Super easy PDF commenting for better collaborative reading and comprehension

In recent years lots of teachers would have spotted students developing the habit and tendency to skim read online and the shallow comprehension skills that follow. We constantly give students resources to read over to supporting their thinking and their understanding of case studies, yet many students will read too quickly and superficially without processing the information.

A lesson I did last week really changed my perspective on this, using a super simple PDF commenting trick in Google Drive. A colleague Sean McHugh spotted a few weeks ago that Google had added a comment function into any PDF you have stored in Google Drive. With a couple of quick clicks you can print an article off any website and save as a PDF and then save this into your Google Drive. You can then choose to share the PDF ‘with a the link’ and thus give the viewer the ability to comment on the document. You can click and see the explore the example below.

You can set this up as follows;

• Find your article online or find your saved PDF
• If you have an online article click to print but change destination to – Save as PDF
• Drag PDF into your Google Drive
• Click in the top right to share and then choose – Share so ‘Anyone with link can comment‘
• Then share this with your students, they can comment on individual words or top right to drag an area to comment.

At our school you can link directly from our Online Learning Platform ‘Teamie’ can it will sort the permissions for you. To save the craziness of an entire class commenting on one PDF best top copy and duplicate your file a couple of times and have smaller reading groups.

As an assessment trick, I asked them very specifically to look for definitions or examples of the concept we were studying in the article and to add a comment where they found them. I could scan the documents and see how they were going or add a comment to nudge them along.

The digital photocopier - Google Doc copy and assignments in Teamie

This blog post outlines a powerful tool for both sharing copies of Google Docs with students but also collecting them so you can easily provide feedback and track progress. This is a time saver for both students and teachers and avoids the need to students to copy links and submit files.

Within the Online Learning Platform (Teamie) you can make an assignment which will automatically create a copy of a template Google Doc for each student to work on. The assignment will hold the Google Docs in one place so you can scan through students ahead of your final deadlines.

Creating the assignment

Firstly navigate to materials and then press the + button to add an assignment. You will need to give a brief description of the assignment and then use the Google Drive picker as shown below to add a Google Document.

You can add Google Docs, Google Slides or Google Sheets as files to be copied for students.

What do students see?

Once they navigate to the assignment they can select 'take now' There is then a small lag whilst the document is copied and then permissions shared. Once copied students can either work on the file in Teamie or via their Google Drive. 

Once the deadline is reached the students will need to submit for your to allocate marks or use a rubrics. Student can also submit one of more documents using the regular option to link to upload a file. 

Navigating and tracking progress

Once students have clicked to begin the assignment you can view the drafts from the assignment submissions page as outlines below. You can sort by status and then click as shown to see overviews of individual students work and leave comments. 

Sutori Stories

Sutori is a web tool that offers a powerful combination—simplicity and a unique formatting structure that allows students to organise content along a vertical continuum.

The college has a site licence for premium access, just inform a DLC if you'd like your teacher account to be upgraded and they will arrange that for you. As a teacher, any students you add to your class in Sutori will also be upgraded to premium account.

The obvious application is for the creation of a timeline (this tool used to be called HSTRY) but really the true power of it is in easily allowing the distribution of content in a way that shows understanding of order, process, within a linear structure that can also easily be used for collaboration, and can easily be shared with others.

Grade 6 Humanities

Here's an example from a Grade 6 student in a class who were asked to use Sutori to demonstrate their understanding of chronological order.

At the scale of a few days:


And at the scale of ancient history:

Grade 8 English

Approaching challenging texts:

Embedding for Formative Assessment

As Sutori supports embedding, it is a relatively simple step for students to use the embed code to submit their artefacts as an assignment to an online learning platform, making it very easy for the teacher to view the learning in progress and provide feedback see the example here, using Teamie, you can view my other post on embedding if you'd like more detailed instructions on how to do this:

Age Restrictions

Sutori supports Single Sign On (using Google) but unfortunately will restrict the features available if the student using the platform is under 13 years of age. This doesn't really curtail the use of the tool, but it does mean that they cannot share their work very easily, for example using embed code, or using a share link for peers or for their teacher to view. Instead, the teacher would need to set up a class within Sutori and invite students to join, then can share their work within Sutori, which is better than nothing, but far from ideal. 

An alternative (apart from waiting until they are 13 years old) is to use this Google Drawing as a template, not as simple to use as Sutori, but pretty close: 

Embed Web Content into a Teamie Assignment

Many teachers know that Teamie Assignments are a genuine example of tech that really does make the process of gathering student screen based work far more efficient than having students drop off content via a shared folder, or even worse, via email.

However, while the kinds of artifacts that are submitted to assignments are still dominated (understandably) by Google Docs and PDFs, assignments are just as effective at collating other forms of media: audio, image, video, slideshows, spreadsheets—pretty much any format that can be viewed in a web browser.

What many teachers don't realise is that students can embed internet 'Web 2.0' content to an Assignment as well, what does that mean? This would include anything like the following:

• YouTube Videos (that the student has uploaded)
• Padlet
• SoundCloud Audio
• Presentations like Prezi, Animoto, Haiku Deck, Slides.com
• Online Whiteboards like Google Drawings, RealtimeBoard, ShowMe, and others
• Mind Maps like MindMeister
• Maths/Physics models built by students from sites like Desmos et al
• If it's online, and it's interactive, chances are it can be embedded. 

I prefer to ask my students to submit their content at the start of the process; as embedded content is dynamic, I can see any changes that they make in real time, so this is a great way to be able to check in on it as it is in progress and to give feedback as it is in development.

Set up the Assignment

Bear in mind, the only change (if you're already using Assignments) here is required by the students, what you have to do as a teacher is no different to any other assignment, if anything, the main distinction is what you don't need to do.

1. Choose Text entry
2. Untick Files/Google Docs (so they don't get confused)
3. That's it.

Student Workflow

So what changes for the student? They work in the relevant website as normal, but they will need to embed the content to your assignment, as follows:

Embed?

Now, stay with me, it's worth it! Embedding can seem a little daunting at first, but trust me, it's not as techie as it looks. Most if not all of the kinds of sites mentioned above with have a 'share' option, and one of the share options will usually be to 'embed', when that is chosen, the site offers you a screed of computer gibberish, don't panic, all the students do is copy that, and paste it into Teamie and the rest is emagic. Trust me.

Here's an example of the kind of digital gibberish I'm talking about:

<iframe width="600" height="400" frameborder="0" src="https://www.mindmeister.com/maps/public_map_shell/992381377/area-of-knowledge?width=600&height=400&z=auto&t=M4DyiJO2IW&no_share=1&no_logo=1" scrolling="no" style="overflow: hidden; margin-bottom: 5px;">Your browser is not able to display frames. Please visit <a href="https://www.mindmeister.com/992381377/area-of-knowledge?t=M4DyiJO2IW" target="_blank">Area of Knowledge</a> on MindMeister.</iframe>

Once it's embedded, you can view the content right from within Teamie, where you can also leave comments in the side panel, use a rubric, or/and assign a grade, just as you would with any other submission.

Grab the code:

An example of embed code from a YouTube video

Here's a couple of examples of where students can grab embed codes from Padlet and MindMeister.:

Submit the embed code to the Assignment

I've broken this down into a step by step break down, you can always show/share this post with your class if they need assistance the first time:

Student view

Once they have copied the embed code, the click on the link symbol.

(Some will just paste it into the text field, [you know who!] that won't work)

Clicking on the link symbol pops up the embed window, they just paste in the embed code, and click Insert.

Then they will see their web content load in their submission window, so they can be sure it all looks hunky dory, before they choose Submit for evaluation. 

Teacher submission view

This is how it looks as a teacher, you can view the content, and leave feedback (written or spoken) as usual. 

Here's an example of how you can interact/navigate the content the student has embedded if it is a presentation, or interactive model for example. 

Posting tips for better formative assessment

The Online Learning Platform in Middle and High School is our key tool to both share resources and communicate with students.

The post option has lots of hidden tricks allowing you to collect student responses, develop polls for students to vote on or share Google Docs. Have an explore through the slides below for examples to explore and try with your class.