by Kathryn Nieves
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CheckItOut
Classroom libraries are staples of both the elementary and secondary language arts classroom. Having opportunities for students to self-select books for their reading definitely has its benefits when it comes to building motivation. However, setting up a check-in and check-out system can be difficult for teachers. There are a variety of apps that offer ways for teachers to set up their classroom libraries and the Google Forms add-on CheckItOut is one tool to consider.
As an add-on, CheckItOut only works within Google Forms. Once it is added, it is ready to use within the program. Open a new Google Form and fill in your title. Then, add a question asking for a person’s name. Make sure it is a short answer question and that it is required in order to submit the Form. You can also add a question for class period if you want to separate your classes.
Next, you need to enable the CheckItOut add-on. You can do this by clicking the puzzle piece and selecting “CheckItOut.”
From the pop-up window, select “Add/Edit Question Set.” You can edit the check in/out name to “Book” and select the type of question you want. There are a few options you can choose from. If you select “Multiple Choice,” it means that the students can only select or take out one book at a time. If you select “Checkboxes” it means that students can check off more than one book at a time.
When you are finished, select the blue “Add” button and the appropriate questions will be added to your Form. From there, you will have to input all of the titles from your library into the “Check out Book” section. If you do not want a huge list of books, you could always create separate Forms based on genre bins or the organizational system of your library.
Adding titles is the most time consuming of the entire process. This list can be edited at any time. As new classroom library books are procured, you can edit or rearrange the list.
Once you are finished, you can test your Form by clicking on the eyeball icon on the top of the page.
Enter a name and check out a book in order to test your Form. Then, you need to refresh the page and you should see that the book you checked out has been removed from the “Check out” list and instead is added to the “Check in” list.
You can view the statistics of your classroom by going back to the Form editing section (or clicking the pencil in the top right corner of the Form). You will see a second tab which indicates a numerical count of how many responses the Form has. Clicking on the “Responses” tab will provide a breakdown of the frequency to which each student checks out a book. You can see which books have been returned and are still checked out, as well.
If you want to view this information as a spreadsheet, click the Google Sheets icon at the corner of the “Responses tab.”
In the spreadsheet, you will see the student’s name, the book they took out, and the instance when they turned it in. You will also have a timestamp for when the book was checked in and out.
This tool could be used throughout the year to keep track of books in the classroom library and also to see what types of books students are reading. When the year is over, you can clear the responses and start fresh for the following year without needing to redo the entire Form. To clear responses, go to the “Responses” tab and select the three vertical dots next to the Sheets icon. Choose “Delete all Responses” to start off the new school year.
While the process of adding all the titles from the classroom library might seem cumbersome, the ease of using CheckItOut for classroom libraries outweighs this issue. The Form can be used year after year in the classroom and, with more schools going 1:1 with devices, is a great way for students to keep track of their signed out materials.
New Jersey Council of Teachers of English 