Using Google Forms and Google Sheets to Facilitate a Remote Learning Discussion

       Like many of you teachers, I have started the school year 100% online with Zoom. If I was in the classroom, I would have been building accountable talk protocols for discussion and getting my students used to sharing ideas through think-pair-share, small group, whole group discussions. Remote learning has changed that level of interaction. My students are brand new to middle school, so not only do they not know each other, they're not as willing to participate. However, I didn't want this to be an excuse for my students to not hear each other's ideas or not share out their own. 

    My lesson plan was centered around word choice, specifically how adjectives play a role in how characters view themselves. I started by figuring out how I would have done this lesson in the classroom. I would have given students the question and quiet time to think about an answer before writing it down. I then would have given time for students to mix and mingle- getting out of their seats and pairing with several students to talk about their ideas. I know knew I needed to translate that to a digital environment but it would need to be simple to curate AND easy for my students to access AND use things my students and I were already familiar with. Enter my lesson plan that did not self destruct: using Google Forms and Google Sheets to have a discussion.

     Here's how I created my lesson. 

    I started with one of my favorite things: Google Forms. I love how versatile Forms are and that they can link to a spreadsheet for data analysis. I created a Google Form with my question prompts. Forms worked especially well since it let me add in a picture as a word bank so my students had a reference in the same place I was asking them to write a response.

    I had the "share" part of my lesson plan down, so now I needed to  figure out how to get students to read and respond to each other. In order do that, I created a shareable spreadsheet utilizing the "View responses in Sheets" function within Google Forms. This generated a new spreadsheet file that I was able to link to in the confirmation message of the Form. This would allow students to easily access their classmate's responses once their Form was filled out. This spreadsheet would also be the place where students would write their responses to other students.

     I had the basic part of how my students would respond, but I knew I needed to think that through more thoroughly. I modified the response spreadsheet so that I was giving clear indicators of what needed a response. Within the spreadsheet, I added two columns that served as the discussion prompts for the lesson and left those blank. I also color coded the top row (which auto-populates with the questions from the Form), so that when I was delivering the lesson I could refer to the color coding. 

    I also needed to think about my students. At this early-on stage, I wanted to create anonymity for the them, so I formatted the response spreadsheet to hide columns which had their names. Hiding the columns would allow me to review each student's form response afterwards, but give anonymity in the moment. Additionally, I didn't want my students to edit the wrong boxes within the spreadsheet. In other words, I only wanted them to write in the columns I added which served as the discussion prompts. So, I used "protect range" to prohibit students from editing things I didn't want them to edit, but left the discussion prompts unprotected, and therefore editable. 

    So now it was time to deliver this lesson. After our warm-up, I had all students complete the form which went well. Most of them were able to access the response spreadsheet from the confirmation message, but for those who exited out of the Form, I had to share the link through the Zoom chat box. I also needed to model how to write a quality discussion response and give some direction on the technical aspects such as how to write in the editable sections, how to know when someone is writing in a spreadsheet's cell, and to not write over other people's comments.

    Here's what I liked about this lesson plan

1. It was a discussion. Discussion is so important to any content area, but in English it is one of the go-to ways to engage with material.
2. Students participated thoughtfully. For those that responded, their thinking was sound and engaging.
3. Students were not limited to their class period. The Form and Sheet were used across all four periods that I teach, so students were able to read and respond to students from their entire grade level.
4. Google products work in real-time. As I was giving work time to respond, I was able to see what students were doing as they were doing it and provide verbal feedback as needed.
   

    Here's the pitfalls

1. Time. Some of my classes were able to get started on the Form with minimal warm-up whereas others needed a longer warm-up. The classes that needed more support were able to fill out the Form and read others' responses, but they didn't get as much time to respond, thereby not practicing the discussion skills.
   
2.  Slow workers. When I was giving time for responding on the spreadsheet, some students were still filling out the Form. Just like the previous point, this means they don't have quality time to practice these new discussion protocols.

    Overall, my lesson plan didn't self destruct and for that I am proud.

How can you use Forms or Sheets to facilitate a discussion in your classroom? Have you ever done this? If I can help you, let me know!