Google Classroom

Details

Activity Description

Create a Google Classroom and add a first assignment where students introduce themselves.

Google Classroom allows teachers to create a classroom to organize classwork, communication,  and assessment in one place. 

Preparation

If you and your students have district accounts you can create a Google Classroom, but you can still have Google Classroom even if you do not have district issued accounts. If you already have a Google account, you have a Google Classroom.

1. To find it, open your Google account. Go to the Apps box, top right, on the Google screen. Click on the Apps box, scroll down to More. Then select Classroom.
2. Click on the plus sign, upper right and choose Create a class. Agree with the Google agreement. They want to be sure you are not teaching children and needing to address K-12 privacy issues. Give your class a name and Create. Now get started creating content.
3. On the Stream page, add a class welcome by clicking into “Share something with your class.” By clicking on the arrow beside post, you can post the announcement immediately or schedule it for a later date. If you don’t finish you can also save it as a draft.
4. In the Classwork section, click on the + Create button at the top left. You have five choices: Assignment, Question, Material, Reuse post, and Create a Topic. In assignment, name the assignment, add instructions, give it points, add a due date, add a topic to organize the assignment by units, and decide when you want it assigned, immediately or on a later date.
5. Create an assignment for students to write an introduction to themselves.
6. You can access grading from View All on the Stream screen. This lists assignments given, how many have been turned in and how many have been graded. By clicking on the assignment you can access student work. You can make corrections, comments and issue points.

How-To

1. Invite students to join the class by enlarging the class code which appears on the Stream page. (to enlarge it, click on the icon beside the class code).
2. Walk the students through joining Google Classroom and doing the assignment. Go through the instructions using your fake student to demonstrate what students will see. Select View Assignment. Once a student selects an assignment, he or she can click on Create and choose the app needed for the assignment.
3. For this “Introduce yourself” assignment, choose Docs. By clicking on Docs, Google creates a titled document file for the student.  Students can then type their assignments on the document.The document is automatically saved. After students finish writing their introductions, instruct them to go back and click on Turn in. This then sends the documents to the teacher for correction and grading.
4. Students can access assignments chronologically in the Stream or by topic in Classwork. They also receive an email for each assignment and can do their work from their email. If you have added Due Dates, these dates with links to the assignments will appear in Google Calendar.

Teacher Tips

Tip #1: Number the assignments. This makes grading and keeping track of grades much easier. It is also easier to refer to the assignments with the students. 

Tip #2: Create topics. This is how your Classwork section is organized--by topics. You could organize by units, chapters, types of assignments etc. 

Tip #3: Use due dates. This puts the assignments on the Google Calendar, Students can access assignments right from their calendar. 

Tip #4 Have students put their name and assignment information on the top of the document. This allows the document to be printed and displayed if you want to do so. Otherwise the document does not have the student’s name on it.   

Tip #5 Create a bank of common student mistakes. Include links to websites for more instruction and extra practice pages for students to learn about and improve the skill. 

Tip #6 Google Classroom looks very different in the Teacher mode from the Student mode. Before you begin using Classroom, create a faux student. (Sarah Student, Adam ABE, HSS Harry, Elis ESL, etc.) Get a Gmail account for the “student” and enroll him in your course, or if you have district accounts, use a student account that isn't being used this quarter. Then as you demonstrate Google Classroom to your students, it will look the way they will see it on their own screens. 

More Ways

Quizzes: This gives you immediate feedback for formative assessment. When you Create a quiz you have choices for how students interact with the quiz. Students can take the quiz and immediately see the correct responses or not, as you chooose. You can see their scores giving you the opportunity to 'revisit' the topic if needed.

Google Forms can be used to create surveys such as Student Profiles to gather needed student information such as emails, cell phone numbers, if they have jobs etc.

Program Areas

• ABE: Adult Basic Education

Levels

• All Levels

Documents

• Google Classroom (1).pdf - Google Classroom

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