Timely and authentic feedback is a vital component to student learning.  The Google Docs comments feature is a fantastic tool to share feedback with students.  Teachers can highlight specific sections of text and insert written comments to help students improve their writing.  

However, this process can become overwhelming with many students in multiple classes.  At times, teachers might find themselves repeatedly sharing the same comment with multiple students, which can be time-consuming.  A possible solution to streamline the workflow of creating feedback comments is to use Google Keep in conjunction with Google Docs to create a Comment Bank of sorts.

Google Keep is a free note creation application that can be used on the web or a mobile device.  The app syncs with Google Drive, and notes are shareable with other Google users.  To use Google Keep as a Comment Bank, teachers should create individual notes for different feedback comments.  For example, if teachers find themselves reminding students to use a conjunction to avoid run-on sentences, they could type that feedback into a Google Keep note.  

After creating individual Google Keep notes for each frequently used statement of feedback, teachers should organize their notes utilizing “Labels.”  In lieu of folders, Google Keep creates opportunities for organization with colors and labels.  Teachers can create a label called “Feedback.” By doing so, all of the notes that they’ve created can be labeled feedback and grouped together, creating a “bank” of comments that can be located quickly and easily.  

Once comments are created and labeled in Google Keep, teachers can utilize them in Google Docs in the Side Panel.  To note: if the side panel is not visible, locate the small “Show Side Panel” arrow at the bottom-right of the screen to launch it.  This side panel in Google Docs houses icons for Calendar, Keep, Tasks, Contacts, and Maps.  As teachers select and launch the Google Keep icon, an embedded version of Google Keep will become available.  All notes will appear, and teachers can use the search function to sort and display only their “Feedback” notes.  At that point, they can simply copy and paste the feedback text into Google Docs comments as they work through a student’s document. 

Utilizing Google Keep to create a bank of feedback comments can streamline workflow and save teachers time.  To learn more and see this process in action, check out the video below!