Give Your Anecdotal Records a Face Lift with Google Forms

Okay, I know it's not Monday, but I'm linking up with 4th Grade Frolics: Monday Made It! linky party to share this awesome tool I just made. I couldn't wait until Monday to share!

Do you take anecdotal notes when conferencing with kiddos? Looking for a way to organize them and really be able to use your notes to drive your instruction? Google Forms is the answer for you. I love to conference with my kiddos during Self-Selected Reading time. What I DON"T love are the records and notes that I scribble down in my horrendous  messy chicken scratch. In the past, I've kept this giant notebook with a tab for each student. Behind each tab was a set of conference sheets that I used to write notes during our reading conferences. Sounds great, right? It was, until I tried to start pulling data for skill-based groups. Plus, all of that paper...!

Enter this fabulous idea for tracking data---Google Forms! 

I created a Google Form, emailed it to myself, then opened it on my iPad. I then saved the link to the form on my iPad home screen so that I can access the form at a touch. Here's what the actual form looks like:

So, now instead of calling the kiddo to the table where my giant notebook resides or lugging my notebook all over the classroom, I can easily go to the student with my iPad and jot notes into my form. I can also easily access the data through the spreadsheet on my computer. Here's a sample I made:

Another great feature about using the Google Form is that you can click on Form, then choose Show Summary of Responses, and there are great graphs which summarize your data!


I found this amazing idea on Karyn's Doing the Daily Five blog. (Click here for her original post). Thanks, Karyn! I can't wait to try it out next year!

If you'd like to see the actual form, you can click HERE. 

For a better look at my spreadsheet, click HERE.