Students appreciate it when we set them up for success. No presenter- at any age- wants to see an audience looking bored or disinterested. Modeling and teaching students HOW to present to audiences in engaging ways should be a big part of what we do as teachers. One way to engage an audience is to add interactive elements to a presentation.
This “hidden picture” element can easily transform a student presentation into an interactive guessing game, the end product of a project that incorporates high-level thinking (see Depth and Complexity) and reinforces a growth mindset. It’s nothing flashy and exciting~ it doesn’t involve augmented reality or 3-D bitmoji avatars~ but it can be a fun addition to any presentation.
No doubt, you’ve seen this kind of thing before: a picture is hidden and revealed a little at a time. For this type of class presentation, the hidden picture might be a mystery object, animal, person, landmark, or country. Clues are given one at a time, and a little of the picture is revealed with each clue. The audience is invited to guess as each clue is shared and more of the picture is revealed.
The “hidden picture” element can be adapted for use at all grade levels. A favorite project of mine was one completed by 4th grade GT students as part of a year-long thematic study of MYSTERIES (read more here). Each student would choose an eminent person of interest to learn more about and then create a “Guess Who?” mystery presentation.
The project has several layers. As students read about their eminent people and research their lives, they consider how choices, life events, and character traits might connect.
As they gather interesting biographical information, students look for evidence of personality and character traits such as resilience, optimism, passion, and discipline and consider what may have shaped behaviors or factored into the person’s success (evaluative thinking). They might be challenged to incorporate other dimensions, too, such as scholarly habits, multiple intelligences, and levels of morality as Ian Byrd shares in this article.
A third layer of the project requires students to incorporate quotes associated with the person and show how these might connect to life events or behaviors. Students take notes on index cards, then rank their facts in order from least-known facts to more well-known facts. Sequencing their note cards helps students determine the order for the “mystery person” clues in the presentation. The least-known facts are presented first and the “give-away” clue is revealed on the last slide.
Students are challenged to create at least ten “glimpses” into the mystery person’s life and character, and then create a presentation of at least ten slides. The hardest part for students is to keep their research secret! It’s difficult for them to refrain from sharing as they read and research! My 4th graders really enjoyed their roles as both presenters and audience members trying to guess each mystery person! We used personal whiteboards for guessing so that only the presenter could see the guesses and it wouldn’t be given away to the entire class.
Students who have created PowerPoint or Google Slides presentations can easily learn how to create a hidden picture presentation. The instructional video below can be shared with students or used as a guide in teaching them yourself. NOTE: This video doesn’t explain the full project; it merely explains how to create the “hidden picture” slides. Also, the “arrange-group” feature is in Google Slides and should be the same on any computer.
There are many possible extensions and applications for a guessing game slide show, and these presentations can easily be shared via SKYPE or ZOOM with other classes or within the same class. If your school pairs older students with younger ones to join in “buddy projects,” this could be a fun one to try.
If this type of project appeals to you, you might like to check out this one for younger students: Q is for Duck: Primary Animal Research Project. As always, I encourage you to comment below if you have ideas about this project or similar ones, or if your students create Hidden Picture slide shows.
I am finishing this project with my gifted 5th graders and they loved it! We did it in February and tied in black history and presidents. Their choice of person to research had to be a former president or an African American who made a significant contribution. It was amazing to see how they tackled certain objectives such as level of morality based on the events in the persons life. Will definitely be doing this again. Thank you so much Donna!
So happy you incorporated this project into your studies, and I’m really glad to hear your students enjoyed it! I’m impressed with the depth- very cool!