As our first week of online teaching winds down, it's become apparent that we have to start actually grading all of this work that we've put out onto the internet for our students to find (and, hopefully, complete).
The good news? Grading on Google Classroom is incredibly easy.
The bad news? Grading on Google Classroom will make you never want to grade on paper again.
Go get a snack and get ready to sit and read for a minute because this is going to be a long blog post (that is posted in parts... so get LOTS of snacks).
Tackling the topic of grading on Google Classroom means breaking it down by assignment type and G Suite app. I'll be using screenshots of actual assignments I've posted and graded (with all identifying information blurred out to keep me from losing my job and going to jail) so you can see real grading in action instead of pretend grading in action.
I do what I can to keep it real.
Keep in mind that I am an English teacher, so my examples will have a focus on ELA, but there's a lot online available for more specific content (and I'll mention some specifics for other content areas that I've found while helping others troubleshoot Google Classroom).
Once you've clicked on the "view assignment" button, you'll be looking at the student work screen. Here, you can see which students have turned in the assignment, which students have not, and if students turned their work in on time or not.
Sometimes students who have an assignment marked "missing" will still have a thumbnail of work underneath their name. This means that they have started the assignment, but they have not submitted any completed work.
With Google Classroom, you can look into any files students have attached to an account. This means if a student is struggling, you can help them and look at their work even if they haven't turned it in yet.
On this screen, you can also sort assignments to only show students who have submitted work by clicking the option under "all students" (on the left of the screen) that says "sort by status."
Once you click on that thumbnail, you'll see a screen that looks like this:
Here's what all of the numbers mean:
When an assignment is returned to a student, they can: go back, see your feedback, make edits, and then return the assignment again.
The good news? Grading on Google Classroom is incredibly easy.
The bad news? Grading on Google Classroom will make you never want to grade on paper again.
Go get a snack and get ready to sit and read for a minute because this is going to be a long blog post (that is posted in parts... so get LOTS of snacks).
 |
| What, your go-to quarantine snack isn't an artfully photographed charcuterie board? Can't relate. |
Tackling the topic of grading on Google Classroom means breaking it down by assignment type and G Suite app. I'll be using screenshots of actual assignments I've posted and graded (with all identifying information blurred out to keep me from losing my job and going to jail) so you can see real grading in action instead of pretend grading in action.
I do what I can to keep it real.
Keep in mind that I am an English teacher, so my examples will have a focus on ELA, but there's a lot online available for more specific content (and I'll mention some specifics for other content areas that I've found while helping others troubleshoot Google Classroom).
Grading an assignment on Google Classroom
Understanding the grading pane
Okay, so you've sent an assignment out into the ether of Google Classroom. The due date has arrived and a decent amount of students have actually completed the assignment!
You feel like a champion! You're doing this online teaching thing and everything is working perfectly! But-- now it's time to grade.
Where do you go to grade? Back to the assignment page.
From your main classwork page, click on the assignment in question and then click "view assignment."
 |
| The box shows an expanded assignment. You're clicking on the button inside the circle. |
Once you've clicked on the "view assignment" button, you'll be looking at the student work screen. Here, you can see which students have turned in the assignment, which students have not, and if students turned their work in on time or not.
Sometimes students who have an assignment marked "missing" will still have a thumbnail of work underneath their name. This means that they have started the assignment, but they have not submitted any completed work.
With Google Classroom, you can look into any files students have attached to an account. This means if a student is struggling, you can help them and look at their work even if they haven't turned it in yet.
On this screen, you can also sort assignments to only show students who have submitted work by clicking the option under "all students" (on the left of the screen) that says "sort by status."
Leaving feedback
To leave feedback (or to make comments on an unsubmitted draft), you simply choose a student and click on the thumbnail beneath their name. |
| Student information has been blurred. This assignment was due in January and 3 people still have not turned it in. |
Once you click on that thumbnail, you'll see a screen that looks like this:
 |
| This is your grading pane. The doodles will not be there. Those are mine. |
Here's what all of the numbers mean:
- This is the button you click to add a comment. Comments show up on the right of the students' work. When you post a comment, you can highlight the section of text you are referring to.
- This is the button you click to change how you interact with the assignment. You have three options: Editing, Suggesting, and Viewing. You can switch between these modes as many times as you want. By default, when you open the grading pane, you will be making suggested edits.
- Editing: When you type on an assignment, you are directly editing that assignment. I use this feature to make the assignments more readable (like when a student decided to submit an essay in 20 pt Comic Sans font), but for the most part I leave it alone because I want students to be able to see anything I edit.
- Suggesting: When you type on an assignment, you are making suggested edits that the student (aka the document's owner) can either accept or reject.
- Viewing: You cannot edit the document, it puts it into a format that's easier to read.
- This is what a posted comment looks like. It shows your name and then what you are telling the student. Students can reply to comments, and you can reply back to comments.
- This is the "resolve" button. If a student submits work that you return, and they fix the issues you commented on, you can mark the issue as "resolved."
- The option to "check originality" will NOT show up by default. It will only show up when you've posted the assignment with the originality check on. I don't suggest using this for anything outside of assessments because Google is going to start charging for this option and they've now decided to limit you to three originality checks per classroom.
- Clicking on this button will take you to the comment bank. I have more detail on that further down in this blog post.
- This is where you can add private comments to students. I mostly use private comments when a student has submitted an incomplete assignment. I explain how the assignment is incomplete, and then I hit the "return" button so they can try to fix it.
Using the comment bank
The comment bank will be of your new best friends if you plan on using Google Classroom extensively. Let's say you get fifty essays turned in and half of them have punctuation issues. Instead of having to type out "check your punctuation" twenty-five times, you can use the comment bank.
Clicking the comment bank button gives you this menu on the right of your grading pane:
You can click "add to bank" and then type "check your punctuation." Now, every time you start to type "check your punctuation," in a comment, it will suggest the entire phrase and you can press enter and move on to the next comment.
It's incredibly convenient and can be used in conjunction with different coded rubrics you might already be using.
Entering a numerical grade
Once you've given your students feedback, you can also record a numerical grade. Honestly, I don't always do this because our grading software (Infinite Campus) does not link up with our Google Classroom accounts.
Putting in a numerical grade is as simple as clicking where the student's grade is listed out of however many points you assigned and typing in a number.
- This is where you can set how many points the assignment is worth. If it's an ungraded assignment, putting a point value here will change it to a graded assignment.
- Here is where you can click to type in a numerical grade.
Rubrics
Google recently added the option to grade assignments via a rubric. Once you create a rubric, you can re-use it on other assignments. I've had some difficulty trying to share rubrics I've created with other people (but it says you can do that via Google Sheets). I've never run into an issue with using a rubric I've created, though.
Creating a rubric
You can create a rubric for your assignment on the "edit assignment" screen.
- Click on the three dots here to go into the "edit assignment" window.
- This is where any posted rubrics will be for students to click into and see how they will be assessed.
- If you haven't already added a rubric to your assignment, this will be a plus sign that says "+ Rubric." If you click this, it gives you three choices:
- Create rubric: Takes you to a screen where you can create a rubric from scratch.
- Reuse rubric: Allows you to reuse a rubric that you've already used on another assignment in your Classroom
- Import from Sheets: Import a saved rubric that has been turned into a Google Sheets spreadsheet. This is the one I've been troubleshooting lately, so expect an update when I've figured out what's been preventing other people from using rubrics I've created.
Grading with a rubric
Grading with a rubric is as simple as returning to the grading pane once you've attached a rubric to the assignment. When there's a rubric attached, you simply click on the level that the students' work has achieved and it will automatically calculate the point value based on what you assigned when you created your rubric.
Returning work
Once you've graded your work, you can return it so your students can see what grade they received.
You can either return assignments one at a time or return them together as a class.
To return assignments individually, you simply click on the blue "return" button after you have finished giving them feedback on the individual student assignment page.
To return assignments as a class, you return to the student work page that shows you all of the students' names and their assignments.
- Check "All students" (you can also uncheck individual students if you want to).
- Click "Return."
Corrections and resubmitting
Conclusion
I hope this helps clear up some confusion! My next post will go into detail about how to grade a Google Form assignment. I'll update with a link here once it's finished.
Until next time,
K. Hanlin
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