Google Classroom Tutorial: The Basics for SLPs

Are you an SLP trying to learn the basics of Google Classroom? At the time that I’m writing this post, there is a global pandemic. Schools are closed, and many of us are providing speech therapy services through some form of distance learning.

A few years ago, I received my Google Level One Certification. And wow, I’m glad I decided to do that. It was a lot of work at the time, but it’s paying off now.

Today, I’m putting together a mini tutorial to help you get started if you feel completely lost.

You can locate Google Classroom by typing in classroom.google.com . You can also find it in the “waffle“.

When you click on “classroom”, you will have a few options in the upper-right hand corner. If you want to create a class, you simply click the “+” icon.

You can create a class, but your students can also join your class from here. They’ll just need a code (I’ll explain that in a minute).

After you create a class, you’ll have to name it.

For the purpose of this post, I created an example class that I named “Speech Therapy“.

You see that class code? It’s underneath the name of my class, Speech Therapy, in small text. Your students can join the class if they have it. (They can go to classroom.google.com, click on “join class”, then enter the code).

This view (picture above) is looking at the “stream“. Think of this as the “conversation”. There are two tabs to the right: classwork (where you can create assignments) and “people” (you can add students here).

I’ll click on classwork first.

Okay, so here is where you can send videos, PDFs, Google Docs, Google Forms, etc. to your students. When you click on “create”, you’ll see some options.

Let’s say you wanted to provide some visuals, or speech room rules, that would always be easily accessible. You’d select materials in that case, and upload whatever document you wished. These are documents that are just meant to be viewed, not interacted with. Maybe it’d be the equivalent to what you’d hang up in your room at school.

If you want your student to actually complete or view an assignment, however, I suggest that you create a topic. Topics are ways to organize. You might organize by week. You might organize by area (i.e. articulation, language, etc). It really depends on what you want.

Here I have created some example “topics”, to show you what it would look like:

Now that you have everything organized, you can create assignments! Simply go back to the “create” menu.

You’ll give your assignment a title, and type out some instructions. You can add a PDF, a Google Slides activity, a Screencastify video, a Youtube video… whatever you like.

Also, see that menu on the right? You can assign the assignment immediately, or schedule it. You can choose which specific student to send it to (honestly, I’m keeping my classrooms to one student per classroom, as students can see the other students in the class). You can make your assignment graded/ ungraded. It is up to you! I highly suggest choosing the option to “make a copy for each student”, by the way.

Now, you probably have one more question: how do I ADD students?

Of course, they can join with the code (see above).

But you can also add them via email address. Select “people” from the menu at the top. Then select “add people“.

When you do this, you will be given the option to send an invitation via email to your student(s).

Hopefully, you now understand the basics of Google Classroom!

You’ve got this!