Digital Journals with Google Classroom

Digital journals are so versatile.  They can be used in English class to reflect on a book.  Social studies students can use a journal to role play as a soldier writing home from the battlefield.  Math students can reflect on their critical thinking skills.  Spanish students can describe their family or write about their day in Spanish (Check out my Google Docs for Spanish Class post).

Should students have to keep track of composition books and should teachers have to lug them back and forth from home and school?  Is there a better way?  Yes, and it’s called Google Classroom and Google Docs.  Here’s how.

1. Attach this Digital Journal Google Doc to a Google Classroom post so that each student gets a copy.  First, hover over the “+” sign in the bottom-right corner and click “Create assignment”

   

    

2. (1) – Create a title, such as “Digital Journal” and instructions for the students, (2) – Write some directions (Alice Keeler – Writing Assignment Directions) for your students so they know what to do without you having to constantly repeat them, (3) – Click the Google Drive icon and choose your “Digital Journal” Google Doc, (4) – Make sure to select “Make a copy for each student.”  And of course, click “ASSIGN” to post the assignment.

   

   NOTE: If you add a due date (not advised), students will lose access to their document after the due date.  You will have to “RETURN” the Google Doc to the students before they can add their next journal entry.

3. After students complete their journal entry, they will click the “Turn in” button in the top-right corner. As the teacher, you can check their work during or after they turn in the assignment.
4. Review student submissions, give feedback through the comments feature or suggestions feature in Google Docs or the reply or private comment feature in Google Classroom.
5. Click next to the students name and click “RETURN” to send your private comment back to the student.

   

    

6. When your students need to add another entry, simply move this same post back to the top of the Google Classroom Stream by clicking on the 3 vertical dots on the top-right corner of the post and selecting “Move to top”.  Students can open the assignment and complete it once again.

   

7. Change the steps of your post by clicking the 3 vertical dots on the top-right corner of the post and then “Edit” (see image above).  The NEW instructions (shown below) direct students to click “RESUBMIT” for all future posts rather than the “Turn in” button.  The “Turn in button will no longer appear within the students Google Doc for this assignment.

   

    

   

As shown above, by using the same Google Classroom assignment post over and over, you and your student can have a private conversation through private comments.  By using the same Google Doc over and over, students will be able to review comments within the document from previous submissions to improve their writing throughout the year.  This would be much harder to do if each journal entry was a separate Google Doc.