Naming versions of Google Docs to keep track of drafts

One powerful thing about using Google Docs for teaching the writing process is the ability to see the revision history of any document. As students make changes, add and delete content, and respond to feedback from teachers and peers, they can return to previous versions of the document. Here's an older post that talks more about that (note that Google has changed "revision history" to "version history" but the rest remains the same).

A more recent feature of Version History is the ability to name specific versions of a document. This doesn't stop all the changes from being tracked; it just allows you to return to one or more specific, important past versions. You might name one "Rough draft", "Revised draft after peer edits", "Revised draft after teacher edits" and then "Final draft". Either the student or the teacher can do this and see the named versions.

Here's how it works:

This is a helpful way for both teacher and student to be able to see improvements over time.

Copying or Printing Google Docs with Comments

If you are using Google Docs with students to give teacher feedback, or as part of a peer-editing process, there are times you will want to either be able to copy or print the doc with all the comments intact. This used to be a headache but it's easier now.

First, Google has recently added the ability to simply copy comments when making a copy of the document. You can choose to share or not with the original collaborators or with others. Here's a short video showing how:

The work-around for printing Google Docs with comments is still to download the document as a Microsoft Word document and print from Word. Although there are a few Chrome extensions that  offer to print Google Docs with comments, I haven't found them reliable. Here's how to to download a Google Doc as a Word file:

Adding, organizing and sharing files in Google Drive

When you create or share Google docs from Google Drive, the organization is easy, but what if you want to add files of a different sort, or quickly organize and share files and folders? Here's a very short video that shows several ways to do that:

NoveList: a tool for finding the perfect book

More and more classes, especially in the English department, are adding independent reading and response to their curriculum this year. Homestead provides access to a tool that can make it much easier for students to find the perfect book for outside reading.

NoveList Plus lets you search for a book in a bunch of different ways; not only by genre, subject or age group, but also by adjectives like "quirky" or "suspenseful".  One of its best features is its "title read-alike" or "author read-alike", which helps students expand beyond the books they've already loved to try something new.

This video shows how to look for "read-alikes" in NoveList:

Using Google Forms and Google Classroom for self-grading quizzes

Using Forms and Classroom for quizzes is getting easier. For a while now, Google Forms has allowed you to create quizzes with multiple choice or short answer options that can give students instant feedback, or allow you to score manually. Here's a short video showing that process (or the written instructions if you prefer):

Now you can also have the grades automatically imported to Google Classroom as part of the assignment. When you post the assignment and add the Google Form, you'll have the option to "enable grade importing". If you select that, when you look at the assignment itself once students have taken the quiz, you'll see an "Import Grades" button. Click that and watch students' scores magically appear in Google Classroom, a very useful trick. 

Remind app for parents and students

At Back to School Night, many of us are looking for ways to be able to more quickly and easily keep parents and students informed and engaged. Remind is an easy-to-use text message app that lets you send text-message group reminders and updates, schedule announcements and see who has seen each message. Lots of parents and students are moving away from email as their primary communication tool and text messages are often more likely to be seen and read. Users sign up for specific invited groups, and Back to School Night is a good time to make that happen for parents.

Check it out here: https://www.remind.com/

Short videos for quick response, conversation and more

Using video can be a welcome change for soliciting student response, either to a teacher prompt or to each other. It can also be a great way to get to know students early on (particularly those who are quiet or reserved, or have difficult-to-pronounce names). Flipgrid is an easy-to-use tool that lets students share, discuss or reflect via video-based discussions. Teachers post prompts or topics, and have control over how they want to moderate or respond to incoming content. Students can use any device (computer, Chromebook or phone) to respond without needing any specific log-on information or account. (Students using phones do need to download the free app.) 

I used it with freshmen during HOP day and in less than 5 minutes I was able to get very short (15-90 second) introductory videos from hundreds of incoming 9th graders and could also share their videos back out with them. It was a great way to start to match names with faces, find out a little about each new student, and hear them say pronounce their names in their own voices. There are tons of other ways this could be used for formative assessment in the classroom, and what student doesn't love to see themselves on camera?