Googleforms solve ALL of my problems - here's just one of them

Well, not REALLY all of them... but they DO help me deal with many challenges I have as a teacher, and by now, I find them absolutely indispensable. So if you are tired of hearing about the wonders of Google, do NOT continue reading.

But, if you ARE an EFL high school teach in Israel, and you are teaching the literature program, need to grade Logs and are interested in reading about how I am using Googleforms to help me with that, do read on. 

In the program for teaching literature in Israeli high schools, we need to teach six units of literature, and give a grade for each unit, according to the following calculation*:

• 20% for organization (including all work for the Key Components of teaching literature, handing the work in on time, organized in specific order)
• 30% for the graded Key Component
• 50% for Summative Assessment (final test on unit)

(*NOTE for Israeli EFL teachers reading this, these percentages are only for students doing the literature program in the 11th and 12th grades this year. For 10th graders, percentages are different, but the principle of this use of Googleforms remains the same)

It is always a major job grading and keeping track of all this work. Grading just one unit for a class of 31 students literally takes days. So anything I can find to help me make that task a little more efficient and expedient, makes me happy.

This Passover vacation I had 31 units of work for a short story, to grade. In order to do so, I made a Googleform! On it I listed all of the elements and pages I required for each unit of work, as well as a place for the grades and a short description of the graded task the student chose to do. It looks like this:

As I read through each portfolio of work, I just tick off what is there, and what is not. Fill in the form and I have all of the information in one, easily accessible place. This is what the collection file (Responses sheet) looks like:

If you noticed in the Googleform, above, some of the fields are mandatory (they have a red asterisk next to them) and others are not (for example the last three are NOT mandatory). That is because the students have not taken the test yet. When they do, I will just go into the spreadsheet (Responses sheet) and add those grades in. I can also easily keep track of who handed work in late, with the automatic time stamp, in the first column.

As with excel, I can insert the equation for the final grade into the sheet, and then: voila! Final grades will be calculated, automatically!

Do YOU use Googleforms in unexpected ways to help YOU organize YOUR work or life? If you do, please share!

Digitally yours, 

@dele