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Paperless Is Not a Pedagogy

Alice Keeler

Filter Topics in Google Classroom

Filter topics in Google Classroom to see more information about the assignments.
filter topics in Google Classroom
Filter Topics in Google Classroom
Teachers, raise your hand if you’ve ever felt overwhelmed by the ever-flowing river of assignments, announcements, and questions in your Google Classroom stream. We’ve all been there, lost in a sea of information, wishing for a way to find the specific content we need quickly and easily. Well, fear not, fellow educators, for the ability to filter topics in Google Classroom.

What is a Topic?

What is a topic? Think of it as a label for your classwork. You can assign topics to any post, from assignments and questions to announcements and resources. This allows you to categorize your content in a way that makes sense for your curriculum and your students.

Filter Topics in Google Classroom on the Classwork Page

The Classwork page in Google Classroom allows you to organize your assignments by topic, but it can get quite long as the school year goes on. One of the downsides to the Classwork page is the inability to see the full assignment title and assignment description without any clicking. The filter ability in Classroom solves this problem.

Click on the Classwork page and notice it shows an ability to filter the topics above the Create button. The default is “All topics.” Click on the filter to select a single topic from the drop down list.

Screenshot of filter topics in Google Classroom
Screenshot of google classroom with one person having turned in the work

Who Did Work?

A good digital platform should help you to engage more with students, not just put your stuff online. When you filter the topics on the Classwork page they show in their full expanded form. Showing the full directions along with the number of students who completed the assignment. 

If the “Turned in” number is not zero, CLICK ON THAT NUMBER! Technology allows us to rethink how we run our classrooms. Rather than waiting until everyone has finished, we can interact with students NOW… and that matters. The faster the feedback, the more a student engages in your class.

Viewing Class Comments

Filtering topics allows for students to find questions about an assignment from classmates. Now the Class comments are front and center to show that someone has commented on the assignment. You can see who commented and what they commented. The subtle “3 class comments” is not enough information to drive you to interact with the assignment. Seeing an actual question that needs to be addressed does.

Have Students Filter Topics in Google Classroom

Encourage your students to filter for the current topic. This will allow them a more detailed view of what work they are supposed to complete along with a clear indicator of their assignment status.

Screenshot of filtered assignments in Google Classroom showing assignment description.

3 thoughts on “Filter Topics in Google Classroom

  1. The filter is great, but I’m seeing that when I filter, I only see posts that are visible. If a topic has enough posts that older ones get hidden behind “View more”, only those visible posts show up when I filter, AND I haven’t found a way to get to the other posts that were hidden unless I click “View more” BEFORE I filter. If I have to click “View more” first, what’s the point of filtering, because I’m already at the topic. Am I missing something?

  2. I love that the filter is back, but my issue is with topics with lots of post. With these topics, the older posts get hidden behind the “View More’ link. If I use a filter with one of these topics, then all I see are the posts that were not hidden. On top of that, I can’t seem to find a way to show those hidden posts while in the filter. The only way I have found to see them is to have all topics showing, go to the topic in question, click the “View more ” link and then filter, but by that time, what’s the point in filtering. Am I missing something?

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