Have I mentioned that I LOVE Google Apps For Education? We are a GAFE district and by the end of the school year, my 3rd graders were so proficient with creating/using Google stuff that I can email a link to them (or throw a goo.go up on the white board) and they can quickly and efficiently do whatever I need them to do. By making a super quick google form to gather info, I can quickly and efficiently gather all kinds of data! |
This is a quick post about my Top 5 EASY things to do with Google Forms (ok, the #1 way is a bit more involved, but still crazy cool!). I hope some of these will give you an idea or two to use in your classroom. I'd love to hear about what you are doing with your students...please leave a comment down below!
#5 Voting
How many times have you done this; "Raise your hand if...?" and then counted all the hands? Then the inevitable happens, "Ok, who didn't vote? I only counted ---- people. Ok, we have to do it again!" Or had THAT kid who votes for ALL the choices? "Ugh, we have to vote again, because Eddie voted for everything!" |
Google forms has a very easy way to see the results of the voting. By clicking "Responses" and then "Summary of Responses", you'll be able to see a graphic representation of the results. This is also a super spiffy way to talk about data collection and how to represent data in more than one way (CCSS MD.3)
Voting for which book to read aloud next...
#4 Entrance/Exit ticket
Sometimes teachers just need a quick 1 or 2 question assessment, using Google forms to make Entrance or Exit tickets to get a "picture" of how the class is doing on a specific skill. I can quickly see the results the same way I mentioned above ( by clicking "Summary of Responses"), which helps with my planning.
#3 Practice typing a short response
I need to give my 3rd graders as many opportunities to explain their thinking as I can. This type of short response is on our district benchmark assessments and also on the CAASPP. This is one of my favorite ways to use google forms! I can include an image from the text we are working on and ask them to respond to that image using evidence to support their answer (CCSS RL3.3, RL3.7) |
#2 Students recording data
We learned to play a game from Kenya called Shisima and the kids recorded data while they were playing so we could analyze it afterwards.
After we looked at the data, we then talked about strategy for this particular game. I asked the kids, "Was it better to be the first person or not? How do you know?"
#1 Assessing Content
I think this is the way I use Google forms the most with my 3rd graders. I make some sort of google "quiz" for them almost weekly. I make the majority of the questions Multiple Choice or Checkbox and use Flubaroo to grade them. (Flubaro is an awesome Add-On...see THIS post for more info)
When we took the CAASPP this year, I noticed that my kids needed no help with navigating the test. They all were comfortable with the split screens, scrolling up and down, clicking circles to choose their answers and typing in explanations. Because of their comfort with navigating within the test, they were able to concentrate on the actual TASKS of the test.
Here is an awesome blog post by Alice Keeler about how to make a Google form.
I hope I gave you a few ideas for using Google Forms in your classroom!
I hope I gave you a few ideas for using Google Forms in your classroom!