If I could go back to my first-year teacher self, I would try to stop myself from printing the hundreds of pages of color task cards I used to print, laminate, and organize like a madwoman. I guess while I’m at it I should tell my second, third, and fourth-year teacher self that too. DROP. THE. SCISSORS. Am I right? Google Form assignments save me hours and hours of work, and I am so thankful I took the plunge to do it this way!

Don’t get me wrong, I love a good set of task cards. I still use them a few times a week, even now that I’ve moved to middle school. But I’m using them much differently than I did back when I taught 3rd grade, (but I could have done this with 3rd graders too)! Enter digital task cards, digital warm-ups, digital surveys, enter GOOGLE FORM ASSIGNMENTS!

I finally started using Google Forms when I moved to middle school and had 5 classes of students. I quickly realized I did NOT want to hand check 150 students task cards, or 150 math warm-ups, which is only some of the many assignments I give each week. These have been a true lifesaver for me, and if you’re not already using them in your class I hope this post will convince you to!

Google Forms do not only have to be used for quizzes. I use Google Forms for the following (I teach math), but there’s so much more!

• Task Cards
• Warm-Ups
• Homework
• Quizzes
• Check-Ins
• Surveys
• Exit Tickets
• Escape Rooms

Let’s talk about some of the benefits…

Easy to Create (or buy pre-made)

Not everyone enjoys creating resources for their students, and I get that. If you do, it’s pretty easy to create an assignment on Google Forms! If you’re teaching math, it might be a little harder because Google Forms are not yet as equation friendly as I would like. You can take almost any assignment you already have and change it into a Google Form assignment. What you spend in time creating the Google Form will come back to you in the time you save grading (and it’ll be done for the following years)!

In this video, I am going to show you the basics of Google Forms if you want to start creating your own. I’m sure there are tons of parts I left out, so leave a comment if you have questions or have more info I forgot to talk about!

No Prep!

If this doesn’t excite you, I’m not sure what will. Assigning your digital Google Form assignment takes about 30 seconds, compared to the 10-30 minutes it probably takes you to prepare the other assignments (especially if they’re task cards). If you still need students to use paper, I always provide a hard copy or lined paper for students to show their work on.

Quiz Settings

The great part about Google Forms is the ease of changing the settings of the assignment. If you want to take the assignment for a grade, you can easily assign different point values to each question. At my school, we grade using points instead of everything out of 100%. For example, a 5 question math warmup might be worth 5 points of their grade, while a test might be worth 70 points. When using Google Forms, I can quickly and easily change point values to match the assignment appropriately.

In this video, I will show you how to change the point values of an assignment.

Student Reports

Say hello to the most amazing part! Student reports are so easy to use! Below is an example of just some of the features of student reports. My suggestion would be to start with an assignment that can be used as a practice, and really explore the student report section of the form. You get data such as total points scored and all the student submissions, but also information on average score, range of scores, most frequently missed questions, and the number of students who got it correct, as well as question summaries!

Share with whatever LMS you use!

This year my new school uses Google Classroom, which I absolutely love. I am still learning new things about it every day. In Google Classroom, it’s very easy to create an assignment or quiz and link the Google Form from your Drive. However, my old campus used Schoology. In Google Forms, you just have to copy the link to share the form in order to have students use it. You can simply share the link on whatever LMS you use as long as you personally have a Google Drive account!

If you’re looking for pre-made Google math assignments, I do have many in my TPT store and I am constantly adding more. For specific requests, send me a question through Teachers Pay Teachers. You can browse those here!

For a blog post on digital classroom newsletters, click here!

If you use Google Forms in your classroom I would love to hear of your favorite features below! Let me know how and when you’ve used them, and success stories in the comments!

Happy Teaching!

Kara