Teaching with Google Classroom E-Book

Michael Zhang

• Herausgeber: Packt Publishing
• Kategorie: Wissenschaft und neue Technologien
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 265

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2021

Beschreibung

Google Classroom is designed to help you manage and deliver online and in-person courses in an interactive manner. Using Google Classroom saves time organizing and communicating information to students and parents. This updated second edition of Teaching with Google Classroom covers the modern features of Google Classroom that meet the current needs of online teaching.
The book is written from the high-school perspective but is applicable to teachers and educators of all age groups. If you’re new to Google Classroom or an experienced user who wants to explore more advanced methods with Google Classroom, this book is for you.
With hands-on tutorials, projects, and self-assessment questions, you’ll learn how to create classes, add students to those classes, send announcements, and assign classwork. The book also demonstrates how to start an online discussion with your students. Later, you’ll discover how you can involve parents by inviting them to receive guardian emails and sharing Google Calendar with a URL. This will help them to view assignment deadlines and other important information. The book goes step by step through all the features available and examples of how best to use them to manage your classroom.
By the end of this book, you’ll be able to do more with Google Classroom, managing your online or in-person school classes effectively.

Leseprobe

Teaching with Google Classroom Second Edition

Save time and stay organized while delivering online and in-person classes

Michael Zhang

BIRMINGHAM—MUMBAI

Teaching with Google Classroom Second Edition

Copyright © 2021 Packt Publishing

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Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all of the companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals. However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.

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First published: September 2016

Second edition: May 2021

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To my loving wife, who continues to support me each and every day. To my rambunctious daughter, who was the main source of distraction while writing and is the greatest joy in my life. To the editors, project managers, and team members of Packt Publishing, who kept me on track. To Jason Renner, who helped test all the Apple devices and is always willing to discuss ideas. To all my teaching colleagues who shared their thoughts. Thank you all.

– Michael Zhang

Contributors

About the author

Michael Zhang is a Google for Education Certified Trainer. He has an education and science degree from the University of Alberta and works within the Edmonton Public Schools division in Canada. He applies Google's Workspace for Education daily within his classroom. Michael has spoken at several teaching conventions and facilitates technology training in Google Apps, Microsoft Office, Adobe Creative Cloud, Windows and Apple products, and other software. His experience helps him to communicate about technology in a comprehensible manner to his audience. He believes that technology should save time and improve productivity and hopes that this book does just that for its readers.

About the reviewer

Benita Moyers is a kindergarten teacher in Alabama. She serves on the board of directors for the Alabama Education Association. As a board member, she volunteers throughout the state to provide in-person and virtual educational technology training workshops. In 2019, she became a Certified Google Trainer. Since the pandemic began in 2020, she has used that training to help educators, parents, and students learn how to use Google Classroom and other Google Workspace for Education tools to navigate the new virtual learning environment. Due to her experience with Google, she was asked to serve her school community as the virtual kindergarten teacher for the 2020–2021 school year. During this time, she also worked with the National Education Association to write a blended learning module for social and emotional learning, which she facilitates on their learning management system. She has assisted fellow writers by providing mini-coaching sessions for Google Workspace tools.

Table of Contents

Preface

Section 1: Getting Started

Chapter 1: Getting to Know Google Classroom

Creating your first Google Class

Navigating around Google Classroom

Personalizing your virtual Classroom

Changing the Classroom's theme

Uploading a banner image

Managing resources in your Class

Adding files and resources to your Classroom

Reordering materials in your Classroom

Storing files in your Classroom

Inviting additional teachers

Accessing Classes from Google Classroom's home page

Summary

Chapter 2: Inviting Students to Their Virtual Classroom

Setting up Google Classroom on student's devices

Setting up Chrome on computers and Chromebooks

Installing the Classroom app on tablets and phones

Allowing students to join using the class code

Joining a classroom with the class code

Inviting students to your Class with an invite link

Making changes to the class code and invite link

Managing students in your Class

Manually inviting students to your Class

Removing students from your classroom

Emailing students in your classroom

Summary

Section 2: The Basics

Chapter 3: Sending Your First Announcement

Creating an announcement

Scheduling a time to publish an announcement

Advanced features in announcements

Making changes to an announcement in the Stream

Reusing a previously created announcement

Managing announcement email notifications

Disabling all email notifications

Disabling email notifications for certain classes

Customizing email notifications

Commenting on announcements

Replying to comments

Managing comments

Disabling comments in the Stream

Summary

Chapter 4: Starting an Online Discussion with Questions

Creating a question

Additional features in a question post not found in an announcement post

Creating short-answer questions

Student view

Replying to student responses

Creating multiple-choice questions

Grading a question

Leaving a question ungraded

Viewing a returned grade

Summary

Chapter 5: Handing Out and Taking In Assignments

Creating an Assignment post

Sharing files in assignments

Viewing student files

Viewing student files in Google Classroom

Viewing student files in Google Drive

Turning in assignments

Adding additional files to assignments

Unsubmitting and resubmitting assignments

Turning in assignments late

File ownership for assignments

Summary

Section 3: Diving Deeper

Chapter 6: Grading Written Assignments in a Flash

Assigning a grade using the Grading Tool

Providing feedback with private messages and comments

Adding comments to student files

Using the Comment bank

Replying to and resolving comments

Managing comments in Google Docs

Suggesting changes to a student file

Monitoring student progress with Version history

Avoiding plagiarism with Originality reports

Using a rubric to grade assignments

Creating a rubric in the Grading Tool

Grading an assignment using a rubric

Reusing a rubric from another Assignment post

Creating a rubric using Google Sheets

Using a tablet to provide written feedback

Viewing all student grades

Summary

Chapter 7: Creating Multiple Choice and Fill-in-the-blank Quizzes using Google Forms

Creating a Google Form

Adding questions to a Google Form

Changing the theme of a Google Form

Converting a Google Form into a quiz

Creating an answer key in Google Forms

Assigning a Google Form in Google Classroom

Grading Google Forms quizzes

Manually releasing grades to students

Linking a Google Sheets spreadsheet

Tips and tricks when creating Google Form assignments

Summary

Chapter 8: Keeping Parents in the Loop

Inviting parents to receive guardian emails

Sending emails to guardians manually

Sharing Google Calendar with a URL

Creating a website for Google Calendar

Sharing the Google Site

Summary

Chapter 9: Customizing to Your Subject

Weighted categories in Google Classroom

Citing references in Google Docs

Using the Citations feature

Creating citations with EasyBib

Add-ons in Google Sheets and Slides

Adding letters with accents in Google Docs

Inserting math and science equations in Google Docs

Deleting extensions and add-ons

Summary

Section 4: Going Digital

Chapter 10: Hosting Classes Online Using Google Meet

Enabling and managing Google Meet in Google Classroom

Changing the Meet link

Getting started with Google Meet

Google Meet audio and video settings

Google Meet conference controls

Engaging students within Google Meet

Presenting a screen to students

Writing on a Jamboard

Enhanced engagement features

Considerations when recording meetings

How does this recording reflect on me?

What are your school division's policies?

Does the recording have to be live?

Summary

Chapter 11: Strategies for a Successful Online Class

Plug into the internet

Looking your best in Google Meet

How you sound is more important than how you look

Lights! Camera! Action!

Pedagogy in an online class

Consistency

Structuring resources in the online class

Where can students find support?

Assessment

Summary

Other Books You May Enjoy

Preface

Google Classroom is designed to help you create online courses and deliver classes in an interactive manner. Using Google Classroom saves you time spent organizing and communicating information to students and parents. This updated second edition of Teaching with Google Classroom covers the modern features of Google Classroom that meet the current needs of online teaching.

This book is written from a high-school teaching perspective but is applicable to teachers and educators of all age groups. If you're new to Google Classroom or you're an experienced user who wants to explore more advanced methods with Google Classroom, this book is for you.

With hands-on tutorials, projects, and self-assessment questions, you'll learn how to create classes, add students to those classes, send announcements, and assign classwork. The book also demonstrates how to start an online discussion with your students. Later, you'll discover how you can involve parents by inviting them to receive guardian emails and sharing Google Calendar with a URL. This will help them to view assignment deadlines and other important information. The edition has two new chapters, where you will learn how to use Google's online video conferencing tool, Google Meet, and strategies for teaching classes online. The book goes step by step through all the features available and offers examples of how best to use them to manage your classroom.

By the end of this book, you'll be able to do more with Google Classroom, managing your online or in-person school classes effectively.

Who this book is for

This Google Classroom book is written by an educator, for educators. It's for anyone who wants to teach effectively with Google Classroom. There are rich examples, clear instructions, and enlightening explanations to help you put this platform to work.

What this book covers

Chapter 1, Getting to Know Google Classroom, is an introduction to the layout and features of Google Classroom. It prepares classes for the subsequent chapters. By the end of this chapter, you will be able to create a class in Google Classroom, change its theme, and add files.

Chapter 2, Inviting Students to Their Virtual Classroom, introduces students to Google Classroom. It covers adding students to their classes and connecting their devices to Google Classroom. By the end of this chapter, you will be able to instruct students in joining a class, add students directly to a class, and access Google Classroom on desktop and mobile devices.

Chapter 3, Sending Your First Announcement, is your first foray into interacting with students within Google Classroom. It explores the class stream and the features of announcement posts. By the end of this chapter, you will be able to send announcements to students within Google Classroom.

Chapter 4, Starting an Online Discussion with Questions, explores the simplest assignment type—questions. It covers asking discussion questions and providing peer and teacher feedback to student answers. By the end of this chapter, you will be able to assign a question, provide feedback, and assign grades to students' answers.

Chapter 5, Handing Out and Taking In Assignments, will focus on attaching files to assignment posts and best practices when it comes to file types and distributing assignments within Google Classroom. It includes instructions for guiding students to submit completed assignments and setting a due date. By the end of this chapter, you will be able to add a file to an assignment, distribute it to students, and show students how to submit finished work.

Chapter 6, Grading Written Assignments in a Flash, covers the built-in grading features, such as the grading tool, rubrics, and originality reports. By the end of this chapter, you will be able to set up and grade written assignments with a rubric.

Chapter 7, Creating Multiple-Choice and Fill-in-the-Blank Quizzes Using Google Forms, continues from the previous chapter. It focuses on creating multiple-choice and fill-in-the-blank questions using Google Forms and automatically grading with the Quiz feature. By the end of this chapter, you will be able to create an assignment in Google Forms, assign it in Google Classroom, and grade the answers.

Chapter 8, Keeping Parents in the Loop, addresses Google Classroom's inability to grant access to parents and others who do not have a Google G Suite for Education account. It explains how Google Classroom's assignments are connected to Google Calendar. It provides strategies in sharing Google Calendar so that parents can view assignment deadlines and other important information. By the end of this chapter, you will be able to share Google Calendar using a URL or a Google site.

Chapter 9, Customizing to Your Subject, provides subject-specific examples of third-party apps, add-ons, and extensions that diversify the types of online assignments available. The subjects covered in this chapter include the humanities, second languages, mathematics, and the sciences. By the end of this chapter, you will be able to add and remove apps and extensions from the Chrome store and add-ons in Google Docs.

Chapter 10, Hosting Classes Online Using Google Meet, explores teaching in an online classroom. It covers how students join a meeting, how to present content to students, and engagement features. By the end of this chapter, you will be able to facilitate online learning in Google Meet.

Chapter 11, Strategies for a Successful Online Class, discusses concepts and techniques beyond Google Classroom and Google Meet to improve the quality of online teaching. It includes audio and video recommendations and lessons learned from teaching online during the COVID-19 pandemic. By the end of this chapter, you will be able to improve the audio and video quality of your online teaching and will have a deeper understanding of setup, management, and assessment within a virtual classroom.

To get the most out of this book

To effectively utilize this book, you will need a Google account and should understand basic navigation through a web browser. While a standard @gmail.com account can use many of the features found within this book, to have access to all the features, a Google Workspace for Education account is needed. Furthermore, there are many tiers for this type of account. Therefore, knowing which tier your school division subscribes to will help you determine which features are available to you.

While not required, familiarity with other Google apps such as Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Drive, and Google Docs would be helpful. These apps, along with Google Classroom, are only accessible in a web browser. A reliable connection to the internet is required to explore any of the apps.

Whether you are using a digital or paper version of the book, we encourage you to follow along in Google Classroom. Creating a Class to test some of the features will avoid potential errors when facilitating similar activities with students.

Because Google Classroom has a teacher interface and a student interface, being part of a professional learning community or exploring this book with a colleague can help you when experimenting with features. A colleague can enroll in a practice class as a student so that you and your colleague can see both interfaces.

Download the color images

We also provide a PDF file that has color images of the screenshots/diagrams used in this book. You can download it here: https://static.packt-cdn.com/downloads/9781800565920_ColorImages.pdf.

Conventions used

There are a number of text conventions used throughout this book.

Code in text: Indicates code words in text, database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions, pathnames, dummy URLs, user input, and Twitter handles. Here is an example: "Mount the downloaded WebStorm-10*.dmg disk image file as another disk in your system."

Bold: Indicates a new term, an important word, or words that you see onscreen. For example, words in menus or dialog boxes appear in the text like this. Here is an example: "Select System info from the Administration panel."

Tips or important notes

Appear like this.

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Section 1: Getting Started

Here, you will set up your Google Classroom so that you can hit the ground running. In this section, you will create and personalize classes and add students to them.

We will cover the following chapters in this section:

Chapter 1, Getting to Know Google ClassroomChapter 2, Inviting Students to Their Virtual Classroom

Chapter 1: Getting to Know Google Classroom

Google Classroom is a learning management system (often abbreviated to LMS) offered by Google to teachers. It provides a central location to communicate with students, share resources, pose questions, and create assignments. In an increasingly digital world, Google Classroom helps facilitate online learning for today's digital learners. As with many new applications, Google Classroom comes with a unique look and feel. Since your method of setting up your physical classroom is as unique as your method of teaching, Google Classroom begins as a blank canvas. Before we can add students into Google Classroom, you will need to create online Classes for your physical classes.

First, you will get comfortable with where everything is in Google Classroom. Being the teacher of the Classroom will provide access to options that are not visible to students and will allow you to change settings, such as what students can do in Google Classroom. You will be able to add students to the Classroom, create announcements and assignments, and upload course materials from this teacher view of the Classroom. But first, you will need to create and set up your first Class.

In my Classes, I tend to spend most of my time thinking about the structure of the online Class before creating it. As creatures of habit, establishing online expectations through Google Classroom, similar to what we do in person, will help us and our students know where to turn. Examples of some of the questions I ask myself when planning an online Class include: How do students ask questions?When is it appropriate for them to ask questions?Where do they find resources?How are they dismissed? By establishing this structure at the beginning, you will feel less guilty about not responding when a student contacts you at 7:30 in the evening with a question.

In this chapter, we will cover the following topics:

Creating your first Google ClassNavigating around Google ClassroomPersonalizing your virtual ClassroomManaging resources in your ClassInviting additional teachersAccessing Classes from Google Classroom's home page

Note

Within this book, Class references a Google Classroom Class and class references a bricks-and-mortar classroom.

Creating your first Google Class

To begin, open Google Chrome and navigate to https://classroom.google.com/h.

Choosing the right internet browser

While Google Classroom is accessible in any web browser, the Google Chrome web browser is built to be compatible with all of Google's other apps. Therefore, some features may be incompatible or will not function correctly in other web browsers. Consider discussing with your school IT staff if Google Chrome is not installed on your computer.

If this is your first time opening Google Classroom using a Google Workspace for Education account, it will ask you to confirm your email account and then select whether to assign a teacher or student role to your account. Be sure to correctly select the teacher role, otherwise your account will be set up as a student account. You will not be able to create or manage Classes unless your role is a teacher in Google Classroom.

The following screenshot depicts the teacher role being selected:

Figure 1.1 – Selecting your role

Note

If your account is set to a student account, you will need to contact your IT department so that they can change your Google Classroom role to a teacher role.

Using a personal @gmail.com account or a Google Workspace for Business account will not have the Pick your role page. Instead, all users will be able to create Classes in Google Classroom.

Another method of accessing Google Classroom is to use the app launcher. If the IT department has enabled this feature, click the waffle-shaped icon at the top-right corner of another Google app, such as Gmail, to see whether the Classroom icon is available.

This is illustrated in the following screenshot:

Figure 1.2 – Classroom app in App Launcher

Once you select the teacher role, the next page will point you toward a plus symbol + in the top-right corner to create your first Class, as illustrated in the following screenshot:

Figure 1.3 – Creating your first Class

When you click on the + symbol, a menu will appear for you to select whether to create a Class or a join a Class. Click on Create class to create your first Class.

Note

As a teacher, you can join another teacher's Class as a student by clicking on Join class and filling in the Class code. These instructions are covered in detail in Chapter 2, Inviting Students to Their Virtual Classroom.

A dialog box will appear, for you to name the Class and provide a section number. While the Class name field is mandatory, the Section number, Subject, and Room fields are optional. Depending on your school policies, specific Classes may already have section numbers that you can add here.

In Canada, many middle and high schools use section numbers for the timetable schedule, which is another option to fill in for this field. Since students will also see the section number, using the Timetable section number will be more applicable to them. While the Subject and Room fields can be helpful, these are not visible in Google Classroom by default.

The following screenshot provides an overview of the Class information:

Figure 1.4 – Information for the Class in Google Classroom

Once these fields are filled in and the Create button is clicked, you will be taken to your new Class in Google Classroom, as illustrated in the following screenshot:

Figure 1.5 – Class information

Now that the Class is created, in the next section you will explore the different features of this online Class.

Navigating around Google Classroom

Now that your first Class is set up in Google Classroom, you can see its different parts—the banner, menu, sidebar, and content area, as illustrated in the following screenshot:

Figure 1.6 – Parts of a Google Classroom Class

Let's take a look at each of these parts, as follows:

The banner displays a banner image, class name, section, Class code, and the Google Meet link functionality. The banner is the first thing students see when they enter the Classroom and this allows them to quickly identify which Class they are accessing in Google Classroom. The students' view is slightly different—the Class code field and the link to change the theme are missing.The menu allows teachers and students to switch between the different sections of Google Classroom. The menu has the following sub-sections:

The Stream section is where announcements, notifications for new assignments, discussion questions, and materials from the Classwork section appear. How to create an announcement within this section is elaborated upon in Chapter 3, Sending Your First Announcement.

The Classwork section is where resources, questions such as polls, and assignments are found. Information on organizing and implementing features within this section can be found in Chapter 4, Starting an Online Discussion with Questions, and Chapter 5, Handing out and Taking in Assignments.

The People section displays a list of all teachers managing and all students enrolled in the Class. Teachers can email students from this section and change student-related settings in Google Classroom. The features of this section are elaborated upon in Chapter 2, Inviting Students to Their Virtual Classroom.

The Grades section displays the grades for questions and assignments found in the Classwork section. This page organizes all questions and assignment grades into a table for easy viewing. The features of this section are found in Chapter 6, Grading Written Assignments in a Flash.

The sidebar displays upcoming assignments when in the Stream section and a Topics list when in the Classwork section.The content area displays the current section in the Class.

Now that we are familiar with creating the main features of Google Classroom, it's now time to setup the Class and start adding content.

Personalizing your virtual Classroom

Similar to how teachers have a couple of days before students arrive at school to prepare for their classroom, you want to take some time to add information to your online Classroom before students are invited. These are the tasks you can perform in Google Classroom:

Changing the Classroom's themeUploading a banner image

Changing the Classroom's theme

The Classroom banner is the most prominent part of your Class. It creates an atmosphere for students when they arrive. Google Classroom will automatically apply a theme that is appropriate to the Class name for common subjects. This is why the theme banner has laboratory equipment for the Science class created in the previous section.

The theme also changes the colors of the headings and icons throughout the Classroom. To change your Classroom's theme, follow these steps:

Click on Select theme at the bottom-right corner of the banner image, as illustrated in the following screenshot:

Figure 1.7 – Select theme link

Select the desired Google Classroom-provided banner image. The colors within the Classroom will change to match the banner. Click the Select class theme button, as illustrated in the following screenshot:

Figure 1.8 – Theme Gallery

Here is your Class with the new theme:

Figure 1.9 – Heading colors change to match the theme

Google Classroom also offers several categories to help find the banner appropriate for your Class. Simply select a tab in the dialog box to view available banners within each category, as illustrated in the following screenshot:

Figure 1.10 – Categories in the Theme Gallery

Try different themes

If this is your first foray into Google Classroom, try different themes before choosing one for the Class. The most prominent colors in the banner image will suggest which colors the theme will use for the background and the menu.

Uploading a banner image

Another alternative to using the images found within Google Classroom is to upload your own picture. The following steps will guide you through uploading a banner image:

Click on Upload photo at the bottom-right corner of the banner image, as illustrated in the following screenshot:

Figure 1.11 – Upload photo link

Click on the Select a photo from your computer button, as illustrated in the following screenshot:

Figure 1.12 – Upload photo dialog box

In File Explorer, select the desired image and click the Open button, as illustrated in the following screenshot:

Figure 1.13 – Selecting an image in File Explorer

If the image is too large, crop it by resizing the frame and move it to the desired location on the image. Then, click the Select class theme button, as illustrated in the following screenshot:

Figure 1.14 – Cropping an image

The following screenshot shows how the Class looks after uploading the image in the previous steps:

Figure 1.15 – Screenshot of a custom image theme

The accent color for the Class web page changes to match the banner color. The color is shown throughout the Class in links, headings, and icons. At the time of writing, there is no way to customize this accent color.

Choosing the right image

Size matters when it comes to your banner image. Google Classroom will only use images with a pixel dimension of at least 800 x 200. The text on the banner will always remain white. Lighter-colored images, such as the one in the previous example, will be darkened to ensure the legibility of the text.

Once you have chosen the appropriate theme to personalize your Google Class, you can now start adding resources.

Managing resources in your Class

Students and co-teachers will be able to find links to other Google apps associated with Google Classroom and resources related to the Classroom in the Classwork section of the Stream section. To navigate to this section, click on the Classwork tab in the menu, as illustrated in the following screenshot:

Figure 1.16 – Classwork tab

With your newly created site, the Classwork tab will be blank. At the top of the Classwork section, there are icons and links to other Google apps that are associated with this Class, as shown in the following screenshot:

Figure 1.17 – Links to Google apps linked to the Class

This section is where you distribute files, ask questions, and assign assignments. Many of these features are explored in later chapters. In this section, you will create a topic and add files to the topic. If you already have a course syllabus and other files in a digital format, filling in this section can be made easy by adding those files to this section.

Adding files and resources to your Classroom

There are two areas where you can add files to Google Classroom—the Stream section and the Classwork section. Files uploaded to the Stream section are for short-term uses, such as announcements or worksheets, whereas files uploaded to the Classwork section are relevant for the duration of the course, such as a course syllabus. Because students will access these files for the duration of the course, adding topics in an organized fashion will help them find material more easily.

Note

While you don't have to create a topic to add files and other materials to the Classwork section, students will use the Classwork section more frequently if they can easily find the files they are looking for.

Creating a topic in Classwork

To create a topic, use the following steps:

Click on the Create button and then select Topic, as illustrated in the following screenshot:

Figure 1.18 – The Topic option in the Create menu

A dialog box will appear. Enter the Topic name and click the Add button, as illustrated in the following screenshot:

Figure 1.19 – Creating a topic

The topic will now appear in the Classwork section, as illustrated in the following screenshot:

Figure 1.20 – Screenshot of a topic in Classwork

Adding a file from Google Drive

Files can be added from Google Drive or uploaded from your computer. Furthermore, you can also link videos from YouTube and link websites. In this section, you will add a file from Google Drive to the Classwork section, as follows:

In the Classwork section, click on the Create button, then select Material, as illustrated in the following screenshot:

Figure 1.21 – The Material field in the Create menu

A dialog box will appear. In the Title field, give the resource a title. Then, click the Add button and select Google Drive, as illustrated in the following screenshot:

Figure 1.22 – Required information in a Material field

In the Google Drive dialog box, select your file and click the INSERT button, as illustrated in the following screenshot:

Figure 1.23 – Selecting a file in Google Drive

If you do not