Chromebook Superpowers

Students will:

• Be able to share Chromebook shortcuts they already know. 
• Be able to use a Chromebook shortcut to explore and try many other shortcuts available on the Chromebook. 
• Be able to collaborate to learn and share new shortcuts. 

Vocabulary Words:

1. Shortcut: A shortcut is a shorter, alternative route; an accelerated way of doing something. (On a Chromebook, that usually means a way to do something using only the keyboard, not the trackpad or a wireless mouse.)

To prepare for this lesson:

• There are many shortcuts! There are shortcuts that everyone should know to help students use their Chromebooks. 

• Here are two articles to read and determine which shortcuts your students should be familiar with:

  • Google Chromebook Shortcut Keys

  • Shortcuts Every Student Should Know

• Here is a cheat sheet of many of the Chromebook shortcuts from the Quitman School District. 

• Familiarize yourself with the KWL chart and make a plan for how you will record student responses.

• Decide how/when you will display and share the KWL chart with students.

Note: I allowed students to work in partners or small groups, and this really facilitated the collaboration I was hoping for. They bounced ideas off each other and were excited to show each other new things!

See the Accommodations Page and Charts on the 21things4students website in the Teacher Resources. 

Directions for this activity:

1. Introduction: Ask students what it means to know a shortcut for how to get somewhere, like a friend’s house or a favorite restaurant.

   • Define shortcut using their answer(s) and the definitions here: Shortcut: a shorter, alternative route; an accelerated way of doing something (on a Chromebook, that usually means a way to do something using only the keyboard, not the trackpad or a wireless mouse

2. Know: To take inventory of what the class knows about Chromebook (CB from here) shortcuts, pull up the Google Doc KWL and project this.

   • Ask for volunteers to tell about a Chromebook superpower/shortcut and record it in the chart. I would collect 5-10 to start.

3. Want to Know: Ask for volunteers to share any shortcuts they’ve been wondering about or heard of before, but don’t know. I would record 3-5.

4. Work Time: Share this Google Doc as “view only” in the Google Classroom at this point so they will be able to see the additions to the chart as of now.

   • Demonstrate how to use the shortcut CTRL-ALT-? to view and search for new shortcuts.

   • Give them 10-15 minutes to “play” around, trying out some of the shortcuts suggested by classmates and/or trying out some of the ones they find in CTRL-ALT-? (You know your class best; it may work best to give 5-7 min for one and then 5-7 min for the other.)

   • Invite students to come up and share a new shortcut they’ve learned and you can add it to the L section of the KWL. Keep it projected as you add so students can see and try new ones as they are posted. (I don’t recommend giving all students access to edit the document at the same time. This can get out of control easily.)

   • I do recommend asking students to show at least two people the shortcut before they show/tell you. This weeds out most errors and teaches more students.

5. Learned: After the work time, gather as a class to look over the shortcuts that have been learned since the beginning of class. If some of the more common shortcuts have not been mentioned, I recommend showing these:

   CTRL-F   find

   CTRL-C   copy

   CTRL-X   cut

   CTRL-V   paste

   CTRL-Z   undo

   CTRL-F   find

   CTRL-T   new tab

   Final Work Time? If you have five minutes, give them one final work time to try any new ones that sparked their interest

Different options for assessing the students:

• Observations
• Check for understanding
• Once you’ve gone over the KWL as a class, share your final KWL in a new Google Classroom post where every student gets a copy. Ask them to bold (CTRL-B) each shortcut as they practice them or try new ones. Give a certain goal - maybe 10 or 15.
• Exit ticket - Use a sticky note or a Google Classroom Question to have students indicate a new shortcut they learned: what it is, what it does, when they will use it, and who else they think could benefit from it.