Easy Online Grading with JoeZoo

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Well, I missed my post last week because of a busy Friday, but it actually worked out in my favor, because I had learned from my colleague at North about a useful little grading tool called JoeZoo.  However, after looking at it and reading about it, it looked like they were releasing some new features this past weekend, so in the end I decided to wait until this week to talk about it.

I have found this tool to be incredibly effective for making grading using Google Docs much easier.  I have posted in the past about some other tools that can work for using rubrics and grading in Google Docs, but JoeZoo has some great features and a new integration with Google Classroom that really makes it efficient.

There are three primary functions of this tool: writing feedback, building and using rubrics, and grading assignments.  The writing feedback option allows teachers to provide quick feedback on writing assignments by using existing comments and corrections based on the most frequent writing errors that teachers have to correct. So instead of writing or typing "run-on sentence" fifty times or even copying and pasting it, with just a couple of clicks you can easily provide that feedback.  The feedback is also categorized into different areas like formatting, grammar, mechanics, punctuation, and structure, which allows students to see where they received the most comments and what areas they need to focus on.  It can save a lot of time when grading writing assignments.  In addition to the writing feedback, there is a feature still in beta format called Monkey Checker, which will actually auto check the assignment for errors and provide that common error feedback for you.

Another are this tool excels in is rubric use. There is no need for tables or charts to make a rubric or worrying about structure.  The feature allows for creating a rubric (or copying and pasting existing rubric items) into an easy to use format and then will insert the rubric directly into the document, making feedback quick and easy.  In addition, the grading tool allows for easy grading using the rubric and providing feedback, along with converting that rubric score into an actual grade.

One issue I originally had with the tool was that to grade an assignment you had to add students to your list and choose the student name, etc.  It was kind of a pain and the thought of adding an entire class of students was not pleasant.  However, that is where the Google Classroom integration comes in.  With that new feature, you can connect JoeZoo to your Google Classroom and it will automatically list all of the students in your course, making choosing and grading much easier.

Overall, this is a great tool with a lot of potential.  The developers love feedback and suggestions and frequently implement them, so there is a lot of potential for growth and improvement as well.  If you are a teacher who has students complete assignments using Google Docs, I would recommend checking out JoeZoo to make grading and providing feedback faster and easier.

Check out this link for a variety of videos from the developers on using the tool.

Another Rubric Tool - DocAppender

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Welcome back!  I hope you all had a restful and fun holiday! One of my earlier posts this fall discussed the tool Orange Slice, which is an add-on for Google that allows you to easily insert and use rubrics with Google docs.  Today I wanted to look at another rubric tool called DocAppender.  This tool is similar to Orange Slice in that it is a Google add-on, but this tool allows you use a Google Form that stamps a rubric into your document.

To use the tool, you basically create a Google Form, add the DocAppender add-on to the form (which you only need to do once).  Then you can choose a folder where the student documents are stored, and if you use Google Classroom, this works seamlessly to include your Classroom folders.  You then choose rubric items to use for that particular assignment, choose the score, and submit. The rubric is then stamped onto the assignment you are grading.  It can also work really well for peer editing.  See the links below for some tutorials and more information.

DocAppender Site
Youtube Tutorial on Using DocAppender

Step by step instructions and examples for DocAppender

Orange Slice - Not the Kind You Eat

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This week my tech coach colleague up at North called me with a new tool he was just starting to look at called Orange Slice.  While the name won't tell you what the tool does, basically it is an add-on for Google that lets you use rubrics right within a document.  For teachers who use rubrics for grading this will be a great tool.  Additionally, because of the Google connection, it works great for integrating within Classroom and for peer editing.

This is by far the easiest tool I have seen so far for grading in Google Docs with rubrics.  Once the teacher installs the add-on (simply search for orangeslice in the Chrome store or use the link below), the next step is to either insert an existing rubric you already have, or build one within the tool.  There are some great easy to build options and it recognizes a variety of rubrics.  You can choose to assign scores to each category and give points or use a holistic rubric and just give feedback.  I was very excited to find that this tool works great with our existing 21st century skills rubrics.

One of the great things about this tool is how easy it can be if you incorporate it with using Google Classroom.  For instance, if you already give assignments in classroom and use the awesome feature that allows you to distribute one assignment document per student, you can simply include the rubric on the initial assignment, and then as you go into each assignment to grade it, you can use the rubric and grade right on the assignment.  It makes using rubrics with Google documents incredibly easy and fast.

Additionally, Orange Slice makes it very easy to have student peer review each other's work.  Again, if the rubric is already in the assignment, all the students have to do is install the add-on (which takes less than a minute), share their assignment with whoever will be peer reviewing it, and then they can use the add-on to rate the other student on each area of the rubric and provide feedback.  It is fast and easy and can help eliminate some of the organizational time that peer reviewing often requires.

Overall, this is a great tool to use for grading student assignments with rubrics, or for having students peer review.  Check out the videos below for more information on the tool and how to get the add-on yourself!

Orange Slice Youtube Channel
Link to Install Teacher Rubric from Chrome Store
Link to another blog post about the tool with great commentary from the creator

Voice Typing in Google Docs

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So clearly I am on a little bit of a Google kick to start they year out, but I promise to expand the horizons going forward.  However, Google just has so many neat little tools, add-ons, and extensions that can make life so much easier when they are used at the right time or in the right circumstances.  The tool this week is one I learned about earlier this year from our Special Services Assistive Technology Consultant.  It is a tool in Google Docs called Voice Typing.

Voice Typing does just what it sounds like.  It allows an individual to speak text into a document instead of typing it.  This can be a great tool for some of those students you have who struggle with writing, with forming their thoughts into organized, constructive papers and assignments, or who have limitations with being able to type.  It would also be great in foreign language, as it supports a variety of languages.  So far, the tool appears to be very easy to use and very accurate.  Additionally, it is already a part of the documents tools menu, so there are no additional extensions or add-ons to add to the document or account.

Overall, this tool is simple, easy-to-use, and could be very helpful for certain students, certain classes, or certain assignments.  Try it out or check out the link and video below for more help and info!

Link to Google Page with Help Info

Youtube Video About Voice Typing

Google Research Tool - Make Researching and Citing in Google Docs Easy

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Google has a little known and very underutilized tool available for use in Google docs and presentations called simply Research.  However, the efficiency and potential time saver for this seemingly simple addition is enormous.  Working in a library, we spend a lot of our lesson time trying to drive home the idea that students need to cite, whether it's information they get from a source or a picture in their presentation.  The Google Research tool helps with that because it lets you do a search from directly within your document or presentation and then add a citation for information or add and cite a picture quickly and easily.

The research tool can be found under the Tools menu and Research.  Once opened, you can do a general Google search, or limit your search to images, scholar, quotes, dictionary, or tables.  From the list of search results, you can then preview each result, click on the link to go out to the full page on the web, insert a link for the result into your doc, or cite the result within your document.  Now, while the citation features is great, it does provide citations as footnotes, so for most students, they will still need to do some editing to make sure their citations are formatted correctly in their paper or presentation.  Additionally, when searching images, results can be filtered by usage rights so students are only searching for images that are free to use.  When you find an image, you can simply drag it onto your document or presentation, and a citation is automatically generated for the image, again as a footnote.

Overall, when having students work on papers and projects in Google docs and presentations, the Research tool can be a helpful way for them to find and easily cite information and images.  It can be especially helpful for younger students who are still working on really understanding the importance of citations, and provide them with an easy way to find and include that in their projects.  Additionally, instead of doing a regular Google search for images and videos, it can be an easy way to add images and videos to presentations, searching ones that are reusable by copyright, and easily adding them to a project.

Click this link for more information from Google on using the tool.
Here is a link to another blog post with step by step directions and pictures on the different features.
Final link - same blog as above, but a different post on adding images and videos to presentations with the research tool.