Google Slides Create Collaboration in the Classroom!

     Without thinking I recently joked that we could almost nickname Google Slides an educational assault weapon--unfortunately in this day and age the negative connotations of that phrase would be highly frowned upon so I won't refer to Slides that way again but I will tell you that Google Slides is a very powerful tool that can invade and accent the learning taking place in our classrooms!

Keep in mind I am very anti-send students to the net to copy and paste information into a presentation.

They learn nothing from that exercise. I have to confess that I learned this the hard way when I gave students the assignment of creating vocabulary flashcards by using Slides. I was amazed at how quickly the assignment was completed then realized that my students had copied and pasted the vocabulary word, definition, part of speech and in some cases, even the sentence I had asked them to compose, directly from a dictionary website! I'm not sure who I was angrier at, the students for copying and pasting, or myself for thinking they wouldn't take those kind of short cuts! 
     Looking at the clock I still had over half the class period left and nothing prepared for them to do except a short oral vocab exercise I had intended as an exit ticket!  I knew I had to redeem some learning from this situation and I'm not sure where it came from but an idea struck.  I quickly opened a slides presentation; added 21 slides to it; spun a  quick story starter sentence on the first slide; then as I shared the presentation with all of them I explained that we were going to write a group story. 

     I explained the rules as I made them up: "Each student will be responsible for one slide and must use at least two vocabulary words correctly. (I knew this was going to be a problem because there were 12 words and 20 students--they'd just have to figure it out.) No one can talk aloud but you can communicate using your Chromebook. If the whole class participates and each vocabulary word is used at least twice with ten minutes left in the class period you will be able to have that 10 minutes as free time." I assigned the slides in alphabetical order. (It was easy looking at my class list.) Then assigned the last student to be the monitor who each time a vocabulary word was used would put a tally mark next to each word where they were listed on the board. 

     I encouraged the students to pay attention to the story as it unfolded and to help each other when necessary. I kept the presentation projected on the screen at the front of the computer lab as they worked. I wandered among the students encouraging them to stay on task. As I observed in amazement, I saw students using hangouts to plan plot twists, then to my amazement two of the more advanced students were using the comments area to figure out a tense issue in the writing. One of the students had even posted a link to illustrate their point. I didn't have to monitor incomplete sentences or grammar errors they were doing it themselves. They even asked to add pictures to illustrate their story and of course I didn't say no. 

     These students never got their ten minutes of free time. We were so enthralled in the story that the bell rang and we had to scurry to put things away. I even used the first 15 minutes of the next class period to allow them to polish their story before we read it aloud. Eventually I figured out how to print the slides and made each student a book to use as their study guide. On the back of the pages I had them write out the definitions of the words so they would have a study guide to take home. 

     This assignment, though produced on a whim, is one of my all time ways for students to practice new vocabulary and I have used it on a regular basis tweaking it to fit varied situations.

     I know I've prattled on about just one way to use Google slides so I'll restrain the rest of my ideas to a bulleted list form.  However, I really do want other teachers to share their ideas here so feel free to elaborate and tell us about your Google Slides lessons that work!

     Before I get to my list let me also point out that Google Slides can be exported to PowerPoint, pdf or basic txt files. YouTube videos can be imported into slides and slides presentations can also be embedded or published. Not only can teachers use Slides to deliver information to students, teachers can include Slides in project based learning situations. 

    Slides in Math:

• Have students illustrate the steps to solving a problem.
• Illustrate mathematical principals and functions.
• Use the drawing tools to create geometric figures--have students collaborate to figure area and volume.  
• Add real world problems such as figuring how much floor covering for a home. Have the students research products, quality design and cost, then figure the cost of the project. (Students will create slides for each room showing the individual products, costs etc...)
• Displaying data in charts or graphs

Slides in History or Social Studies:

• Have students collaborate to reenact a historic event by creating a slide show.
• Student created presentation timelines.
• Supply students with a teacher created timeline of events leading up to a major event--Make sure to supply the slides out of order and have the students collaborate to put them in chronological order of how the events occurred. 
• Student created travel guides that follow a historic journey--both then and now.

English Language Arts:

• Animated story telling
• Collaborative writing / Peer editing
• Replace the old "evidence note cards" for citation notes
• Plot outlining
• Publishing student work (in print or via the internet)
• Communication exercises / Adding information to a Speech 

Science:

• Have students collaborate to create a hypothesis, document experiments-- using photos, step by step instructions then have other groups recreate the procedure to test the theory.
• Present, publish or embed the data and outcomes to share with others.
• Scientific Research documentation
• Have students teach others complex topics such as Punnet Squares or other genetics
• Creating or presenting charts & graphs

These are just some ideas feel free to comment or post your own.  

   

Google Docs Across the Curriculum

There are many ways to incorporate technology into the classroom.  I plan on covering each aspect of Google Drive one at a time and share some of my ideas with my readers. Today I’d like to examine the use of Google Docs and include some of my ideas for putting them to work in the everyday classroom setting. As many schools are orienting themselves as an online presence and the Common Core is directing students to have more online experiences it is imperative that we as teachers incorporate technology into our lessons.

Incorporating technology should be more than just having students watch or create PowerPoint presentations. The technology needs to be more viable and hands on than just copying and pasting information. I could rant for hours about this and not share any good ideas. I would much rather state some of my ideas for using this technology into the different core learning situations and encourage other educators to share theirs.

In the English Language Arts classroom Google Docs can be a great tool.  Independently students write essays and such using Google Docs then share with the teacher or classmates for peer editing. Along the right side of the doc editors may add comments and even see the editing history for the document. For teachers this is handy for monitoring student activity, input and adding guidance. Personally I have added guidance in several different ways. For example when I notice a student is struggling with tense or comma usage I have added links to YouTube Videos or other websites that help to clarify the issue. This truly puts the student in the driver’s seat with the teacher acting as the true “tour guide” to learning.  

Collaboration is a great feature of Google Docs. In the Social Studies, Government or History classroom. In these classes students could be assigned to compile a group “News Letter” with each group member assigned to research and report upon a particular place. Topics could be things such as Topography, Economy, Location, Politics, Climate… This could be adjusted according to grade level and CCSS.

In the Science classrooms students can work independently or collaborate to record experiments, observations, document processes, document outcomes by using words and pictures. (Google Sheets can also be used for this process but that will be covered in a different posting.) Once again teachers and co-collaborators can add input and direction by posting links, questions and redirection in the comments area of the document.

Math teachers also can put Google Docs to use in their classrooms. Word Problems come to mind very quickly but also students can describe the process, collaborate with each other while solving the problems and it is proven that writing out the steps to solving a problem helps clarify understanding and contributes to learning retention. Seeing that Google Docs are constantly updated and saved teachers can add input throughout the process. I suggest letting students take pictures with their cell phones and include them in the doc in order to illustrate the process of solving an equation or other mathematical process. 

The list of uses of Google Docs in the classroom is unfathomable and I have described only a few of my own. I would love it if other educators would share their ideas also.

Using Google Docs:  http://learn.googleapps.com/docs

Ms. Richardson’s Tech Resource Page:

Teaching with Technology