Trim the Fat using Google Docs

There are infinite ways to use Google Docs.  Here is an interesting way to use Google Docs' sharing function.

The title, Trim the Fat, suggests a Home Economics class,  but don't be fooled.  We don't offer Home Economics at El Monte anymore (sorry Karole).  Two skills we would like students to have are the ability to pick out the most important, relevant information and to be concise.  A good way to practice these two skills is to take a topic from your content and type a Google Doc that has too much information.  Challenge the students to "trim the fat" by eliminating the superfluous details and producing a final product that concisely summarizes the topic.

To save time, you don't have to manually type the entire Google Doc.  You can simply copy and paste from an outside source.  You probably wouldn't want this Doc to be more than one page in length.  Challenge students to trim it to one or two paragraphs.

Be sure to Share the Doc with your students.  I recommend putting students in groups of 3 or 4 and sharing it with one of them.  Each group should be assigned to a Chromebook.

This is just an idea I came up with and I hope someone finds it useful.