As we are preparing to return to school remotely for at least the first quarter, I’m taking a fresh look at several resources that I use regularly in class to see how they might work in our current environment. I’ve had students maintain a spreadsheet of topics for the cultural comparison task before, but students either loved it or hated it. As a result, it’s been in the back of my mind to revamp it. I wanted to keep the positives and address the complaints and reservations that students had about the document. I also wanted to make stronger connections between the essential questions and the things we are learning in class. Finally, I wanted something that could be done remotely and still be organized and streamlined.
Enter one of my favorite productivity and design sites: SlidesMania. SlidesMania offers dozens of free templates for PowerPoint and Google Slides, including interactive slide decks that allow me to edit rather than start from scratch. It is a total gold mine! Using one of their templates, I created a digital notebook for AP to bring this whole project together. You can check it out here. As always feedback is helpful, especially before I roll it out to classes in a couple weeks.
Aventuras Nuevas 
Can we use this?
Sure, just make a copy to you drive & retain the crediting lines.
I LOVE that everything is organized and all in one place for students. However, is there a way for students and/or teacher to add pages to it once it is shared? With all of the changes happening, I am not sure I would be able to have everything ready before I could share it with them.
Yes, each “page” is actually a slide. So students can easily add slides to their notebooks. You can add to yours too, but the changes will not usually be pushed out to students. I’m sure I’ll make edits along the way too!
Can we add pages. I love what you have done👍
Thank you. Yes—but it’s easiest to duplicate the first page in each section, then delete duplicate content & edit. That way the embedded links still work.
Hola Bethanie!
I absolutely LOVE THIS and have been thinking about it for a couple days. I am just coming off of AP German training so a similar idea was fresh in my mind – what a great resource for students. I’m thinking of even distributing it to my level 3s this year to document their growing cultural understanding, and maybe even to my 2s to begin the process of “thinking AP” and reminding themselves of everything they’ve learned.
I have translated your template into German. Would you be interested in linking it to this post at all? (Do you have many German readers? I’m always curious where we German teachers end up!). Also, would you be okay if I linked my German version to my blog, with attribution of course, and posted about this in an AP German Facebook group?
Lots of questions – thanks in advance and thanks for this great resource!
Hola Ben,
First, thank you for reading. Second, I’d love to feature a German edition for any resource that teachers did helpful. I know my German colleague at school would love to see this one, and I think we have a French edition on the way as well.
Like you, I’ve given some thought to starting a version of this in level 3/4. I think I’d probably start them with the pages in the last section—less AP essential questions, more brain dump of all the cultural stuff we’ve learned along the way.
Thank you for reaching out & linking. Please send a link & I’ll add it to this post.
Hola Bethanie!
Wonderful! Below you will find the link to the notebook in German.
I appreciate you creating this resource for us. I will probably do as you describe and stick to the last couple pages for cultural brain dumps for my level 3s. Woohoo!
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1rvhzOsg7vRw1u_1RSBQcy9vpftBxo7e7hIjbECnev88/edit?usp=sharing
Ben, Bethanie, vielen Dank! Gracias! This German teacher with 6 preps this year is so thankful for this resource. I often get lost in the trees and struggle with seeing the larger forest. Sharing is caring!
Bonjour all! Could we find this resource in French? Thank you!
I think a colleague is converting it. However, if you would like to do so & share back, that would be lovely!
Hi Bethanie,
I would like to thank you again for sharing your work. This is amazing. I finally finished the French version.
Please find the link below:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1is-5mJ1BNr8PkiIBkM8dFLx6b2K6nPzNWZ1zdBRu99M/copy
Thank you for sharing!