Using Google Docs to Prepare Students for Smarter Balanced Assessments

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If you haven’t taken the opportunity to preview the Smarter Balanced Testing practice tests, now would be a good time. The Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) is one of the two nationally approved assessments aligned with Common Core, as well as being an adaptive assessment, suitable for all students including students with disabilities.

As teachers, you may be concerned whether your elementary students would be successful. You don’t about whether or not they have the knowledge. It’s more about the format. For many us, transitioning to a computer adaptive assessment is new territory. Many students around the country, are used to multiple choice, pencil and paper exams and some students have had opportunity to complete a multiple choice assessment on a computer.

The Smarter Balanced assessment asks students to use a variety of technology skills to respond to multiple formats of questions. Now, my thoughts shift yet again. Our students know how to be successful at this test, they just need some help connecting the dots. Using Google Apps in elementary schools can strengthen technology skills needed in the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC).

Using Google Apps and other practical applications, students can enhance the technology skills needed to be successful on Smarter Balanced. They may not realize it they have the skills, we can help them make the connection. Let’s look at how different sections of the test look in SBAC and how Google Docs can help.

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ELA PortionHow it looks in SBAC: How Google Docs can help:

In the ELA portion of the test, some of the questions require students to highlight phrases as part of their answer.

For example, students need to read passages, then they choose by highlighting the correct answer. Sometimes, they need to highlight two possible answers:

A. Students want to have foods that they

B. There are many students who take their

C. If students are given more choices

D. Letting students choose from many

Students can practice highlighting phrases in their writing showing examples of certain writing strategies, vocabulary, or editing skills.

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ELA & MathHow it looks in SBAC: How Google Docs can help:

Both ELA and Math require dragging and dropping. In the ELA portion, students might need to rearrange sentences so the paragraph makes chronological sense.

In the Math portion, students need to drag numbers to boxes to show missing measurements. Sometimes they need to drag numbers to create two-digit numbers (see example below).

Using Google Docs, students can practice moving sentences from one part of their writing to another by dragging and aligning the cursor with the new location.

In Google Draw, students can create shapes and move them around the page to create an image.

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How it looks in SBAC: How Google Docs can help:

In the Math portion, students might be asked to draw a line to divide a shape.

Using Google Draw, students can practice creating shapes with the line or shape tools.

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How it looks in SBAC: How Google Docs can help:

In the Math portion, students are asked to devise an equation to match the area of a grid.

Using Sheets, students can format and outline cells to create shapes, then create matching equations for area or perimeter.

The ELA portion has some open-ended responses. In some instances, students are asked to revise an already created paragraph.

Using Google Docs, students can practice writing reading responses or brief explanations, comparisons, or opinions. Students can then share with a peer who can add or revise the writing.

The ELA portion has a few audio or visual components.

Using Slides, students can prepare presentations, then compose questions for peers to answer. For added fun, invite students to create hyperlinks to slides within the presentation to create a quiz.

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