I had done it as a training, but I was totally unprepared for the experience I was about to have.

It was a huge success. I loved watching my fourth graders as they engaged with the content. They were not only using their knowledge of the words, but were collaborating as they create their cards. Moreover, as we reached quality control, the discussions we had about each of their proposed cards was engaging for all students.

After this, I used this program several times with my grade 4 and 5 students. Each time, the students loved the activity and were not only engaged, but also immersed in the activity. During a region School-Based Technology Specialist meeting, I shared how much students loved this and @MsMeshover shared how one of her teachers, @Barrys_class, decided to use this program in an open-ended manner where students came up with story problems and illustrations for math problems.

Flashcard Factory in Sixth Grade

As December began, I tried this with one of my sixth grade classes. I was amazed at the results. All of my sixth grade students were completely engaged. Their discussions were fascinating as they used their critical thinking skills to analyze if their stories matched the expressions given. As we approached the quality control section, as a class, we were able to have some great conversations as we determined if their examples met their criteria set of having expressions match the story problems and illustrations.

So how does this program help students reach the Portrait of a Graduate skills I shared earlier?

1. Communicator: Students used digital tools to share their ideas as they created word problems and/or sentences with matching illustrations.
2. Collaborator: Students respectfully listen and ask questions to get their partners to share their ideas. Students also share their ideas with their partner as they work together to create their flashcards.
3. Creative and Critical Thinker: Students get the opportunity to create unique solutions. Each team has the same problems yet their solutions in their cards are all very different. Students also ask questions to clarify, explore, and assess ideas as they work on their cards.
4. Goal-Directed and Resilient Individual: Students persevere through difficult tasks and situations. It is not always easy to make an abstract concept such as subtracting integers concrete- yet students work together to make this happen during this activity.

So you can see why this program is quickly becoming one of my favorites. It is more than just a “Flashcard Factory.” Maybe it should be called the Communication, Collaboration, Critical Thinking and Resilient Inspiring Competition. But that is kind of a mouthful.

For now, let me simply encourage you to check out this tool. Did I mention it’s free for everyone to use?