Embedded Files
with a little help from GOOGLE CLASSROOM
We've all been there. We sit down at our desks, usually after eight straight hours in the trenches, on our feet, teaching our hearts out, and quickly scan an outline of our next instructional mountain. We feel the dread rising from the bottoms of our feet to the pit of our stomachs. We think,
"How am I possibly going to get my students through this learning task?"
"How am I possibly going to get my students through this learning task?"
Or, possibly you just so happen to regard yourself as an aberration among teachers in your school, district, or the profession in general. You may rarely feel the foreboding apprehension when faced with an intensely rigorous objective required of your students. But I guarantee you, at some point in our careers as educators, we have all heard the following words come flying out of a teachers mouth, "There's no way my students will be able to do this!" or "I have no clue how I'm going to get my students through this seemingly insurmountable learning task." (Just think, recent benchmark performance tasks)
But fear not my fellow educators, fortunately for us, the appropriate use of tech based applications and tools offer us yet another tool to add to our arsenal. In this specific example, please explore the following real-life utilization of such a tool that enabled myself as an educator, and my students as participants, the ability to overcome a seemingly overwhelming and extremely rigorous learning task. In this example, students participated in planned micro assignments that eventually led to the completion of an extremely rigorous writing task. My hope is that this page, or more specifically this project and it's infusion with available tech based tools, will serve as inspiration for my fellow educators. With the TRUSD Tech Scope and Sequence at it's foundation, the process of using Google Classroom (along with the aide of other ed tech applications) can serve as a reference for use in any classroom, for any subject, any learning task, and at any level.
About Me:
About Me:
Before we begin, let's consider a simple yet profound quote from the best hockey player ever to have played the game...
Before we begin, let's consider a simple yet profound quote from the best hockey player ever to have played the game...
"I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been. - Wayne Gretzky
"I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been. - Wayne Gretzky
In what direction are current instructional practices and strategies leading our kids? Is it to where the puck has been? Or, is it to WHERE THE PUCK IS GOING TO BE?
In what direction are current instructional practices and strategies leading our kids? Is it to where the puck has been? Or, is it to WHERE THE PUCK IS GOING TO BE?
TRUSD Tech Scope & Sequence
TRUSD Tech Scope & Sequence
- Empowered Learner
- Knowledge Constructor
- Creative Communicator
Student Outcomes
Student Outcomes
- Students will avoid the fear and intimidation of a seemingly overwhelming task that is likely to prevent them from even attempting the learning task at hand.
- Students will experience first hand exactly how the use of technology can reduce workload and improve productivity on nearly every level.
- Students will receive real time feedback and input from their teacher and peers regarding their project on an ongoing basis.
- Students will experience the fulfillment that comes from a completely edited, revised, polished, and published text written by them.
As stated, Google Classroom is at the heart of this project. For those unfamiliar with Google Classroom, perhaps the following excerpt from Google will help to outline this particular educational technology tool's purpose and offerings to both you as the teacher and to your students.
"Google Classroom streamlines assignments, boosts collaboration, and fosters seamless communication to make teaching more productive and meaningful...With Google Classroom, educators can create classes, distribute assignments, send feedback, and see everything in one place. Instant. Paperless. Easy...Educators can set up Classroom in minutes. With Classroom, they can manage assignments and communicate with students and their guardians in one convenient place...Google Classroom is free for schools. Best-in-class security is also included at no additional cost...Teachers and students can work anywhere, anytime, and on any device. Classroom seamlessly integrates with other Google tools and helps educators refresh their curriculum with integrated education apps...Educators can provide instant feedback and track a student’s progress to improve performance. Classroom also helps free up educator time so they can focus on what they do best: teaching."
- "Transform your classroom with Google Classroom" (edu.google.com/k-12-solutions/classroom)
OK, so this all sounds wonderful. But you might be asking yourself, what does Google Classroom look like in the real world? How would I use it in my classroom? Can someone with my experience or skill set in technology work with Google Classroom? Possibly the most important question you might find yourself debating is simply this, “how can the use of this educational technology based tool help my students learn? I hope to answer some of these questions on this page. I invite you to explore this page and experience exactly what my students and I experienced as we utilized this tool in our second grade classroom.
By now, you should have grasped the concept that Google Classroom is in short an online home of “hub” for all things related to your class. I could write 10,000 words and not even break the surface of all Google Classroom has to offer and how these offerings lead to student achievement. With this fact in mind, let’s keep it simple. Whether you’re a computer science major or a 40 year veteran teacher with a wary perspective of all this “tech stuff”... if you want a glimpse of Google Classroom being utilized by a fellow educator and his students, you’re in the right place. I aim to present this topic in a succinct and forthright manner.
As I’ve mentioned, Google Classroom can be thought of as a “hub” or “online home” for both the educator and their students. I’ve utilized this tool as just that for many years. This year, I was challenged by TRIFORCE to really immerse myself in Google Classroom and explore its effectiveness not only as a piece of educational technology but more importantly, how it’s use can help teachers and students work within the TRUSD Technology Scope & Sequence.
Writing is one of the content areas I have always looked to improve my instructional practices in. I’ve found this to be the case for many of my fellow teachers, not just in elementary but well into the high school arena. I’m constantly looking for ways to improve my instructional effectiveness in the area of writing and thus the levels of achievement my students experience in their own writing. This semester, I employed the use of Google Classroom to help improve my effectiveness as an educator charged with helping my second graders become effective writers. As you will see, the use of this tool not only helped my students experience increased levels of academic success writing, it simultaneously immersed them in various domains and skill sets found within the newly adopted TRUSD Technology Scope & Sequence.
We started are adventure with an end product in mind. In this case, our end product goal was a basic 5 paragraph informational essay that satisfied the levels of rigor and met the expectations set forth within grade level Common Core Informational Writing standards. Knowing our end goal, gave my students and I a good idea on where to start.
Project Design
Project Design
Plan, Design, and Implement Early!
Plan, Design, and Implement Early!
It is important to know here that my class has been using Google Classroom all year. At the beginning of this project, my second graders were very comfortable navigating our Google Classroom home page. THIS TOOK TIME! I can’t stress this point enough to any teacher looking to utilize this tool, or any tech related tool, with their students. Obviously, the amount of time and effort it will take for you and your students to become comfortable working within Google Classroom will naturally vary depending on a myriad of factors. Some of the most important aspects to consider are going to have to do with the age of your students but more importantly, their experience level or level of prior knowledge coming into your class.
Every year, I make it a point to have my students get their hands on their computers on the very first day of school. This does not necessarily mean my students actually use their computers or devices day one. As an educator, you know the importance of establishing routines within your classroom. The earlier you expose your students to the tech tools you plan to employ, the more benefit they will ultimately gain from their use. Going back to day one, my student’s first experience with their computers is often the repeated rehearsal of seemingly mundane or obvious skills. I can’t begin to tell you how many teachers I’ve seen avoid the use of educational technology tools based solely on their initial experience simply trying to get the devices in the hands of their students. Break this part down! My first lesson plans calling for the use of computers always starts with the assumption that my kids have yet to experience the use of a personal device. Get back to the basics here. Think the time honored lesson design technique based on the gradual release of responsibility… also commonly referred to as the “I DO, WE DO, YOU DO” model. I started by explicitly demonstrating the simple routine of leaving my chair, walking to the computer card, identifying my computer, unplugging it from the charger, properly walking the device back to my seat, and awaiting further instructions. Nothing is too small to consider in this process… especially with our younger students. Trying to get your kids situated with a device without serious consideration of even the most minute of details can and often will lead to a chaotic and negative experience for both the teacher and students. I know I promised to keep this project presentation concise and believe me, I will. Please excuse the brief detour above… my aim here was to promote a solution to the most prevalent obstacle I’ve seen deter teachers from exploring the benefits of educational technology use. Bottom line, start small, plan everything down to the smallest detail, and I promise your first experience using EdTech with your students will go much smoother! <<TRUSD Technology Scope and Sequence CONNECTION>> (Simply expecting your students to perform these referenced tasks have them working within the Tech Scope and Sequence in the first two domains, becoming an "Empowered Learner" and a "Digital Citizen")
Getting back to the design of our project… after first having spent many valuable and precious instructional minutes teaching my kids the basics of everything from how to hold their computer while walking to the act of actually signing into the devices, we explored our Google Classroom homepage together. Here is a screenshot of what our home screen, or “feed” looks like.
As you can see, the inside of our Google Classroom is essentially a "hub" for our class. Assignments are posted, worked on, submitted, graded, collaborated on, and so on right here from our main stream. It is at this point in my instruction that I usually lead my kids through a tour of our Google Classroom. I highly recommend you act as a guide and have them follow you on their own device.
It is here, on our main Google Classroom page, that I posted the first part of our project. The first "assignment" was not to write a rough draft or "brainstorm" as many might think would be the logical way to start our journey towards our final end product. Instead, I accessed the remarkable interchangeable nature of Google Classroom and assigned my kids a video to watch on YouTube.
The video I had my kids "watch" was a brief overview of informational writing. The content was presented in a very "kid friendly" manner and gave my students the opportunity to gain a certain level of prior knowledge before I personally even introduced the content. Google Classroom gave me the ability to ensure my kids actually interacted with the video as opposed to simply watching it on the smartboard in a group setting. Furthermore, I utilized another ed-tech tool called Edpuzzle. As with many educational technology tools, I could have based my entire project on Edpuzzle alone. In short, Edpuzzle gives educators the opportunity to have their students watch a video and create mandatory "stops" to check for understanding. Edpuzzle works great with Google Classroom and I was able to embed the assignment straight into our class stream. I did this for a variety of YouTube videos that focused on the writing process in general as well as opinion writing specific. Edpuzzle enables users to create their own questions about the video and can be set up to force students to demonstrate understanding before moving on or progressing further into the video. Below is a glimpse of Edpuzzle.
Further Breakdown of Tasks
Further Breakdown of Tasks
Now that my kids had some basic knowledge of the writing process and the genre of information text, I was more effectively able to plan and teach your standard, live teacher to class lessons. After many direct instruction based lessons, it was time for my kids to prepare to write their essays. The fact that this was the first in-depth exposure to informational essay writing, I decided to hold hold whole group brainstorming sessions and supplied my students with two sources in which they were to use as evidence in their writing. Back to Google Classroom we went. I created two assignments for my students to complete that centered on finding facts and details that they could draw on in their own essays. I hand picked two grade level appropriate sources that provided basic facts on two different animals, the rattlesnake and the giraffe. I transfered the sources into a google doc and shared a copy with each student. Having already had experience highlighting text for details etc, I instructed my students to use Google Docs to highlight and make notes on their individual copies of each source. Below are two examples of the sources after being read, digested, highlighted, and commented on by my students.
As you can see, students really delve in deep with these sources. We discussed the quality of the sources and their origin. Here we began to see connections to domain 2 of the TRUSD Technology Scope and Sequence where we ask our students to become "knowledge constructors". They evaluated the sources I provided to them and suggested other opportunities to acquire further research.
Next up, we used the assignment feature within Google Classroom to break down each of the 5 paragraphs into separate, more manageable, and less intimidating factors. Each student was assigned an outline document that contained a common table in which they were to write their first draft for each of the expected paragraphs. Starting with their introduction, followed by three facts with elaboration, and finally a conclusion paragraph. This is where my students entered the domain of becoming "innovative designers" (TRUSD Tech Scope and Sequence 3) and "creative communicators" (TRUSD Tech Scope and Sequence 5). As you can see on the screenshots below, students used our design process to create or "design" paragraphs and then recreate or "edit" their drafts into final versions after first considering the feedback received from myself as their teacher and at least two of their peers. This is where Google Classroom really immersed my students into domain 6 of the TRUSD Tech Scope and Sequence, as they became "Global Communicators." Students communicated, online, with each other by sharing and collaborating on shared online documents.
Final Reflection
Final Reflection
Based on the assessment data acquired from careful review of my students’ opinion based essays, along with the formative data collected throughout their writing process (both informal and formal), the majority of my students experienced academic success working through this project. When I refer to “academic success”, I am not implying that the majority of my students met the rigor/full expectations of the district based informational writing rubric. In fact, many are still in the process of finalizing their essays. However, success came in the form of nearly every student demonstrating growth in their writing as well as their experience demonstrating proficiency in the various TRUSD Technology Scope and Sequence domains. As referenced above, the use of Google Classroom enabled my students and I to attack an overwhelming existing academic task, one manageable step at a time. Google Classroom was the tool that helped us accomplish this task while simultaneously immersing my students in the TRUSD Technology Scope and Sequence domains.
Based on the assessment data acquired from careful review of my students’ opinion based essays, along with the formative data collected throughout their writing process (both informal and formal), the majority of my students experienced academic success working through this project. When I refer to “academic success”, I am not implying that the majority of my students met the rigor/full expectations of the district based informational writing rubric. In fact, many are still in the process of finalizing their essays. However, success came in the form of nearly every student demonstrating growth in their writing as well as their experience demonstrating proficiency in the various TRUSD Technology Scope and Sequence domains. As referenced above, the use of Google Classroom enabled my students and I to attack an overwhelming existing academic task, one manageable step at a time. Google Classroom was the tool that helped us accomplish this task while simultaneously immersing my students in the TRUSD Technology Scope and Sequence domains.
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