Using Google Forms to Create Quizzes for Your ESL Classroom

I've been a paperless teacher for over a year now and I honestly can't tell you the last time I actually had to stand over a copy machine. Thanks to Google, myself and tech-savvy educators across the world have ditched the traditional paper based Microsoft Word and opted for cloud services.  For me, the transition was almost invisible. I didn't even notice I had become a paperless teacher.  Features inside of Google Drive such as: Docs, Presentations, Spreadsheets, Forms and the Chrome App Store with their easy integration and organization have made it easier for educators to create, share, and store information like never before without the need for printing papers or documents.

Such is the case with Google Forms. Over the last few months, Google Forms has been my most used app inside Google Drive, especially when designing interactive TOEFL quizzes to be delivered to students over their phones or tablets.  Most ESL teachers I come across have NO idea that Google Drive even exists.  They are still avid users of Microsoft Word and rarely touch a Word product other that MW and PowerPoint.  They still consider Google to be just a search engine. During my presentations at conferences all across Georgia, I can't tell you how many times I still hear educators with over 20 years experience in the classroom scream, "WOW" when I show them how to use Google Drive products in the classroom.

Google Forms is originally designed to execute questionnaires, inventories, and surveys, but can also be used to design classroom quizzes featuring images and YouTube videos.  Along with a very famous script known as Flubaroo, theses classroom quizzes quickly become self grading and scores are stored in spreadsheets and emailed to students within minutes.  I first discovered Forms when as a student life coordinator, I wanted to make a small questionnaire for students exiting the institution I worked for.  After playing around with it, I quickly discovered that Forms could be used as a replacement for multiple choice tests we administered to our students who took their level up moving tests.  Not only was my discovery very effective, it eliminated the use for our outdated scan tron machine and the expensive papers that were piling up in our storage room.

The best part of Forms in my opinion, is that it provides transparency between students and teachers as the answer sheet can be attached to the students' email reported scores.   I usually review the quizzes immediately after they are scored and the answer sheet helps make it easier for students to recognize their mistakes.



Forms comes with a nice amount of colorful themes for its templates and includes a question types such as; Text, Paragraph Text for longer answers, Multiple Choice, Check Boxes, and Choose from a List. To find out more about Google Forms, try it yourself today! Just go to your Google Drive and select Form from the 'Create Menu.'

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