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2. Incorporate listening and drawing activities with Pear Deck: Pear Deck is the perfect way to make your Google Slides interactive. Try using the Pear Deck Chrome extension for listening and drawing activities: Add a Pear Deck interactive “Drawing” slide and read a description aloud.For example, I will read the following description aloud (in Spanish) to my Spanish I classes: “The boy is tall, thin, and has black, curly hair and green eyes. The boy is feeling happy because it is warm and sunny outside. He likes to listen to music and read, but he does not like to study or play sports.”As I read off this description, students draw what they hear. Once their drawings are complete, I ask them to restate what they drew aloud. You can also ask them to write about what they drew. Students are enthused when I project all of their drawings on the board—each student’s drawing is different and has its own style, even though everyone heard the same description.

Third, teachers can encourage collaborative learning in a number of ways with Google Slides. An assignment could be designed so that each student creates their own slides; once combined into one presentation, students can learn from each other. Or, small groups can collaborate on one slide presentation in real-time and then present their slides to the class, allowing for an engaging student presentation.

One “choice” assignment I regularly offer students is letting them engage in a texting conversation in Spanish and send me the screenshots. This assignment seems more like fun than like work. Plus, students are able to use the language in an authentic, realistic way.

Connect students with another class and set up a virtual pen pal program. (Bonus points if you can arrange this with a class in a country in which the target language is spoken.)