http://eslcrystal.wordpress.com/

1. Using Google Drive in Writing
Workshops
Crystal Rose
@crysrose28
Minnesota, USA
TeachMeet Int’l
April 20, 2013

2. Why Google Drive?
 Had been using a class wiki (pbworks) for writing
in the computer lab
 Format not easily adaptable for formal writing
 Only one student could edit any page at a time
 A place for formal writing in the computer lab
 Easily adaptable for printing writing
 A place where students can access their writing
and the writing of other students from home or in
class
 A familiar platform (connected to gmail)
 A platform to facilitate collaborative writing in the
computer lab

3. The Activity
 Six adult international ESL students, beginning
level
 Brainstorming ways to improve your health (to
supplement our unit on health and the body)
 Follow-up activity to previous class reading
 Students split into two groups of three
 Each group had 10 minutes to write as many
ideas as they could (minimum 3 ideas/student)
 Sentences needed to be grammatically correct
(imperatives) and use vocabulary we covered in
previous class
 Students could only communicate via chat
function

4. My Perceptions
 Students motivated to engage in writing
 Students more easily identify errors in own writing




and the writing of others
Students become accustomed to giving and
receiving written feedback
Students forced to use written language to
communicate
Easy to monitor all student work & highlight errors
in real-time
Some students found navigating basic computer
functions challenging at first

5. My Students’ Perceptions
They liked:
 Working together
 Helping each other
 Practicing spelling
 Correcting friends’ sentences
 Open Google Drive at home
 Teacher can correct mistakes
and answer questions
 Students can joke between
friends in chat
 Students have own color
when typing
 Students can work together
from home
They didn’t like:
• Writing changed quickly
(real-time)
• Sometimes difficult to
know where to save
documents/open them
• Asking questions via
chat was more difficult
than asking orally
• Asking for clarification
or spelling help was
difficult via chat

6. Resources & Reflections
 Integrating Google Tools 4 Teachers
 https://sites.google.com/site/colettecassinelli/docs
 ESL Crystal Blog: Reflections on activities
 http://eslcrystal.wordpress.com/
 Bouchardsenglishteacher Blog
 http://bouchardsenglishteacher.wordpress.com/
 Questions?
 rosex466@umn.edu
 @crysrose28