Google Classroom for Writing

I started using Google Classroom for my writing class this year and I love it!! My writing class looks totally different than any of my team member's writing classes, but it works for me and my students! First off, this is only possible because I have a cart of chromebooks in my classroom. But my students only used the computers on some days, so it's possible to do this with less computers as well.

The reason I started using Google Classroom for writing is that I had a problem. My students were finishing their opinion writing pieces at different times. I was ready to start them on their next topic, but I couldn't spend 15 minutes reading to each child whenever they were ready. First, I tried to solve my problem by recording myself reading the book students were going to use for their writing on an iPad. But I quickly found that my students had difficulty sharing one iPad for five students. I needed a way to quickly let my students read and listen to the text without the constraints of a single iPad. I even tried sharing the video but also realized it wouldn't upload. Basically, long story short, I arrived at Google Classroom.

I'll quickly show you how to get started, but the primary focus of this post is showing you how I use Google Classroom as an integral piece of my writing instruction.  First, you have to have students join your classroom. You do this by having students log in to Google Classroom and entering the class code. (My students were logged in to Google automatically when they logged into their chromebooks.)

Once they've joined the class, they are able to see their feed. They are then able to click on different assignements, etc. Most of the assignments for me were animal names for each of the informative paragraphs my students were writing. For each animal, I also recorded myself reading the book. This was the same location that students could turn in their final drafts as well.

To watch the video, students just had to click on the movie. The beauty was that they could rewatch parts that they needed or listen to the book as many times as they needed to! Students then could click on the assignment (the name of the assignment, such as Sea Turtles) to turn in their final drafts. Those were the basics that allowed the real magic to happen. Let me show you what I was able to do in my writing class with the support of Google Classroom!

This blended learning model made it possible for me to allow student choice (students could choose their own animal to write about). I usually offered three different animal choices once I had introduced a new writing genre whole group for a few days. My students were happy to get some say in what they were writing about! I was also able to let students work at their own pace (within reason, of course). On a typical day in my writing classroom I would have some students researching, some planning, some writing rough drafts and others typing up their final drafts. At first, this was my only aim. Add in differentiation and loosen up on individual pacing schedules. But I was happily surprised when this allowed me to step up my game as a teacher a notch.

Since I had students at different places (and some additional adult help), I was able to almost instantly grade students' writing and provide feedback. Our school has a community printer where we all send our jobs with lock print on it. In order for me to print (or publish, as we call it!) students' work, I had to print from my computer. I used to have students share their document with me, but it was easy for me to lose. With Google Classroom I was able to simply go the assignment, read it over with the student, give feedback and grade it all with the students and nearly instantaneously! My students would bring their plans and rough drafts over and we would go over it all together. It also allowed me to clean up formating and spelling before we printed since I wasn't grading them on their typing skills. Then we would print, go get the paper and they would illustrate it before we displayed them! When we were all doing the same assignment, it was so easy for me to tell how many students had or hadn't turned in an assignment.

What were the drawbacks? My first grade students definitely took a little while to train up in Google Classroom. They also took awhile to get pretty good at typing. My really slow students could stretch this process into a long time! But these issues were all workable for me. I loved having everyone in a different spot. After practice and with some scaffolds, most of my students were able to independently go through the entire writing process (with adult assistance as appropriate). My grades were easy to download from Google Classroom as well. I do need to create a "cheat sheet" for reminding students how to turn in assignments though.

Next year, I plan on starting my classroom with Google Classroom from the get go! (Assuming that I have the same technology access, of course!) I set up a "class" for each of the subjects I will be teaching. My current plan is to teach students how to quickly complete questions and turn in assignments right away. Here is what it looks like for next year so far:

I hope this inspires you to try Google Classroom in your own classroom. Feel free to ask questions or comment on how you are using technology for writing in your room!