Students should always have feedback throughout their learning processes to help them grow and succeed. This might be when they are writing essays, lab reports, or creating videos or other projects. Unfortunately, I don't always have all the time I would like to provide feedback, so occasionally I have students peer evaluate or review each other's work.
In the past, I used to create rubrics and photocopy way too many papers so that each project could be evaluated by multiple other students. This was such a waste of paper. Last year, I decided to set up a Google form for students to fill out as they reviewed the work. Then I used the autoCrat script to "mail merge" the information from the form into a nice document that was much easier to read then the spreadsheet. This document is then automatically emailed to the student so they can review the feedback and continue working on their assignment. I have created a screencast showing the step by step instructions on how to set this up and use the script. (UPDATE: Scripts are now gone b/c of the new version of sheets. Click on this link instead for an autocrat tutorial. The tutorial in this link is not the same form as in the below video, but it will help you use autocrat. You may still want to watch the video below for ideas about this peer editing form.)
Common Core State Standards & Finding Credible Sources Common Core Standards require that students are able to find sources when doing research and analyze them for credibility. Here is an applicable CCSS standard for Writing in History, Science, and Technical Subjects:
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.WHST.9-10.8 Gather relevant information from multiple authoritative print and digital sources, using advanced searches effectively; assess the usefulness of each source in answering the research question; integrate information into the text selectively to maintain the flow of ideas, avoiding plagiarism and following a standard format for citation.
Finding Sources can be tough for students. I cringe when students post google.com or wikepedia.com as their sources in their bibliography. I want my students to learn how to find actual and credible sources (and be able to site them properly). Wikipedia is a good starting point to find out general information, or find links to other sources, but Wikipedia itself should never be their source. And google.com is a search engine, not a source! The first thing I do to help my students is to find some reliable sites and create a Custom Google Search for my students. Students don't search the entire web, but use a custom search bar on my webpage that only searches sites that I have preselected. Here is a link to my previous post about creating Custom Google Search Engines. But even then, how do students really know that the source is reliable? They won't always have a teacher creating a Custom Search Engine for them. Students need to be able to determine if the website is credible.
A Great Idea from Catlin Tucker Last fall, I attended the Fall CUE conference in Napa, and went to a session by Catlin Tucker - Common Core: The Art of Argument Writing. (If you ever get a chance to see her, be sure you do! And read her book - it is great if you are thinking of how to integrate technology and Common Core practices into your classes.) One of the activities she shared was her Got Credibility? Google Form. (Here is a link where you can find a copy of her form and her video on how to make a copy of it so that you can use it with your students.) This form asks the students to answer questions about their web source such as "Does the source have an author?" or "Is there any bias presented in this resource?". After students go through all of the questions, they should have a pretty solid idea of whether their resources is credible. I copied Catlin's form, and modified it a little bit for my class. (In my biology class, I have students use APA instead of MLA. I also added some info on websites that will work on our iPads to get the APA citations.) I then set up the Google Script autoCrat to merge the data students submitted on the form into a Google Doc that was then emailed back to them. I wanted students to have access to their citations and work that they did when they checked the credibility of their sources. My Lesson Plan When I first introduced this form to my students, I asked my students what resources they use to research a topic. We had a discussion about credibility, and then I showed them the Google form. I then gave them a website/resource to use to fill out the Got Credibility form. I used a great website called Help Save the Endangered Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus. This website is very detailed and students have to navigate around it to be able to answer the questions on the Got Credibility form. Students spent the rest of the period exploring the Tree Octopus website and checked its credibility by filling out the form. Below is a copy of a filled out form from one of my students. (This is what was emailed to each student after they submitted their form and the autoCrat script merged the data and sent them the document.) Most students discovered that the source was NOT credible, that in fact it was a hoax.
After the students participated in this activity in class, I had them search for their own resources to use as sources for their upcoming research project. I required them to complete the form for each of their resources that they used in the project. After filling it out a few times, they now seem to have a good grasp on how to tell if a resource is credible. Here is a video one of my students made of tips on determining the credibility of a source.
Other Hoax Sites I have been searching for other "fake" websites to use when introducing the Got Credibility form. Here are a few good ones.
If you find any other good hoax cites, please list them in the comments.
Resources
Here is a copy of my version of Catlin's Got Credibility? spreadsheet/form and the merge document I used with autoCrat to send out a filled out form/document to my students. Be sure to make copies of both into your Google Drive. You will then need to install the autoCrat script into the spreadsheet, and then link the merge fields from the document template when you set up the script.
The best way to organize, assign, and share google documents with students is using the script gClassFolders. I have been using google docs with my students for years. Last January we became a Google Apps for Education (GAFE) school and I began to discover google scripts. Scripts are magic! In the past, I had had students create their own documents and share them with me. I gave them a specific way to name/title the documents, but they didn't always follow my instructions. And many times they would forget to change the sharing rights and I couldn't view their documents. And I was so bad at organizing my google drive - their files were everywhere. That is where the magic of scripts come in. I can send out documents to students that are already name properly, with the student name, class period, and assignment in the title of the document. I can control the sharing rights and even "embargo" the assignments, by changing student editing rights so they can't change the document after the due dates. And I can automatically organize the documents into class or student folders. I can use google search to find them, or go to a spreadsheet for an assignment and click on the link to each student's document. To do all of this scripting magic, I use gClassFolders to set up the folders for each class and student. Then to send out the documents/assignments, I use the hub in gClassFolders to run the Doctopus script. I can assign individual or group assignments and change the share settings for the entire class at one time. In the following videos I will share how I export my class rosters from Infinite Campus, run the gClassFolders script to set up my class and student folders, and then run the Doctopus script to send out an assignment.
How to export class rosters from SUHSD's Infinite Campus and auto type in student email addresses:
How to set up and run gClassFolders:
How to send out documents using Doctopus:
*Note (9/3/13): It looks like you can now create folders in your gClassFolder Teacher folder and they will show up in Doctopus when choosing folders for templates. When I created this video, that was not an option.)
This seems like it is a really complicated process, but you only need to set up gClassFolders once - at the beginning of the year. If students enter or leave your class, you can update your gClassFolder roster and run the script again. From that one original roster, you can then run three other scripts; Doctopus (for sending out documents and running the goobric (rubric) script), Autocrat (a mail merge script), and pageMeister (a script that creates a page for each student on a class website). The first time I did this, it took less than a half an hour. Once you get the hang of this, it will be a snap each time you assign students a google document or presentation.
Pictures of Documents, Folders, etc. After Using the Scripts:
When collecting paragraph text data from a google form, it can be really challenging to read. If the answers are long, sometimes you can't scroll to see the whole response. And the data is incomplete and hard to read in the summary of responses.
Wouldn't it be nice to have all the data in a nice table or bulleted list on a google doc? There is a solution! The script, DocAppender, by Andrew Stillman, allows you to do just this. Here is a sample document which has form submissions appended in a table to the bottom of the document.
I have created a screencast with step by step instructions on how to setup and run this script.
This script will be a great tool when students are brainstorming ideas and I want to post them at the front of the room for all to see. You can also use it to collect feedback or ideas at professional development workshops. Andrew Stillman explains how he uses it for classroom observations in his video. If you have other ideas on how to use this script, please leave a comment.
At my school, I am required to have students sign in and out of my classroom. So if a student uses a pass to use the restroom, go to the library, or comes to class late, they have to fill out a form. This started a few years ago as part of our safety plan. For about two years, I had students fill out their name, date, time, and reason for leaving the room or coming in late on a piece of paper on a clipboard by the door. Last year, I switched over to a online google form after Joan Le shared the idea with me at the Exploratorium Alumni Teacher Institute program. I posted a QR code with a link to the form on my classroom door so students could use their phone to fill it out on their way in/out. I also have a few computers that they can use if they don't want to fill it out on their cell phone. I had heard someone mention in passing, at a conference or workshop, that a script could be used to email parents when a student is tardy. I thought that that was a brilliant idea! It was a way to immediately communicate with parents and hopefully change the students behavior. I had been thinking about how to do this for months, and finally created the workflow after a full day scripting workshop led by Jay Atwood at the Google Apps for Education Summit in California last weekend. Jay's guidance was key in helping me figure this out. Linking parent emails to a form submission and sending the email is a multistep process, but I have outlined all the steps to recreate this for your classroom in this video. I hope it helps others.
Also, I want to thank Kevin Brookhouser again for teaching me how to add annotations in YouTube to make the video interactive. It is such a cool trick!
This year, when my AVID students researched different colleges, I didn't want to have to sit through 30 boring powerpoint presentations. I have done this project for years with my students, and honestly, it is not fun listening to the same presentations over and over again. I decided to have my students create videos instead. We used iMovie on the iPad and students created trailers. The trailers are only about one minute long, so they wouldn't be able to fit all of the required information in the movie. So I had students use ThingLink to be a home for their video and then they could also use the tags to add the extra information.
To begin with the project, I had students fill out a google form with their top college choices. I then created an instruction document that also would be their document that they took their notes on. I sent it out to all my students using the google script, autocrat. This allowed me to personalize each document with the college name they were assigned, student names, etc. It also named and shared the document with me so I didn't have to worry about the students forgetting to do so. Students took collaborative notes in a Google doc, planned out and created their iMovie, uploaded it to YouTube, and then made their ThingLink. Creating a ThingLink on an iPad is not ideal, many times it would get a little buggy. But it was possible to do using the Chrome browser, with a little frustration of having to shut down the iPad and logging back in to ThingLink. In the last few days, ThingLink just released an iOS app. It looks like it will have great potential for an iPad classroom. As of right now, you can only add videos and text to your image. You can't add URL links, pictures, etc. Hopefully that change will be made soon. But the current version of the app works really well on the iPads, it is very easy to find a picture and add text or a video. I think that this is a great tool to curate information and to be a "home page" for student multimedia projects. Instead of having to give the teacher multiple links to different parts of a project, they can all be embedded on the ThingLink.
Do you have a multiple choice or fill in the blank test that you want to give to your students? Although they are pretty easy to grade, who wants to spend the time? Sure, you could use scantrons or iPad apps where you take a photo of the bubbled in sheet. But why waste paper or your valuable time? Flubaroo is a script that you can add on to your google spreadsheet/google form which will automatically grade quizzes, and even send an email with the grade (and even answer key) to your students. It is easy to use. Just create a form. Fill it out with the correct answers to make the answer key. And then run the script. This video shows how to use the Flubaroo script. I also demonstrate how to add an image into a google form and how to search for Creative Commons images. (Creative commons images are liscensed by the owner for to be allowed for public use if they are given attribution. Find out more at creativecommons.org)
Here is a sample quiz, it is the one I made in the video:
