In this crazy, virtual, hybrid or hyflex teaching world I love to have digital resources that I can use that are self-checking. Here are my top 5 ways for using Google Forms in the math classroom.
Do Nows
First, for me the beginning of each class can be crazy, am I right? Besides student questions or getting my lesson ready, I have to remember to take attendance. So I like to have an independent self-checking do now ready to go. I regularly like to give my sixth grade math students some spiral review in the beginning of class. I take some of my google forms and cut it down to 5-7 questions. Set it to release scores immediately so the students get their results when they submit it.
Exit Tickets
Second, Google Forms can also be set up as an escape room to practice a math skill. Using the response validation feature you can prevent students from moving to the next section until all questions are correct making it similar to an escape room. This feature works only for some question types such as short answer, paragraph and checkboxes. I make sure to be specific in my directions on how students should enter their answers. For example there is a difference between 0.5 and .5. Escape rooms are a great way for students to work together, solve math problems and find the correct solution.
Study Guides
Thirdly, before each quiz or test, I like to give the students a study guide to practice math problems before an assessment. Using the merge feature on Google forms, I easily grab questions from many google forms that I have already created and merge them into one review. I believe that students need to do practice problems in order to study; just looking at their notes will not help them. I set these study guide google forms to release scores immediately upon submission as well as let students complete them more than once if they would like. My whole reasoning for study guides is to help them prepare for the quiz or test.
Escape Rooms
Fourth, in normal times, I loved using scavenger hunts in the classroom to get students up and solving math problems around the room. Now, I just take my scavenger hunts and put them in the google form. I insert the pictures for the scavenger hunt as an image for the problem and then insert four images of the other pages of the scavenger hunt as four multiple choice options. Then I use the “go to section based upon answer” feature so that it takes students to the next problem as if they were walking around the room (digitally). If the students do it correctly, they should go around the circle of problems once and end at a congratulations section at the end. Want to try one of my escape rooms for free? Click here.
Scavenger Hunts
My last tip for using google forms is to use them as exit tickets to show how well students understood the lesson. It gives me a great snapshot of their understanding and helps me to determine my plan for follow-up lessons and activities. I try to set aside the last 5-8 minutes of class for students to complete the google form. I can easily see their answers in a spreadsheet and determine how well they understood the lesson.
Google forms are almost a daily part of my math lesson. The digital self-checking feature helps move my lesson along in an organized and focused manner.
