GSuite Classroom Assigning Discussion Groups

If you haven't heard by now, there is a new feature in Google Classroom that I have been longing for: assigning individual assignments! {You can read all about the new update features here.}

Released in January 2017, you can now assign students in your classrooms different assignments as well as questions. I have been using this feature for over a week to give it a test run- and it is everything that I have been waiting for!

Some examples of how I use it:

My fourth graders are currently working with a school in India on a project about pollution. The teacher in the school in India initiated the project by creating Padlets that discussed the causes and effects of pollution in India and shared it with us via two blog posts to look over and comment on. I did not want all the students to gravitate to the blog post that contained the padlet with more videos and less text articles. Using Google Classroom's new feature, I simply divided the two posts strategically as two assignments in Google Classroom. This way I ensured that the students who may have felt overwhelmed by an overload of information, or have a learning disability recieved the blog post that had more videos.

I am also in the midst of coaching a fellow teacher on using the "Question" feature as a way to create groups within classroom to answer a series of questions pertaining to a piece of literature. The students within the group are to respond to one another posts by shedding additional text evidence and asking questions to their peers. The teacher participates as well by replying to the students responses and ensuring they are on task,

Below is a quick Video Tutorial that I created for the teacher of whom I am coaching to look upon as a reference.

How have you used this new feature?