Applied Digital Skills is a great resource from Google for Education that offers a wide variety of digitally-focused lessons to integrate in both in-class and distance instruction. Its library includes over 100 video-based lessons spanning various topics and skill sets. You can browse the lessons by audience (late elementary, middle school, high school, or adult learners), digital tool (e.g., Docs, Drawings, Slides, Sheets, Meet, Sites, etc), and by topic (e.g., Art, Digital Citizenship, Science, Math, Social Studies, Computer Science, etc.).
In this post, I am sharing with you 10 lessons or Google Docs activities I curated from Applied Digital Skills library showcasing the different ways you can use Google Docs with your students in class. Each lesson comes with a sample rubric, a lesson plan, instructional videos, Google Docs activities, and printable certificates of completion. Click on the title of each of these lessons to access its resources. For Google Forms check out these Forms activities to use with students in class.
1- Annotate text in Google Docs
In this lesson, “students make digital notes in an article to increase their engagement with and understanding of what they read”. Skills targeted include: document formatting, researching a topic, and writing strategies.
2- Create a Photo Journal in Google Docs
This lesson helps students learn how to create a photo journal that embeds formatted text, visuals, and creative writing using Google Docs. Skills targeted include: communication, document formatting, and writing strategies.
In this lesson, “students will write a press release in Google Docs to communicate the important details of their project to the public. You can use this lesson to facilitate the selection and completion of a community service project with a class or large group of students.” Skills targeted include: communication, digital publishing, document formatting and writing strategies.
4- Take Notes in a Table
In this lesson students will practice taking notes using a table created in Google Docs. Some of the objectives of this lesson include: “know how to set up a template for table-based note-taking, understand the purpose of the different table sections”, and more.
5- Write a Story Using Emojis
The lesson engages students in writing and sharing emoji rebus stories. The objectives of the lesson include helping students write stories within the assigned word count, use images together with text to create representational meanings, among others.
6- Revise and Edit a Piece of Writing
“In Revise and Edit a Piece of Writing, students will Interact and collaborate with a group to revise and edit a document to strengthen the writing using standard English conventions.” Objectives of the lesson include: use editing rules and guidelines to improve a piece of writing, and collaborate with a group to decide how to make a piece of writing stronger”.
7- Analyze Book Characters and Cast Them in a Movie
In this lesson, students use a table created in Google Docs to analyze characters and cast a movie of the book. Targeted objectives include: “identify character traits of a book character, support students understanding of a character using textual evidence, and create an imaginary cast list for a film adaptation.”
8- How to write a cover letter
This lesson teaches students how to conduct “research on a potential employer or company and write a tailored cover letter for a specific job”.
9- Create a resume in Google Docs
In this lesson students learn how to use pre-made templates in Google Docs to design resumes that communicate relevant information about themselves. Some of the skills students get to practice as they complete this lesson include: use a spell check, comment in a document, share a document, and make formatting changes.
10- Make a family newsletter
Students learn how to create a newsletter using Google Docs. By the end of the lesson students should be able to “gather stories and other family related items and plan a newsletter, write a newsletter, and format a newsletter.” For more newsletters creating tools you can check this list.
