Google Forms is one of the most versatile tools of G Suite. Teachers and students can both use it to help make everyday tasks more efficient. I feel like there is so much paper work and tracking we as teachers need to do and Google Forms is typically overlooked for helping us do it. Google Forms helps to automate some tasks that would normally take quite some time away from teaching. Here are a few uncommon ways to use Google Forms in your classroom.
The Obvious: Data Collection
This is one of the obvious ways to use Google Forms. Most schools are data driven and if yours is, Google Forms can make your life so much easier! You can create exit tickets on Google Forms and when students submit their answer you get a nifty spreadsheet in Google Sheets to help you organize the information. When you collect data on Google Forms, it is organized for you so nicely. I like looking at the charts in the responses to see common errors that students made and to see which students were proficient on the exit ticket.
For the Teacher: Conference Notes
I love using Google Forms to organize my conference notes, it makes life so much easier. To do this, I create a form for each chapter. The form includes:
- The students pre-populated with a check box question (because sometimes I conference with more than one student on the same skill.)
- A place for the type of conference (pre-planned or on the spot, usually a typical multiple choice question)
- A drop down of the lessons for the chapter
- A short answer section for extra notes.
When you submit a Google Form answer sheet, it is time and date stamped so there is no need for that to be one of your questions. By creating this conferencing form, I am able to quickly document who I am working with and look at who I still need to work with for the chapter. The Google Sheets spreadsheet that the data goes to allows to filter and organize by class, name, skill, and date/time. If your school requires you to print it, you can download the Google Sheet as an Excel spreadsheet and use Mail Merge to put the information on labels. Read here to learn about how I use Mail Merge to make life easier.
Analyze Patterns: Behavior Tracker
Sometimes, kids need a little extra external motivation to make good choices. Tracking behavior is another genius way to use Google Forms. When I created the behavior tracker for one of my students last year, I had each part of the math block as a two questions. The first was a scale of 1-10 how the student behaved, and the second was for notes to document any issues. This was a good form for me because I had only two students that needed behavior tracking. Again, since Google Forms is so versatile you can create a behavior tracker to fit your needs that sends the information right to a neat Google Sheet. This is a tool especially useful for special educators who need to create ABC charts and Behavior Intervention Plans and track to analyze patterns of behavior.
For the Students: Self-Correcting Quizzes
Self-correcting quizzes is probably the most common way to use Google Forms with the students. This gives you more time to do the important things, like analyze the data 
. I like to make the Google Forms quizzes self-correcting because then I give students an opportunity to make corrections and earn some extra credit points. I will be posting about how I give the opportunity for test corrections soon, so be sure to follow me on Blog Lovin’ and subscribe to my email updates for that!
Engaging Students: Digital Escape Rooms
Escape rooms are all the rage recently so why not make them digital for extra engagement? I got this idea from teacheveryday.com and it was such a success in my classroom! You can essentially make any worksheet into a digital escape room with Google Forms. Through Google Forms, you can create different pages with different tasks for them to complete and “escape the room!” Read about how to create a digital escape rooms from Teach Everyday here.
Digital Assignment: Students Create a Quiz
Giving students the capabilities to be creators and innovators will really push them to the next level. Having them create a quiz on Google Forms or a survey to analyze data helps them to reach the highest level of Bloom’s Taxonomy and Level Four in the Depth of Knowledge. The highest level of learning is taking a skill or topic that you know and extending the thinking to creating something to show that knowledge. I love when students create a quiz because they will then understand common misconceptions and use them to “trick” me when I take the quiz. If a student can create a quiz, they are demonstrating the highest level of conceptual understanding and show that they can be creators.
If you have a Google Site set up for Parents to stay up to date, you can put surveys up with Google Forms to gather information from them. Google Forms can be embedded right in the Google Site! Seriously, I use Google Forms for everything possible! Since I am fortunate enough to have an iPad in my hands during most of the class, I just send the form to my email and save each form on the Home Screen for quick access to documentation!
I hope you find this post helpful and will help you to become more efficient in using Google Forms in your classroom! How else do you use Google Forms in your classroom? Drop a comment & let me know!
As always, thanks for stopping by! Head to my YouTube channel to check out a quick refresher on how to create a Google Form!
alexandra
2 Responses
I love these tips! I especially like the idea Conference Notes. Thanks for sharing!
No problem! 🙂