Peer Editing with Google Documents

Imagine this scenario in Mr. Tek's history class, in which students write a thesis paragraph about whether or not Alexander the Great was really "great."
  1. For homework, students create a Google Document, and write a paragraph with a strong thesis statement.
  2. In class the next day, Mr. Tek assigns peer pairs, telling each student who will be peer reviewing their paragraph.
  3. Students open the paragraphs on their devices, and share the documents with their partners (using the blue "Share" button). Students also share the documents with Mr. Tek.  [For this activity, the Sharing permission is set to "Can comment," so that peers can make comments with changing the text of the document.]
  4. Students comment on each others' paragraphs, including both positive feedback and constructive criticism.
  5. Students then return to their own paragraphs, and make changes based on their reviewers' comments.
  6. That evening, Mr. Tek can open each document and judge the quality of the writing and the comments.  If interested, he can also go to "File...See Revision History" to check out the "before and after" of the paragraph, to see the quality of the revisions!


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular Posts

Google Drawings! 12 Days of Techmas, Day 10

Image
To celebrate the holiday season, I'll be sending out  12   Days  of easy classroom tech ideas you can use right away!   Weekend Edition! Day  10: Google Drawing A little used feature of the Google Apps system is  Google Drawings . I think this is because of its name: it  seems to imply free-hand drawing  on a computer, which may seem of limited use to most teachers. A Barely-Educational Example  (Keep reading for better examples!) However, free-hand is the  least  useful tool in Google Drawings. Where it really shines is in  free-layout text and shape drawing .  Google Drawings is  perfect for making concept maps and graphic organizers . You can make an organizer and share it with your students, or they make make their own.   Maybe these examples I whipped up might seem more educational: Concept Map about Fine Arts [Ironically, the ...
Read more

17 Classroom Tricks for your Whiteboard, Projector, and Doc Camera

Image
The combination of whiteboards, projectors, and document cameras is more powerful than many teachers realize. In the hectic rush of our everyday teaching, it's too easy to fall back on using these powerhouse tools as little more than digital overhead projectors.  So, here's what I call some "mini-tricks" to get more out of your whiteboard setup! Take a picture!  Your document camera is great for taking a snapshot of that worksheet you are projecting.  Many have a snapshot button right on the case; others use a little software program (ELMOs use ImageMate). Take lots of pictures! Are you presenting your notes via the document camera?  Take a quick picture for every page.  You can upload the pictures to Google Drive, DropBox, or Moodle, and share them with your students. Take video!  Most document cameras have an adjustable lens that can face horizontally.  It is a snap to record snapshots or videos of your students with the camera's software...
Read more

Take Your Google Docs With You Before You Graduate

Image
Taking Your Google Data With You Before You Graduate:   Google Takeout Students who use Google Apps in school can amass a large number of docs, presentations, etc, representing a huge amount of academic work. Because these docs are stored in the cloud, you could lose them when your school deactivates your account after you graduate.  Fear not! Google Takeout lets you download and save all of the Google Drive and Gmail data that your created when you were in school. Go to https://www.google.com/settings/takeout . If prompted, sign in with your school Google Account. . Scroll down and turn OFF the data that you do NOT need to save. This is up to you. You know best which services you used and need to archive. NOTE: There are limits to the number of times you can archive your data, so choose wisely the first time. Click Next . Leave “File type” and “Delivery method” unchanged and click “ Create archive .” When archiving is done, you will see a screen like...
Read more