Making Informational Text Interactive Using Google Docs

When students encounter informational text in the real world, it’s rarely static— it’s in a media-rich content, often linked to external sources, video clips, and engaging images. Teaching informational text can be challenging — especially when new, challenging state standards call for a rigorous level of analysis.

One way to bring informational text to life is to use a Google Doc. We’ve put together an example for a 7th grade reading passage:

You can access this resource, and then “Make a copy” to your Google Drive so that you can modify and share it with your class.

In our example, we’ve aligned each of the questions to standard RI.7.1, which calls for students to be able to “Cite several pieces of textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.”

If your students have Google Apps accounts, here’s a quick way to get them started:

1. Give students access to your read-only copy of the doc (including any of your modifications) using a shortened link, using a service like Google URL Shortener or Bitly.
2. Have students copy the doc into their own drives and share it back with you.
3. Allow students time to complete the assignment and record their responses right in the doc.

If your students don’t have access to Google Docs, then you can print the assignment and have them complete a hard copy.

You can access this resource, and then “Make a copy” to your Google Drive so that you can modify and share it with your class.