All the Ways to Use Google Forms in Middle School Language Arts

Google Forms have been around for awhile now. Many teachers use them for easy test-taking, which is great and provides an easy assessment.

However, I do not give multiple-choice tests since I do reading workshop, but there are lots of other ways to use Google Forms. If you are teaching in a setting that primarily uses novels and choice reading, read below to learn about all the ways I do Google Forms.

Here are 9 ways to use Google Forms:

1. Escape rooms

2. Weekly book logs

3. Reading records

4. Mental health check-ins

5. Evaluations and self-assessment

6. Student conferences (for the teacher)

7. For parents

8. Late work

9. Requests for assistance

Escape Rooms

This is the most fun way to use Google Forms. It IS a bit challenging to create your own, but if you look around on Teachers Pay Teachers, you will find a ton.

Basically, you have to create puzzles, typically slides, in which the answers become a code of some sort. I will give you a brief explanation here, but you can Google and there are lots of YouTubes and blog posts about this topic.

The images above just outline the very basics of creating a Google Form for an escape room. It definitely takes a long time to create, but hey, some people love doing that kind of stuff!

Below are all the escape rooms I've created.

Weekly Book Log

I hate reading logs, I really do and I actually didn't do them for years. Unfortunately, I truly felt that I had to start holding students more accountable, grade-wise, for NOT reading. I started using a very basic book log this school year. It's super simple and quick, but I can tell if they've been reading or not based on their responses.

I am very tired of chasing kids down to read. Obviously, I try lots of approaches and sometimes it works, but there are just some kids who, no matter what you do, won't read. I NEVER wanted to assign a grade to reading, but it's gotten to the point where I have to.

I will look at the the responses in a Google sheet. I sort it by name. It's a bit confusing below, but the numbers are the page that student was on when they filled out the Form. Next to the page, is their brief summary. If you look at the Ghost rows, you can see that child is not reading like he should be because he only read a few pages each week.

If you want a more detailed weekly book log, I do have one in my TpT store. This one has some more specific questions that could be asked. Click below!

Reading Record

This is different from the weekly book log. The weekly book log is more for recording what they read each week. The reading record is a basic form that students fill out each time they start a new book. I have a very elaborate version of this as Google Slides in my store that I've used for years. The main reason I went away from it this year was time. My ELA classes have been shortened this year and it would take time to do the Slides during class time. I still love it and it has a LOT more to it than just doing a Form.

So, another, quick, version of this is what you see below. I am finding I have to remind my students constantly to fill it out, but it's a helpful tool.

Similar to my Weekly Book Log, I open up the Google Sheet of responses and evaluate. I notice if one student has been reading the same book all year or the same genre all the time. Again, my Google Slides version of this is more detailed, but this works, too.

Mental Health Check-ins

I did this a lot during COV-ID. We are not counselors, but it's good to know what the students are feeling. Middle schoolers won't always tell you out loud what's going on. Also, there is often so much the office and counselors know that we never get told. Providing them with an anonymous form may yield some really important information. You can really build any kind of questionnaire for this. Here are two that I did.

Evaluations and Self-Assessments

You could create a Form in which students self-evaluate. I've done them after big units or at the end of the Marking Period. It's not something they may normally do, so this forces them to evaluate themselves. Sometimes, I even share their thoughts with parents. I tell them if I do this. As a parent, it's curious to see what their child thinks of themselves.

Another thing I like to do is have them evaluate me. Truth...I didn't do it during COV-ID because that year DOESN'T COUNT haha! I didn't even do it last year because we were still hybrid. I will try this year since we are back to normal.

Anyway, here is a blog post about it. I go into great detail there. You have to go into it knowing that students may say things that will hurt your feelings. You have to understand they are teens/tweens and will say what they feel. They don't always appreciate everything you do. However, it's interesting to see what they say to help improve your practice.

You can get a survey like this below.

Student Conferences (for the teacher)

I am not sure how many districts require this anymore, but when I started out, conferencing was HUGE and not only that, it was important to document, document, document. We used to have to keep running records on each student, record what we focused on during the conference and more. It was so tedious to do all of this on paper and time-consuming!

I created a Google Form that streamlined this process. With just a few checkboxes you could run through conferences in minutes and have documentation.

Click the picture below to get your own version of this! The picture below is only half of the full Form.

For Parents

Forms are great to get parents to fill out information for you. I've used them for all sorts of things. It's tough, though, because a lot of parents hardly read emails let alone fill out Forms. I've used the Forms as simple permission slips for things or just asking their opinions on certain things.

I also really like to give one out at the beginning of the year that requires the parent to give contact information, preferred emails and phone numbers, their preferred name, etc. While majority of this stuff is on our school grading website, sometimes there are errors or just simply don't contain more personal things they'd want you to know as a teacher.

Click the picture below to get your own version of this! The picture below is only half of the full Form.

Late Work

I was tired of students randomly telling me they handed in things late or emailing me that they finished something. I do allow up to 4 late assignments per marking period. It's very difficult to keep up with late assignments and it was super impossible during COVID, which is where this came from.

This Form is required by my students to fill out each time they hand in something late. It documents exactly what assignment they are handing in late, the date, and more.

Click the picture below to get yours.

Requests for Assistance

These are simple Forms you can have on your Google Classroom in which a student could request for specific assistance. Perhaps they need to stay after school, want to see the counselor, have an issue with another student; there's lots they could use it for.

Just be sure you put notifications on. You have to do this through the response Google Sheet. Check out the images below to see how to do that.

Bottom Line

Google Forms are not just for quizzes. It really is great for record-keeping and documenting. They are super easy to create and are equally easy for students to fill out. Use them!

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