Reflection has been a theme throughout this year’s Teacher’s Corners, and we are seeing a light at the end of the tunnel of pandemic teaching. This may be the best time to begin evaluation of lessons learned to carry forward. Although it feels like we have radically altered our teaching in the past few months, and most of us are ready to get back to “normal,” I personally think now is the perfect time to consider what our new normal in the classroom should look like. Many of the tools I originally used for survival at the beginning of virtual teaching have transformed how I consider activities and collaboration in the classroom.
This month we look at one of those tools: Google Docs. Although I have been using Docs for several years now in both districts I have taught in, using it as a tool for virtual teaching has really helped me unlock its full potential as a collaborative tool, both for groups of students and my interactions with individual students.
Group Docs
One of the features that puts Google Docs in a league above an average Word document is its collaboration features. Up to 50 users at a time can be on the same Doc, and the creator can give commenting or editing rights to all 50. Therefore, the teacher can create a collaboration space, a brainstorm wall, or more. But how do you productively have 50 users at once on a document?
WordWall/Brainstorm Center
One of the simplest ways to utilize Docs collaboratively is to use it as the main space for an ongoing word wall or space for brainstorming. By creating textboxes, the teacher can create categories or separate spaces for students to put down their ideas and thoughts. For example, if you are teaching a food unit, you can make one textbox that says “Foods We Like” and another that says “Foods We Don’t Like.” Students now have a quick reference throughout the lesson to refresh their memory of vocabulary, and each student now has a space where they can contribute. When it is time to start a new vocabulary unit or theme, you can create a new text box underneath the existing one. You have now created a space where if students are trying to remember vocabulary or need inspiration, they can go and see a list they created of the words they have been learning through the semester or year.
For a more complex activity, challenge students to work collaboratively. For beginners, for example, put up a picture, and each student must describe the picture with a different word, color, adjective, etc. Give more advanced students a title or theme, and have each student write a line to contribute to a class poem or essay. For an even greater challenge, students must contribute one by one, advancing the ideas of the person before them. This way, each student is able to become a contributor to a group idea, while giving your advanced learners the challenge of not repeating information, and providing your students who need more scaffolding the chance to see a plethora of student-created examples.
Peer Editing
Another transformative tool that separates Docs from other word processors is the use of real-time editing and commenting. Students can highlight words or phrases and leave comments, or suggest edits that the student who created the document can then fix automatically, rebut, or start a dialogue about. Replies to suggestions and comments will automatically be threaded to the original suggestion, allowing students to keep their ideas organized and tackle several different suggestions at once without getting lost in the shuffle or confused about which comment they are responding too.
This breadcrumb trail also allows teachers to more successfully help students with the editing process. By seeing the initial suggestions and responses to them, the teacher can get a better understanding of how students can best utilize the drafting portion of the writing process. Teachers can now more easily identify gaps in the revision process, offer suggestions of how to improve student workflow, and praise or suggest along with students via the comment function. This peer editing helps close the gap between participants, and allows students and teachers alike to take a more active approach in individual student learning.
Group Projects/Presentations
Finally, we look at probably the most simple, but potentially most valuable way to use Docs in groups. In the past, we had to rely on each student creating a document, uploading it to a common space, revising, and then making sure each student had the newest revision or latest work. By giving students a group Google Doc, a group of students can work on the same project at the same time, which challenges them to consider the best way to work collaboratively.
Students can divide up the work by having each student work on a section or assign one student to find sources for all sections, while another does the intros, etc., without having to go in and create a new document. Students can take ideas from the other two activities, more collaborative peer assessment and more collaborative brainstorming, in this original document too. By creating a collaboration space that involves all students from the beginning, they are more quickly acclimated to the idea of group work requiring everyone on board, and clarifying the role of each person within the group.
These are obviously just the beginning of what can be done with Google Docs in a language workspace. What are some other ways you see collaboration changing even in your in-person classroom? Contact us through our form if you wish to write a guest blog in the future!