Google Docs is a great word processor, but is much more than just that. Although we can certainly use it to type up a report, take notes, or write a story, we can also get creative with the features and functions built into the program to make some fun learning activities.

Recently I did a video training webinar where I took a look at four creative ways to use regular Google Docs features in new fun ways to practice and develop literacy skills. These include:

The highlighting tool for the activity "Improve Reading Comprehension with Google Docs Black Out"

The special characters tool for the activity "Emoji Learning Activities with Google Docs"

The word count tool for the activity "Have Students Write Better by Writing Less with Google Docs"

The header tool and hyperlink tool for the activity "Choose Your Own Adventure Stories with Google Docs"

See below for the full 1-hour training video, as well as resources, ideas, and templates for each of the four activities.

Session Resources

Session Agenda - Google Docs link

Training Video (1 hour)

1) Improve Reading Comprehension with Docs Black Out

Description: In this activity students use the highlighter tool to black out any text that is not critical, leaving behind just the main ideas.

Resources: For full details and resources for doing this activity, see my original blog post "Improve Reading Comprehension with Google Docs Black Out"

Below is the portion of the training video that covers this specific activity:

2) Emoji Learning Activities

Description: In this activity students use special characters to insert emojis to summarize stories, write creatively, and explore character emotions.

Resources: For full details and resources for doing this activity, see my original blog post "5 Emoji Learning Activities with Google Docs"

Below is the portion of the training video that covers this specific activity:

3) Have Students Write Better by Writing Less

Description: In this activity students use the word count tool to write within a character limit or word limit.

Resources: For full details and resources for doing this activity, see my original blog post "Have Students Write Better by Writing Less with Google Docs"

Below is the portion of the training video that covers this specific activity:

4) Choose Your Own Adventure Stories

Description: In this activity students use headings and hyperlinks to create interactive stories in Google Docs.

Resources: For full details and resources for doing this activity, see my original blog post "Choose Your Own Adventure Stories with Google Docs"

Below is the portion of the training video that covers this specific activity:

Post by Eric Curts. Bring me to your school, organization, or conference with over 50 PD sessions to choose from. Connect with me on Twitter at twitter.com/ericcurts and on Google+ at plus.google.com/+EricCurts1

This unit includes a combination of fourth grade writing and social studies standards. It focuses on research and public discourse.

7th Grade Historical Literacy consists of two 43 minute class periods. Writing is one 43 minute block and reading is another. The teacher has picked themes based on social studies standards, and a read-aloud novel based on social studies serves as the mentor text for writing and reading skills. More social studies content is addressed in reading through teaching nonfiction reading skills and discussion. Standards reflect CCSS ELA, Reading, and Social Studies Standards.

8th Grade Historical Literacy consists of two 43 minute class periods. Writing is one 43 minute block and reading is another. The teacher has picked themes based on social studies standards, and a read-aloud novel based on social studies serves as the mentor text for writing and reading skills. More social studies content is addressed in reading through teaching nonfiction reading skills and discussion.

This is a cross-curricular activity that uses the story Alexander, Who Used to Be Rich Last Sunday to practice money and decimal skills in addition to reading and writing skills. After reading or hearing the story, students will complete the attached worksheet. (If it's read aloud, students would need a way to refer back to the story to answer the questions. The worksheet has a mixture of reading and math questions. It can be edited if you choose. It can be used for either 3rd or 4th grade. With slight modifications, it could also be used for middle school EL students to learn about currency.

This particular roadmap features all of the COLLABORATIVE designed activities for the "Ancient Civilizations Roadmap Unit View (revised)" resource. You could distribute this roadmap to students for work that they complete synchronously with partner(s) as part of their learning path in the unit map.

Compare and contrast writing for English Learners using social studies content. Scaffolds include multimedia support, partner work, jigsaw protocol and sentence frames. This roadmap presents the UNIT view (including solo and collaborative tasks). There are two additional roadmaps for distribution that would be helpful when teaching the unit - Ancient Civilizations Roadmap- Solo Activities + Ancient Civilizations Roadmap- Collaborative Activities.

A writing practicum associated with 11.200 and 11.205 that focuses on helping students present their ideas in cogent, persuasive arguments and other analytical frameworks. Reading and writing assignments and other exercises stress the connections between clear thinking, critical reading, and effective writing.

This guide is for faculty authors, librarians, project managers and others who are involved in the production of open textbooks in higher education and K-12. Content includes a checklist for getting started, publishing program case studies, textbook organization and elements, writing resources and an overview of useful tools.

In this unit, students explore the beauties of winter. In the first part of the unit students pretend to be meteorologists as they learn about different weather forecasts and the words that meteorologists use to describe the weather in winter. Students start by exploring generic weather words and then transition into winter-specific words. In the second part of the unit, students explore how animals survive in the winter and the ways in which animals meet their basic needs, even when the ground is covered with ice and snow. In the last part of the unit, students read a variety of Jan Brett texts and use what they have learned about snow and animals to make inferences about what is happening with the different winter animals in the text. By the end of the unit, students should have a strong grasp of what makes winter unique and the different ways plants and animals survive in the winter. Due to the timing of this unit, it is our hope that students will have plenty of opportunities to interact with the vocabulary and content in the natural world around them. When outside for recess or anytime that it snows, students should be pushed to use the vocabulary and content they are learning in the unit so that the content can fully come to life. In reading, this unit is predominately a collection of informational texts and builds on skills and strategies from earlier units. At this point it is assumed that students are inquisitive consumers of text and are able to ask and answer questions about a text in order to deepen understanding of the content. In this unit, students will continue to be challenged to identify the main topic of a text, retell the key details that connect to the main topic, describe the connection between ideas in a text, and use the illustrations and words to describe and retell what is happening in a text with varying levels of teacher support. Students will also begin to use strategies to ask and answer questions about unknown words in a text, specifically those connected to weather and snow. As part of daily text introductions, students will also continue to explore the purpose behind text features, specifically the front cover, back cover, and title page of a book, and how each feature supports understanding of the text. Many of the skills and strategies in this unit are spiraled from earlier units or will be spiraled through upcoming units; therefore, it is up to the teacher to decide what level of support students need with the particular strategy and scaffold accordingly. In writing, students will continue to write daily in response to the text. At this point in the year, students should be using a combination of drawing and words to correctly answer the question. Pick focus teaching points based on data from previous units and individual student needs.

LEARNING TO WRITE BIOGRAPHIES
Discuss biographies previously read
Students will write a biography about one of the people they have read about. They will use information from one of these books and information from an online source to plan and write the biography.
Review Writing Process
Create Graphic Organizer model
Informative Writing Checklist
Students will work in their research groups and choose 3-4 subtopics. Then students will begin the graphic organizer.
Sharing
Use the Smartboard or projector to display www.factmonster.com.
Students will continue to work in their research group. They need to complete their research from the class book quickly and begin their search with source two.

This lesson is the first of six in a series of close read-alouds for the text Stone Girl, Bone Girl. In this lesson, students are introduced to Mary Anning, the real-life fossil hunter. Students use the content knowledge to kick-start their study on paleontologists and fossils. This close read-aloud provides in-depth practice on multiple literacy skills, including retelling a story and identifying characters' responses to events.
During the close read-aloud, students practice looking closely at pictures and word choices when examining small sections of the text read aloud. Close read-alouds by definition are with complex texts, so the Close Read-aloud Guide provides intentional questions to help students with comprehension. For additional information on close read-alouds, see the Teaching Notes in Module 1, Unit 1, Lesson 6.
This lesson introduces students to selected response questions (SRQs). Students are introduced to multiple strategies to help them answer an SRQ in preparation for the Unit 1 Assessment. In this and future modules, students will practice these types of questions in preparation for assessments in third grade and beyond.
In the Closing, students revisit perseverance, a habit of character, and learn about a new habit of character, initiative. Students identify these two habits of character while participating in the close read-aloud of Stone Girl, Bone Girl. Students also see a more personal application while talking about new challenges in the classroom, such as SRQs.

Students begin to create their "Curiosity Museum," a collection of fossils and captions about them. This activity is meant to build engagement in the topic and deepen student exposure to fossils. Consider inviting students to bring in pictures or artifacts related to fossils to store in the museum (see the In Advance section for preparation).
This is the second of six lessons in a series of close read-alouds of the text Stone Girl, Bone Girl. In this lesson, students read the first two pages closely to understand the characters and setting. Students participate in several vocabulary exercises to understand the imagery created by the text. (RL.2.1, RL.2.2, RL.2.5, RL.2.7)
During the close read, students participate in a Language Dive conversation that guides them through the meaning of a sentence from Stone Girl, Bone Girl. The conversation invites students to unpack complex syntax--or "academic phrases"--as a necessary component of building both literacy and habits of mind. The sentence is compelling because it uses the quantifier few to signal one challenge in the main character's life. Students then apply their understanding of the structure and meaning of this sentence when retelling the first section of the book, in preparation for the Unit 1 Assessment. Invite students to discuss each chunk briefly, but slow down to focus on the highlighted structure had few friends.
Students are introduced to retelling in Work Time B, when they practice retelling the first section of the book to build mastery toward RL.2.2, RL.2.5, and SL.2.2. Because the speaking and listening standard is so closely linked to these reading standards, it has been included on the checklist for assessing students in this unit. Students continue to practice retelling in preparation for the Unit 1 Assessment.

Volumes and volumes of written work was emerging in the American colonies on the subject of British policies. Apart from major documents and publications, much writing had been produced as letters, pamphlets, and newspaper editorials. The arguments set forth in this way were at times very convincing. American patriots of the 1770s did not have modern means of communication at their disposal. To spread the power of the written word from town to town and colony to colony, Committees of Correspondence were established.

This textbook follows California Language Arts Standards for grades 9-12 to provide a generalized understanding of composition and to serve as a supplementary aid to high school English teachers.

Creating a story is not an easy task. What should I write about? Who will the characters be in my story? What will happen? These are all questions that every author needs to answer before their story can take shape. Storybird is an online community that provides original artwork to inspire students. The artwork sparks their imagination and supports story creation. Collaboration can take place when students invite others to work on their story with them.

Week 36, Day 1---Day 5
Culminating Activity: Reading and Writing Identity
Memoir: Special memories about a person, place, object or time
"The memoir you will be writing will be a reflection of how you have changed as a reader and writer this year. It’s going to be like a year in review, so you will create a mini book as part of the memoir project.
Some of you may be thinking that this is the same as a personal narrative, but memoirs are more about looking back and thinking about how things have changed over time just like we did at the beginning of class. Narratives tell a story, but memoirs show how the event was meaningful to the author’s life. Also, memoirs are only snapshots. They don’t include the person’s whole life. Now I will add the characteristics of memoirs to the chart.
Use 1st person
Use true descriptions of actual events
Describe any problems faced by the author
Include the author’s feelings about the situation or event
*Narrative Graphic Organizer

In 5th grade, students can begin researching and interviewing others on topics for a weekly or monthly newsletter for the school. The students will learn interviewing techniques as well as become better writers.

This course introduces students to the writing process as a means of developing ideas into clear, correct, and effective writing.

Throughout this module, students revisit the module guiding questions introduced in this lesson: "How do writers capture a reader's imagination?" and "What can we learn from reading literary classics?"
In this lesson, students participate in the Infer the Topic protocol to familiarize themselves with the module topic, using resources from the texts they will be reading throughout the module (RL.3.1, W.3.8, SL.3.1).
In Work Time C, students begin reading Peter Pan retold by Tania Zamorsky. The routine of reading aloud as students follow along silently in their heads, and then recounting the chapter will be repeated (with gradual release) in each lesson until students have finished reading the book in Unit 2. Pay careful attention to the routines in this lesson in order to apply them to subsequent lessons.
In this module, a literary classic is defined as a story that was written a long time ago but is still enjoyed today. It is important students understand that one person's idea of a literary classic might be different from someone else's because there are no set rules about what a literary classic is.
Ensure students understand that they are reading Peter Pan as an example of a literary classic and that we can learn things about different time periods in history through reading literary classics. Also ensure that they understand the importance of studying these classics so they can learn from the narrative techniques used.
It is important to be sensitive to students' and families' feelings and experiences with regard to literary classics in the U.S., such as Peter Pan--feelings that may range from very positive to somewhat neutral to very negative. Some people love the adventure, the characters, and the descriptive writing; others find the racism and sexism offensive--for example, the way Mrs. Darling stays at home and looks after duties there while Mr. Darling goes out to work--and also the descriptions of "Indians." These issues are discussed more in the next lesson through an informational context text, but it is important to be prepared to handle them sensitively should they arise.
After reading each chapter, students have time to reflect. Monitor your students and determine whether issues are surfacing that need to be discussed in more detail as a whole group, in smaller groups, or independently.
ELL supports within the Meeting Students' Needs column have changed. Each support is labeled and fully explained the first time it is used, then labeled and condensed in subsequent lessons (see the Unit 1 Overview).
Note that the Mini Language Dive format has changed to reflect a more student-centered approach (see the module overview).
Beginning in this lesson and throughout much of Units 1-2, students are asked to follow along silently as you read the text aloud or to read chorally as a class or with partners. This builds their fluent reading skills. In this lesson, students follow along, reading silently in their heads as the teacher reads Chapter 1 of Peter Pan aloud during Work Time C.
This lesson is the first in a series of three that include built-out instruction for the use of Goal 4 Conversation Cues. Conversation Cues are questions teachers can ask students to promote productive and equitable conversation (adapted from Michaels, Sarah and O'Connor, Cathy. Talk Science Primer. Cambridge, MA: TERC, 2012. Based on Chapin, S., O'Connor, C., and Anderson, N. [2009]. Classroom Discussions: Using Math Talk to Help Students Learn, Grades K-6. Second Edition. Sausalito, CA: Math Solutions Publications). Goal 4 Conversation Cues encourage students to think with other students to expand the conversation. Continue drawing on Goals 1-3 Conversation Cues, introduced in Modules 1-2, and add Goal 4 Conversation Cues throughout Modules 3-4 to more strategically promote productive and equitable conversation. Refer to the Tools page for additional information on Conversation Cues. Consider providing students with a thinking journal or scrap paper. Examples of the Goal 4 Conversation Cues you will see in the remaining modules are (with expected responses):
To encourage students to compare ideas:
Teacher: "How is what _____said the same as/different from what _____ said? I'll give you time to think and write."
Student: "_____ said _____. That's different from what _____ said because _____."

To encourage students to agree or disagree and explain why:
Teacher: "Do you agree or disagree with what your classmate said? Why? I'll give you time to think and write."
Student: "I agree/disagree because _____."

To encourage students to add on to others' ideas:
Teacher: "Who can add on to what your classmate said? I'll give you time to think and write."
Student: "I think that _____."

To encourage students to explain others' ideas:
Teacher: "Who can explain why your classmate came up with that response? I'll give you time to think and write."
Student: "I think what she's saying is _____."

Note that Goal 4 Conversation Cues are not built into the Discussion Norms anchor chart, as these cues are best suited for teachers facilitating student conversations.