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!

The post How to Upload Work to Students in Google Classroom appeared first on Tanya Yero Teaching.

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!

The post Understanding Data in Google Forms appeared first on Tanya Yero Teaching.

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!

The post How To Create Assignments Using Google Forms appeared first on Tanya Yero Teaching.