Day 7 of Google: Google Classroom – Creating to Accessing Student Work

On the seventh day of Google, we will take a look at Google Classroom.

To think that teachers once collected student work via a shared document embedded in an email every time they completed something OR by filling out a Google Form to submit work. Google Classroom has been great for being that one central place where students and teachers can easily find necessary documents. But, do you know the following…

Students ‘Turning In’ Work
You probably already know that there are two ways that you can create an assignment for students to complete through Google Classroom:

1. Provide a ‘template’ for student and choosing the ‘Make a Copy for Each Student’ – this method is great so that student get their own electronic copy of a task you want them to complete. This method will automatically name the file for them (with their name in the title). Google Classroom will also provide a ‘Turn In’ button on the top right corner of the Google Doc, Slide, etc for when the student is ready to turn in the assignment. Another great piece to this is that you as the teacher can view what the student is doing with their assignment prior to the due date. This can be very beneficial for situations where you want to provide feedback prior to a due date.

2. Provide the assignment for the students but do not provide a template. At times, this makes sense to not give a template as you want students to use their own creativity/thought process to demonstrate competency. What many students will do is go to Google Drive and create a new file from there. Then when the assignment is due, they will open up Google Classroom and add their Google Document to the assignment.

BUT…did you know that there is a more efficient way to make this work? If a student is turning in an assignment to you and the final product will be a Google product, have the students create the file right from the assignment. The advantage to this process is that you as the teacher will be able to see what the student is doing with their work throughout their thought process. Also, a ‘Turn In’ button will then show up in the document. In other words, a similar situation to the one listed in the first example.

Accessing Student Work
Did you know you can access all student work for a particular assignment from a folder in your Google Drive.

Open up the assignment you want to access student work
Click on the assignment folder icon
Google Drive will open up in a new tab – right in the folder of student work

For some staff, they actually prefer seeing the assignments in this view.

To Do List
Don’t forget that Google Classroom can also let you know what you have left on your To Do List in regards to reviewing work (if you are a teacher) and completing tasks (if you are a student). If you are a teacher for some classrooms and a student for others, you will have two To Do Lists.

To find your To Do List, select the ‘Hamburger’ Icon on the top left corner. Then scroll down until you find your To Do List. This can be helpful in letting you know what has to be reviewed from all of your classes in one screen. As make sure that your students are aware that this feature exists for them with the tasks that they have to complete.