Why Should You Use Virtual Manipulatives in Your Math Classroom?

Research shows that hands-on learning helps students visualize mathematical concepts (National Council of Teachers of Mathematics). Overall, digital manipulatives make this possible. First, abstract concepts become more concrete with the power of virtual manipulatives. Next, using manipulatives promotes conceptual understanding of math standards.

Another reason to use digital manipulatives comes from John Dewey. Of course, even educators in the early twentieth century knew that students learned best by experiencing learning concepts hands-on. Of course, allowing students to experience math by putting materials in their hands is the definition of learning by doing. In addition, experiential learning using manipulatives makes math come alive online.

What Math Concepts Work with Virtual Manipulatives?

From counting to algebraic expressions, virtual manipulatives have a place in every math classroom.

First, use virtual manipulatives with these math standards and units available in my ready-to-use digital math centers. These digital math activities are differentiated; there are A/B slides included for each standard.

In addition, these digital activities also use moveable pieces as manipulatives to help your students solve algebraic equations, represent parts to a whole in fractions, make shapes, and also review place value. Overall, digital math centers with virtual manipulatives are the perfect way to help your students with problem solving and critical thinking.

Where Do You Find Digital Manipulatives Online?

In addition to the moveable manipulatives in the digital math centers, there are also many places to find complementary virtual manipulatives to support student learning. Here are two of my favorite websites to find online manipulatives.

Didax

First, Didax includes a digital plethora of hands-on math manipulatives. Cubes, counters, dice, ten-frames, tiles, geoboards, disks, and more can be used with any of the digital math centers for 3rd-5th grades. To begin, try this site for simple, ready to use digital manipulatives.

National Library of Virtual Manipulatives

When it comes to finding free online digital manipulatives, the National Library of Virtual Manipulatives is the best site for PreK-12 learners. The site is divided into five topics: Number & Operations, Algebra, Geometry, Measurement Data, and Analysis & Probability

Of course, each topic has resources for PreK-2, Grades 3-5, Grades 6-8, and Grades 9-12 to use with learners at any level. Because of the vast amount of resources on the site, you can use these manipulatives to differentiate instruction for any student in your classroom. First, help your students that need additional scaffolding by using an Abacus of factor trees. Finally, challenge your students with function machines and circle puzzles.

Along with standard virtual manipulatives, this site also has measurement tools that integrate well with science class, clocks to practice telling time, and dozens of graphs.

The power of manipulatives not only help your students “see” math in front of them with hands-on learning, they provide tools that are safe and affordable even while students are participating in distance learning. Having hundreds of manipulatives at their fingertips gives students their own personal virtual manipulative toolkit.

Try using virtual manipulatives with digital math centers during independent learning, small group work, or station rotations. Overall, virtual manipulatives help promote problem solving and critical thinking for all students.

Want to try a sample of our differentiated digital math centers >>>> CLICK HERE!

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The question I get asked the most is “What digital math activities do you recommend?” One of the positives of COVID-19 is the rise of digital instructional activities. I am so impressed by the capabilities of digital activities and what this means for the world of education. Here are 4 reasons why digital math activities are perfect for any classroom setting and will remain important after pandemic life is over.

Auto-grading features

How many of us have given up family time or self-care to review/grade ALLLLLL THE THINGS our students have completed? It’s a lot! If you have math resources created within Google Sheets or Google Forms they may have auto-grading features that will do the work for you! You can access data collected on your students immediately after they complete an assignment. Our digital math quick checks review all math standards for grades 3-5 and grades everything for you!

Highly engaging for students

Let’s keep it real- children love technology and if done correctly it can be highly engaging and impactful for students. One of the fears I had for teaching math in 2020 was the potential of losing the hands-on component of math lessons, but with digital math activities there’s space for virtual manipulatives. Our Digital Number Sense Activities for grades 2-5 and our Differentiated Math Centers for grades 3-5 have built in movable pieces that spark conceptual understanding and engagement for students!

No more killing trees!

Getting through a day of teaching requires A LOT of paper, especially if you are implementing math centers. Digital math activities require NO PAPER and often times this means low prep for you! Save the copy count you are given by administration and minimize the amount of time you spend prepping for your math block with digital math activities!

Instant feedback for students

Students need as much support as possible without excessive hand holding. Our Digital Math Pixel Arts provide immediate student feedback in an engaging presentation. Digital Math Pixel Art Activities are ready to go activities for Google Sheets that review a specific math skill. As your students correctly answer various questions a mystery picture will start to reveal!

Digital Classroom Escapes also provide instant feedback, as students enter solve secret codes and messages. Your students are having so much fun they don’t realize they’re also reviewing math, science, or reading skills!

In years to come you’ll see more digital content in the classroom. Digital education can feel overwhelming, but in the end it will positively impact the lives of your students! Want to try a FREE Digital Math Pixel Art? CLICK HERE to test one out today!

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Google Classroom

Even if your students are back to school, there is a chance they’ll miss some days, right? Regardless of whether or your students are in-person or remote, Google Classroom as an organizational system for assignments makes so much sense for teachers and students. In addition, parents can get summaries while still maintaining privacy for other students and allowing your students to ask questions and work independently. Classroom also makes it easy to share fun resources like Digital Classroom Escapes with your students.

Google Forms

OK, it’s another Google product, but Google Forms is the key when it comes to collecting and analyzing data! Using Forms along with Google Sheets to analyze data is so important in giving pre-assessments to see what your students already know. Google Forms can also be used for checks for understanding as students work on new concepts. Finally, I love using Forms for summative assessments to find out what students have learned at the end of a unit. Being able to analyze the data by student or question is one of the best things about Forms. Why would you ever tally all the questions on paper again? Learn more about using Google Forms and create your own assessments! Also, try these math standards-based mini assessments all ready-to-go for your in-person or remote learning classroom! CLICK HERE to find your grade level!

Kahoot!

The online quiz platform, Kahoot! comes with excited kids shouting and competing whether you’re online or in the physical classroom. Your students will get so excited when you post a Kahoot! quiz for them to take. Here’s how it works. Just sign up for Kahoot! as an educator. It’s free! Browse the thousands of quizzes or create your own. Start the quiz and post the code for your students to use when they sign into Kahoot! Students do not need to create Kahoot! accounts to participate. Kahoot! does collect data, but I prefer using it as a review or competition before a test or quiz. It’s also fun to use as an activating background knowledge tool to see what your students know about a topic before you begin a unit. Kahoot! is one remote learning tool I would keep around for in-person learning!

Whether you are back in the classroom, still teaching remotely, or doing a bit of both, these three tools that you may have used during remote learning are here to stay! Google tools are by far some of my favorites, but competition games like Kahoot! also help students stay engaged online or in-person. What digital tools will you continue to learn when you’re back in-person?

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Use Topics

Whenever you post an assignment on Classroom, you have the option to Create or choose a Topic. First, go to the Classwork tab. Next, you can create an assignment and select or create a topic on the assignment page.

You can also choose to create a topic directly from the create button as well.

From the Classwork page, you’ll see all topics you’ve created on the left-hand side. Topics are the best way to organize units, content areas, and modules for students. From their own Classwork page, students can easily see what topics have been assigned.

You may choose to name topics according to subjects if you’re in an elementary classroom. Some teachers name topics based on the unit of study. Still, other teachers may designate topics based on the type of assignment. For example, for the Standards-Based Mini Assessments for Math, you may choose a topic of “Math Assessments”.

To reorganize your topics, click on the three dots (or grapes) to move topics up or down on the Classwork page. I like to keep the most current units on top so my students can easily access and see the work I want them to focus on.

To-dos

After you assign work and create topics for students, you’ll want to be able to organize assignments for grading purposes. Enter the To-do tab!

Start by clicking on the three horizontal lines in the upper left hand corner of your Google Classroom screen. Choose the “To-do” option.

Once you click on “to-do”, you’ll see a list of all the assignments your students have completed. Next to the assignments, you’ll see how many students have turned in the assignment. That is the number you need to grade, so the goal is to keep that number as low as possible. The assigned number is the students that still need to turn in the assignment. Finally, the returned number is the assignments that you have graded and returned back to students.

Using the “To-do” tab helps me know exactly what my grading tasks are. If you have multiple classes, everything will be listed in the “To-do” tab. It’s your one-stop for grading!

Calendar

Students and teachers love using Google Calendar to make sure they are getting work done! Go back to the three horizontal lines at the top of your classroom and click on “Calendar”. You’ll see your weekly (or monthly) calendar with all assigned tasks and their due dates.

Click on the drop-down menu that says “All classes” to choose one class or keep all class assignments listed. The best part about accessing Google Calendar for both teachers and students is that assignments show up as notifications or reminders even if you aren’t accessing Classroom. If you have a smartphone, you probably have Google Calendar. Why not have student assignments become part of your overall to-do list on your calendar?

Organizing assignments in Google Classroom not only helps students to see their own work via the Classwork page, it also allows you to have easy access to see what has been turned in and needs to be graded, all in one place! Try these tips to get your Google Classroom organized for your students.

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When using Google Classroom, there are so many options available to you. PDFs have quickly become one of my favorite file types to send to students. If you know what kind of device they have, you can send them the PDF that will work best for them! Plus, you are reducing your use of paper, which is a win for the earth! Read on to find out How to Turn Any PDF into a Paperless Resource for Google Classroom!

Use Built-In Tools

If you are looking for the easiest route, use the tools already built-in to Google Tools for EDU! When you assign an activity as a PDF in Google Classroom, students need a little extra help in the instructions. The first thing you want to tell them to do is to click on the “Grapes” as we call them. Those are the three dots in the upper, right-hand corner of the screen after they click on the PDF.

When the student clicks on the “Grapes” or “3 dots” or whatever fun name you come up with, they will want to then click on “Open in new window.” This will let them use other connected apps to edit the PDF document directly.

Just to be fair, opening this document in Google Docs might be a bit more than frustrating. The formatting will be strange, and the PDF might only translate into text, which isn’t always helpful. Any third-party apps may or may not work, depending on the restrictions on your students. So, while this may be the easiest for students, it may not be feasible for everyone.

Explore Third-Party Apps

Beyond what Google for EDU recommends, there are a few third-party applications that can work with Google Classroom. The one that seems to work the best is Kami App. Once you have created an account and added the Kami Chrome Extension, you can create a Kami assignment in Google Classroom.

As you create the assignment, be sure to check the box to add instructions to it for the first few times. Students will need to know how this new app works, and it will help you, as well!

From there, you will want to choose a class to assign the activity to, and you should be good to go! Kami allows students to insert text boxes, draw on PDFs, and pretty much adjust anything on the PDF. The level of editing a student has directly relates to the level of account the teacher holds. When students open an assignment with a Kami attachment where the teacher has included the instructions, they will see two documents as shown below. One is the assignment, the other is the instructions. Students will need to have access to add extensions to their account, or Kami will need to be whitelisted by the district Google Administrator.

What students see when they follow the directions to “Open in Kami”:

Use the Powers of Student Devices

So many students have either a school-issued device or a personal device at home, it would be silly to overlook this option. When assigning a PDF, you have to remember that it is, after all, an image file. One option will always be to take a screenshot, edit the picture, and turn that in as a completed assignment. Both iOS and Android devices have a “Markup” option built into their native photo app. If students are working on a Windows device, they can use the “SnipIt” tool. If they are working on a Mac, they can use the built-in screenshot options of Shift+Cmd+3, 4, or 5. Once they have the picture, students can use the editing tools to complete basic tasks like highlighting, commenting, and adding text.

Now, if you want to go even deeper, you can use tools like Adobe Acrobat to create editable PDF documents. There are plenty of tutorials and how-tos on Adobe’s site to help you with that. For those of you looking for an easy solution, though, I suggest you look into one of the options above. Whether you use Google’s recommended tools, the Kami App, or just rely on students to edit a screenshot of the assignment, you will be saving paper and reaching students through a different medium. With as fast as our world is changing, it can’t hurt to have this skill in your teacher tool belt! Have you ever considered How to Turn Any PDF into a Paperless Resource for Google Classroom? Which of these options sounds the easiest for you? Let me know what has worked for you in your distance learning or in-school Google Classroom.

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Classwork Tab

Once you log into Google Classroom, go to the Classwork tab. This is the place to upload assignments and assign work to your students. Google listened to feedback from teachers and rolled out the Classwork tab this year to make things even more organized! 

The Classwork tab allows you to:

• Create assignments and questions
• Use topics to organize classwork into modules or units
• Order work the way you want students to see it.

Create Assignments

When you click on “Create”, you’ll see a dropdown menu. The options include:

• Assignment
• Quiz Assignment
• Question
• Material
• Reuse post
• Topic

If you have Chrome extensions (like Kami, a PDF reader and annotator) enabled, you may see additional options.

Uploading Assignments

The most common option to choose is assignment. After clicking on assignment, you’ll see the following menu:

First, you will give your assignment a title. Next, include instructions if applicable. I like to use the same basic instructions that I include at the beginning of the Google Doc, PDF, or Google Slide presentation I upload. Then, choose the class you want to share the assignment with. If you have multiple classes, you can select them all at once. Next, if you are differentiating assignments, you may choose specific students to share with. In addition, you may select the number of points and the due date for your assignment. Finally, you will choose the “Topic” for the assignment. This is important when it comes to organizing units in Google Classroom. If you have a rubric, you also may attach it from this screen.

Clicking on the Add button will allow you to add files from Google Drive, links, files from your computer, or YouTube videos.

In addition, the Create button gives you the option to start a new document directly from Google Classroom. 

Options include:

• Docs
• Slides
• Sheets
• Drawings
• Forms

Assigning Google Slides

Most of the time, I prefer to deliver content via Google Slides. Slides are so versatile! You can assign a whole slide presentation for students to view for information, make a copy for each student, or allow all students to edit the presentation. This is perfect for collaboration and group work!

To assign a full slide presentation, either “Add” or “Create” the assignment, then choose one of the options applicable for the given assignment.

One assignment you might choose to post as “Students can view file” are the Daily Math Prompts. These at-home math prompts give something for students to solve and discuss with family members. They are perfect for math conversation starters at home!

When choosing “Students can edit file”, you’re giving every student in the class or group the option to add or edit. This is perfect for sharing a template or blank slide presentation where students are collaborating, solving problems together, or creating their own presentations. 

The option I use most often is “Make a copy for each student”. Students are able to edit their own individual copy of the slides, which lists their name at the top. You can then see work by clicking on the assignment in the Classwork tab. You can see which student turned in the assignment, which ones have not been submitted, and the number you’ve returned.

Assigning Certain Slides

Maybe you don’t want to assign an entire Google Slide presentation to students. For example, my Power Problems encompass enough word problems to get students through the whole year! Rather than share the Google Slide presentation in its entirety, you may choose to share one unit or several problems.

There are two ways to complete this: 

First , to assign certain slides, you can “Make a Copy” of your slide presentation and delete all the slides you don’t want students to complete. Make sure to keep your original presentation when you want to share future slides. 

On the other hand, you can select particular slides just by clicking on them within the presentation. You can then make a copy of just those selected slides. 

Once you select what slides you want to assign, you assign the Google Slide presentation the same way you would assign a full presentation.

Submitting or Turning In Work

In order for student work to appear completed in your Classwork or Grades tabs, students simply click “Turn in” to submit an assignment. 

In the grade tab, you’ll see each student’s name on the left-hand side. On the top, the assignments are listed. An assignment will be marked “missing” if it’s not turned in by the due date, “turned in” if it’s been submitted but not yet returned, and a checkmark if you returned the assignment.

Remind your students to click turn in on an assignment. Many students who have assignments listed as “Missing” may have the work completed but did not submit it properly. 

On the Classwork tab, you’ll be able to click on the “Turned in” assignments to see who submitted the work. 

If you do not have an assignment for the students to submit but want them to mark something as complete, they may mark their work as “Done”. For example, if you ask students to read an independent novel for 20 minutes or talk to their parents about a math problem. This could be used for performance or “on your honor” tasks. 

Uploading work to students in Google Classroom is simple once you get the hang of it! I love using Google Classroom to organize work and help my students keep learning and growing during this time of remote learning!

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Why Google Forms?

When I started teaching, auto-graded quizzes like my standards-based mini-assessments and Google Forms weren’t being used across the board in education. The newest thing was “clickers”, little remote looking tools that students answered questions on from paper tests. Teachers then had access to the data, but it was pretty basic. You could see the most commonly missed questions and have scores for each student accessible, but that was about it. It also required clunky equipment you had to set up in school before giving a quiz.

Google Forms now gives you the ability to create multiple-choice, short answer, or long-form answer questions. In addition, the output of data is available in words, graphs, and charts, so you can analyze based on students, classes, questions, or other variables.

Assign a Google Form Assessment via Google Classroom

The simplest way to share a Google Form assessment with your students is to assign the form via Google Classroom. Signing up for Google Classroom is free and simple to do from your Google Education account.

You can share a Google Form Assessment one of two ways. First, you can create a blank quiz directly from the Classwork tab in Classroom. When you click “Create”, the option is available for a quiz assignment. This creates a blank Google Form Quiz you can design and assign to your class.

If you have already created a quiz or use a ready-to-go standard-based mini-assessment, simply click on Send when you open up the form and copy and paste the link into Google Classroom.

If your students have email addresses, make sure to click “collect email addresses”. This will make sure that the correct student is taking the quiz, and it will allow you to email the student their results and data if desired.

Select Proper Quiz Settings

Before assigning the assessment, review your settings to make sure your students will be able to see the data and results you want them to see. Click on the gear wheel, then under settings select “Quizzes”.

When “Make a Quiz” is selected, your students will have assigned point values and you can also select answers as you create the quiz. Depending on the purpose of your quiz, you may choose for your students to see their results immediately or later after you review the results. You can also decide whether or not your students can see their missed questions, correct answers, and point values. The first two items are shown upon completion of the quiz if selected.

If you are using a standards-based mini-assessment, these settings are automatically set up to have point values and answers with grades released to students immediately after submission.

View Responses from Google Forms

After your students complete their assessment, you’ll want to open up your Google Form. Clicking on Responses will allow you to view student responses as a class summary, by individual, or by question. This method is helpful in analyzing full class data or looking at how students performed on particular questions.

The visual representation via graphs along with the average, median, and range calculations that would have to be computed by hand on traditional quizzes are especially helpful in determining whether or not your class is understanding the standards overall.

Create a Google Spreadsheet.

When recording grades and looking at individual data however, nothing beats a spreadsheet! Click on “Responses” to begin the process to review the student data and create a Google Sheet.

After clicking on responses, you’ll see a green icon. When you hover over it, it will say, “Create spreadsheet”. Google Forms and Google Sheets go hand in hand. When you click on the green icon, you’ll get the option to create a new spreadsheet. This sheet will take all the data from the Google Form assessment and organize it in an easily accessible spreadsheet.

Use Google Spreadsheets to Analyze Data

The spreadsheet starts by putting all the questions on a sheet. If you have student email addresses, you will see those directly after the timestamp. After that each question will be listed at the top. In each column, you’ll see individual students’ answers. It’s easy to scan or use CTRL F to find and select correct or incorrect answers.

I prefer using the spreadsheet to view grades to input into my physical or digital gradebook since the assessment score is easily accessible in the first column.

Spreadsheets also help when reviewing short answer or paragraph answers. It may be helpful to select individual questions or columns to print or copy and paste to a document or new sheet.

Using Google Forms and Sheets to understand and analyze data from student assessments will not only save you time grading, it will also help you understand what skills students need more practice on as you implement future lessons and assessments. Try using the standards-based mini-assessments for your students to cover number and operation in base ten, operations and algebraic thinking, fractions, measurement and data, and geometry. These fifth-grade assessments will help you understand where your learners’ strengths and opportunities for growth are by using the data you collect via Google Forms!

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Kahoot!

Kahoot! is an online, interactive quiz platform. Simply create an account (always free but “Premium” is free for educators during the pandemic) and find a quiz to share via the Zoom share screen with students.

You can “Discover” quizzes already made from Kahoot! Users or Click the “Create” button to make your own Kahoot! based on the standards and skills you are teaching your upper elementary learners.

There are even templates to use to make creating the Kahoot! easier than ever.

Use some of the skill-based questions from the standards-based mini-assessments to review to make a Kahoot! quiz.

Daily Math Prompts

Share a daily math prompt or word problem via the Zoom share screen. Rather than treat these as assignments, use the math prompts as conversation starters for your students.

What kind of prompts are included?

• 4th-5th grade level prompts
• Number sense
• High interest, real world scenarios
• Error analysis
• Conceptual questions
• Problem-solving scenarios
• Quick and easy to implement, designed not to overwhelm families

Show and Tell

Show and Tell may seem like an early elementary activity, but learners of any age that are participating in distance learning want to share parts of their lives! It’s more important than ever to build community by having your students engage with their classmates online.

Have your students bring something to share from their homes. Pets, hobby-related items, or even siblings are popular Show and Tell items. Show and Tell promotes speaking, listening, and story-telling skills.

Pictionary

Practice vocabulary words by playing Pictionary with your students via Zoom! The Share Screen option allows you to use a whiteboard to share with your students.

After you share the screen, you’ll be able to draw with a stylus or your finger on your touchscreen-enabled device. If your students have touchscreen devices, you can also give the option for attendees to share screens and be the artist! Simply private message (via chat) the word to the student who will be drawing. The other students will guess. The student who guesses correctly first will be the next artist.

Click on manage participants to enable tools for students to raise their hands or simply have them type the answer in chat to you only.

Scavenger Hunt

Another activity to try with your students is a Scavenger Hunt! This can get a little crazy, so it’s important to set some rules. Have a list of common objects for your students to find in their home. You can choose items that explore math skills (i.e. a cube, a sphere, etc.) or just fun objects to get them moving and sharing!

An alternate way is to have students explore their textbooks or independent reading books to find words or literary elements to share on-screen. For example, ask your students to find the name of the protagonist in their novel. Scavenger hunts are so much fun on Zoom!

Distance learning may seem impersonal at first, but by finding engaging activities to share with your students, Zoom can help you connect with your class! These 5 Zoom activities for upper elementary are things you can use tomorrow in your distance learning classroom. Which ones will you try?

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Here are 5 Google Chrome Extensions for at-home learning to help you and your students during this time of distance learning! Logon to your school Gmail account and go to the Webstore to find your favorite Google Chrome Extensions!

Kami

Kami is an extension that allows you and your students to annotate PDFs directly from their device. With Kami, students can type, write or draw via touchscreen with a finger or stylus, create shapes, add images, and use text to speech features!

An added bonus is that Kami integrates with Google Classroom. You can directly load a Kami assignment into your Google Classroom. After installing the Kami Google Chrome extension, simply click “Create” and “Kami assignment” to login and link Kami with your Google Classroom account.

Make sure to click “Send Kami instructions to students” before assigning your first task in Kami.

Try Kami with easy-at-home learning PDFs for your students! Any PDF can be annotated in Kami.

Screencastify

Live teaching can be exhausting! Recording lessons not only saves you time (especially if you have multiple class sections), but it also allows your students to review and watch the lessons on their own time. Screencastify allows you to record your lessons straight from your screen. You can add voice as well. The free version allows five minutes of recording, perfect for quick lessons to keep your students engaged!

Recordings are stored right on the Chrome Extension. Simply click the “Play” icon and you’ll see all your recordings in your browser window.

Bitmoji

Although Bitmoji may not seem like a learning extension, it’s one you and your students will love! Personalize your slides and presentations by creating your own Bitmoji that looks just like you. Send special messages (“Way to Go!”) to your learners. The Chrome extension allows you to search and copy and paste or insert your Bitmoji directly into your Slides or emails.

Share to Classroom

This is one of the most convenient Google Chrome extensions for distance learning! By adding the Share to Classroom extension, you can push websites directly to Classroom! Try using this with Khan Academy videos for any content area and grade level!

Zoom Scheduler

When you’re setting up Zoom meetings for your students or colleagues, the fastest way to schedule meetings is via the Zoom Scheduler extension!

Simply install the extension and go to the camera at the top of your browser to schedule a meeting. Make sure you are logged in with your school Google account.

You can share the link to your Zoom meeting via Google Classroom or with parents and students via email. You’ll be ready to Zoom with your kids!

These 5 Google Chrome Extensions for at-home learning are perfect ways to integrate Google tools into your at-home learning. What other Chrome extensions have you tried for your remote classroom?

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One of the first products I started using from Google was their Google Forms. I adore using them for Digital Classroom Escapes! I also created Math Mini Assessments that are standards based. Google Forms is perfect for this sort of resource for its auto-grading! If you haven’t experienced Google Forms in a while, you might be remembering something similar to SurveyMonkey – good for collecting responses, but not something you would necessarily use in a classroom. With all the updates that have been made to Google Forms in the last few years though, they are essential to any digital classroom. If you are new (or just coming back) to Google Forms, read on to find out How To Create Assignments Using Google Forms!

Where Do I Start?

If you have not yet explored Google Classroom, you definitely need to start there. I suggest creating two classes right away; a “Test Class” and a “Master Class.” The test class will be for trying out new ideas, testing things, and just generally messing around and making mistakes. The master class will be for any and all assignments you create. We will come back to that one.

On your Google Classroom home page, find the plus button in the top right corner. Then, click on “Create Class.” In the window that pops up, the only required information is a name for your Google Classroom. Nothing else needs to be filled in if you don’t want to. If this is your first Google Classroom, it may take a bit of time to create. Don’t worry – that’s normal! Google is working hard in the background to create not only the classroom, but a Google Calendar and Drive folder as well.

Option One: Create the Google Form First

As the Google Classroom teacher, you have a lot of options when it comes to assignments. When you are working on Google Forms you can either create it ahead of time and attach it to an assignment, or create it at the same time as the assignment. To get started, we can explore what creating the form first looks like.

You can get to the Google Forms page several ways; through the “Google Grid” at the top right corner of any Google app, through creating a new “Form” document in Google Drive, or through the Google launch page. However you get there, you want to click on one of the “Start a new form” options. Blank or template, use what you feel comfortable with.

I tend to start with a “Blank” form, just because I like the freedom it gives me. From there, I can give my form a name, add my questions, and make it look as exciting or engaging as I want!

Make sure that before you call it “done,” you check out the settings cog. There are currently three tabs in there you will want to check. 

The “General” tab in settings allows you to change some settings that could allow students to fill out the form multiple times, collect email addresses, and other options. The “Presentation” tab changes how the form looks to students. Make sure to change the “Confirmation Message” so that it makes sense. Last, the “Quizzes” tab allows you to turn the form into a Quiz – which means it can auto-grade. If you turn this option on, make sure you decide whether or not you want students to see the answers right away or at all. Some students have been known to be a little “too helpful” to other students in later classes.

Create the Google Classroom Assignment

Back in your Google Classroom, find the tab marked “Classwork.”

Click on the “Create” button, and then select “Assignment.” 

When you have your assignment opened, you can give it a title and write out instructions. Then, click on the “Add” button, and select “Google Drive.”

From there, you can find your newly-created <a From there, you can find your newly-created Google Form, and click on the “Add” button to attach it to the assignment.

Before you save the assignment, don’t forget to adjust the grade settings on the right-hand side of the screen. This is where I will always click on the “For: Test Class” drop-down and also check the box for my “Master Class.” Then, I can reuse this post anytime I want through the “Reuse post” option in the “Classworks” tab! Why do something twice when you can just reuse it? Adjust points possible, add a due date, and more before you click on the “Assign” button in the upper, right-hand corner. Voila! Your first Google Forms assignment!

Option Two: Create the Google Form Directly from Assignment

You may have noticed the “Create” button at the bottom of the assignment area we were just in. 

Clicking on that allows you to create a Google App product right from the assignment itself. Genius! Click on “Forms” to get started. You will be taken directly into a brand new, untitled Google Form that you can name, add questions to, and make perfect for whatever assignment you are creating. Follow the same assignment creation steps as above once your Google Form is created, including adding the post to your “Master Class” as well.

Don’t Forget the Auto-Grading Quiz Option

One of the best changes to come about recently in Google Forms is the addition of a Self-Grading “Quiz” feature. There are a few things you as the teacher need to do to make sure this works correctly, though.

First of all, in the form itself, make sure you have “Make this a quiz” turned on in the settings area.

Change the other settings as you would like, but don’t forget to click on “Save”. This is counter-intuitive for anyone familiar with Google, so don’t forget that you do have to save this one.

The next thing to do is go back and tell your form what to look for to know whether the answer is correct or not, and how many points each question is worth. 

Once you have the answer key and points set, you are ready to assign your quiz in Google Classroom.

There is something important to know about assigning this kind of form in your Google Classroom. When you click on the “Create” button, you need to select “Quiz Assignment” this time.

If you create a regular assignment, your quiz will not be able to auto-grade, which defeats the purpose. When you create the “Quiz Assignment,” Google Classroom will automatically attach a new, untitled quiz. You can use that one to create a new quiz, OR you can still click on the “Add” button to attach a quiz you already made.

Just make sure that the “Grade Importing” toggle is turned ON, and then assign it.

There are so many different ways to use Google Forms within your Google Classroom. My personal favorite is, of course, Digital Classroom Escapes. The students get SO excited about these activities, they even forget that they’re learning. How do you use Google Forms? Which idea from How To Create Assignments Using Google Forms are you most excited to try? Let me know below – and share your newfound Google Forms expertise so we can learn from you, too!

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