google forms

I have moved into the digital age. I've now got a smartphone, and with that I'm far more able to check twitter. Typically I will stumble across something that might be interesting or promising and star it for later viewing (like when I am at my laptop!). This morning I stumbled across a re-tweet from Web20classroom, someone who passes along a plethora of stuff on a daily basis. The post was in regards to a google doc someone had created about using Google Forms in the classroom.

I hadn't even thought about using Google Forms. In fact, I'll confess that I'd never used Google Forms before. But I messed around with it this morning, and am considering using it with a small test group of students in the coming weeks. To the left you'll see an image of a small test form I created. I wanted to see the mechanics of the process... and here is my understanding.

• Start by creating a form through Google Docs.
• You toy around with the questions you want your kids to fill out or respond to.
• You can make the questions required or optional.
• Then you link it to a website (perhaps a class website or wiki- I'll likely do both, duplicity is a good thing). You can email it to your users also, but I am not sure that I'll do that as of yet.
• Then you get to the best part... once the kids go online to type in their responses, they submit it... populating a Google Docs spreadsheet for you! How great! Instead of the paper trail, you've now got it all in one place. I can then email feedback if you wanted to go that route.

How do I envision using it? I'll likely use it for my weekly Fact/Question/Response sheets during our novel study. I might also use it for my end of year reading/literacy surveys. I'll start by using a test group of 5-10 kids, some from each of my rotation groups. Then I'll likely use it as an option- if you want the paper version you can use it, otherwise go the online version (that way I don't have the issue of student access which is inevitable, even though it is far from the majority for me). I'm excited. A new idea to test out.

Response!

In my limited time as a teacher, reading response seems to be a literacy skill that is lagging behind for my kiddos. For me, reading response is interacting with the text by writing connections you've made to particular pieces of text evidence. You might compare your own experience to a character and explain why. You might also discuss why you feel like you are similar/different compared to a character. I use it in my novel study FQR (fact/question/response) work, giving kids a menu of questions to choose from and respond to.

My kids can verbally make connections. Most kids can verbally make connections, most commonly done through a "one time I..." type of story. When it comes time to turn those stories into writing, I've seen them fall flat. To stem that tide, I used some student work as my basis for modeling responses. A few had made giant run-on sentences, while others responded to BOTH questions with simple one sentence responses. Neither were in the ballpark of what I was looking for, largely because it lacked any deep reflection or connection to the reading.

With my first two groups I opted to let them start on the response section with some support from me (and modeling). But as we went I pulled pieces under the document camera for the whole group to see, opting for that route instead of 18 mini-lessons or conferences in each group. This involved my own writing and connection- and the change was great. Most really got it as it was intended while a few others will need more support. The last group I went ahead and adjusted ahead, opting for my guided work and support throughout the process. Based on their writing previously, I determined that letting them float along wouldn't be prudent (particularly with the information gathered from my first two groups). The hope is that this pays dividends later when we start our novel study work.