Google Docs Add-Ons: Helpful for Students and Teachers!

How do most of your students actively read documents? Do they use highlighters? Post-It notes? Check out the Texthelp Highlighting Tools add-on for Google Docs! 

Do your students miss the clipart from Microsoft Word? Worry no more, open clipart is now an add-on for Google Docs! The images aren’t quite the same quality as Word, but it could definitely be used in the classroom.

Do your students work collaboratively both in and out of the classroom? Does your school allow Google Chat? If not, the Messenger add-on allows document collaborators to communicate within the document they are creating. It looks very similar to Google Chat…and could therefore be potentially distracting in a classroom environment. However, if students need to communicate with each other while they are creating and editing a document, this add-on would be a perfect fit!

For a SIMPLE tutorial about using add-ons in Google Docs, please click here.

Here are a few ways I will use these tools:

• Share a primary source document with students, provide them with discussion or guided questions, and require them to “actively read” the selection. Students will use the Texthelp add-on to highlight words or phrases of importance, and will share that document with me (through their Assignment Folders…thanks gClassFolders!)
• Students will respond to writing prompts in a Google Doc. To cite a source, they’ll simply choose the EasyBib add-on to keep track of their Work Cited…within their document!
• Students can submit their writing assignments to me for editing. I can use the Texthelp add-on to mark up their paper
• Students can search for and include images from open clipart in their documents to add pizzazz 🙂
• Increase student collaboration and engagement (under teacher monitoring) with the Messenger add-on.

There are so many ways to use Google Docs in the classroom…and these new add-ons are practical and helpful for our students. Enjoy using them!

Thanks for reading 🙂