Classroom Slides provide a convenient option for presenting student instructions, student prompts, and other text and visuals. They’re also fully editable so that you can customize them for your own classroom!
Accessing Classroom Slides
Classroom Slides are optimized for Microsoft PowerPoint Version 16 and Google. You can access both versions from the Digital Resources area of the Lesson Brief page.
Helpful hints
Classroom Slides are optimized for Microsoft PowerPoint Version 16 and Google.
Slide organization: In most cases, the content on the slide is meant to come before the actions and suggested teacher talk written in the notes.
Color: Black text on the slides denotes suggested teacher talk. Blue text, icons, and/or stripes, meanwhile, indicate there is a student action to be performed.
Student Screens
When students are asked to refer to their own screens, an image of what they should see will appear on the slide. Note that if an activity has more than one screen of instructions or prompts for students to click through, only one screen will be shown. For teachers who are having their students work offline, the bottom of the slide will indicate the Investigation Notebook page that can be used instead. That information will be accompanied by a PDF icon.
Links: Links will be included at point-of-use within the slides. When a linked resource (such as a Simulation, Modeling Tool, Science Article, etc.) is necessary, the cursor will change from an arrow to a hand. In addition, anytime you see an image with a blue stripe in it or a grey box around it, you’ll know there is a link embedded within it. Heads up: you must be in presentation mode for the links to work!
Icons on slides: You will come across certain icons regularly as you move through each lesson’s slides. These icons serve as cues that signal to your students what will be happening in that particular activity. Here is a cheat sheet of what each one means:
In addition, you may occasionally come across the following icons when students are working independently:
Icons in notes: Teachers will also see icons in the notes field of the slides. Here is a cheat sheet of those icons and what they indicate:
Safety information: This icon on a slide means that important safety information, which will be located in the notes section of the slide, should be considered before beginning the activity. When applicable, you will also see highlighted Chemical Warning information in the notes.
Teacher demos: When activities call for a teacher demonstration, we provide two ways for you to carry it out:
In slide demo: you’ll find a video, gif, or series of illustrative slides that depict the steps of the demonstration in the deck.
Live demo: you’ll find instructions for how you could perform the demonstration live in front of your students in the notes of the appropriate slide.
Formative assessment opportunities: A grey rectangle in the bottom right corner of a slide indicates that this part of an activity contains an On-the-Fly Assessment. For guidance on what to look for as students engage in the activity, and how to tailor instruction based on what you observe, you can refer to the “On-the-Fly Assessment” heading at the bottom of the notes section.
Charts/Whiteboard: Some activities may call for you to write something on a chart or whiteboard during class. While we encourage you to physically take this action in your classroom, for maximum convenience and flexibility, the slides for those activities will contain an image of the chart/whiteboard with sample writing on it. Blue text on the pictured chart/whiteboard (or student screen) shows sample text to model for students.
Sometimes the chart/whiteboard image will include a gray pencil icon, and this indicates that you’ll be adding a co-constructed response you and your class should work on together.
*It’s important to note that these materials are made available exclusively for use by students and teachers for whom the corresponding materials have been purchased or licensed from Amplify. Any alterations you make should only be shared within your own school or district. Any other distribution or reproduction of these materials is forbidden without written permission from Amplify.
How to view notes while projecting
If you’d like to view the slide notes on your screen while presenting the slides for students, you can either use “presenter view” or print the slides out. Instructions for doing both are provided below.
Presenter View while projecting
Connect your computer to a projector.
Under the View menu, make sure “show speaker notes” has a checkmark next to it.
Select “Present”
You can also hover over the slide when in presentation mode and click “notes” to open the presenter notes in a separate window.
PowerPoint on Mac
Connect your computer to a projector.
Select the Slide Show tab.
Select Presenter View.
PowerPoint on PC
Connect your computer to a projector.
Select the Slide Show tab.
Make sure Use Presenter View box is checked in Monitors section.
Select From Beginning in Start Slide Show section.
Under the File Menu, select Print settings and preview.
To the right of “Close preview” along the top, choose “1 slide with notes.”
Select Download as PDF or Print
PowerPoint on Mac
Under the File Menu, select Print.
On the left side of the File tab, press Print.
In the Layout dropdown, select Notes.
Press Print.
PowerPoint on PC
Press the File tab.
On the left side menu, select Print.
Under Settings, in the dropdown menu labeled Full Page Slides, select Notes Pages.
Press Print.
Spanish Slides
Teachers in districts that have purchased digital Spanish licenses have a language toggle in the lower right-hand corner of their accounts. When teachers toggle to Spanish, they can open the Spanish Slides from the Lesson Brief.
