Strategies for Maximizing Google Docs in Middle and High School

Many teachers use Google Docs, a straightforward processing program with the added benefit of online access and sharing capability. Need to write a quiz and share the link with another teacher? No problem. Need to download an essay as a PDF file? Can do.

But Google Docs isn’t just a digital notebook space. Like many teachers, I leaned into Google Docs out of necessity during the pandemic—I needed an easy way to share assignments with students, and Google Docs did the job. But the more that I integrated it intentionally into my everyday lesson plans, the more I’ve found it can be a powerful tool for not only completing activities remotely, but also helping students engage more thoughtfully in the classroom.

Support Student Collaboration

One well-known feature is the ability for multiple people to edit simultaneously—this means that students can collaborate in real time, working on a project or lab together. Pen and paper have many benefits, but when it comes to collaborative learning, it means that only one student is writing at a time. Google Docs makes it possible for groups of three or four to answer questions, complete an outline, or even write an essay in a uniquely blended form that gives everybody equal access and opportunity to participate.

In an ideal world, students are working together throughout an activity, and that includes verbal discussion—collaboration and learning can’t just happen through a screen. For that reason, if students are working together in class, I like to start each activity with one screen per pair of students before splitting onto individual laptops 10 or 15 minutes later. Not only does starting on the same screen get students to work together from the start, but also it ensures that everyone has a healthy understanding of what to do before they begin writing or working on their own screen. This approach has been particularly helpful for long-term group projects, where students may work on pieces independently but need interconnectivity between each part of the whole.

Instead of assigning roles to ensure that everyone participates, I ask students to choose a different color to type in and to create a color-coded key at the top:

• Student 1 = Red
• Student 2 = Blue
• Student 3 = Green

Color coding helps everyone make sure the group dynamics stay balanced—nobody’s color should be missing, but nobody’s writing should dominate the activity, either. Students are kept accountable because they can’t blend into the anonymity of group work, but unlike traditional role assignments, color-coding allows flexibility and encourages students to interact with one another’s writing rather than staying strictly in their own lane. The goal of working together is to engage with one another’s ideas and learn from them, so I remind students that evidence of their work should be entangled with one another; by the end, there are rarely entire paragraphs that are only one color.

Sometimes, students ask if they can add an extra color to their key that represents jointly written language when they’re talking and typing together. I always say yes—after all, the goal is thoughtful writing and collaboration, and a color-coding technique is just one way of helping students get there organically.

Promote Independent and Multimodal Learning

Group work and projects are often at odds with the realities of running a classroom. In the real world, students are often absent unexpectedly or don’t finish an activity in the one class period that we had planned. That doesn’t mean that group learning should be avoided; it’s where we can use technology to help. Collaborative documents allow students to continue independently, reference shared notes, and make progress even when a group member is unexpectedly absent. The quick switch between synchronous and asynchronous learning was critical when teaching online during the pandemic, but it’s a skill that’s improved my normal classroom instruction, too.

It’s when I’m absent, however, that I appreciate Google Docs the most. Hyperlinking videos and articles into a document is easy, which makes multimodal learning more feasible and allows me to offer students choice when absent. I’ll sometimes leave assignments where I ask students to select one of three linked videos and answer a set of questions or select one of three linked articles to annotate and evaluate. Google Docs is a great way to gather items for a menu or choice board. Because the platform allows for editing in real time, I can put the view-only link in our online learning management system for students and still make changes to the assignment document if a link is broken or a question needs editing.

Facilitate Meaningful Feedback

While it’s great that Google Docs allow students to write together, the “Suggesting” mode is equally useful. Peer feedback is valuable, but it’s also important that students retain control over their own work. The Suggesting feature allows students to leave comments or suggest edits for one another without actually changing the text. I try to use it when I’m leaving feedback, too, primarily through comments. Instead of directly marking over a student’s work, leaving comments strengthens a sense of collaborative purpose, mirroring the relationship between author and editor.

No matter what’s on a Google Doc, every change is tracked through the document history. On the day that my 10th-grade students turn in their longest paper of the year (an argumentative research paper that’s typically eight to 10 pages), I encourage them to click on the document history and see their process unfold. I hope that it’s affirming for students to watch their initial draft grow into a paper that they’re proud of. Especially as academic honesty concerns abound in a time of artificial writing, the document history keeps the focus on process, not just the final product.

Tech is a Tool, Not a Solution

AI may be all the rage, but if we want students to develop strong thinking and problem-solving skills, they need experience hypothesizing, and generating too. Like the technical design and crew working tirelessly backstage in a theater production, technology in the classroom can elevate and enhance the experience, adding depth and complexity that might otherwise be hard to access.

However, that doesn’t mean that tech should be front and center. After all, the goal is to make our students smarter and more capable of collaborative problem-solving and inquiry, not to outsource their thinking. Google Docs isn’t going to upstage or upend education, but it can enhance it—and that’s exactly what makes it perfect for facilitating, not replacing, student learning.