Using and annotating PDFs in Google Drive

Student research can generate lots of paper -- drafts of student work, of course, but also lots and lots of printing of articles, websites, book excerpts and anything else students are expected to annotate as part of their research. Online annotation can be a solution to this, but it requires some thought about how you interact with your documents.

For students who are saving everything as PDFs in their Google Drive, there are two useful solutions. One is to convert PDFs to Google Docs (did you know you can do this?) and then highlight, comment and annotate away. Just right-click on the PDF from Google Drive in a browser window and select Open with --> Google Docs to create a Google Doc with the same name as the PDF.

This works better for files with less formatting but the conversion is pretty good overall.

Another much more robust way to do this is to use a Chrome app called MetaPDF. Go to the Chrome web store to add it as an app. Then you can open PDFs using MetaPDF to highlight and comment directly on the PDF. Changes are all synced to the PDF in your Google Drive. Check out what that looks like here:

(If opening the MetaPDF app on the first use freezes the browser, here's the super-quick solution.) I found this very easy and useful; please share with your students who are looking for an online annotation solution.

Same news content, different reading levels

Being able to read and comprehend informational text across subject areas is an essential part of the
Common Core standards and having the same text content written at different levels can be an important tool for differentiation in the classroom. Teachers have traditionally created their own leveled sets, but there are a number of online tools that can support this. Here are a few that provide current events news articles:

Newsela is the best-known of these tools. They continually update current events and general interest articles on their website and readers can choose the lexile level that is most appropriate to them. The Pro version allows teachers to link assignments to Google Classroom, assign quizzes, provide formative feedback, and track and analyze student progress. Students who are enrolled in the Pro version receive adaptively leveled articles after they've read and been quizzed on several different articles. You can get a free 30-day Pro trial to check out some of the features.

TeenTribune is produced by the Smithsonian, and provides similar content and services as Newsela, but for free! The news articles are leveled and come with quizzes teachers can assign. It's a little less comprehensive than Newsela but does provide some of the student assessment and feedback options without the cost.

News in Levels covers general news at a much more basic level, and without the tracking and data analysis features. It's not updated as frequently as Newsela and is appropriate for beginning English learners.  Breaking News English is similar in nature, with articles listed "harder" and "easier" but still offering leveled content within those articles.  . http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/ sdfs

Lastly, Front Row is another that has both ELA and Math content where you can monitor student progress (fewer features in the free version), but it doesn't focus on news/current events.





And Rewordify is a pretty innovative tool, for teachers and students, that modifies complex text into easier-to-understand vocabulary, and provides both hard and easier words in a format the reader can choose. Just cut-and-paste (or provide the URL for) the text you want. Teachers can also use the text they select for vocabulary lists, quizzes, and more. It's definitely worth some exploring!
What else are people using?

Making Google Slides more interactive

Google Slides has a little-known "Q&A" feature that allows your audience to post questions during your presentation, allows them to vote on each other's questions, and allows you to keep a history of questions asked.


To start the Q&A feature, go to "present" and choose "presenter view". This launches the Q&A feature (you can also see your speaker notes from this view).


When the Q&A is active, your audience sees a banner across the top of your slides with "Ask a question" and a short URL.

When they go to that site, they'll have the option to either ask a question or vote on a question to be answered.

You as the presenter can either see the questions in real time (in presenter view) or track them via the Q&A History (from the Tools menu). Even if there's no time to take Q&A during your presentation, the Q&A history is saved, so you can go back to it at a later class and answer questions, or tailor the next lesson accordingly. You can also have multiple time-stamped sessions of Q&A if you'd like each class to have their own individual questions.

Check out Teacher Tech for more cool Google Slides features.