Individualized Learning with Google Forms

I wanted to give my students a formative assessment while providing remediation all at the same time?

Is that even possible?


It is!!

Do you know those Choose Your Own Adventure books?

My brother and I loved those books when we were kids!

Are those even still around?

I haven't seen one in forever.

These books allowed you to determine what happened next in the story based on your decisions of what characters should do at critical points in the story.

You can take this same basic concept to create individualized learning activities for your students using Google Forms.

I made my first one a few weeks ago and I'm here to tell you I will be making more.

I've seen some fancy ones out there and compared to those mine was very simple and not very impressive.

But it worked for my students so I'm calling it a success.

I'll get a little fancier with the next one.

So let me give you a little background as to the purpose of my activity and then I'll tell you how I created it.

My students were reviewing for their assessment on proportional relationships.  Our big ideas for the unit were using tables, graphs, and equations to determine if a relationship between two quantities was proportional or not.

I wanted to be able to do a formative assessment on those three big ideas all while giving students support if they needed it.

Using the branching feature in Google Forms I was able to do just that.

Want to learn how to make your own?

Keep reading and I'll show you.

Branching is how you create multiple paths within one Form.

For my review activity I used branches to allow students to skip from one big idea to another if they answered questions correctly.

If they missed a question they were taken to a video that retaught the big idea and then were given another chance to answer a question about the big idea.

I think they really enjoyed being able to work and learn at their own pace.


So let's get started creating your own.


First, create a new Google Form.



Next select the "Add section" option.  Once you have added a new section you will have two different ways of moving from section to section.



The first option is send your students from one section to another with the branching options as shown below.



The second option and the one I used is to send students to a section based on their answer.  You can see how to choose this option in the picture below.



After you  have chosen this option a new menu will appear on each question allowing you to send students to different sections based on their answer.



It's that easy.

Of course depending on how many sections you create it can become a little more intricate.

I found that for me it was helpful to write out my plan on paper before trying to create the  Form and all the different sections and branches.

For example...

Section 1: Is the table proportional?
Section 2: Video Help #1
Section 3: Attempt #2
Section 4: Video Help #2
Section 5: Attempt #3

Section 6: Is the graph proportional?


On this form I gave students three attempts for each big idea.  They were three different questions, but were all the same time of question.

I set the third attempt to have response validation.  This requires students input the correct answer before being allowed to move on.

If students got to that third attempt and couldn't figure out the right answer I was able to reteach them one on one or in a small group.

I hope this makes sense.

If you have any questions please send me an email or leave a comment with your question.


Let's chat again soon!

Creating a Social Contract

A few summers ago I attended a training for a program called Capturing Kids' Hearts!

Let me tell you it was hands down the absolute best professional development I have ever had.

I am such a believer in what they are doing and promoting. 

It is all about building relationships and capturing kids' hearts as the name suggest.

There are many different pieces to it and I couldn't possibly share all of them.  

It really is something you need to attend their training to receive the full benefits.

But I do want to share one aspect with you today.

It's something I would venture to guess you are probably doing or have seen on Pinterest.

Let's talk Social Contracts.

This is very similar to Classroom Norms or Expectations.

I start by asking my students to think about and respond to four questions.

1.  How do you want to be treated by me (the teacher)?

2. How do you want to be treated by each other?

3. How do you think I (the teacher) want to be treated by you?

4. How do you want to treat each other when there is conflict?

After students have plenty of individual think time, I then put them in groups of four giving each student a role.

The Manager keeps the group on task.

The Recorder records a final answer/list for the group.

The Speaker will share the group's final answer with the class.

And my favorite role - The Encourager.  I love hearing my students cheer their classmates on for sharing their answers.

After group time, we begin sharing and discussing as an entire class.

During this time I have a student volunteer to be the Class Recorder.  

Their job is to record the answers as we discuss them.

If an answer comes up multiple times, the Class Record will put a check mark by that word every time it comes up.

Everything is student led.  I am simply facilitating the conversation.  I do manipulate the conversation in order to add No Put Downs on our social contract.

Once the class discussion is over, students are given the opportunity to sign the contract before you display it in the classroom.

I chose to create WordArt with the list this year.

Each class was done in a different color.

This is 2nd period's Social Contract.

We are in the process of having everyone sign it and then I will hang it at the front of the room.

I will remind students of what they agreed to, but more so I will teach students to remind each other.

Do you do anything like this in your classroom?