Google Forms - A Teacher's Best Friend

I'm always looking for new ways to cut down time on grading. As a 6th grade teacher teaching all subjects, grading takes time. I don't mind spending time at home grading in the evenings or on the weekends, but sometimes in class I need feedback QUICK! Especially when I am giving students a formative assessment, I need to know what students need more instructional time and practice. Using Google Forms is the perfect trick!

Step 1: Create your Google Form.

When you get to your Google Drive, click new. Google Forms will be under "more".

There are many different types of questions you can put on a Google Form. You can use multiple choice, true/false, matching, etc. Add as many questions as you like!

Here is an example of my own Google Form for a math formative assessment. 

Step 2: Create a spreadsheet of responses 

First, you must take your own assessment. You will need to do this step because your answers will take place as the answer key. 

You will see on the top of your Google Form a place that says "responses". Click on that!

At that point you will need to click on the the green spreadsheet button.  This spreadsheet will collect all of the students' responses. 

The spreadsheet will look similar to this image.

Step 3: Get Flubaroo!

This add-on was brand new to me, but it was so easy to figure out! First you will click add-ons on the top of your response sheet.  After, you will see the add-on flubaroo and click the green button. You will need to have your response and a few student responses to start.

Once you have Flubaroo, you will click add-ons then Flubaroo. You will see "grade assignment." Depending on what type of assessment you had, there will be different ways to grade the assignment, but it is simple to figure out! 

This video helped introduce me to the wonderful tools of Google Forms and Flubaroo.

These tools are perfect to help you quickly see how your students are doing with concepts and assessments. 

There are so many other reasons to use Google Forms however. I have used Google Forms for a survey, for a classroom sign-up, and a quick exit-ticket! The possibilities are endless. 

Also, it is simple to post or embed to a website or blog. Here is an example of an app-request form I had my students fill out when they were wanting to download a new app. I had it posted on my Google Site, and it worked great for me to see different apps they thought would be beneficial to their learning!