Tag Archives: Google Classroom

Introducing silent reading mode in Google Classroom’s Read Along

What’s changing 

In addition to the recent announcement of educators being able to upload content to Read Along in Google Classroom, we’re excited to introduce a new feature that allows students to read a book in silent reading mode. 


Prior to today, students could only read aloud and unlike the default reading mode, silent reading mode will allow students to read a book silently without having to draw attention to themselves or disturbing their classmates. In addition to giving teachers more flexibility in how they use Read Along, this new reading mode is particularly useful in scenarios where multiple students might be working on a reading assignment in the same space. With less noise and fewer distractions, students can still build independent reading skills and will continue to: 
  • Receive assistance from the AI reading buddy when needed by clicking on any unknown words 
  • Be presented with questions to help with their reading comprehension 
  • Receive stars when they read with few errors or assistance and answer questions correctly 

Additional details 

When using silent reading mode, teachers will not be provided with a student's reading performance related to accuracy, words per minute, or phonics. The teacher will receive reading performance insights related to comprehension. 


Getting started 


Rollout pace 

Availability 

Available for Google Workspace: 
  • Education Plus and the Teaching and Learning add-on 

Resources

Google Classroom is expanding to 7 additional languages

What’s changing

Last month, we announced the ability to use the Google Classroom mobile app in additional languages, and today we’re excited to announce the same languages are also now available with the web experience: 
  • Afrikaans
  • Assamese 
  • Estonian 
  • French Canadian 
  • Icelandic 
  • Kazakh 
  • Swahili 

Additional details 

Certain Google Classroom features might not be accessible in all languages, including Read Along in Classroom, Practice sets, Originality reports and Gemini in Classroom 

Getting started 

Rollout pace 


Availability 

Available for Google Workspace: 
  • Education Fundamentals, Standard, Plus, and the Teaching and Learning add-on, Endpoint Education add-on 
  • Customers with the Gemini Education or Gemini Education Premium add-on 

Resources 

Use Gemini in Google Classroom to generate questions or a quiz based on specific text

What’s changing 

Earlier this year, we introduced the ability to generate vocabulary lists with the help of Gemini in Google Classroom. Today, we’re adding a text-dependent question generation tool to further our efforts for AI to help educators save time, create captivating learning experiences, and inspire creativity. 

Educators can select a Google Drive file or manually input text, select which skills they want students to demonstrate, then generate questions to assess grade-specific comprehension and critical reasoning skills of students. Once generated, educators can then export the questions to a Google Form or Google Doc to assign to students. This new option can be particularly useful in a variety of scenarios, such as creating an exit ticket or a quiz to check students’ understanding.

Getting started 

Rollout pace

Availability

Available for Google Workspace for Education customers with these add-ons: 
  • Gemini Education and Gemini Education Premium 

Resources 

Create and manage grading periods using the Google Classroom API

What’s changing 

Last year, we introduced the availability of grading periods endpoints as part of the Google Classroom API through the Google Workspace Developer Preview Program. Today, we’re excited to announce the general availability of this feature, which will enable developers to: 
  • Create, modify, and delete grading periods in courses 
  • Read grading periods in courses 
  • Reference and set grading periods on CourseWork resources 
  • Apply grading period settings to existing CourseWork items 

Who’s impacted 

Developers 


Why you’d use it 

The new grading periods endpoints allow developers to create, modify, and read grading periods in Classroom on behalf of administrators and teachers. 


Getting started 

  • Admins: The Classroom API provides a RESTful interface for you to manage courses and rosters in Google Classroom. Learn more about the Classroom API overview. 
  • Developers: 
    • Application developers can use the Classroom API to integrate their apps with Classroom. These apps need to use OAuth 2.0 to request permission to view classes and rosters from teachers. Admins can restrict whether teachers and students in their domain can authorize apps to access their Google Classroom data. 
    • All API and Classroom share button integrations should follow the Classroom brand guidelines. 

Rollout pace 

  • This feature is available now. 

Availability 

  • A Google Workspace for Education Plus license is required to access this feature for both education leaders and educators. Learn more about licensing requirements. 

Resources 

Educators can now upload content to Read Along in Google Classroom

What’s changing

In addition to the recent Read Along in Google Classroom feature that provides educators with more visibility into student performance, we’re excited to give them the ability to upload their own content into Read Along as part of the assignment creation process. 
Whether there’s a desire to include location-specific content that’s rich in local history and culture or provide materials aligned with geo-specific curriculum, this highly-requested feature expands Read Along’s current library by empowering educators to add content that addresses learners’ needs. 
uploading content to read along

Getting started 

Rollout pace 

Availability 

Available for Google Workspace: 
  • Education Plus and the Teaching and Learning add-on 

Resources 

Use the Google Classroom Mobile App in additional languages

What’s changing

We’re excited to announce that we’re expanding the language availability for the Google Classroom mobile app on Android and iOS to the following languages:

  • Afrikaans 
  • Assamese 
  • French Canadian 
  • Icelandic 
  • Kazakh 
  • Swahili 


Additional details 

The languages above will be available on the web version of Google Classroom in the coming weeks. We will provide an update on the Workspace Updates Blog when this feature becomes generally available. 


Getting started 

Rollout pace 

Availability 

Available for Google Workspace: 
  • Education Fundamentals, Standard, Plus, and the Teaching and Learning add-on, Endpoint Education add-on 
  • Customers with the Gemini Education or Gemini Education Premium add-on 

Resources 

Expanding data regions coverage to Google Classroom

What’s changing 

Data regions for Google Workspace allows customers to choose a specific geographic location—in the U.S., in Europe, or globally distributed—for their covered data at rest to help meet organizational or compliance needs. 


We previously added data regions coverage to Google Drive, Docs, Sheets, and Slides, and today, we’re extending data region coverage to primary user data for Google Classroom for the U.S. and E.U. data regions. 


By expanding data regions coverage to Google Classroom user indices, we hope to better support our customers’ data location preferences and give them greater control.


Getting started

Rollout pace 

Availability

Available for Google Workspace: 
  • Education Standard and Plus 

Resources

See phonics-based performance insights for decodable books in Google Classroom

What’s changing

Last year, we introduced Read Along in Google Classroom, a new feature that helps students build their independent reading skills by enabling teachers to assign differentiated reading content, based on Lexile® measure, grade level, or phonics skills. 


Read Along in Classroom includes access to a growing library of decodable books from Heggerty that educators can assign to practice specific decoding skills. To improve upon the current analytics dashboard experience and provide teachers with phonics-based performance insights for decodable books, we’re adding a new analysis section. 


With this update, teachers will see details about how a student or class is performing on the individual phonics skills listed in a decodable book and words that need practice. 

phonics analysis in Classroom


Getting started

  • Admins: 
  • End users: The phonics analysis dashboard will only appear for newly created decodable book assignments. This can be accessed by clicking on the assignment name in the “Grades” section of Google Classroom. Existing assignments will keep on showing the data as earlier. Visit the Help Center to learn more about Read Along in Google Classroom. 

Rollout pace 


Availability 

Available for Google Workspace: 
  • Education Plus and the Teaching and Learning add-on 

Resources

Introducing the ability to ‘grade all’ in Google Classroom

What’s changing 

In 2023, we expanded grading systems in Google Classroom and in 2024 we added a 'missing' grade state to Gradebook. To further improve upon grading options for teachers and give them the ability to perform bulk grading, we’re introducing ‘grade all’. 

With this new feature, teachers can quickly and efficiently grade all students' work on the Gradebook page by selecting ‘grade all’. They can also choose to override existing grades and automatically return them to students after grading. 

Not only does this update save time by eliminating the need to enter each student’s grade one-by-one, but it also provides a solution to grading assignments based on completion rather than accuracy (such as exit tickets, due nows, classwork, etc.) where the grade is binary (‘0’ or ‘100’). 

bulk grading in Classroom



Who’s impacted 

End users 


Why it matters

‘Grade all’ enables teachers to score faster and save time, ultimately making grading more efficient. 


Getting started 

  • Admins: There is no admin control for this feature. 
  • End users: 
    • Once a teacher has set up grading, they can follow these steps to grade all: 
      • Go to Google Classroom > Gradebook > In the 3 dot menu for an assignment click “Grade all” > In the dialog that opens, input the bulk grade 
        • [Optional] Select “Override existing grades” to override existing grades with the new bulk grade 
        • [Optional] Select “Automatically return after grading” to return all grades after submitting the new bulk grade. 
    • Visit the Help Center to learn more about grading & returning an assignment. 

Rollout pace 


Availability 

  • Available to all Google Workspace customers, Workspace Individual Subscribers, and users with personal Google accounts 

Resources 

Generate vocabulary lists using Gemini in Google Classroom

What’s changing 

Since May of last year, education institutions have been leveraging new and powerful ways of working, teaching and learning with Gemini for Google Workspace. This includes products and features such as the Gemini app, Gemini Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI™), Gemini in Google Vids and Gemini in Classroom.

In continuing our efforts to ensure AI helps educators save time, create captivating learning experiences, and inspire creativity, we’re introducing a new way to generate vocabulary lists with the help of Gemini. 

Starting today, educators can generate custom word lists that are tailored to specific grade levels and topics identified by the educator. Specifically, the list will provide the word’s grammatical category, a clear definition, and a relevant example sentence to help students understand and use the vocabulary effectively. This functionality is accessible via the “Gemini Education” tab in Google Classroom. 

creating a vocab list using gemini in classroom


Who’s impacted 

Admins and end users 


Why it’s important 

This update helps educators create vocabulary lists tailored to specific grade levels and topics while simultaneously empowering students to master vocabulary and deepen their understanding of language – all right within Google Classroom. 


Getting started 


Rollout pace 


Availability 

Available for Google Workspace customers with these add-ons: 
  • Gemini Education and Education Premium 

Resources