Grading Essays in Google Classroom

I am having a great day! It is a rainy Sunday. There is a roast in the crockpot. The hubby is watching football on television. Even the littles are being oddly quiet (I think it is the lulling sound of rain after the drought we have had lately.) I am grading essays in Google Classroom, and I realized something that is growing exponentially easier for me might still be baffling many others. So, I decided to take a mini break from grading to do a quick post about how I have made the process of grading digital essay simpler.

When I first started using Google Classroom, I loved the simplicity of the process, but struggled with the best way to grade "digitally." I am not going to lie; there were a couple of times where I printed out the essays and hand graded because it seemed simpler. I then figured out a few tricks, and now grading from the comfort of my sofa with my laptop in my lap is definitely the way to go! I also am saving money on pens for grading and band-aids for paper cuts.

The first (and most important) tip is to learn the power of the "Preferences" option of Tools in Google Docs. 

Click "Tools" -> "Preferences."

Within this window, you can create keyboard shortcuts which will make grading much simpler. In the "Replace" column, type the shortcut you would like to use, and in the "With" column type what you would like to appear in the paper. I make sure to place brackets around the "With" option so it stands out clearly in the students' papers when they get them back. For example, every time I type "frag," the words [sentence fragment - check for all necessary sentence parts] appears in the essay. You can make as many custom preferences as you like in this tool. I probably have about fifteen that I use religiously. I will add a list of those to the end of this post. 

The second important tip is to become the master of the "Comment" option.  Most people using Google Apps of any kind are aware of this function, but aren't using it to its full potential. Did you know you can put a video link in the comment box? Now when I comment on an aspect of a students writing, I paste a link to a short video showing the correct way. (To save myself time, I have a Doc with those links on it already created and open whenever I am grading.) 

Also, just to save a few seconds of time, the keyboard shortcut to pull up the "Comment" box is: COMMAND+OPT+M.

There you have it - a few quick tips for grading in Google Docs. Here is the list of common revising and editing shortcuts I use.

Replace                       With

ro                                  [run-on sentence - revise for clarity]

frag                               [fragment - check for necessary sentence parts]

s/v                                 [error is subject/verb agreeement - revise for clarity]

p/a                                 [error in pronoun/antecedent agreement - revise for clarity]

wc                                 [incorrect or inappropriate word choice - revise for clarity]

awk                               [awkward or incorrect sentence structure - revise for clarity]

ce                                  [comma error]

cs                                  [comma splice]

pun                                [punctuation error]

cap                                 [capitalization error]

sp                                   [spelling error]

What Works for Me Wednesday

Wednesday is a good day for me. I have a longer conference period, the hubby takes the kids to church, and I have a few hours to myself. In honor of my happy day, I have decided to start "What Works for Me Wednesday." In these blogs, I will try to find one thing that really works for me and share it.

So, drum roll please....

The very first What Works for me Wednesday is...

A Google Sheets To-Do List

I know this sounds simple, and it really is, but you would be amazed at how many people don't keep a To-Do List. Or if they do, it is a bunch of different pieces of paper and/or text reminders from random locations. About a year ago, I created a Google Sheets to-do list. I made columns for my different classes and school requirements. It is located in my main folder of my Google Drive and it is a starred file. There is something refreshing about removing things from the list and adding others as they appear in my inbox.

My list looks like this...

Click on the picture to see the actual file. Feel free to copy it, modify it, and use it as your own.

Happy Wednesday!!

Digital Journals

Let's be honest - English teachers know that journaling is highly beneficial to their students. It encourages independent thinking and develops writing skills. However, sometimes the process itself can be extremely painful. Training students in how to journal and what to journal is a tedious process, and if and when you are successful in that endeavor, journals begin to fall apart or are lost. If the journals miraculously make it to the point of being checked, you have to find time to stay at school long enough to grade all of them, or you become the cart-lady teacher rolling them all home to grade in misery late at night. At this point, both you and your students are fed up with the entire process.

I think I have found a solution to the problem...a digital journal. We are eight weeks into the school year, and both my students and myself aren't hating the process yet. I consider that a win!! To make this possible, I use the Table of contents option under Insert in Google Docs. There are a few steps in the process, but they are easy to understand and after doing it a couple of times, my students found it to be a piece of cake.

First, create a new Google doc and name it Journal. Then insert a Table of Contents under the Insert tab.

You should see a textbox with a refresh icon.  Remember this refresh icon, it will come in handy in just a few minutes.

Now it is time to start journaling. Each journal title should be a Heading 1. 

The body of each journal entry should be normal text. 

When the journal entry is finished, return to the Table of Contents box at the top of the document and press the refresh icon. The journal entry will appear as a hyperlink item in the Table of Contents.

And it really is that simple.

Because I use Google Classroom, my students add the hyperlink to a specific journal entry to an assignment in Classroom when I am ready to do a check, but the sky is the limit as to how YOU can use this handy trick. I have yet to have a student lose or break a journal, and I am not the teacher wheeling all her journals home in misery while at the same time, my students are getting all the benefits of journaling!!

If you are someone who likes to see it in action, here is a video from the Gooru that gives you the basic idea. He is using the process in a longer paper rather than a journal, but the general principle is still the same.

TCCA15

Yesterday I attended TCCA15, a technology conference hosted by TCEA that is really just a smaller scale version of the TCEA conference that occurs in Austin each winter. It was an amazing experience. I attended six sessions, so I thought I would take a moment to share the top five tips I walked away with.


5.  Folders in Google Drive can be color coded to help your brain find what it is looking for more quickly. (A: why have I never noticed this option, and B: why did I not know this about my brain?!?) Here is a video from Wicked Cool Tech offering a quick demo of the process.

4. The "Add Star" function in Google Drive can be used to quickly access files you are currently working on. I have always assumed this was more of a LIKE button on FaceBook. The actual purpose makes much more sense.

3. I really hate to admit not already knowing this one, but Google Docs and Slides have a built Research Tool. As an English teacher, I am slightly ashamed of myself!

2. I learned about several different options for flipped/faux flipped classroom integration. I am going to review and play with some of them to review in a future blog.

1. And most importantly, I was reminded that there is nothing better than attending a training with educators who are all excited about education and technology. I left the conference feeling invigorated and ready to start the next nine weeks!!

Teaching Without a Net

Let's be honest. The education profession as of late has become one big circus. Between changing legislation, standardized testing, ever evolving technology, and global demands for smarter and smarter students, the field of teaching is anything but a one act wonder. It truly is much more comparable to a three-ring circus. The best classrooms are the ones with the best acts that keep students constantly engaged. And everyone knows the best part of the circus is the trapeze and the best trazepe artists are the ones who perform without a net. What does that mean for educators? Teaching without a net means being willing to let go of some control in the classroom and trusting the quality of your lessons to catch you! The purpose of this blog is to help 21st century educators refine skills and become better three-ring educators who teach without a net.