Using Google Forms, in Classroom, to do Class Surveys

This week I tried something new. I used Google Forms to make a questionnaire in French for the students about their favourite foods. Like this:

It was very easy to do. A good tutorial about how to use google forms is this one, by Scott Monahan:

I used google classroom to send the form to the students as an assignment. Here is a link to google classroom.

https://classroom.google.com/u/0/ineligible

Google classroom allows the teacher to track who has completed the assignment and who hasn't.
If your board doesn't support google classroom, you can still do this activity; just stay in google forms.

Google forms automatically compiles the data from the completed forms into a spreadsheet as students submit their responses.

You can also, (and this is my favourite) view the responses in graph form, by going back to the original form and opening the "responses" window, and clicking on "summary of responses".

Using these graphs, the students can discuss the outcomes of the survey (in my case in French).
It gives a lovely pictorial representation of our class preferences.

You could also use this for any kind of voting/ opinion surveys. You could also create a form that students could use to respond to oral presentations, and give feedback.

In my case, I'm just getting started with it, and wanted to try this simple survey as a bit of an experiment. The students were really engaged- much more than if I had given them a pencil-and -paper survey, and they enjoyed seeing the responses graphed at the end. I think it helped them feel like their voice had been heard, to see their response registered within the whole.

I will definitely do it again.

An Opportunity

The National Gallery of Canada is now offering Distance Learning Programs for elementary and high school students. Their interactive programs, delivered via webinar, get students discussing a range of artworks while exploring curriculum-linked themes...free of charge.

A sample: http://youtu.be/FGRr5PYt5zY

To register: http://www.gallery.ca/en/learn/reservations.php

The only art class I am teaching right now is in Kindergarten, so I registered for the Kindergarten "People and Relationships" webinar: "How can people speak to us without saying a word? Discover the role of body language and facial expression in relating stories in artworks.

I'll let you know how it goes...

The Writing on The Wall

This idea was inspired by the Basquiat exhibit at the AGO. I don't live in Toronto, but was visiting for the weekend, and saw the exhibition. After going through the show, patrons were invited to share their impressions on a big blackboard- creating a kind of graffiti- style collage, similar in spirit to some of the works of Basquiat.

I teach core French in Ontario and have many reluctant writers.  But I think this would be an idea to get any students engaged with writing, not just French students.

I covered the bulletin board outside my classroom with brown paper, laid down a few ground rules: (what you write must be respectful of the feelings of others, it must be appropriate for school, and it must be in French), provided some markers, and (for French, some suggestions of things that they know how to say in French, like describing things about themselves, for example), and invited them to write.

The response has been overwhelming. Kids who would just sit and look at a blank piece of paper at their desk in the classroom, are happy to "write on the wall".

I also prepared a short presentation about Basquiat, including some photographs of his paintings to give some context for the activity. It ties in nicely with the building of cultural awareness that is a component of the French curriculum here. The kids were really engaged in learning about this artist and a bit about his story. And they have flocked to the wall to write in French about themselves.

I think this would also work well with emerging writers in English too. With older students it might be an interesting way to have them register and support their opinions about controversial topics.

If you are inspired to try something similar with a class of yours, I would love to hear how it goes.



If you are interested in the whole presentation it is at:
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Lecriture-sur-le-mur-1723381