Tuesday, December 8, 2015
Friday, December 4, 2015
Wednesday, December 2, 2015
Two-Minute Tech Videos: Creating and Organizing Google Docs
Below are short (2 minutes) training videos on the basics of creating a Google Doc and organizing your Google Docs.
Creating a Google Doc:
Organizing Your Google Docs:
Monday, November 30, 2015
Essay Grading Comment Bank
I actually look forward to grading essays since I went paperless. Alright, I don't really "look forward:" to it, but it's much less daunting to carry home a laptop rather than a stack of stapled papers. I use Google Docs to comment on the essays, and copying and pasting from comments saved on another doc has made the process both quicker and richer.
To make my comment bank, I copied comments as I graded a set of papers onto a doc. After several grading sessions, I had dozens of comments pasted. I then organized them into separate categories (mechanics, usage, grammar, style, organization, research issues) to make them easy to find. I also added links to websites and videos to allow students to get tutorials on each writing issue. So instead of students just getting "comma splice" as a comment, they also get a link to the Purdue Online Writing Lab website where the issue is explained in detail.
Many tips and tricks make the Google Doc essay grading process work, but developing a comment bank document is invaluable. Here is my comment bank. Feel free to use and adapt it.
Friday, November 20, 2015
Google Docs and Me: A Love Story
I recently gave a presentation on how I use Google Docs in my high school English and college composition classroom. The main way I use it is to grade essays, and this presentation goes through some of the techniques I have developed/discovered/stolen, including the following:
- using it in a non-Google school
- using it in a BYOD school
- using live "look-ins" to monitor student writing
- using it to foster true peer review/revision
- using a comment bank to provide enriched feedback
Here is a link to my comment bank. I am working on fine-tuning it with codes so students can keep track of their mistakes.
Wednesday, November 18, 2015
Student Journals the Easy Way
Most English teachers would agree that student journals are a great way to get students thinking and a great way to get some formative assessment. However, most English teachers would also agree that journals are a pain. Is there any worse feeling than hauling a milk crate full of journals home on a Friday afternoon? Or, even worse, pulling one out and also pulling up 4 more that are all tangled by the velcro-like spiral binder?
Google Docs to the rescue. Just have the students create one doc to share with you. They can insert a new page for each entry, labeling it at the top however you wish. Better yet, the new entries can go at the top of the doc so you can check them easily. Using this tech also allows the students to include pictures and links in their entries.
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