Reset student response in quizzes in Google Forms

If you are using the new Google Forms for quizzes and have it set to allow only response, but then find yourself needing to let a student take the quiz again you can work some form magic to do it.  It will delete the student’s original response, but if you’re ok with that follow these directions.

From Forms itself:

Click on responses.

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Choose the student’s name under who has responded.

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Then hit the trash button.  This will delete the student’s response from the form and the form will allow them to do it again.

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You can also do this in the Google Sheet associated with your your Form.

In Forms click on responses.

Click on the green cross icon to open up the sheet.

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 If it asks, tell it you want to create a new sheet.  (If you’ve already done this it won’t ask.)

In the sheet, right click on the number next to the row of the student who you want to be able to re-take the test.  Choose “delete row”.  Now the student will be able to re-take it because the sheet no longer sees their name.

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Now the student will be able to re-submit the form!

Why I’m not ready to ditch my textbook, yet.

This summer at ISTE I won a free copy of “Ditch that Textbook” by Matt Miller.  I’d heard about this movement of course, so I was interested in reading the book.  After much reflection I’ve decided that I’m not ready to ditch my textbook and here’s why:

I want the extra resources.  I teach at the community college and I’ve got essentially 15 weeks to get students from nothing to novice mid or high?  I can’t do everything in class.  I’ve been focusing on oral proficiency in class and letting the writing be done at home.  The textbook we have has an online component that corrects their homework with immediate feedback. The textbook also has videos, flashcards, and other practice activities that students can do on their own.  I don’t have the time or the motivation to create that amount of resources for students who might want them.  That portion is 1000 times better than anything I could create on my own.

I like my textbook.  I had a textbook before that the department had agreed upon and I spent a significant part of my time writing angry notes in the margin about how awful the textbook was.  I couldn’t figure out how to make that textbook flow or useful.  I felt sorry students were expected to spend money on that crap.  I would get disgruntled and agitated every time I went to plan because it was so awful.  Even thinking about it right now is making my blood pressure go up.  At the end of the last semester we used it, I literally tore out the pages and threw them in a fire.  I hated that textbook and I ditched it as much as I could while keeping with department policy.

I don’t teach from the textbook.  I’ve tried to always use the textbook as a resource instead of The Only Resource.  And this textbook uses a flow that I find easy to adapt.  In any one lesson I’ve got #authres, videos, and a multitude of activities that don’t involve the textbook.  Most of the activities in the textbook I will tweak so that they are more communicative.  And I think I do a pretty good job of doing it.

I don’t know that everyone agrees with me.  I’m also reluctant to give up my textbook entirely because I don’t know where these students are going after me.  It’s all fine to use proficiency based grading and no textbook if everyone has agreed on that, but if my students leave me and go on to an instructor who does not hold that same philosophy they could be at a disadvantage.  I want to provide the maximum amount of proficiency within a generally accepted structure.

I don’t use one method exclusively to teach.  I’ve always tried to have a variety of methods and activities to deliver content.  I do TPRS.  I do partner activities.  I do group activities.  I incorporate technology.  I talk about grammar.  I don’t talk about grammar.  I write out verb charts.  I correct errors by recasting.  I correct errors explicitly.  I do all of this because one method won’t work for every student.  The textbook is one way to deliver content.

I don’t have one tool in my toolbox.  To me a textbook is just one tool in my professional toolbox and I’m not ready to put it in the discard pile yet. At least for right now, I’ve decided to continue to exploit the resources the textbook offers while adding in the authentic resources and CI that I know I can do as a teacher.

And that’s ok.

Reflection, tweak, repeat.

 

I’ve been taking advantage of our “no school because of smoke” days to re-do my college syllabus for French 101.  I’ve had a few ideas in my head since the end of last semester that I’m finally processing.  I’ve taught this class at least seven semesters and never the same way twice.  While I haven’t found that teaching community college French is that different from teaching high school French, there are some significant considerations as I update and tweak.

  •  There ain’t no time for nothing.  I’m “supposed” to cover 15 lessons in 16 weeks.  And if I have a Monday/Wednesday day class, I always lose at least one day due to holidays.  Yes, I know the whole bit about the difference between “covering” and “mastering.”  (For more on that see my post on why I’m not ready to ditch my textbook.)  Nevertheless, the pacing is fast. I’ve reduced the number of lessons we cover and I’ve paired those down to what I feel is essential for communication.  I am constantly trying to come up with ways to maximize class time (more TL, duh) and increase authentic, engaging and meaningful activities outside of class.
  • In any class, I will have students who have never heard a word of French and students who have 2, 3 even AP level French at the high school.  I’ve been moving towards a proficiency grading model for several semesters, but this poses the question- if Novice High is the goal, the students who had French in high school could easily be at that level on day one.  I don’t want to give them the impression that they don’t have to do anything because I will call BS that for any one of them, their French would not improve sitting in a class and hearing and speaking more French, even if it isn’t at an advance level.
  • There are students for whom this is their first class back to school after 25 years.  Their affective filter is off the charts.  Tell a high school student to do something new and they are like OK, whatever and go back to their phone.  Tell the student back to school for the first time in 25 years the same thing and you can visually see the panic taking over.
  • A mix of students.  Some of these students were accepted at major universities, but couldn’t go because of financial reasons.  Some of them are just out of high school and will drop out of community college in a semester.  Some of them are only there until they get their financial aid.   (That one boggles me, but it’s true.  There’s a certain amount of attrition after financial aid is released.)  In the night classes, most of them have full time jobs and families.  And some of them are finally grown up and ready to learn.  I want to have a class that is mindful of the fact that sometimes French class isn’t the most important thing going on in their life, while respecting the students who are committed to being there every session.

Here’s what I’ve decided to do this semester:

Grading: 50% Proficiency – based on three assessments at the end of each unit.  I am comfortable with the percentage because then the student who had two years of high school French will have to work on writing (homework) and come to class in order to earn a passing grade.  At the end of the first unit I’m going to forego what would normally be a formal assessment and instead, make appointments with the students so we can talk about where they would score and what they could do to make it better.  I will give them personalized “tasks.”  For the student who had French before I will tell them what they need to do to go to the next level for them.  This is where I plan on combating the student with two years of high school French who insists on pronouncing the “s” in “est” and the -“ent” in “parlent.”

I’m also giving up quizzes.  They just weren’t worth the time it took up in class.  Instead I’m going to “grade” their homework.  (Well, let’s be clear, the textbook website will grade their homework.)  They can redo any homework exercise as many times as they want until they get 100%. It’s about getting better, right?  The time I gain back from quizzes, I’ll save for the appointments and more TPRS.

I’m going to use the new quiz feature in Google Forms to do an end of the the lesson informal assessment.  I’ve had students do a weekly reflection for a couple of semesters, asking them to rate their confidence on their ability to complete the can do statements for the lesson and then asking them to do something that I would give feedback on.  It’ll be a short, ungraded (not in the gradebook) assessment that will give me an idea of what we need to still work on and I’ll use the feedback option in the quiz to lead students to what they might need to review.  I’m going to continue to ask them to do something so I can give feedback.

Last semester I started working in some TPRS.  Or just S because I didn’t have college students stand up and do gestures.  I want to continue to do this and add more because of course, it’s effective.  Feedback I got last year was that some of the students were less comfortable (i.e. on the edge of panic) because they didn’t have anything to “review” for those lessons. This semester I’m going to use screencasting to record the stories and EdPuzzle for checking for understanding for the students who want more practice.

Google Forms Quiz for Exit Tickets

I’m so excited to use the new Google Forms quiz feature, but I doubt that I will use it much for quizzes.  I can see using this feature as a quick exit ticket.  I’m going to ask my students five to seven questions at the end of each lesson based on the lesson objectives.  Because I know what the objective is, I can create these quizzes ahead of time and because they are so easy to edit, if we don’t explore something as much as I had hoped I can easily change them.  Or, if there is a magical teaching moment in class, then I can edit them on the fly.  (I think of magical teaching moments are those times in class when something happens and it is so funny, or so memorable or so whatever that it just becomes part of the classroom culture.) Then, I am going to use the feedback feature for right and wrong questions to tell students what to do next.

I can see several applications for this new feature including:

  • Did you tell a story in class?  Upload a video of you telling the main story and ask questions about it.  (Of course your class version will be different.)  If the student gets the question right, ask them a follow up question in the feedback.  If they get it wrong, ask them to review the video.  I particularly am excited about this because I’ve had students ask to be able to hear the story more and this would be a great way to check their understanding.
  • Writing practice.  Yes, a boring close activity, but ask students several fill in the blank questions.  If they get it right – great!  If they get it wrong, direct them to review their notes (or a webpage or an activity or whatever you deem appropriate.)
  • No Homework Pass!  If students get above a certain score they don’t have to do homework that evening.  I think I would use this selectively and I would have enough questions on there that I would feel certain that they had a good grasp of the objectives.  I also wouldn’t tell them it was an option until the very end of the quiz.
  • Have an #authres you are using as an IPA?  Give quick feedback to students for them to know if they are understanding correctly.  If they get it wrong, you can even direct them to a more scaffolded version of the #authres to try again.

Prepositions Slide deck

I love Google Slides because you can use it as a whiteboard and the whole class can participate.  (Read: never again spend hours copying, cutting and sorting only to have someone lose one card and not be able to fully participate.  Oh wait, students can’t lose these because they’ll be saved in the Google!)

I use this Slide deck to practice prepositions.  If I’d had time, I would have had students write about their rooms and their partner’s room.  They can write directly in their Slide decks.

For the Win

 

Click on the link and the slide deck will force you to make a copy.  Share in Google Classroom as “make a copy for each student.”  And talk, read and write.

Room Preposition Slide deck

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Google Forms for Quizzes

With the new changes in Google Forms, making quizzes is now even easier.  I’ve been using Google Forms exclusively for quizzes in my paperless classroom.  Here are some tips for making your Google Forms into Awesome Quizzes.  For more tips, watch my workflows on setting up a quiz from Google Forms.

Google Form Quizzes

Bingo Google Slides

My favorite feature of Google Slides is that you can use them for everything else besides delivering content.  I’ve made a Google Slide deck for Bingo.  Share it with students as “make a copy for each student” in Google Classroom and play away.  Directions are on the first slide.  Click on the link and it will prompt you to make a copy.

Bingo Google Slides

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Conversations with Colleagues: Flubaroo

These are the questions I get asked most frequently about Flubaroo- a Google Sheets Add-On that grades tests.  I’ve used Flubaroo as my only (automated) test grading option for more than a year.  If you haven’t already, watch the short video at Flubaroo.com for a quick over view of how Flubaroo works.

Note:  Now you can build quizzes directly in Google Forms!  It works a bit different than Flubaroo.  For a good comparison of the two, see this post from Control Alt Achieve.

Do I just have to do multiple choice questions?

Nope.  You can do any time of question you want.

Will it grade short answer questions?

No.  But, Flubaroo makes it really easy for you to hand grade by using the grade by hand option.  I frequently have students write a short paragraph as part of their quizzes and I was surprised at how fast I could “hand-grade” them using Flubaroo.  Flubaroo even has a new option that will allow you to open up a window and add comments.  (Oh Flubaroo, where were you with this option six months ago?)

How do students get their answers?

The easiest way is to email students their answers.  You can choose to include the correct answer with their score or not.  Good tip- if you automatically collect students’ usernames in your Google Form then at the end of the quiz students will see the option to send themselves a copy of their submission which, in the case of a quiz you probably don’t want to have first period send themselves a copy to show third period during second period.  Get past this by having a mandatory question that asks students for their email.  This is a good option anyways, because maybe you don’t have email turned on in your domain or maybe students want their answers sent somewhere else.

Will it automagically put the grades in my gradebook?

Uh, non.  You still have to do that yourself, but use the Tab Resize Extension and open a separate window to do it quickly.

How do I write the key?

The “key” is made by you taking the test in Forms and naming it Answer Key.  I highly recommend you doing this first, so the answer key is in the second row of the Spreadsheet and so that you can check if there are any “issues” with the test.  In the First Name box write: Answer and in the Last Name box write: Key.

How can I keep students from cheating?

You can’t completely of course, but here are some steps you can take make it more difficult:

  • In the form itself, shuffle the question order and the multiple choice order.  To do this
  • Turn the test on and off by clicking “Accepting responses” only when you are ready for students to take the test.  As soon as the test is done, click “Not accepting responses.”  To do this click on “responses” and then the toggle

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  • Make a question for a “code.”  This will keep students from logging on remotely (from home or another classroom) and taking the test.  This is an issue if you share the link in Google Classroom because students will have it not matter where they are.  Only say the code out loud and change it as soon as you say it.  (Students can be sneaky.)  To do this make a new short answer question and click on the toggle to require it.  Then click on the three dots and choose data validation.

Then choose Number/Equal to and type in the number that’s the “code” and you can edit your custom error text.  I make mine say “Sorry.  Try again.”

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So basically now a student has to enter the number 1642 in order to proceed.  As soon as everyone has gotten into the test, I will change the number to 1600 (or anything) just in case someone though they might be sneaky and text the number to someone not in class.

Can students take the test after I’ve graded it?

Yes.  Remember, you’ll have to re-open it or click “accepting responses” and make a new number code (and turn it off again!)  Flubaroo now has a new option that will grade only the latest submissions since the last time you graded instead of re-grading everything.

See my blog post for more tips on building Google Form Quizzes.

Five Activities to Challenge Students Beyond Yes and No

Yes/No

A few weeks ago while running through my Twitter feed I came across this tweet from Stephen Krashen:

The original tweet refers to having students listen to and talk in full sentences.  Let’s be clear here.  Stephen Krashen is obviously right.  I mean, it’s Stephen Krashen!  This is the guy whose picture I taped to the board with an arrow pointing to him that said “Language Rock Star.”

But…maybe because I was about to do an activity where I knew I was going to push students to expand their answers  (Angelina Jolie is a better actress because …..) that it got me thinking about ways we can challenge students to do than just respond with yes or no; because in addition to comprehensible activities and stories our job is to challenge students to say more than they think they can because they may not do it themselves.

These are activities that you would use selectively; not every day.  Not for input.  Not for comprehension checks.  But to challenge them to expand their language.

  1.  5 Finger Sentences – Students respond to a prompt by using five sentences and count them off by their fingers. Example:  Tell me about your family.  Answer: My mom is Sally.  She is 40.  She likes apples.  My dad is 42.  He likes football.
  2. Combining Sentences- If you’re like me, after listening to the above sentences 30 times in class period you’ll want to reach for the nearest dull spoon to stab in your foot, so teach students to put those together.  Take ones student’s example (or use your own) and show students on the board how those sentences can combine.  Then ask them to do themselves. Then exclaim wildly and repeatedly in the TL, “Wow, what an amazing, beautiful sentence!”
  3. Sentence Challenge- I love this next activity and it works best for review.  I’ve usually used it after some kind of reading.  Pull out 20-30 words from the reading.  Any words will work, but make sure to have a good mix of words; that is words that are easy for students and some that are more difficult.  Put the words randomly on the board.  (Maybe using a slide in Google Slides) Next, in pairs tell the students they will have 1 minute to try to make as many different sentences as they can.  You can require the sentences to be in some kind of order, but I usually don’t.  While partner A is talking, Partner B is counting the number of sentences.  Once you’ve done it as partners, ask for volunteers and see who in the class can do the most.  At the end, ask a student to time you as you do it.  I have never beaten a student at Sentence Challenge.  Working on a specific structure?  Tell students to use that structure.
  4. Sticky Sentence Challenge- You can use stickies or Jenga pieces or Legos or paper or a digital tool or whatever is easiest for you.  Write a one word on each one of the stickies.  (Which words? Oh I don’t know, maybe the same ones you were working on in the previous activity.  If you did it in Google Slides, print out that page and presto done!)  You’ll need one set per group.  Have students lay out the stickies on a desk or wall to see who make the longest sentence.  They will have to add in their own words to make sentences.  Usually I give parameters like, “10 points extra credit if your sentence is so funny it makes me cry.”  Non-digital might be better for this activity because they can see around the room to see who is making longer sentences.  As you’re walking around you can exclaim wildly, “Wow, what a beautiful sentence! What else can you say?”
  5. Sentence Expansion- Taking the example from #1, show students how to expand those sentences using the words they already know.  So instead of “There is a dog.” Show them how to expand that sentence.  “There is a big, brown dog who is eating in the classroom.”  Wait class, can we add more?  “…in the small classroom at XYZ high school in California in the USA.”  Ask them to rewrite a short sentence in the same way.  As you move into higher levels, you’ll be teaching students how to combine sentences and write in a rich varied language.

As we move students from Novice to Intermediate proficiency levels, short intentional activities like this will help students practice using varied language and keep your feet free from dull spoon marks.

 

 

Screenshot on a Chromebook

In addition to the keyboard shortcuts below you can use Awesome Screenshot Extension for Chrome- This is exactly what it says-awesome.  It allows you to annotate images and add boxes.  Sometimes when I choose “selected area” it crops it funny, so I choose “visible part of the page” and do the cropping myself.  You can then save the image to your computer or copy it to use directly in another application.

Note:  On a Chromebook to save the image to the clipboard, click “save to clipboard” on the pop-up screen in the bottom left hand corner before you navigate away from that page.

Post Chromebook Screenshot Ninja