Google Classroom in 10 Lessons

Digital Maestro Magazine digitalmaestro.org

Google Classroom In 10 Lessons

Create Classrooms Create Assignments Invite Students Distribute Assignments Collect Assignments Go Digital With Google Docs Interact and Collaborate Assign Grades Create Assessments Manage Classrooms

Go at your own pace one day at a time and learn how Google Classrooms can help you facilitate learning.

July 15, 2015 All rights reserved Š 2015 Alex Reyes

Google Classroom In 10 Lessons From The Author In recent weeks I’ve been providing training and support for Google Classroom. One thing I’ve heard over and over again from teachers is how easy it is to use. It is very easy to use, but in those trainings I only scratch the surface of what is possible.

In the final lesson we go over some of the administrative tools that we can use in the classroom to manage student accounts and to manage the classroom itself. We’ll learn how to manage student access in Google Classroom and how we can manage our assignments. At the end of the year we often clean out our classrooms and desk.

In this issue I thought it would be a great opportunity to We’ll learn how to archive the current year courses so review what I provide during the training and to provide our Google Classroom begins with a clean slate for the more detailed information and instructions. The first five following year. When we archive the classrooms, we don’t lessons go over the very basic tools and options. The archive any of your assignments or lessons. They remain remaining lessons go into greater detail. These instruc- available in Google Drive for next year. tions go through a typical classroom lesson with students.

We look at creating multiple lessons, modifying those I’ve tried to provide a great deal of detail in these lessons lessons and facilitating student learning. but even at that, they only cover a fraction of what can be done with Google Classroom. I have several issues that We learn how to use the Google Ecosystem to seamlessly provide instruction on separate components available integrate its various tools like Docs and You Tube into a with Google Drive and Google Chrome. Any of these lesson. We learn how to use the collaborative tools in tools can be easily used with Google Classroom. I hope Docs to provide feedback to student assignments. In you find them a useful addition to Google Classroom. the process we enter a complete digital environment for delivering and receiving assignments.

Remember to leave me a message or review on what you thought of the issue. The more information you provide Part of the immersion includes the tools to create assess- the better I can make the lessons to help you. ments. We know that assessments are critical when gauging what students understand and how well they’ve mas- –Alex Reyes tered the content. We’ll use Google Forms, a tool typically used to collect information in polls and surveys, to create a short assessment. This short assessment doesn’t cover all that can be done with Google Forms as an assessment tool, but it provides an insight into what is possible. If you would like to learn more about using Google Forms for assessment, I would like to recommend my issue that introduces the Google Form basics.

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Google Classroom In 10 Lessons Table of Contents Lesson 1: Creating A Classroom

5

Lesson 2: Creating An Assignment

9

Lesson 3: Inviting Students

15

Lesson 4: Digital Assignments

19

Lesson 5: Grading Assignments

25

Lesson 6: Google Drive and Google Applications

29

Lesson 7: Immersed In Google Classroom

33

Lesson 8: Paperless Written Assignments

43

Lesson 9: Student Assessments

49

Lesson 10: Classroom Administration

56

The cover design for this issue is inspired from a design available on freepik.com.

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Google Classroom In 10 Lessons Introduction Google Classroom is a cloud service and can be accessed from any computer or mobile device with any browser. For the best experience I recommend using Google’s browser, Chrome. It’s free and available for all platforms. I will be using Chrome throughout these lessons.

Google Classroom is only available to educators and it’s usually only available as part of a district integration. To access Google Classroom, you will need to login with your district username and password.

The first thing we’ll do is create a classroom. We can create one classroom or multiple classrooms. It all depends on what you teach and how you teach. At this time there is no limit on the number of classrooms we can create.

that teaches one content to all students in a grade level or across grade levels. These teachers would also create separate classrooms. In this case a teacher would create one classroom for each class period or grade level.

The first five lessons will introduce the basics concepts of Google Classroom. After the first five lessons we will begin to look at ways in which we could fully integrate our classrooms in a typical lesson. The lessons in these examples are very basic and they should help you underA classroom in Google Classrooms is a container where stand how this all works. we place all our assignments for students. It’s a very basic container with the idea that there is one classroom for one subject. We could create one classroom for multiple subjects, but you would have to work hard at distinguishing one subject from another within the classroom. This will make more sense as we go through the lessons.

These are some typical examples that can guide our process for creating classrooms. Most elementary school teachers teach all the core subjects and some additional subjects. As an elementary teacher we could create one classroom for all our content. This might appear to be the simplest and easiest way to begin, but I’m going to suggest you create a classroom for each subject. This will make it easier to distinguish lessons and assignments. As we go through the lessons you’ll begin to understand my reasoning.

Typically middle school and high school teachers are departmentalized. There is often a dedicated teacher 4 Digital Maestro Magazine : digitalmaestro.org : July 15 2015

Google Classroom In 10 Lessons Lesson 1: Creating A Classroom To begin the process you will need to login using an authenticated educator gmail account. This is usually through a district provided account. If the account isn’t an educator account or one associated with an educational institution, you will not have access to the Google Classroom application.

Log into your Google Classroom account. In the upper right When Google Drive opens, click on the Google Apps side of the Google page you will find nine squares that Launcher again. Google Classroom is under the More form another square. This is the Google Apps Launcher. option at the bottom of the apps list. Click on More to see the others apps available.

If you are using the Chrome browser, this app launcher is part of the browser and located in the upper left below Click on the Classroom icon. the address bar. A benefit of using the Apps launcher in the browser is that Google Classroom is readily available without having to go into Google Drive first.

For these lessons, I’m going to assume you are not using the Chrome browser and I’ll walk you through the other process. When the apps launcher opens, click on Drive.

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Google Classroom In 10 Lessons Lesson 1: Creating A Classroom If this is your first time using Google Classroom, you will A module will open so you can provide a class name be prompted to identify your role in Google Classroom. and section information.

Below the banner you will be asked to identify yourself as a student or teacher. Click on the Teacher button.

To create your first class, click the plus next to your account. Select create class from the menu options.

In my example I’ll provide a class name for World History.

The section information is optional. If you are a middle school or high school teacher that teaches one subject, the section could be used to differentiate each class.

For example, you could have World History and provide period 1 for the section information. When you’re done providing a name and section information, click the create button.

The menu option includes the option to join a class.

In Google Classroom you can be both a teacher and a student. You’ll probably be a student in professional development classes provided by the district.

The classroom site will be created. The name of the site will be shown at the top of the page. A menu is automatically created with three options. These are stream, students and about. We will look at these sections later.

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Google Classroom In 10 Lessons Lesson 1: Creating A Classroom Let’s begin with something easy. Each classroom is cre- The image is applied and the page colors will change ated with a page theme based on the name of the class- to match the image theme. room. This theme can be changed. To change the class theme, click on the change class theme link.

You will see several banner images. Scroll through the list of images and select one.

In the stream section we will post all our assignments for students. You also have the option to post an announcement to the class. An announcement can be a one way communication with students or a post can begin a discussion. This discussion is typically called a forum because the discussions are available to anyone in the group and are moderated. In a discussion, students will be able to post their replies to your question or prompt. We’ll learn how to create announcements and assignments later.

To apply the theme, click the select class theme button.

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Google Classroom In 10 Lessons Lesson 1: Creating A Classroom Click on students in the menu. The first thing you see is the option for students to post or comment in the class stream. The student section automatically allows students to post and comment. We will learn more about posting and comments later. Close the information dialogue box if it appears.

Other information in this section includes your email address and a link to the folder in Google Drive where all your content for this classroom will be placed. We will learn more about using Google Drive with Classroom in the following lessons. The integration of Google Drive with Docs, Sheets and Slides makes Google Classroom a very powerful and useful tool.

Below the menu option for student posting is the classroom code. Students can join your classroom with the Click the save button to update your classroom code shown on this page. We will learn more about information. inviting students and how students join your Google classroom later.

This is our first step. We’ve now created one classroom.

Repeat these steps to create the remaining classrooms.

Click about in the menu. This is where you can provide For example, you’ll create math, english, science and information about yourself and the class. Let’s provide other classes for elementary classrooms. Middle and a title either for yourself or for the classroom. You can high school teachers can create World History period 1, also enter a description and room number. period 2 and period 3 classrooms. Replace World History with your content of instruction.

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Google Classroom In 10 Lessons Lesson 2: Creating An Assignment Before we invite or add students to our classroom it would be useful to have something for them to do. In this lesson we will create an announcement and an assignment for students. The assignments we can provide in Google Classroom have few limitations so I will provide examples of various assignments.

Google Classroom lends itself to both the traditional model of instruction and to the student centered and teacher facilitated approach. Most of the lesson examples I provide here will focus on the teacher as facilitator.

Let’s begin with an announcement. In this announcement we can provide instructions related to the assignment.

To create a new announcement make sure you are in the Stream section, and click on the announcement link.

In my example, the line expanded to allow for the additional text of my announcement. In this announcement we won’t provide any resources. Those resources will be provided in the assignment.

In the announcement we have a small rectangular area to provide our announcement. This area looks like it’s only one line long, but it expands when needed to fit more of your announcement. Below the announcement space we have links to resources. These resources include attachments, Google Drive files, You Tube video links and links to web pages.

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Google Classroom In 10 Lessons Lesson 2: Creating An Assignment To post the announcement we can click the post button.

We’re not ready to post the announcement just yet. We haven’t created the questions for the assignment. The announcement is automatically being saved for us in the background by Google. Next to the trash icon we see a message telling us that the draft is currently saved.

We don’t have to create announcements before an assignment. Announcements can double as an assignment but they are typically used to send information to students, or post an item for discussion. The discussion is done online within Google Classroom.

Announcements can be a good way of making sure stuTo save the draft and exit, click on the pull down menu dents get the message about an announcement or for next to the post button and select save draft. This will you to provide additional information for the assignment. close the announcement.

We’ll explore announcements in greater detail later. Let’s create the assignment. Click on the assignment link.

We need to provide a title for the assignment. The title should be as descriptive as possible so both you and students can find it and understand the purpose of the assignment.

Below the announcements link we now see a section that contains our saved draft. The number in parenthesis is telling us we have one saved draft. The option to save drafts can be very useful when creating lessons. We can create announcements ahead of time, save them as drafts and then post them when needed.

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After providing a title, we can include a description of the assignment. This is where we can provide more detailed information about the assignment if needed. The description is optional.

Google Classroom In 10 Lessons Lesson 2: Creating An Assignment Below the description field we have a due date option.

The due date is automatically set to the following day.

I’m creating the assignment on June 15th, and it’s automatically set due to June 16th. We can change the due date by clicking once on the due date field.

After entering the time, we see an ‘X’ appear next to the due time. We can click this to remove the due time and set it back to the automatic due time.

We’re now ready to provide the assignment with our question or questions. There are a variety of options. We can provide a document with instructions and questions, which is typical. We can also use the description of the assignment as the basis for our assignment. For example, we could provide instructions for the assignment to be created and completed by students. We’ll see an example of this in lesson seven.

In the assignment description I’ve provided instructions to list and describe the Earth’s key surface features. For A calendar displays below the due date field so we can this assignment, that’s all we need to do. click on a date. Let’s change the due date to the 17th.

Most of us create questions using a word processor then On the right of the due date we have an optional time due. print them for students. Some of us write the questions The due time is automatically set for your local time zone on the board and have students write them down. I like at mid-night or 11:59:59 to be precise. We can change the to put my students to work. due time by clicking once on the add time field. Click once again in the time field to provide a different due time. A For this example, let’s assume we’ve written the instruclist of times divided into thirty minute increments will tions and questions down using a word processor like be listed. We can select one of these, or provide a time Microsoft Word. In this case we will attach the instructions of our own by typing it into the field. and questions to the assignment. The attachment option takes a file from our computer and makes it available to the class.

Ideally we would create and distribute our documents in the Google Ecosystem. I’m assuming you’re new to all of this, so we’ll move to the Google ecosystem gradually.

You’ll hardly notice it happening.

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Google Classroom In 10 Lessons Lesson 2: Creating An Assignment There are several file types we could attach but for the window or we can use the traditional upload button to most part you’ll probably be attaching files from a word find a file. Let’s go with traditional for now. Click on the processor such as Microsoft Word. Click on the attach- select files from your computer button. ments icon.

A file upload window will open so we can navigate the computer and find a file to attach. I have a Word document available. I can double click the document or click once on the document and click the select button.

Note: We cannot attach files from documents created with Apple products like Pages or Apple Works. Google Docs will not recognize them or know what to do with them.

A window will open with the upload option selected for us. The other options include My Drive and Starred. We’ll learn about these options later.

Uploading is what happens when we take a file from our computer and place it onto a service like Google Classroom or Google Drive. Uploading files is very easy.

We can drag and drop files from our computer onto this 12 Digital Maestro Magazine : digitalmaestro.org : July 15 2015

The file is placed in an upload list. This is useful because if we need to upload more than one file, we can click the add more files button and search for another file in a different location of the computer. For now we’ll just upload one file.

To upload this file, click the upload button.

Google Classroom In 10 Lessons Lesson 2: Creating An Assignment The document is uploaded and listed below the due date and time. To the right of the file we have a pull down menu with several options. The option to allow the students to view the file is automatically selected. In this example, students will be able to click on the attachment and read the instructions and questions. Let’s click the pull down menu to view the other options.

on paper and toner for printers and copiers. I encountered a campus spent 15 thousand dollars when it could have spent it on things like field trips or technology to replace the need to use printers. This campus has now embraced digital documents.

Let’s choose to make a copy for each student. Like announcements, assignments are saved automatically as drafts and can be saved as drafts until needed. The major difference between announcements and assignments is that assignments have due dates and times. Let’s push out the assignment to our class. Click on the assign button.

When an assignment is posted, we see the assignment title and description. On the right side we see the due date and time. Below the due date we see the number of students that have completed the assignment and those The other options include allowing students to edit the that have not. Currently we don’t have any students in file. This will permit all the students in the class to edit any our classroom. In the next lesson we will add and invite part of the document. There are times when you might students to our classroom. Before we do that, let’s also want to do this and we’ll touch on those situations in post our announcement. Click in the draft section. future lessons.

The third option will make a copy of the attachment and place it in each student’s Google Drive folder. This is my preferred way of delivering assignments to students. The original document remains in the classroom and each student gets a copy placed into their Drive folder for this classroom. Students can open this document and edit its contents. This means that students can write their answers on the document alongside the instructions or questions.

This process of digitally delivering assignments is quick and easy. It’s a time saver and saves money too. I often hear how campuses spend thousands of dollars each year July 2015 : Digital Maestro Magazine : digitalmaestro.org 13

Google Classroom In 10 Lessons Lesson 2: Creating An Assignment All drafts will be listed. In this example we only have one draft. Click on the draft.

When the announcement opens, click the post button.

A message will inform you that the post will be available to student immediately. Click the post button.

The announcement will display above the assignment.

Assignments or announcements, are posted above one another in the order they are posted. In this example, the assignment appears below the announcement because it was posted first and the announcement more recently.

Keep this in mind when posting assignments. The last assignment or announcement is always on top and the first one in the list.

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We can edit announcements or assignments as needed. To edit an assignment or announcement, click on the three dots on the right side. This is the options menu. Click on the edit option. We can make changes as necessary and save.

Google Classroom In 10 Lessons Lesson 3: Inviting Students Now that we have an assignment, let’s get students to work on that assignment. Adding students to a classroom can be done in one of two ways. We can send them an invitation to attend or they can join the classroom with the classroom code.

To invite students, click on the students section. On the the teacher. The third option will only allow the teacher right side of the page we have an invite button. Before we to post or comment. I recommend this third option until invite students, lets look at the other options on this page. you are ready to deal with discussions.

Using the stream to post and comment is a great way to have virtual classroom discussions. We’ll learn how to do that later.

The third option is the class code. This is what you provide students that are going to be in your classroom. Each classroom has its own class code. You can display this page on a projector or write down the code on a whiteboard.

We have a pull down menu option that currently reads, students can post and comment. This means that students in the classroom will be able to post to the classroom stream and comment on posts. This is like having a discussion board. Let’s look at the other options. Click on the triangle.

The second option will allow students to comment or post onto the stream. This is usually a post made by you, July 2015 : Digital Maestro Magazine : digitalmaestro.org 15

Google Classroom In 10 Lessons Lesson 3: Inviting Students There is a pull down menu option for the class code. The class code options include the option to reset or disable the class code. When we reset the code it is changed to another code. The option to disable the code will not assign a code to the class and no one can join the class unless by invitation. You should disable the code once all your students have registered in the class.

part of a district integration. Google Classroom will not allow you to invite anyone that is not part of the system in the district.

On the right side is a search box. This is where we provide the student’s email address. I just happen to know one of my student’s email address. I’ll enter it and press enter or click the search icon.

The simplest way for students to join your class is by using the class code. Before we look at that option let’s see how The student that matches this email address will be listed to invite students. Click on the invite button. in the main area.

Classroom uses the student’s district email address to If this is the student we want to invite, we’ll place a check authenticate them for Google Classroom. To invite stu- mark next to his name. dents you need to know their email address. This is their district email address. It has to be their district email address because Google Classroom is only available as 16 Digital Maestro Magazine : digitalmaestro.org : July 15 2015

Google Classroom In 10 Lessons Lesson 3: Inviting Students The moment we place a check mark, the student is placed When I press enter or click the search button, I get a list in an invitation list on the bottom above the invite stu- of all students in the district that match the first and last dents button. name. I can then select the student I want by placing a check mark next to his name. We’ll repeat this for all students we need in the class.

We can repeat the process for other students and add them to the invite list. When we’re done with the invitation list, we’ll click the invite students button. The students will get an email invitation to join the class. The email contains a link that enrolls them in the class. The link also takes them into the class.

After we click invite, each student will get an email invitation and they will be listed in the students section. We are also taken back to the student sectopn. Their names are faded out because they have not accepted the invitation.

We may not always know the email address for each student but we probably have a list of their names. We can search using their name. In this example I’ll provide a name for a student.

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Google Classroom In 10 Lessons Lesson 3: Inviting Students Inviting students may not be the most efficient method When they click the button to join their first class, a box will because even in an elementary classroom the teacher open prompting them for the class code. After entering would have to send an email to each student for every the class code and click join. classroom. If a teacher has twenty students and five classrooms, that’s one hundred emails. It’s much easier to have students join the classroom.

I like this method for a couple of reasons. I don’t have to send out emails for each classroom and students familiarize themselves with the process. Not all students will know their district email address and I can help them get that information. It’s a good idea to get a list of your students emails and keep it handy.

The classroom they join looks very similar to what the Students will find Google Classroom the same way we teacher sees. In the stream they see the announcements did. They login with their district account, go to Google and assignments. Next to the stream section they have a Drive and select Google Classroom from the Google Apps classmates section and they also have an about section. launcher. There will be a button to join their first class if they have not joined a class before.

The classmate section lists the other students in the class.

Next to each student is an email icon. Students can email one another.

The about section contains information we provide for the classroom. We’ll use the about section and learn about it in more detail starting with Lesson six.

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Google Classroom In 10 Lessons Lesson 4: Digital Assignments Student Account:

We are taken to the assignment page with two sections.

There is a section that contains their work and a section When students work on a digital assignment they can with the instructions for the assignment. Click on the work and turn them in digitally. We’re logged in with a document to begin. student account. Let’s click on the assignment link.

The document will open online within the browser in A page for the assignment will open with a link to the a separate tab. To open the Word document, Microsoft assignment document. We also have some menu options. Word does not have to be installed on the machine. This One of the menu options includes a turn in button. When is very useful if students do not have Microsoft Office the student is done with the assignment, he or she will installed on their computer or device. I mention device click this button and it will be turned into the classroom. because Google Classroom will work on most computers Let’s open the document by clicking on the document and mobile devices like tablets and smart phones. name.

The document is in view mode. It cannot be edited yet. To edit the document, students will click the open button.

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Google Classroom In 10 Lessons Lesson 4: Digital Assignments The Word document opens in the browser with some account remains with them from year to year as long as basic edit tools in the button bar. they are part of the district. Their Drive account and all the assignments can be part of the student’s portfolio.

There are three bars on the left side of the page. This is a menu icon. Click on this menu icon.

The student can type his or her answers on the document. The document is automatically saved online for students. There isn’t a save button or save option. To exit the document, students can close the tab or click on the Word icon on the left. Usually students will close the tab The menu includes filters for Docs, Sheets and Slides. Docs to return to the Classroom tab. Before we close the tab, are word processing documents, Sheets are spreadsheets let’s click the Word button in the top left corner. and Slides are presentations. Let’s click the last option, Drive.

This takes students to the Docs section of their Google Drive. Currently this student has one document. In time all their assignments will be saved here. Each student gets a Drive account and a folder with his or her own documents.

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Drive takes students to their main folder in Drive. Inside Drive students have a classroom folder. This is automatically created when a student joins a classroom. Let’s open the classroom folder.

Google Classroom In 10 Lessons Lesson 4: Digital Assignments

Inside the classroom folder we see a World History folder.

This was automatically created when the student joined the World History Class. Anytime a student joins a classroom, a folder is created for the classroom. This is where Classroom automatically saves any documents for that class. Let’s open the World History folder.

Each time a document is opened or created in Google Classroom, it is opened in a separate tab. To return to the classroom, students can click on the classroom tab.

Students can close any of the document tabs. Their work is automatically saved.

If students close the Classroom tab, they can return to Classroom by using the Apps Launcher and selecting Classroom.

Inside the world history folder we see the assignment and a thumbnail preview. The preview shows the students answer in this example. To go back to the main drive the students can use the bread crumbs above or click the My In Classroom students can turn in the assignment digiDrive link in the sidebar. tally. We don’t need to click the assignment, because the assignments listed will be turned in.

If there is more than one document that is part of the assignment, those documents will also be turned in. This is an important concept to keep in mind. Students should July 2015 : Digital Maestro Magazine : digitalmaestro.org 21

Google Classroom In 10 Lessons Lesson 4: Digital Assignments only turn in the assignment when all documents that are part of the assignment are complete.

Students can provide information or feedback to the teacher using the private message option. Let’s provide a private message and click the turn in button.

As a teacher we should be aware of this so we can tailor assignments that need to be grouped together and assignments that should be separated into smaller chunks.

It might be better to group assignments into smaller chunks. We’ll see examples of this later. Let’s click the turn in button.

On the assignment page we see that it’s done. We also have an un-submit button on the left. If the student choose to work on the assignment again before the deadline, he or she can click un-submit. Let’s see what this looks like.

I’ll click the un-submit button.

A box will open with information about the document to be turned in. The box lists the documents and provides a space for a private message.

The student is presented with a box to provide a note to the teacher. This should be a reason why the student has un-submitted the assignment. After the student provides a note, he or she will click the un-submit button.

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Google Classroom In 10 Lessons Lesson 4: Digital Assignments Under the menu we have options for students to provide a file from their Google Drive. This file could be a document like a Doc, Sheet or Slide. Files from Drive could also include pictures, videos, or audio. Anything that can be placed into Drive can be added to the assignment.

If students select the link option, they will be presented with a place to type or paste a web page link.

The document link is available for the student. The student can then open and update as needed. When done, he or she will click the turn in button again.

If students select the upload option they will have the option to upload a file from their computer. This file can be any kind of document like Microsoft Office files, pictures, video or audio. This is useful if the assignment includes Let’s look at some of the other options for assignments. the creation of a media project like a video.

We have an add pull down menu. Let’s see the options available.

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Google Classroom In 10 Lessons Lesson 4: Digital Assignments The create menu options will probably be the ones used most often by students. This is the simplest way to create documents, presentations or slides and have them included in the assignment.

A blank document is created without any information from the teacher. This is a document created for Google Docs so it has several more tools than the Word document we opened earlier. Students can provide the answer in this document like they did in the Word document earlier.

Let’s change our assignment slightly. Instead of providing Nothing changes from this point forward. The student a document like we did with the Word file, we simply can will return to the Classroom and turn in the assignment ask the question or provide instructions. In this example the same way. the student would click the create button and select Document.

Google Classroom will create a Google Docs file and include it in the assignment page. The document is automatically given the assignment name followed by the student’s name. Let’s click the Google Doc.

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Google Classroom In 10 Lessons Lesson 5: Grading Assignments Students have turned in their assignments and now it’s time to review and grade them. In the stream section we see a list of assignments due. Currently we only have one. We also see the assignments in the main section of the stream.

Click on the assignment either in the upcoming assign- student assignments. They come in handy on those parent ments section or in the main area. conferences.

One student that has turned in the assignment. We’ll be looking at only one student but what we do here can be done with any number of students. Let’s click on the student’s name to view the assignment.

If we don’t want those notes they can be deleted by clicking the options menu, shown by the three dots, and selecting the delete option. I recommend keeping the notes. Let’s grade the assignment. Click on the submitted document.

Back when we submitted this assignment we changed our mind and un-submitted. We then re-submitted the We can read the student’s answer and evaluate it for a assignment. The history of our submissions is listed grade. with each assignment. The students notes to us are also visible. This is a great way to keep documentation on July 2015 : Digital Maestro Magazine : digitalmaestro.org 25

Google Classroom In 10 Lessons Lesson 5: Grading Assignments Switch back to the student’s assignment page by clicking the tab in your browser or closing the document tab. To the right of the assignment we have a column for grades.

Let’s click once inside the Grade field for this document.

Note: Ungraded can be used if a student hasn’t turned in the assignment and you want to leave it open for a grade once it has been turned in.

When we change the points for an assignment and students have already received a grade, you will get a mesAssignments are automatically based on 100 points. In sage letting you know that Google Classroom will send this example when I enter the grade it is based on a pos- a notification to students that their grade has changed. sible score of 100.

This notification appears in their email. This is very nice and convenient. Let’s click the update button to continue with the points change.

Not all assignments or assessments are based on a score of 100. If we click the points pull down menu there are other point value options. These include 1, 20, 50, 100 and ungraded. Ungraded means that this assignment will not receive a grade. We can use one of these points or use one of our own. Let’s change the points.

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Giving a grade of 70 points out of 20 doesn’t make sense so lets change the 70 to a seven. Google classroom does not warn if you make a mistake like this, so you’ll need to make sure you provided the correct grade.

Google Classroom In 10 Lessons Lesson 5: Grading Assignments point system, i.e., the grade will be seen as 7/10 and not 70 or 70%. After grading the assignment, we can return the assignment to the student.

The assignment will show that is has been returned in the student’s stream. When the student clicks on the assignment, he or she will see the grade received in the upper right corner. We will see an example of this later in this lesson and in Lesson 8.

This grade makes more sense. I don’t have to use a preset point like 20. I can enter one of my own.

The grade we provide in Google Classroom does not link to any district grading system. The grades given here still need to be manually entered into the district grading system.

Above the list of students and grades is a menu option to download a CSV (Comma Separated Value) file of the grades. This file lists the student name and the points received on the assignment. The CSV file can be opened with a spreadsheet program like Excel.

Let’s change the points from 20 to 10. We’ll get the same message about notifying the student we got earlier.

Now we have an updated point system and grade for the student. The student will receive the grade based on the

Let’s look at the Google Drive folder and the assignments for this classroom. Click on the folder button. The folder button will take you to the classroom assignments folder.

This is useful because you can go back and refer to any distributed document for reference on an assignment.

The email button will send an email to students selected in the list. The return button will return the assignment to the selected students. Returning an assignment is the same as returning the assignment to the student so he or she can finish, update or modify anything before it receives a final grade. You will also return the assignment after the final grade is recorded in Google Classroom so the student can see the grade on the assignment.

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Google Classroom In 10 Lessons Lesson 5: Grading Assignments When returning an assignment, the teacher can provide some feedback to the student about the assignment.

When the student receives the document, he or she can update the document as needed and re-submit the assignment for a grade. We’ll be looking an example of this in Lesson 8.

We’ll provide some feedback and click the return button.

The student will open the assignment and finish or update any part of the assignment. When finished, he will click the re-submit button. The student will also see the current grade given for the assignment if the teacher provided a grade. Once the student has resubmitted his assignment, the teacher will click on the assignment, review the updates and provide a final grade.

When we click on the assignment for the student, a list of the messages sent and received is available. Again, this is good for documentation.

When the student goes into the classroom, he will see the returned assignment in his stream. The student will click the open button to view the returned assignment or click the assignment link.

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Google Classroom In 10 Lessons Lesson 6: Google Drive and Google Applications Now that we have the fundamentals in place, let’s take it to the next level. Everything in Classroom should begin with Google Drive and the Google Applications. We’ll begin with the About section. Content in the About section is always available for students. This makes it useful for us to provide important resources that students will need during the year.

Let’s create a supply list so it’s available to our students at the beginning of the year. Go to your Google Drive and click the ‘New’ button on the left.

When the box opens, erase the current name. I’ll call this document supply list. Click the OK button to save the changes.

Select Google Docs from the available options.

I’ll type out a basic supply list. Google Docs are always saved in the background so there is no save button. Let’s New documents are always titled as untitled docu- go over to Google Classroom by clicking the Google ment. Let’s change the name by clicking the title of the Classroom tab. document.

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Google Classroom In 10 Lessons Lesson 6: Google Drive and Google Applications

Click on the about section. In this section we include information about ourselves as teachers and the classroom. Everything on this section is optional but it’s all useful information our students should have available.

A materials section will open. We’ll type a title that is descriptive of the contents. I’ll type Supply List for the title. To make the supply list available let’s click the Google Drive button.

I’ll provide some basic information like my name, the Google Drive will open so we can locate the supply list subject and room number. Below the room information created earlier. Click once on the supply list and click the we have a link to the Google Drive folder for this class. add button.

Below the information box we have a section to add materials that will be part of the class. This section is different because it isn’t an announcement or an assignment. The materials section is always available to students in the students about section. Click on add materials.

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Google Classroom In 10 Lessons Lesson 6: Google Drive and Google Applications The document is added to the list. This isn’t the only item we can add. I’ll provide a link to my classroom web page.

Let’s click the link button.

When editing the materials list, it opens as a floating box.

Let’s click the link button. I’ll add the link to my campus home page and click the add button. Let’s click save to update our changes.

A field will become available so we can add our web link.

I’ll type the link to my web site and click the add button on the right.

That’s all we’ll add for now. Click the post button.

We can edit this list at any time. I want to add the link to the campus web site too. Let’s click the options menu and select edit.

Each item gets a preview thumbnail on the left. There is a minor detail we need to take care of at this point.

The title for supply list doesn’t represent what we have listed. We can do one of two things. We can change the name of the list or we can group items together. We can have more than one materials list. Let’s click in the add materials field.

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Google Classroom In 10 Lessons Lesson 6: Google Drive and Google Applications Let’s provide a name for this materials list. I’ll make this my supply list. I can change the name later if I choose to add other documents to this list.

We have two materials lists. We can update, remove or add lists as needed.

We just transitioned over to the Google Ecosystem. Did you notice?

Up to this point you have all the basic skills to use Google Classroom regularly. In the remaining lessons we will go deeper into Google Classroom by going through a sample lesson. The next three lessons will be much longer than these because of the content we need to cover.

I’ll click the Google Drive button and select the supply list from the Drive as we did earlier. I’ll click the post button to finish.

Let’s change the name and content of our first list. Click on the options menu and select edit. I’ll change the title to Important links. Let’s delete the supply list document by clicking the remove button. The remove button is the ‘X’ to the right of the document.

Let’s finish by clicking the save button.

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Google Classroom In 10 Lessons Lesson 7: Immersed In Google Classroom Let’s begin immersing ourselves into the digital environment with this next lesson. Teachers are often working harder than their students. Students actually want to work and be active participants in the learning process. In this lesson we will use the technologies available through Google Classroom to put our students to work. What will you be doing? You’ll be facilitating of course.

Let’s create our next assignment. Go to the stream section and click on the assignment link. We’ll create an assignment where students will do all the work, including create their own documents.

I’ve included everything I expect from the assignment in the assignment description. This small assignment is part of a larger assignment. We can chunk assignments into smaller portions. This way we can accommodate students that need differentiation and facilitate students that can We don’t want to publish this assignment just yet, so let’s move ahead more quickly. This is our first assignment so save it as a draft. Click on the options menu and select let’s click the assign button. save draft.

Our next assignment has students looking for videos on Our third assignment has students looking for images.

You Tube. I’ve changed the due date so it’s due after the We’ll save this assignment as a draft too. previous assignment.

In our final assignment students will create a document that brings together all they have learned from the previous assignments. We’ll save this as a draft too.

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Google Classroom In 10 Lessons Lesson 7: Immersed In Google Classroom We’ve created four assignments that students can work The instructions section contains the same instructions on during class period or for homework. We could have we see in the Stream section. placed the separate assignments into one large assignment. This decision would be yours based on the class and their skills. Okay, let’s see how students will get these assignments done.

When a student logs into his or her Google Classroom account, the first assignment will be shown at the top.

The instructions for the assignment are shown in the assignment box. The student will click the open button to begin working on the assignment.

At this point, students will use their favorite search tool to find the articles related to the assignment. In this example I’m using Google and searching for global warming facts.

Students should open a new tab so that the classroom tab is always available. If they close the tab or navigate away from Classroom, they will need to log back into their account. This is time consuming and could be frustrating to students.

This assignment doesn’t include a document, so we don’t see a button that reads submit. Instead we see a button that reads mark as done. We are in the work section of the assignment. If the student needs to see the instructions, he or she can click on the instructions section.

To open a tab in Chrome click on the tab button next to an open tab. To close a tab click the ‘x’ on the tab.

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Google Classroom In 10 Lessons Lesson 7: Immersed In Google Classroom The students will look through each of the results and To copy the site address, go to the Chrome browser menu, select one that provides the best information and facts click edit, and select copy. about global warming. This is where the facilitator part comes in. While students are searching, you are walking around and helping them determine the sites that are most relevant. You will guide them to selecting sites. In the process you will be helping students find different sites from those already selected by other students. Students can work in pairs or small groups. Ask students questions that get them thinking about the sites they choose.

Once students find a site, they will need to get the site address. To do this they will click the icon at the beginning The students will return to the assignment page and of the site address. I am using Google Chrome so the click on the add menu. They will then select link from address bar in your browser might look different from the options. mine if you’re using another browser.

When you click the icon the complete address should become highlighted. You might also get a dialogue box like the one in my example. Ignore the message.

This is why it’s important that students open new tabs instead of navigating away from Classroom and the assignment page.

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Google Classroom In 10 Lessons Lesson 7: Immersed In Google Classroom A link box will open so we can paste the link we just We now have our first link in the assignment. Let’s get our copied. second link. This time we need to look for a link that touts global warming as a hoax. We’ll repeat the process and look for a web page. They will copy and paste the second link by following the same steps we used earlier. When the assignment is done, students will click the turn in button.

Go back to the menu, click on edit and select paste.

A confirmation box will open displaying the links to be turned in. Click the turn in button to finish.

Chunking assignments into shorter assignments makes it possible for us to push out those assignments at any time. If students finished the first assignment quickly, you can release the next assignment and they will have Check to make sure the link was pasted and click the add access to it in seconds. link button.

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Google Classroom In 10 Lessons Lesson 7: Immersed In Google Classroom With the first assignment complete, let’s release the next them look at ones I think are appropriate for what we assignment. I’ll return to the teacher account and click are studying. I’ll modify the assignment by clicking the once in the drafts section. options menu and selecting edit.

I’ve changed the instruction from looking for videos to watching videos. Let’s go and find videos we need. Click on the You Tube button.

The next one we want to release is the one for videos.

Click once on the assignment.

A You Tube search box will open. Let’s search for global warming facts. Press enter or click the search button.

The assignment opens to display the assignment information. This is a useful time to update or modify the assignment based on the previous assignment. This is one reason you may not want to release all your assignments at once. It gives you the opportunity to modify the assignment, due date or any requirements. If needed, you can also attach files or links.

Upon consideration of the next assignment I think I would rather provide links to the You Tube videos and have July 2015 : Digital Maestro Magazine : digitalmaestro.org 37

Google Classroom In 10 Lessons Lesson 7: Immersed In Google Classroom When students login to Google Classroom, they will see the assignment in their stream. They can watch the videos by clicking on each within the stream. Let’s click the open button to open the assignment.

A list of the most relevant results to your search will be listed below the search box. Click on one you find interesting. To play the video, click the play button on the video.

The video will play in the small area. To use a video, make sure it is selected and click the add button.

Our first video is now part of the assignment. We’ll repeat the process for the next video.

In the your work section of the assignment we see the mark as done button. Click on the instructions section.

Let’s click the assign button so students can begin working on the assignment.

The instructions section contains the links to the videos too. When the students finish watching the videos they need to go to the your work section.

When the confirmation box appears, click the assign button.

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In this section, students will mark the assignment as Done.

In this example there isn’t a need to attach a document or link.

Google Classroom In 10 Lessons Lesson 7: Immersed In Google Classroom When students mark the assignment done, it helps you Let’s return to our teacher role and release the next determine which students have watched the videos for assignment. the assignment. This is especially useful when students are absent.

After the great discussions we’ve had in class, I think that simply looking for pictures is too basic for this lesson.

When we don’t attach a document or link, we get a Instead I want students to look for infographics on global reminder that nothing is attached. The assignment will warming. I’ll update the assignment and click the assign simply be marked as done. Students can include a mes- button. sage. This is a prime location to ask students to respond briefly to a prompt. We can ask students to briefly write a Students will see the assignment in the usual location. reflection on one of the videos. The text box will expand Open a new tab and lets search for the infographic images. to accommodate more text from the students.

We enter the search inside the address bar. In recent versions of browsers like Chrome, the address bar doubles as the search box. You can do the same thing with recent versions of Firefox, Safari and Internet Explorer.

When an assignment is marked as done we also have the option to unsubmit the assignment.

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Google Classroom In 10 Lessons Lesson 7: Immersed In Google Classroom When we press enter, Google and most search tools will automatically list web pages. Google provides a filter to display images only. Let’s click on the images filter in the menu.

Google also provides links to similar images. This is useful because we can see other images that match the image we clicked. Let’s click on another image from the ones recommended.

Once we find an image to use for the assignment, we need a link to this image. Google makes it easy to get a link to this image. Click on the view image button.

We’ll see a variety of images that match our search key words. Click once on an image to get a larger preview.

The image will display on the page by itself. In the address bar we see the link to this image. Let’s copy this link for the assignment.

The larger preview appears below the smaller image.

Click once on the icon on the left or click once inside the address bar to select the link. Copy the link using Edit in the menu then select copy.

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Google Classroom In 10 Lessons Lesson 7: Immersed In Google Classroom Return to the classroom by clicking the classroom tab.

We’ve done all these steps before so it should be familiar to you. Click on the open button for the assignment, click on add menu and select the link option. When the add link box opens, paste the link by going to the menu, clicking edit and selecting paste. Once the link has been pasted click the add link button. A preview of the image will be shown to the left of the link. Let’s go back and find another image.

the assignment link or click the open button. The student needs to create a document. Instead of creating it separately and then linking or uploading it into the assignment, the student can create it inside of classroom.

Click on the create menu and select document.

I’ll repeat the process to get the image link by clicking the view image button. Repeat the process for creating a new link for the assignment and pasting the link. Once the links are in place, click the turn in button.

The document will be created and a link to the document will be available in the assignment. The document is automatically given the assignment title followed by the student’s name. We did this before in a previous lesson so the process should be familiar. Click on the document link to begin working on the assignment.

The document will open in a separate tab. When the student has finished with the assignment, it can be turned Let’s go onto the last assignment. I’ll return to my teacher in without going back to the assignment page. When a role and click on the final draft. document is created within the assignment, it automatically includes a turn in button. The button can be found in My class has been doing great and I would like for them to the top right corner of the page. Click the turn in button. do more than list their reasons. I’ll update the assignment by clicking on the assignment and seleting edit from the more menu options. I will have my students write a paragraph with five reasons instead of listing them. I’ll click the assign button so they can begin the asignment.

Returning to the student role, the student will click on July 2015 : Digital Maestro Magazine : digitalmaestro.org 41

Google Classroom In 10 Lessons Lesson 7: Immersed In Google Classroom A message will open with information about the assign- are familiar with the class and individual students your ment that will be turned in. Click the turn in button. assignments can be more or less complex.

This has been an example of something you might typically do with Google Classroom. For most of the assignments, students were deeply involved with gathering information and submitting their assignments. All the resources we used are technology based. Students were able to freely select the information and resources that made sense to them. The selection of information and resources was also done with teacher facilitation. As a teacher we can have discussions with students one to one, in small groups or as a class.

This gives us greater flexibility to communicate with the class generally and more specifically with small groups and individual students. Facilitating gives us greater opportunities to check for understanding. This helps us modify the assignment as needed for some students or for the whole class. I demonstrated this flexibility throughout the lesson as we updated and modified each lesson before it was released. I treated each assignment as a rough outline of what I wanted my class to learn and accomplish.

This outline was easily updated as needed. The needs of my class dictated the path each assignment took.

The objective remained the same but the journey we took meandered so we could take advantage of the best tools to learn the objective. In my example I kept updating the requirements because of the success my class was having. You can also update the assignment if students are struggling.

Chunking the assignments is a good way to find your way when trying to convey content to students. Once you 42 Digital Maestro Magazine : digitalmaestro.org : July 15 2015

When students are in charge of their own learning by selecting their own resources, they are also in charge of their own differentiation. Gifted and talented students will find resources that challenge and fulfill their need to learn. Struggling students will select content they can understand. As a facilitator we can spend more time with struggling students to focus their attention.

Google Classroom In 10 Lessons Lesson 8: Paperless Written Assignments In the traditional paper classroom ecosystem, students often work on assignments like stories, research and other similar written assignments. When students turn in an assignment, it’s usually the end of the process. Written assignments are the most difficult to process because students usually take such a long time to write them and it’s very difficult to have students edit and revise their work. This is usually due to time limitations.

Documents written in the traditional paper format have We have a written assignment assigned to students in to be re-written with the edits and modifications. One our class. Let’s open the assignment. way around this is to print the assignment then provide edits and revisions for the student. Students will then take these documents and go back to the digital version to update it with the edits.

Working in a digital ecosystem with Google Docs can provide many benefits. Google Docs provides an easier process for creating, editing and revising documents that reflect the current application of technology skills.

Note: One of the things I’ve often heard from teachers reluctant to integrate technology is that they can teach students what they need to learn without technology. This is true for all lessons except the use of technology itself.

Students can write with the simplest of technologies, e.g., pencil and paper, but this is not the world we live in now nor the world they will live in. Students need to experience all learning through the technologies of today and the foreseeable future. Learning to write, edit and revise with technology is an essential skill just like writing with pen and paper.

I have one student that has turned in the assignment.

Click on the student’s name.

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Google Classroom In 10 Lessons Lesson 8: Paperless Written Assignments The assignment turned in by the student will be listed below his name. Click on the assignment.

A comment box will open with a text field ready for our comments.

The assignment will open and we are automatically given I’ll provide some feedback on this very short paragraph. edit access to the document. This is because we are the To post the comment we’ll click the comment button. teacher. On the right side of the document page we have a couple of options to provide feedback. Let’s look at the first option. Click on the comments button.

The comment will appear to the right of the document.

Comments are great way to provide general feedback and information. If we want to provide a little more detail, The comments button provides two options. Let’s focus there is a suggestion option. on the comment option first. Click on the comment link.

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Google Classroom In 10 Lessons Lesson 8: Paperless Written Assignments Click on the editing menu option below the comments button and select the suggesting option.

I’ll provide another suggestion. I’ll ask the student to check the spelling of a word. Notice how I didn’t tell the student the word is wrong but merely prompted the student to verify the spelling.

To use the suggesting option we need to click once in an area of the document where we want to write our suggestion. I’ll click once after ‘the weather is changing’. The red squiggle under the word tells the student the spelling may be wrong. This red squiggle is not always an accurate way of determining if a word is spelled incorrectly. Google uses its dictionary to check for word spelling in the default language, English in this case. The word may not be in the dictionary and Google Docs thinks it’s spelled incorrectly.

As I begin to type, what I type is surrounded by a green bracket. This is how we know the text in a document is a suggestion. Really, a suggestion can be anything. In this suggestion I am asking the student to think about something he wrote in the paragraph. This should prompt the student to elaborate on his response.

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Google Classroom In 10 Lessons Lesson 8: Paperless Written Assignments Suggestions and comments are listed to the right of the We see that this assignment was returned. This is a good document. Let’s close the document tab and return to reminder for us to go back and check for returned assignthe assignment page. ments that haven’t been resubmitted.

Now that we’ve made our comments and suggestions, Let’s return to the student role. The student will see the we need to return the assignment to the student so he document returned along with the comment, if any. The can work on the revisions. Click on the check box next to student will click on the document link. the student’s name and click on the return button.

Suggestions will appear in red on the document.

We can provide some additional information for the student with the returned assignment by using the private message field. Click the return button.

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Google Classroom In 10 Lessons Lesson 8: Paperless Written Assignments The suggestions will also be listed on the right side.

The student will click once in the suggest area of the document to activate the suggest box on the right. The delete button will become active and he can click it to remove the suggestion. With the suggestion gone, the student can provide his own content.

To check the spelling of a word the student can right click on the word and the dictionary will provide a suggestion.

The student will click on the suggestion to apply it in place of the misspelled word.

To make changes, the student will delete the suggestion and type his own response.

The student has made the changes and is ready to turn in the updated assignment. In this case the student doesn’t click the turn in button. He’ll close the tab or return to Another way to remove a suggestion is to click the delete the assignment page. The student needs to click the button in the suggest box. resubmit button.

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Google Classroom In 10 Lessons Lesson 8: Paperless Written Assignments After clicking the resubmit button, the student will verify providing the grade, click the return button so the student the document to be submitted and provide a message if will have access to the grade on the assignment. he wants. When he clicks the turn in button the assignment will be resubmitted.

We’ll go back to our teacher role and check the updated assignment. Click on the assignment.

When the student clicks on the returned assignment he will see the grade on the right side.

Click on the student’s name and then on the assignment.

These basic editig tools commonly used by collaborators on documents. Suggestions are meant to replace existing text or add to existing text. Comments are a way to communicate with other collaborators on a document.

We see the student made some updates. In the options panel we can edit the comment or delete it. I recom- I’ve covered ways we can use Google Docs to collaborate mend you keep comments on assignments. They are on assignments with students and provide feedback. good documentation.

There is much more that can be done with Google Docs.

I recommend reading my issue on Google Docs Essentials.

Close the document and let’s provide a grade. I feel like being generous so I’ll give the student an 80. After 48 Digital Maestro Magazine : digitalmaestro.org : July 15 2015

Google Classroom In 10 Lessons Lesson 9: Student Assessments At this point your probably wondering about quizzes and tests. Can I read your mind or what?

We need assessments to determine if students really know what we are teaching. We can make our own digital assessments right in Google. Let’s make a basic quiz.

To create a quiz we will be using Google Forms, which is part of Google Drive. You’ll need to leave Google Classroom. Open a new tab, type drive.google.com in the address bar and press enter on your keyboard. When the Drive page opens, click on the new button and move your mouse over the more option.

The options we have at the top of the page are very useful for assessments. The first option requires the student be logged in with their district account information to take the test. This is useful because we can use the second option to collect information about the student. If we place a check mark on the option to automatically collect the respondents username, then we can have it be part of the assessment information we collect. You’ll see why that’s important later.

Select Google Forms from the More menu options.

We can show a progress bar for very long assessments. We are creating a short quiz so we won’t need a progress bar.

The option to allow only one response is very important in an assessment. We don’t want students to go back after submitting their test and changing the answers. Again, this works very well with the first check mark that requires login before taking the assessment.

Google Forms is a tool to collect information like a survey.

We can use these survey tools to create assessments. A lot of the options in Google Forms lend themselves nicely to creating assessments.

On larger assessments with many questions we could shuffle the question order. This is useful when trying to reduce the chance of cheating. The questions on the neighboring student’s computer won’t be the same as July 2015 : Digital Maestro Magazine : digitalmaestro.org 49

Google Classroom In 10 Lessons Lesson 9: Student Assessments the questions for the student that plans to cheat. In our We can provide some helpful text with our question but short quiz we won’t need to shuffle questions. it won’t be needed for this question. Help text appears with the question and can be used with complex quesLet’s place a check mark on the option to collect the tions to help students understand the question. This is username and let’s place a check mark on the option to a multiple choice question so lets provide some answer allow only one response per person. choices. Click in the box that reads option 1.

Let’s begin by giving our assessment a name and description. Click once inside Untitled Form to change its name.

We’ll replace option 1 with our first answer choice. To enter our next answer choice click once in the box below.

After entering the title, click in the form description box.

The description field is where we can provide a description, information or instructions to students.

The option for our first question is automatically created.

It’s a multiple choice question. There are other question options and we will explore those as we create this quiz.

Let’s enter the first quiz question in the question title box.

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Google Classroom In 10 Lessons Lesson 9: Student Assessments Let’s enter a couple more choices using the same process. To add another question, click the add item pull down menu. There are several question types we can create but only a handful are best for creating assessments. The ones in the first column are best suited for assessments.

Let’s select the check boxes option for our next question.

We have our first quiz question. We need to do one more thing before creating our next question. We should make this question required so that a student doesn’t accidentally submit the assessment without answering all the questions. This is optional because requiring a student All questions follow a similar format. We have a space to answer all the questions before submitting is based for the question, some help text and spaces to provide on how you plan to grade the assessment. possible answers.

A useful option we have with any question is the question type pull down menu. Click where it reads checkboxes.

You may choose not to penalize students for not answering questions. On the other hand if you count an unanswered question the same as a wrong answer, then it’s best to force the student to answer. The probability that the student will guess the correct answer increases or decreases with the number of possible answers.

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Google Classroom In 10 Lessons Lesson 9: Student Assessments Let’s choose a text response for our next question. This is a question where the student types in the answer.

A menu will appear with the same question types we saw earlier. We can change the question type. If we change our mind we could select a multiple choice question instead of a checkboxes question. Let’s leave checkboxes selected This question type is simple because all we need to do is for this question. provide the question and helpful text. Text questions are best with one or two word responses. I don’t recommend In this question we are asking the student to select one you use this for answers that require sentences. This is a or more options. The checkbox option allows a student great way to provide vocabulary tests. to select one or more answers. If you want to limit the students to selecting only one answer then you should select multiple choice question types. Let’s create one more question.

This is our last question. Click the done button for this question. This is a very basic introduction to creating quizes. I have an issue dedicated to creating assessments with Google Forms if you would like to learn more about creating assessments with Google Forms.

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Google Classroom In 10 Lessons Lesson 9: Student Assessments There are a few more options for us if we choose to use them. We can include a short message to students after they submit their answers. It would be a great idea to replace the default, your response has been recorded, with something like your answers have been submitted, good luck.

We’ll create a new assignment and call it Global Warming Quiz. We can’t select Google Forms like we select documents or videos. We need to use a link to the form. This is why I wanted you to keep the form tab open.

The second option is to publish the results. There are times when you might want to do this, but not on an assessment. Finally, we can allow responders to edit responses after submitting. This means that students can go back and change their answers after clicking the submit button. This is not something you probably want to do on assessments.

Go back to the form by clicking the form tab. On the bottom of the form we have a send form button. This provides a link to the form we can use. Click the button.

That’s it, the quiz is ready. Lets assign it to students in our class. Don’t close the form tab, we’ll be returning to this in a moment. If you already have Google Classroom open, click on the classroom tab in your browser.

A share box will open. The link to our form is in the link to share box. The link is pretty long. Google provides a way If Classroom isn’t open, go back to Google Drive and open to shorten the link. Click the short Url box.

Google Classroom. If you’re using Chrome, click on the apps launcher below the address bar.

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Google Classroom In 10 Lessons Lesson 9: Student Assessments Paste the link in the link field. You can use the shortcut keys Command+V on Apple or Control+V on Windows.

The shorter link is automatically selected. Let’s copy this link. We can use the shortcut keys Command+C on Apple or Control+C on Windows. Leave the box open just in case you need to get the link again. You can always come back Click the assign button. Remember, we can create assessand close it later. ments ahead of time and assign them when needed. Let’s switch back to the student account.

Go back to the Google Classroom tab and click the link icon on the assignment.

The assessment is just like any other assignment. The students can click the link through the stream.

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Google Classroom In 10 Lessons Lesson 9: Student Assessments Since students are already signed into Google Classroom, The spreadsheet with the student responses is in Google they won’t be prompted to login. Their username will Drive. We need to open the Google Drive tab. Let’s open appear at the top of the form. Students will take the quiz the sheet that reads Global Warning Quiz (Responses). and click the submit button when finished.

The sheet contains the students account name and their After taking the quiz, students will close the quiz tab and answers. return to the assignment. They need to mark the assignment as done. To get to the mark as done button, they will need to open the assignment.

This is a very basic assessment. The form collects the responses but doesn’t grade it. If you want to learn more about creating assessments with Google Forms, check out As a teacher the assignment will be marked as complete my issue on Google Form Basics. There are also several but to see the answers you will need to open the responses free add-ons that enhance the use of Google Forms. Read sheet. The responses sheet is where all the responses to my issue on Google Form Add-ons to learn more about the form are collected. Each form automatically creates some of these tools. its own sheet to store the answers.

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Google Classroom In 10 Lessons Lesson 10: Classroom Administration Let’s take a look at some of the administrative things we can do in the Classroom. In this final lesson we’ll be looking at things you will need to manage throughut the school year and at the end of the year. Google Classroom is very versitile.

Deleting Assignments:

and comments can be very important later in the year. If you do delete an item there is a way to see some of it by The list of assignments and announcements can get a little turning on the option to show deleted items. long. You’ll probably want to delete them. To delete an assignment or announcement, click on the options menu.

The options menu provides options to edit or delete. Click on the delete option.

A warning message will open. All grades and comments will also be deleted. There is no way to get any of this back. I highly recommend that you fight the urge to delete assignments or announcements. These grades 56 Digital Maestro Magazine : digitalmaestro.org : July 15 2015

The deleted items will appear faded out. You won’t be able to click on anything other than any documents you provided in the announcement or assignment.

Google Classroom In 10 Lessons Lesson 10: Classroom Administration Managing Student Permissions:

not prevent students from sending private messages in assignments. Muting students can be useful when there Sometimes you might need to deal with student issues are discipline problems. in Google Classroom. We can deal with those issues by selecting a student.

Multiple Teachers: Teaching is getting more difficult and we often need to work together to get things done. This often includes team teaching or tapping into the expertise of our fellow teachers. In the about section we have the option to invite teachers into the classroom. Invited teachers will be able to do the same things you can like create assignments, announcements and provide grades.

After selecting one or more students we can use the actions menu to remove, email or mute a student. The remove option removes the student from your classroom. I don’t recommend removing students from the classroom once they’ve attended and completed some lessons. Students that leave inevitably return. It would be nice to have those assignments to average for a grade.

The process for inviting teachers is the same as it is for inviting students. We enter the teachers name or account name to select the teacher for an invitation. Once the teacher accepts the invitation, he or she has immediate access.

Like students, teachers can be removed from the class. This can be useful when teachers need to briefly collaborate on a project. Once the project is done the teacher can The email option will send a message to just the stu- remove him or herself. The teacher can also be removed dents selected. The mute option will prevent students by yourself. from posting or commenting on messages. This does July 2015 : Digital Maestro Magazine : digitalmaestro.org 57

Google Classroom In 10 Lessons Lesson 10: Classroom Administration Click on the assignments option in the panel.

Clearing Assignments: We often have several classes and each class will have a variety of announcements and assignments. We really shouldn’t delete any of them because they contain important information. We need a way to make sure we’ve checked all assignments and cleared them from our list. Google provides a review option. Click on the menu button on the left.

You’ll see a list of assignments that need to be reviewed.

This is where you can see which assignments have been completed by students. Once an assignment has been completed by all students or the majority of them, we can mark it as reviewed. Click on the options menu.

Let’s select mark as reviewed.

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Google Classroom In 10 Lessons Lesson 10: Classroom Administration The assignment is removed from this section and placed In the main Classroom page we see all classes as tiles on in the reviewed section. the page. At the end of the year you won’t need them anymore. Google provides a way to archive the classes.

Let’s click the options menu for this classroom.

Click on the reviewed section. A reviewed assignment can be placed back in the to review section by using the options menu.

Clicking the archive option will remove the classroom from this page and place it into an archive location.

Archive Classrooms: We can be teachers in a classroom or students in a classroom. You’ll probably be in a Google Classroom as part of a professional development. When you click the menu on the left all the classes you teach or are enrolled into are displayed. Clicking the home button will take you to the main Google Classroom page.

You’ll get a warning message about the archived class.

The good thing is that the class can still be accessed and restored.

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Google Classroom In 10 Lessons Lesson 10: Classroom Administration To access archived classes, click on the menu option and Those documents remain with the student as long as the select archived classes at the bottom of the panel. student has an account with the district.

All archived classrooms will appear just like they did when they were active.

Most of the time you will only need to lookup information. In the archived classroom you will be able to find grades, comments and assignments without restoring the classroom. To edit any part of the classroom you will need to restore it.

When a classroom is archived students won’t be able to access any of its content. They will still have access to any assignments they submitted or received in the classroom. Google Classroom automatically creates a folder in each student’s drive to store these documents.

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