Google Docs & Rubric Options | Orange Slice/Doc Appender

I hear this question all of the time, "Sean, I love using Google Docs with my kids, but I grade using a rubric, and it's hard to do that with Docs".  Here are two options that allow you to use your own rubrics, view them along side the document that you are grading, and have the rubric/feedback inserted directly into the student's work!

Orange Slice

An add-on for Google Docs

The main idea behind the Orange Slice Google Doc Add-on is this...

1. Insert a rubric to the bottom of the Google Doc that you are grading.
2. The criteria then appear in the sidebar for you to use while reading the Google Doc.
3. Once finished assigning scores, click a button to highlight the chosen criteria in your rubric and insert an overall grade for your students.

The details are outlined very well in the following short video.  Although I encourage you to view this whole video if you're interested in digital rubric grading, the Orange Slice specific section starts at 11:40.

Doc Appender

An add-on for Google Forms

Doc Appender works a little differently than Orange Slice.  With this method, you would be creating a Google Form that contains all of the information that you want to go back to your students (criteria scores, comments, etc...).  You fill out the form, submit, and any information from the form that you want will be appended to the bottom of the student's document.  The core of this method was discussed in a previous blog post entitled "Instant Peer Feedback with Google Forms", and other details discussed in "Google Forms: New Add-ons Expand Functionality".

The difference now is only that instead of having students use the Form to provide feedback, the teacher uses the Form as a rubric.  The main advantage to this method over Orange Slice is that you can completely customize what goes into the rubric Form, and what is pushed to your students.  For example, you may want to have a spot on your Form where you can record something about this paper that you want to remember to remind students about for next year.  This question can be held back from being appended to the student's document, but will still show up on your Google Sheet that collects all of the Form responses.

In the video above, the section on Doc Appender starts at 22:10.

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If you would like help using any of these tools, please contact your district instructional technology coaches!

Sean Mullins | Secondary Coach