Creating Scenes with Google Drawings

I recently saw a post from Marshall Beyer (@MarshallBeyer29) about an activity he did with students in which they created scenes in Google Drawings to demonstrate their learning. It looked really awesome, so I decided to try it in my classroom!

A few weeks ago, students chose a Native American region to research. One of the resources they used was an article from Newsela. I created an assignment in which they were challenged to use Google Drawings to create a scene that demonstrated what they learned about the Native American region from the article.

I gave my students a set of directions that included an example of a scene that I created. Here are the directions:

One of the things I'm working on this year is letting students explore the digital tools we use instead of showing them how to use them step-by-step. It's challenging at first, but they are so proud of themselves when they discover all the different ways they can create! I also love how eager they are to show each other what they can do!

They did a really great job overall! One thing I would do differently next time is that I would be more specific about the need to include a background color because some students left it transparent.

Here are some student examples:

Have you used Google Drawings in your classroom? I would love to hear your ideas!

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