10 Ways to Use Socrative Student Response

Socrative is a very simple and versatile student response tool.  It allows you to ask questions (open-ended, multiple choice, true false) and get answers from students using any device - without a student account needed.  You can do whole class activities or self-paced activities students can do independently.  If you'd like to see more details about Socrative, feel free to check out this resource document.  It includes some nice tutorials on how to use this product.  *Just so you know, there is a new paid version of this product, but the free version will give you plenty of functionality.

Socrative is a tool every teacher should have in their digital toolbox.  I highly encourage you to give it a try.  To get your creative thoughts churning, here are some ideas of how you can use Socrative in the classroom:

• Before a unit begins to gauge prior knowledge
• Before a big test to review and check progress
• A self-paced activity where students can work on their own, or with partners/small groups, to answer questions, write or evaluate statements, build arguments, etc.
• Writing skill practice - have students write a few lines or a paragraph showing a particular skill.  Have students vote anonymously on which was best.  Discuss why it was best.  Another prompt, another vote, another discussion, etc.  This hones their skill as they go.  
• Suggesting topics, events, ideas, class party ideas, snack choices, etc.  The class can then vote - no muss, no fuss, no counting hands or small slips of paper.
• Homework assignment - you can leave the room open for multiple days.
• Study guide - leave it open and allow students to repeat the activity as many times as needed.
• Daily/Weekly Reading Quiz
• Quick prompt - (question to answer, prompt to respond to, math problem, etc.) no pre-planning required.  Simply give the problem or prompt verbally or on the board, or they can answer one that is on a worksheet or in a textbook.  
• Exit ticket

There are so many more ways to engage your students with Socrative, but these should get you started!

Google Chrome: Save Space on Your Bookmarks Bar

You can't have too many bookmarks.  If you look carefully, most bookmark icons are highly identifiable.  Capitalize on that and save a ton of space on your Bookmarks Bar.

Here is a little .gif that shows the process.

Quizlet Live

I know many of you use Quizlet, a digital flashcard website/app that allows you (and your students if they are over the age of 13) to create study sets and practice using a variety of activities.  There is a new feature to Quizlet that I just have to share - Quizlet Live!  Quizlet live allows teachers to launch a Quizlet Live activity based on a study set (yours - or one you found online) for the whole class to participate in.  This works with all ages because students do NOT need a Quizlet account in order to participate - they just need a device - ANY device!

Students get put into teams automatically and because teammates each get a different list of answers, they must work together (collaboration and communication) to select the right answers.  It is a whole lot of fun and students LOVE it!

You can watch this video (click here) to see a little more about Quizlet Live.  You can also check out these two resources to help you learn more:

Quizlet Live Home Page
How to Use Quizlet Live

Search Google Drive from the Omnibox

Save a few steps when you need to search for something in your Google Drive by setting up the Omnibox (that's what the address bar in Chrome is called) to automatically search those places when you type in a special keyword. I search Google Drive MANY times each day, but I never have to go to Google Drive before I do it. Saves me a ton of time!

Do this by going up to the Omnibox (where the website URL is across the top) and right-clicking in it.  Then choose "Manage Search Engines and Site Search" from the list.

Under the "Site search" section, click the "Add" button on the right. 

A box will pop up asking for the Search engine name, a keyword, and the URL.  This trick works by using a keyword.  Whenever you type that keyword into the Omnibox and then hit the spacebar (or the tab key), it will be ready for you to type in what you want to search for on that specific website.  You can see below what I typed in for Google Drive.  You can choose a different keyword if you want, but be sure that the URL is exactly the same as what I typed.

https://drive.google.com/drive/search?q=%s

When you are done, click "Add". 

Now, no matter what website I'm currently on, I can go to the Omnibox and type in dr and hit the spacebar or tab.  Then it will be ready for me to search Google Drive.  It's a beautiful, time-saving thing!

You can do this for most any website that has a search feature - Amazon, YouTube, Bible Gateway, etc.  Just repeat the process we did above.  To get the correct URL, you'll need to search for something on the desired website and copy the URL of the search results.  Then when you paste it into the new search engine entry, replace the word or phrase that you searched for (and anything after it) with %s.

CraftyCursor Google Chrome Extension

I learned about this great Chrome Extension from my friend Amanda Taylor (@TeacherandGeek).  Head on over to the Chrome Web Store and search for CraftyCursor.  When you see it, click on the blue "Add to Chrome" button.

After you install CraftyCursor, you may need to refresh your Chrome browser before it will work.  Click on the CraftyCursor icon in the upper right of your screen when you are ready to use it.

You can set your color using the drop down and then click "Start highlighting".  Now you will get a highlighted circle around your cursor to help your audience track with your mouse movements.

To stop highlighting, simply click on the CraftyCursor icon again and click "Stop highlighting".

Google Forms 101

Google Forms is a digital form and survey tool.  It allows you to gather, organize, analyze, and manipulate data.  Put very simply, you create questions, give people the web address to your form, and sit back while Google automatically compiles the data for you.  It is so versatile!  Not only is it handy for information gathering, but it can help with class discussions and also streamline and make paperless many of the processes and routines that occur daily in your classroom.  This is a pretty powerful app, and it has many unique features.  In this post, I'm just giving you the basics of what it can do.

To create a Google Form, you just navigate to your Google Drive and click on the blue "New" button, mouse over the "More" option at the bottom and then choose "Google Forms".

(You could also download an awesome extension that allows you to create a new form (slide, doc, spreadsheet or drawing, too) from anywhere on the web, just by clicking the button.  Read about this must have extension here.)

This will take you to a new untitled form.  The first thing I recommend is to give your form a title so that you can find it again later.  Take a look at the interface you'll see.

Settings Menu

Let's take a look at the settings menu you can access by clicking on the little gear icon in the upper right.  This menu has three tabs.  The first one that comes up is "General".

The top checkbox will collect the email address of those filling out your form by adding a question at the top of the form that asks for an email address.  If you have also chosen to restrict the form to just your organization, this question won't appear as the email address collection will happen automatically in the background.  

The second box, "Response receipts" is only usable if you have chosen to collect email addresses.  If you do collect email addresses and want people to get a copy of their responses, you can check this box.  It will give you the option to always send a copy of responses, or allow the respondent to choose if they want one or not. 

The third check box, "Restrict to...", allows you to lock down the form so that only those individuals in your organization can fill out the form.

The next check box does just what it says - only allows the respondent to submit once.  If you check this box, it will require users to log in with a Google Account - though it won't tell you who they are unless the "Collect email addresses" option is also checked. 

The bottom two links will decide what the respondent can do after they submit. 

The next tab in the menu is "Presentation".

The top option shows a progress bar for the respondent so that if it is a long form with many pages or "sections" they will see how close they are to finishing.  

The second box will shuffle the question order on each page or section.  It will not mix questions with questions from another page or "section" of the form. 

The last box allows you to show a link to return to the beginning and take the form again - this is nice if it is a form you are filling out repeatedly for different students.  

The last section is a place for you to put a confirmation message.  This is what your respondents see once they hit the submit button.

The last tab in the settings menu is "Quizzes".  You can use this to make your form into a self-grading quiz.  If you want to know more details about how to do this - you can check out this tutorial video. 

Question Types

There are many question types you can choose from.  The default first question is a multiple choice question, but if you click on "multiple choice" it will give you a list of other question types. 

Once you choose your question type, it will give you the options to enter your answer choices.  You have most anything you could want here, except true and false - but I just do a multiple choice question with only two answer choices - true and false.  

Question Options

You can make a question required  - meaning the respondent cannot submit the form without answering the question - by clicking on the "Required" slider to turn it on.

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To get a few more options for your questions you can click the little three dots icon in the bottom right corner of the question.  It will give you different options depending on your question type.

The most common ones you might need are to show "Description" which allows you to give a little direction about how to answer or if you want to put in an example.  Another one might be to show "Data validation" for a paragraph or short answer question, which allows you to make the answer be something specific like it must have an @ symbol because they are supposed to type an email address or something like that.  You can also choose "Go to section based on answer" for multiple choice which can send them to a separate page depending on which answer they choose.  

Adding Images to a Specific Question or Answer

You can add an image as part of your question, or as part of a multiple choice answer option.  Click on a question to edit it.  If you put your mouse on the Question text, a little image icon will appear to the right and you can click on it.  Same for putting your mouse over an answer choice.

Question

Answer choice 

Adding Other Items

You can add other items to your form using the vertical bar on the right.

You can click to add a new question or to import a question you have already used on a different Google Form.

Adding a title and description lets you put additional text into your form that isn't necessarily tied to a question.  It can be instructions or other information that your respondents need to know. 

Adding a section adds another "page" that your respondent will see.  For example, they might answer some questions and then click next to answer more questions.  It only shows them one "section" at a time and they will need to click to go to the next section or page. 

Customize the Look

You can customize the look of your form by clicking on the color palette in the upper right.  When you click on the palette, you are shown a variety of colors.  If you want something a little more decorative, click on the little image icon in the bottom right to be taken to a window where you can choose from many different themes or even upload your own image.

Responses

You can learn all about how to find and analyze the form responses in this "Where Are My Responses?" post. 

How to Send Out My Form

When you are all finished creating your form, you can click the "Send" button in the upper right and get some options on how to distribute your form.  

There you go!  That should give you everything you need to know to start creating your very own Google Forms.  Have fun!

Google Forms: Deleting Responses

You made a Google Form and then you filled it out to test it.  Or maybe you are reusing a form and you want to get rid of last year's responses.  You can do this very easily.

You can delete the responses in the form only, or in the spreadsheet only.  You can delete them from both places - but these are two separate actions.


Deleting Responses From the Form

1.  Click over to the responses section.

2.  Click on the little three dots icon in the top right corner.

3.  Choose "Delete all responses" from the menu.

4.  Click "ok" when it warns you.

As it stated in the warning, this does not delete the responses from the spreadsheet if one was created.


Deleting Responses From the Spreadsheet

1.  Go to the spreadsheet where your responses are.
2.  Delete the entire row for each of the responses you wish to delete - you can select more than one at a time.

If you just delete the text and not the entire rows, Google Forms will still skip those rows when new responses come in.  If you want to clear the responses for good, you should delete the entire row.  

If you want to keep the responses but not see them, you can simply hide the rows.

You can also duplicate the sheet so that you can save old responses before you delete them from the "live" sheet.