Using Google Sites in Remote Teaching

Amidst the current crisis keeping us all housebound, there is no doubt that many are going a little bonkers. Online teaching provides several advantages but seems to also create more stress and work.

As with all sections, the English department has been working to ensure meaningful and relevant tasks and activities for all year groups. This can seem like a burden if you are doing this for each and every class; hence, we have collaborated to deliver units to both students and parents not only via Google Classroom, but through developing Google Sites as well. This is proving particularly useful with P6 students as they are new to Upper School and are still struggling with acclimatising to the variety of teachers and classes.

Developing Google sites is empowering for more able students as they can explore additional resources, videos and activities. For example, we have hyperlinked keywords in the myths and legends P6 are reading so that they can quickly find definitions, historical information and so on. Hyperlinks are a great tool for differentiation. The weaker students find definitions or pictures to aid their understanding, and some hyperlinks are there to stretch the more able and curious students, giving them wider reading and links to contexts such as the Devil’s Dyke which is an actual place in the UK. Google Classroom complements this well in that we can assign particular worksheets to each student and monitor their progress, as well as keep a record of their achievements. Additionally, the shared screen in Zoom provides the students with help in navigating the site.

Continually adding to the site and making improvements allows students to go back and review what they have covered and explore other areas of interest linked to their unit of study.

The site for the P6 Unit on Myths and Legends can be seen here.