Using Google Forms for Physical Education Skill Assessment

As a teacher, you are constantly observing your class and seeing a variety of skill levels displayed by your students.  Why not record those observations and use that data to help drive your instruction? Using a simple Google form can help keep all your formative or summative skill observation Physical Education assessments organized.  This free tool takes the guesswork out of grading and gives you objective data you can use to give feedback to students and help guide your teaching.  The great thing about using this form is that you can use this one, single form for EVERY skill assessment that you do for the entire year!  No need to create a new form each time you assess.  And, once you’ve made one, you can simply copy the form as a template for your next class, change the teacher name and student list and repeat this process until you have a form for every class you teach.  Let me show you how…

Before You Start

Many of you have already created a free Google account.  If you don’t have an account yet, you’ll need to create one first.  CLICK HERE and follow the prompts to set one up.  You’ll want to begin by opening your Google Drive and clicking on the +New button on the top left corner of your screen.  Select “More” and then select “Google Forms”.

Learn how to create a physical education assessment with Google Forms

Name Your Form

I teach elementary PE and teach 24 different classes, so the first thing I do is change the name of the form to the grade and name of the classroom teacher.  This helps me locate the form I want quickly.  I’ll name this one “3 – Johnson” for example, for Ms. Johnson’s 3rd grade class. 

MS or HS teachers could use the class period or course title instead.  Just something that will help you identify which form goes with which class.

Question One: “Assessed Skill”

After you’ve named your form, click on “Untitled Question” and change it to “Assessed Skill”.  You will notice that this automatically changes the type of question to a Short Answer.  Keep the toggle switch on as a “Required” part of the form.  Then click on the +plus sign in the tool box at the top right. This will add the next question to your form. 

Screen Shot 2018 09 27 at 10.59.42 AM

Question Two: “Multiple Choice Grid”

This second question is where we will add the student names and the grading scale you wish to use.  We want to set this up using a “Multiple Choice Grid” format. Click on the question type (where it says “Multiple choice”) and select the “Multiple Choice Grid”.  Switch the “Required” toggle to off.  This way, if I don’t get a chance to assess the entire class during a given class period, I can still save/submit what I did and come back to the students I missed on another day. 

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Now you are ready to add your students and your grading scale.  Your students will be entered under the “Rows” and your grading scale will be entered under “Columns”.  To streamline this step of the process, I find it best to have an electronic copy of your class roster available.  I simply copy the student names from my spreadsheet and then click on “Row 1” and paste the names there.  They will automatically populate with one name listed on each row!  (time saver)

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Next you add the grading scale you want to use to the “Columns” section.  My District is set up with three grade descriptors, so I use a simple 3- point scale conversion to match the descriptors.  I also add an “NA” for not assessed due to a student absence and a “MED” for any student that I can’t assess due to a medical reason.

The form is now complete and ready to start using!  Click on the “eye” icon to preview your form.

View the Responses

View the physical education assessment in action and learn how to view the results.

All the information you just submitted is automatically stored within the form and responses can be viewed in a summary format, by individual, or you can create a spreadsheet by clicking the green “Create Spreadsheet” button.  You will notice on the main form that you now have 1 Response.  That means you have completed one assessment session and the data is ready to view.  I like to use the Spreadsheet option to view all my assessments for a particular class in one location at a glance.  I enhance my spreadsheet with a few clicks to center everything, add student averages for all their assessments from a given grading period and even set some conditional formatting to have the cells color coded to correspond to the students’ overall skill competency for the grading period.

View Responses in Sheets

Export your assessment from Google forms to a spreadsheet and analyze your results.

A google sheet is my preferred way to look at the data I’ve collected.  I can see the timestamp date of when I assessed a skill, which skill I assessed, and all of the students’ scores for that observation session.

As I continue to use the same form for more assessments, it will continue to populate on this sheet so I’ll have a complete view of everything I assessed.

Edit Your Sheet to View Overall Grade

When report card time comes around, I edit the data in the sheet to make it more visually appealing and easier to transfer the grade to my District report card.  First, I click on an empty cell at the bottom of the first student column and average all the assessment numbers for that student.

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Then I copy and drag that “average” formula to all the other students across the row. 

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As an optional step, I color code the bottom “total average” row with a conditional formatting feature so that as scores are recorded, the cell will change color depending each student’s overall grade.  I use green for my top grade (Demonstrates Consistency), yellow for my middle grade (Demonstrates Progress), and red for my low grade (Area for Improvement).  On my 3-point scale, I break it down like this: 2.5-3 = Consistency, 1.6-2.49 = Progress, 1-1.59 = Improvement. 

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Here’s how I do that…first, select and highlight the entire row of averaged scores.

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Next, click on FORMAT and select conditional formatting to get this option.

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Next, set the “conditions” (or number ranges & colors) for your data.  The first “rule” or condition will be to set your highest score.  I select “Greater than or equal to” under the “Format cells if” selection box and type in 2.5.  This means that all students who have an overall average of a 2.5 or higher will turn a certain color.  I use the color green.  Select the paint can and pick the color that works for you. When you’re finished setting the first color & number range, click “Add another rule”.

The second “condition/rule” you create is your middle score.  Select “Is between” and enter the numbers 1.6 & 2.49.  Select your color from the paint can (I use yellow) and then click “Add another rule”.

Finally, you will create or final “condition/rule” which will be your low score.  Select “Less than or equal to” and enter the number 1.59.  Select your color from the paint can (I use red) and the scores on your sheet are now formatted by color.  The cells will now automatically change colors as more data is entered to reflect student performance.

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Summary

Let’s face it, if it is important enough to teach, it is important enough to assess.   I trust this tutorial gives you the tools you need to create your own physical education assessment and use it in your program.  I also hope you gained the confidence to manipulate the data in a way that makes it easy to transfer to your report card.  Please leave questions/comments for me below or feel free to contact me through my website at www.pe4everykid.weebly.com

14 Responses

  1. This is great! I am working on creating assessment pieces with my Methods students now and this is one that I will pass on to them! Thanks, Angie

  2. I just started using GC. I love it with a few struggles. I created a skill assessment and I evaluated a few students to try it out. However, I don’t know how to go back after submitting a few scores to finish class.

  3. Hey, Brandon – if you have a large class and can’t get through assessing all the students during one class period, I find it best to observe them in alphabetical order. This way, you can look at the spreadsheet to see which student was the last to get assessed and the following class you can pick up with the next student on the list. If you just randomly watch various students (but not all during one class period) then it gets more confusing to remember who you watched and who you didn’t. I would suggest selecting the students on the spreadsheet that were already assessed and printing a hard copy. Then you could cross-reference the students who were already assessed with the ones you still need to assess. My largest class size is 26 and I get them all done during one class to avoid this issue…but larger classes can be done!

  4. Thanks a lot for the reply. That makes total sense. This time around I’m just gonna use a spreadsheet printed out and then put the scores on my own. But when I get the next wave of students I will make sure to assess them in alphabetical order. I really like the stuff you’re doing. I wish I could do it more in my school but I’m the only teacher that uses technology in our department and it makes it somewhat challenging.
    Have a great day

    Brandon

  5. Glad it was helpful! If you have any other questions, don’t hesitate to reach out. And keep trying new things even if others aren’t eager to jump on the bandwagon.

  6. Thank you so much for the teaching tool. How do you enter fitnessgram assessment scores? For example
    student A does – 10 curl up and then Student B does – 13 and so on.
    I want to be able to input there individual scores –to create a graph.

    Ultimately, I want them to enter their own scores on google classroom. Do you have any videos on how to input this data?
    Thank you for all your efforts, I use your curriculum and ideas in my classroom. It has made a huge impact!

  7. Hi, Cameron – I’ve done it a couple of different ways…either students enter a partner’s score or I enter the score. Here is an example of a partner fitness testing form (or I guess you could have students enter their own, but I do it as a partner pair). https://drive.google.com/open?id=1AHZ292sNH4m22ecqLsKHuEZGDom-sNwp5qsoICn2D4I You can also tweek that form to make it so that you (as the teacher) enter all the scores. Does that make sense??

  8. Thank-you for all the Google form assessment instructions. You made this so easy and convenient. One question, I didn’t know how to go back into the commercial formatting, already set up, if I wanted to change it. Did I miss this in your tutorial?

  9. Thank you so much for these amazing tools. I have used it to adapt for my Hospitality classes for observation assessment tools on the go in the kitchen.

  10. Mike,
    Thank you so much! This is so helpful and beneficial for the teachers in our district. I appreciate your willingness to share so that we can experience success for ourselves and our students during this unprecedented school year.

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