Last school year I wrote two separate Google posts, one on using Google Forms in the classroom and one on using the Flubaroo add-on to create and grade quizzes.  This year I’m going to start off by updating both of those posts, because Google has completely updated their forms!  Not only can you create and grade quizzes without using an add-on now, but you can also get more advanced reports from your students’ responses.

The basics of Google Forms are still the same – you create a form by choosing a color scheme or theme, add questions in a variety of forms (short answer, multiple choice, checkboxes, and dropdown are the basic options), then share the form out using a link or typing in the email addresses that you want to share with.  The new version of Forms looks slightly different now that it did before, but it is still incredibly easy to navigate.

Previously, when a new form was created, a Google Sheet was created at the same time to log all responses to the questions in the form.  Now, however, responses can be viewed within the Form itself without having to continually switch back to the Sheet.  Responses will look different depending on what type of questions you used in your form but my favorite is the pie charts that are automatically created when you add multiple choice questions.  There is still the option to create a Sheet (noted in the picture below), and you can view all responses or individual responses one at a time.

I have been introducing many teachers in my building to Google Forms lately and all respond with how much time they are saving by using Forms in their classrooms.  At the beginning of the year, many teachers use Forms to record student demographic information, or to deliver student interest/knowledge surveys.

My building is divided into teams, so when one teacher uses these Forms they can easily share the results out with the other teachers on the team who all have the same students.  It is also very easy to share the Form out during the year whenever a new student is added to their classroom.  Here a few more ideas of ways that you can use Google Forms in your own classroom:

• Create a Form to deliver at the beginning of class to check students’ prior knowledge, or at the end of class as an Exit Ticket.
• Use a Form to sign students up for individual or group research projects where they record their topic, group members, and presentation tool.  You can also use Forms during the project to track where students are at in the process, what they might need help with, and who might need extra attention to make sure they are finishing on time.
• Have students reflect after a unit, project, test, or activity by creating a Form, this gives students the opportunity to think about what went well or what they can improve upon, and also gives you the opportunity to improve plans for the future.
• In my previous post I shared using Google Forms when my students are completing their vocabulary paragraphs at the end of each unit.
• Graded quizzes can be created in the new Google Forms by clicking on the gear at the top of the screen and selecting quizzes from Settings window that opens.

How have you used Google Forms in your classroom or how do you want to use Forms in the future?