Lesson Plan 2

Exploring Google Classroom

Using Google Classroom to begin moving the writers workshop from the page to the screen

Summary
1.

Subject(s): Technology

2. Topic or Unit of Study: Google Classroom, Google Docs, Google Drive

3. Grade/Level: 4
4. Objective: All students will explore and become comfortable with Google Classroom
5. Time Allotment: 2-4 tech class periods, depending on prior tech skill level of students

Materials & Resources

a. Instructional Materials: Chromebooks for each student and teacher; ELMO or other digital
projector and projector screen
b. Resources: Broadband Internet Access, District/School Permission to use Google
Classroom and other Google Apps for Education services including but not limited to
Google Docs, Google Forms, and Google Drive

Learning Context
In writers workshop, you can write using pencil and paper. You can also write using a computer.
You know what a computer is. You use a computer in school: the Chromebook is a computer. You
already use the Chromebooks for your reading assignments in the Lexia program. In Lexia,
sometimes you use the Chromebooks keyboard to answer questions by typing letters. Soon, we
are also going to use that same keyboard to write words that you will see not on paper, but on
the screen of your Chromebook instead! Once we are all comfortable using Chromebooks to
write, we will use our Chromebooks during writers workshop instead of our notebooks. But the
purpose of this lesson is to introduce you to a special website called Google Classroom, which
you will access using your Chromebooks. This website is special because we will do a lot of our
writing in Google Classroom, including much of our writers workshop.

Procedure
1

a. Anticipatory Set: Join then Explore Google Classroom

Teacher to Whole Class: Before we start using our Chromebooks during writers workshop, each
of you will rst join our digital classroom, our Google Classroom. (TEACHER NOTE: Students do
not need to join via code if you have already added them via roster page.) What is Google
Classroom? Google Classroom is a safe place that we will log into with our Chromebooks and
email addresses at the start of writers workshop. It is a digital place -- or really a private website
-- that will keep our documents safe while providing us a new way to write and to work together
on our story ideas. Now, lets watch a video that shows what Google Classroom looks like for
teachers and for students.
IMPORTANT TEACHER NOTE: Teachers must rst have District/School permission and speci c
enablement to use Google Classroom. Typically, the District IT administrator must rst enable the
schools domain (e.g., somename@yourdistrict.org) to be accessed by the Google Classroom
website, which is part of the Google Apps for Education suite of cloud-based services. Once a
District/School has done this, the IT administrator must allow you, the teacher, to create a
classroom in Google Classroom, which you will log into using your District email address. Once
you have created a classroom, you can name it and otherwise customize it according to your
class purposes. Then, you can add students to your classroom one of two ways, as demonstrated
in the video above.
Once you have created your classroom and added your students to the class, you can post
announcements, assignments, surveys and other documents to individual students or to the
entire class. You can create your assignments using Google Docs and store the resulting les in
your Google Drive folder associated with your District email account. Once you have done that,
you can attach from Google Drive documents or other les to assignments you create and
distribute to your students. In your assignment you can specify any number of things, including
whether each student will receive one copy of the assignment, by when the assignment is due,
and whether the assignment will be graded or ungraded, to name a few. Importantly, you should
experiment with Google Classroom before attempting to use it in your class.
b. Direct Instruction: Posting Comments to the Stream Page
Teacher to Whole Class: Today we are going to explore an important feature of Google
Classroom, once everyone has been added to the class, of course. Normally, I model the steps or
actions I want you to take before I ask you to take them. But this lesson is a little di erent. The
purpose of this lesson is to explore and discover how the website works. To do that you will take
the following steps AS I TAKE THEM TOO on my computer screen, which you can see on the
projector. Here are the steps we will all take together as we explore Google Classroom:

1.

Open your Chromebooks

2. Log into your Gmail account

3. In a Chrome Browser Window, type: classroom.google.com
4. In the Google Classroom start page, select with your mouse Mrs. Youngkins Fourth Grade
Class
5. Note at Mrs. Youngkins Fourth Grade Class start page three words: Stream, Classmates,
and About
6. Click each of these three words, but read the page that pops up after you click each word
before moving on to the next word
7. What do you see on each of these pages? If you get lost, or click a word on accident and
you end up somewhere you do not mean to be, click the three short white lines in the top
left of the page. That will bring up a white menu; at the bottom of the menu are the words
Mrs. Youngkins Fourth Grade Class; click those words and you will end up back at the
Stream page.
8. Everyone go back to the Stream page.
9. At the bottom right of the page is a white plus sign inside a purple circle; click it or put
your cursor over the plus sign. What words pop up?
10. Thats right: Create Post pops up. If you click the words Create Post, a new box appears.
The box is labeled Post. A post is a short written note that is posted to everyone in the
class. In the line that says Share with your class, type a message that you want to share
with your class.
11. Do it now. It can be as simple as the word hello, or you can even write a full sentence,
such as your name and what you had for breakfast. Try it out now.
12. What did you notice? Do you see many posts from your classmates in your Stream page?
13. Pick a post from one of your classmate. Look at it. What do you notice?
14. You may notice that the post includes the name of your classmate and the time that the
post was posted to your Stream page.
15. What else do you notice? Do you notice that beneath the post there is a gray box? What
do you think that is for?
16. Go ahead and click the words Add a class comment in the gray box. Doing that will allow
you to post a comment back to your classmate and to the whole class. Try it now.
17. This is how each of you can communicate with the entire class. But Posting is not the only
communication available in Google Classroom.
18. The Teacher in Google Classroom can post comments AND assignments, quizzes, short
polls, videos, and many other types of content to your Stream page.
19. Always go to your Stream page to see what is happening now in our Google Classroom.

20. Your Stream page also allows you to see what has happened in the history of our Google
Classroom. Just scroll down the Stream page to see what happened in the past.

c. Guided Practice: Free Exploration Modeled on the Prior Exploration

Teacher to Whole Class: Now that we have explored the three major areas of the Google
Classroom -- the Stream, Classmates, and About pages -- with particular attention paid to the
Stream page, you will explore other parts of Google Classroom on your own, though I will walk
through the class to answer questions if you get stuck or need some help. You will explore these
other parts the same way you explored posting comments to the Stream page. You will see some
symbol or words on a page, you will click it, and you will observe what changes on your screen as
a result. If the change opens a text or dialogue box, try writing something in the box and see what
happens. The point is to explore and to gure out by trial and error how Google Classroom
works. I will be circulating around the room to help you while you explore for the next 15 minutes.
d. Check for Understanding: Timely, Accurate Reading of and Responding to Prompts
Teacher to Whole Class: Now that you have explored Google Classroom and have gotten a feel
for how the website works, how to read and write in response to the boxes you see in the pages
of the website, I will give you an opportunity to show that you understand how to participate in
Google Classroom activities. First I will pose a multiple choice question to the whole class. You
will nd the question, select your answer by clicking on the appropriate bubble or box, and
submit your answer for review. Then, I will pose to the class a short answer question. You will nd
the question, write your answer in the form of a complete sentence, and then submit your answer
for review.
e. Independent Practice: Incorporating Google Docs and Google Drive into Google
Classroom:
Teacher to Whole Class: Good job class! You have joined the Google Classroom, navigated the
Classroom pages, and you have explored the way that posting and responding to questions
works. Finally, you will open a new Chrome browser window, type drive.google.com, select the
red New button in the top left of the page, and create a New Google Document by selecting
New Google Document from the list of documents you may create.
Once you do that, a new window will open up automatically, a window that is a blank white page
in docs.google.com. In the left hand corner of this new window in docs.google.com you will see
the words Untitled Document. Click on those words and type your name followed by the number

1. Then, return to the drive.google.com window. Do you see your new document in Drive? Press
the refresh button on your browser window if you dont see your document.
Once you see your document, repeat this process on your own to create a second document that
will be named with your name followed by the number 2. Once you have created this second
document, return to Google Classroom Stream page. There, Post a new comment to the class,
and attach your second document to your post. Once you have done that, you will have
demonstrated that you understand how to use Google Documents and Google Drive in Google
Classroom. If you have any trouble, I will be walking around to help. You will have another 15
minutes for this.
f.

Closing: From Pencil and Paper to the New Way of Communicating

You have successfully used your computer, your Chromebook, to read and write, to engage in a
new way with your teacher, to engage in a new way with your classmates. While you will continue
to use a pencil and the paper in your writers workshop notebooks to produce entries, which are
the beginnings of the stories you will write for writers workshop, you will increasingly use your
Chromebooks and Google Classroom to read and write for this class. Eventually, we will transition
completely from pencil and paper to the Chromebooks, even for our writers workshop activities,
but this will happen gradually so you will have plenty of time to build up your general familiarity
with computers and to build up your typing skills. Once you are writing your entries every day into
your Chromebooks, you will have achieved something very special for your future. We will work
toward this every day.

Assessment
1.

Determine via post-lesson discussion that each student understands the importance of
experimenting, of trial and error as a way to explore and learn a new thing or new skill,
especially when it comes to computers, which can only be understood well through direct
experience.

2. Direct students to open their Chromebooks and then complete and turn in Lesson 2 Quiz
via Google Classroom.
3. After completing the Lesson 2 Quiz, direct students to complete and turn in Lesson 2 Exit
Ticket via Google Classroom.