I don't normally get this excited about a technology, but recently there have been a few things that have made me fall in love with Google Forms.
I use Forms to collect student submissions. Like many of you I taught in a pre-Google Classroom era that included a move to GAFE. The biggest issues was collecting student work. I loved and still do use Google Forms for collecting student work. It is an easy way to put all of my students work into one place. I end up with 1 document in my Google Drive to open and access student work. I taught my students to change the share settings to anyone with the link so I didn't receive a multitude of emails or have my shared with my part of my Drive flooded with assignments. Many of you likely know that Google Forms can be used as a self grading quiz with the assistance of Flubaroo. This is an amazing application to assist teachers with assessing student understanding. Here is an article about some other Add-ons There is one other Add-on that I also think can be very useful called Form Eliminator. This allows you to have the form remove choices once they have been selected by one one of the form respondents. This could be used to help teachers schedule meetings with parents for conferences. There are potentially other uses, but that could be explored in another post. The Magic of Google Forms
I had previously written about using Google My Maps in conjunction with Google Forms. I thought it was amazing to be able to connect maps together to create an interactive lesson.
I recently began exploring Google Forms feature of navigating pages based on the responses provided in multiple choice questions. Here is an example of a form template using that navigation. This is a very basic template to demonstrate the set up. Below is the template of the basic form that you can use to create your own quiz.
Along the way I learned how creating navigation pages allows you to create opportunities to reteach students or provide more information to guide them in their completion of the activity. By creating the path of navigation and requiring students to answer the question, they must choose the correct response in order to progress through the form. Here is another form with some basic content. The form in the link shows how you can add a path to incorrect responses and add additional content or instruction to assist the students.
I also learned how to add video into the form to both create questions and redirect the participant. This could be used to reteach concepts or create a whole new path in the form. I have included that aspect in the form above.
While exploring the potential of Google Forms I came across the idea of Choose Your Own Adventure. The examples I saw were very simple stories with more choices than content. I created a basic template for making a story adventure that you could have your students use to create original works of literature that provide the audience and abundance of choice and interaction. I included an example of the form and the template below. Think about the potential of having students write stories where their reader has to make choices. What an amazing creative process this may be. I was discussing this with my 3rd grader and I used the story of the wolf in the Three Little Pigs as an example. What if the wolf made different choices along the way? What if when he gets to the brick house and is unsuccessful the reader gets to make a choice- does the go on the room to slide down the chimney, or does he go home hungry? What would change if he left the pigs hold up in their brick house and headed through the woods on his way home and he met a little girl in a red hoodie? What potential choices could your students create for their readers? I am also working on an example for history. I love the show Quantum Leap and am putting together a CYOA example and template for creating a learning activity as well.
My next revelation came when a colleague shared with me a BreakoutEDU project he heard about where the teacher used Google Forms to collect student submissions. Video below.
The whole BreakoutEdu activity in itself is pretty amazing, but the part that sent rockets bursting in air for me was the section where he discusses Data Validation. This is exactly what a math teacher I am working with is looking for. He wants to provide students opportunities to review concepts and work through problems with immediate feedback. We are looking at using the multiple choice with the opportunity to redirect as mentioned above, but wondered if students might just guess until they get it correct.
Data Validation is an advanced feature in text, and paragraph responses that provides the creator with controls over the participants ability to navigate further. You can create a text response question where the text must contain a specific answer in order to be correct and allow for further navigation by the participant. Imagine in the Amazing Race if students were forced to provide a correct answer about the content they are engaging in before they can move to the next task. This would assist in the flow of the activity by eliminating the need of the teacher to check students responses during or after the activity to determine a winner. The winner would be more easily determined by who was able to submit the completed form first. The use of Data Validation in review activities again provides students immediate feedback, but would be easier set up than the MC page navigation. The drawback is it is limited in providing differentiated paths or opportunities to reteach based on student responses like the Basic Template provided above. Why am I so excited about Google Forms?
I see incredible potential for creating learning opportunities for students. It can be used as a pre-assessment, a collection of tasks, a self directed review or activity or an imaginative writing opportunity.
All of these examples, and there are likely many more, are ways to put students in the drivers seat of their learning. They can engage in learning activities without relying on the teacher. It can create differentiated instruction allowing students to progress at their own pace. When students are given access to the template, or shown how to create their own, they can unlock the tools potential to create their own content. They can make their own amazing stories, or engage in the creation of others. They could engage in these forms as part of a scavenger hunt. I am excited to share these forms and ideas in the hopes it sparks your creativity and that you will share with me the amazing things you do with them. I will update this post as I finalize my forms and create more templates for you and your students to use. I hope you are able to find something here that resonates with you on how to use or create a Google Form to meet your needs. Additional Ideas
I said I would update when I thought of new ways. Well 10 minutes after heading to bed last night about midnight, I had to get up and jot some ideas down. - These ideas are pretty raw right now, I will revise as I further develop them, but I needed to get them down on paper.
Provide . My first thought is rewrite a fairy tale. Here is a sample of the Three Little Pigs You include the basis of the story but allow them to enter in a paragraph text the ending they choose and then share the results in a google form. You could provide students two choices- Say the wolf in the Three Little Pigs- The wolf comes across three little pigs building their homes, one of straw, one of sticks and one of brick. The wolf is very hungry, what does he decide to do? Let students create their own endings based on which choice they provide for the wolf. The writing could be done in a Google Doc and then pasted into a Google Form so the teacher has access to all of the writing in one place. With the student writings, the teacher could take the students endings and put them into the original form and create alternative endings that interweave. Or better yet the students could do this and create a choice filled exploration reading experience. They would just have to add connecting text between one journey and the next for the potential endings they think best fit their story. Provide a video clip or an excerpt from a story maybe up to a critical point and then give them the task of writing the ending and ask students to write the next section, or analyze the content. You can easily add video clips to forms. This could be used to teach or reteach content as you could match it with questions to be answered. This could also allow students to analyze characters while being able rewatch the video clip to help reinforce their thinking. Watershed moments-- The What if... moments of history? What if Truman never dropped the Atomic Bomb? What if humans never discovered how to control fire? What if... Have students ponder these moments and create responses to these. Students could be given a choice in historical situation- Your civilization has just been attacked by outsiders who are angry about... How do you respond? Do you A or B or C - then create paths for students to embark on. When students get good at this, flip it and have them create What if or Watershed moment journeys for their peers. It could be an exercise in writing historical fiction, or when students do it analyzing the impact of decisions of the past. One path would be what really happened in history, the others would be what they think might have happened if the decision or event had not taken place. Data Validation allows you to set limits in Paragraph text. You could set a minimum number of characters to ensure students are providing answers beyond yes and no. Or set a maximum of 140 and allow students to create a Twitter conversation between two characters- What would two presidents sound like discussing a current social or political issue? What would characters of two different books talk about? How would so and so explain an important concept to...? Scavenger Hunt- This could combine the multiple choice or text with validation format to create an interactive activity where students would have to answer questions or solve problems to find the next clue or activity. I am thinking this could be done in multiple subject areas and I am working on creating some content for PD sessions. This week's tech tips come from a conversation with Middle School Social Studies Teachers. When visiting their CLT we were discussing the study of cultures, geography and mapping activities. As a result we started to explore different ways to have students demonstrate their knowledge than what the teachers had been using previously.
My intention is to provide a brief overview of tech infused lesson ideas to hopefully spark your interest and lead to more detailed conversations. Idea 1- Use Thinglink You could provide students a map in Google Draw and have them edit the map to locate key points of interest. They could create a key to indicate what the symbols mean. Next they could take this to Thinglink and add tags that connect to information such as descriptions, videos, or links to a Google Doc they created explaining the specific area of the map or topic. Here is an example of Russia I put together in a few minutes. Other Uses- Students can create an interactive display of information. If students create posters or brochures, this allows for a much more dynamic experience with the information presented. Students could create a Visual in Google Drawing layering images and text like they normally would and then add links in Thinglink to extend the sharing of information beyond a normal poster. Since the final product in Thinglink creates a shareable link, you could turn the products into QR codes and create a Gallery Walk for your students. Students could scan the QR codes and see the work of others, learning from each other and students wouldn't be creating products just for you. Idea 2- Google My Maps I attended a session at an Edcamp where a teacher created an Amazing Race activity using Google My Maps to have the participants get to know each other. There were tasks to be completed and the whole activity was centered around the maps he created. I took this idea and repurposed it to be used for creating maps. I have provided a pretty basic Amazing Race Example You are welcome to check it out and submit any text answer you want. This uses My Maps and Google Forms to create challenges for students to complete. Alternative uses - The map serves as a backdrop for delivery of information. You could create maps where the tags were locations in a story or book students were reading. Each tag provides information or asks students content questions. Science could choose locations where important scientific innovations took place. The tasks that students are expected to complete could be anything that connects to your content. You could create a formative assessment or a student project used as a summative assessment. Scribble Maps This site allows you to use Google Maps to label a map like Google My Maps, but this one gives you some some additional tools. You can use the drawing tool to measure distances from one place to another. A teacher used it to measure their school building when studying perimeter and area. You can add a variety of labels to the map to help students demonstrate concepts - these include weather symbols to identify where weather patterns like tornados are likely to take place. This tool is the one I am least familiar with, but thought it was worth a mention. Have you ever asked students to research a topic, or read a passage and find them struggling to understand what they are reading? Do your students need assistance in defining terms or concepts they are reading? Are you looking for ways to help your students explore information and simplify the process for them? Today I have a couple resources that are designed to assist in students in information processing. The following tools I have found to be good resources that provide assistance for students engaging in textual materials. Read and Write - A Google Extension you are able to add through the Chrome Store that provides tools for many online resources. You open the page (webpage or Google Doc) and click the Read and Write Icon to access the tools. You are able to have Read and Write Read the passage to you. If you highlight the passage, it will read the selection. If not, it starts at the top of the page which isn't as user friendly on websites. I signed up for a teacher account and was given access to "Premium" features. Beyond having it read a passage, you can highlight words and click on the vocabulary tool and it will create a new page with descriptions of the word or words you highlighted. I worked with a teacher in a bilingual class to assist her students especially with the vocabulary tools. We asked the students to highlight in pink words that were unfamiliar to them. They could also highlight parts of speech using other colors. When you click the multi-color circle icon in Read and Write, it tracks the highlights you have made so you can get a list of what students selected and quickly assess their understanding of the passage or parts of speech. I am sure there are many other applications to this and I hope others will share how they use it. I made a quick screencast video showing how to access Read and Write and some of the basic functions mentioned above. Rewordify -
This site allows users can copy and paste a passage into Rewordify and click Rewordify Text and the program analyzes the information and creates a simplified version- Example: Original: The list of known carcinogens now includes a chemical called ortho-toluidine, which is used to make rubber chemicals, pesticides and dyes. Recent research has linked the substance to bladder cancer in people. Rewordified version: The list of known (cancer-causing things) now includes a chemical called orthotoluidine, which is used to make rubber chemicals, bug-killing chemicals and dyes. Recent research has linked the substance to (urine storage sac) cancer in people. As you can see terms that could be difficult for students have been defined to assist in making the entire passage more understandable. This post comes from an email I sent to teachers in the buildings I work with to provide them with support in technologies that are available and ways to use them in their classrooms. Augmented Reality I have been talking to teachers recently about using Augmented Reality/QR codes with students. One conversation has been about having students create audiobooks and share with other students. We could record the student reading the book and then create a link to that recording that would connect to a QR code or other augmented reality program. This could be shared with other students who provide feedback, or younger students as listening centers. I have a few teachers interested in starting this project, and am excited for the results. If you are interested in this, please let me know. (Note- I was reminded to be careful of copyright issues when proceeding with this project-) I have included an example of using the technology for a parent teacher conference. The student drew a picture that became the QR trigger for the video she created talking about what she has learned in school so far. It was really cool hearing about her school year in her own words as we waited to meet with her teacher. Augmented Reality Example Another use that could connect the AR example to the book example is to have students create video or audio critiques of the books they have read. You could then use AR like Aurasma to connect to the book in the LMC and when students scan the book they could read a short review from their peers. Just remind students not to SPOIL the story in their reviews. Connecting with the world We are ever increasing our access to technology, and with that our world is shrinking. Ever want to connect your classroom to the world beyond your building? Ever want to learn about far off places? Have you considered Virtual Field Trips, or Mystery Skype or using Google Hangouts? The link below has a great list of potential activities for connecting your classroom to the world. The author has written a book about using technology in the classroom, and I met him at a conference this summer. Global Connections Random Name Selectors Ever find yourself selecting the same students when having class discussions, choosing groups, or assigning tasks? Well the three tools I have linked below all help with these issues. They are interactive and quick tools to help you select students for various activities. Additional Application: We want all students to participate and demonstrate their level of understanding. We also have a finite amount of time for discussions and instruction. A method I used is to put the main questions on the board and then use the Random Name selector to choose 3 students per question. I tell them these 3 students are responsible for answering the question. Student 1 responds and 2 and 3 add details to help pull it together to make a complete answer. If they have an incomplete response, then the rest of the class will be called upon. This gives the students lead time to think about their assigned question. This is just one method of pulling students into discussions that can be utilized. Random Name Wheel With this tool, you can edit the names on the wheel and save your finished product. It creates a unique URL that you should copy and paste into a Google Doc or Google Spreadsheet to have easy access. You could also add the URL to your bookmarks bar to be able to access right from Chrome without having to open a file. Random Name Picker This is a quick name selector that you could copy and paste your class list into and it will select a random student. This does not create a saved version of your list, unlike the wheel example above. You would have to enter names each time you wanted to use this. Random Name Selector - This version allows you to add your class list as the others, and like the first one allows you to save your updated class list with a url. You can also change the time the selector uses to choose the next name and determine if you want a choice removed during this session. It will not delete from the original list, but prevents repeat picks. Google Draw- Google Drawing is a great way to create visuals for a multitude of applications. It allows you to pull images into the program using the Research tool (under the tools tab) and dragging and dropping the image. You can layer images, add text and shapes. There are a multitude of tools available via Google Draw. I wanted to share 2 things that have come up for me this week. Cropping and Saving. Cropping Images Google allows you to crop images you insert. Cropping is a function that I am sure most people have heard of, and is included in many products, including many camera phones. What I recently came across is the ability to crop an image into a shape. You click on the image- then the crop icon appears with a drop down arrow next to it. Click the arrow and you will see shapes appear. Choose a shape and you will change your image. See Below- Saving Google Draw images
I was asked about sharing/emailing images to the print center. The image that we were looking at wasn't able to be saved as a PDF which is the preferred method for the print center. We inserted the image into Google Drawings and then clicked File Download As and chose a PDF. This allows the image to be emailed to the print center. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
January 2016
Categories |