Using Poll Everywhere to Craft Poetry

Until September 28th, I am hosting the Ashley Bryan Traveling Exhibit of Illustrated Africana Children’s Literature featuring the artwork of Shadra Strickland.   This exhibit showcases 8 works of art from the books White Water, Bird, A Place Where Hurricanes Happen, Our Children Can Soar, and Eliza’s Freedom Road.  There is also a curriculum guide that incorporates the art and books into lessons about making text to text and text to self connections, response to literature, and more.  I took these lessons and wondered how I might adapt them to various kinds of learning that I try to support in my media center.

One of lessons invites students to write “Where I’m From” poems from the perspective of a character in the story or artwork.  I wondered how I might support students in writing a collaborative “where I’m from” poem rather than individual poems, so I turned to Poll Everywhere

 

Poll everywhere allows you to create an open ended or multiple choice questions that students can respond to in a variety of ways:  poll everywhere website, texting, tweeting.  With a free educator account, you can receive up to 40 responses per poll and the responses feed into a real-time screen.  The responses can be downloaded into an Excel file, used in a word cloud, or scrolled through on the poll everywhere site.

For my lesson, I shared George Ella Lyon’s original “Where I’m From” poem as well as a template that pointed out pieces of the poem such as phrases, everyday items, foods, etc.  Then, students thought of lines that might be in their own poems and shared them with partners or with the whole group.  We moved into reading White Water by Michael S. Bandy & Eric Stein; illustrated by Shadra Strickland.  This book details an African American boy’s curiosity with what it might be like to drink water from the “whites only” fountain during segregation.  All along the way, we paused and thought about possible lines that the main character in the story might write in his own “Where I’m From” poem.

Students then moved to computers where I had the Poll Everywhere site pulled up with the question “My line in our where I’m from poem is…”.  Each student thought of one line for the poem.  The teacher and I conferenced with students about their lines to look for spelling and repetition, and then each student submitted their response.  We reconvened in front of the smart board to read our poem, which was already waiting for us on the screen.  Finally, we took the words of our poem and pasted them into Tagxedo to make another version of our collaborative poem as well as to look for the words that we used the most and least.

There are numerous uses for Poll Everywhere, but I loved the fact that it could support a collaborative writing effort with a class.  The whole process took us less than 45 minutes to complete.

Here is a final poem from a 2nd grade class:

Where I’m From:  A Response Poem to the book White Water by Michael S. Bandy & Eric Stein; illustrated by Shadra Strickland

Mrs. Brink’s Class

I am from I know everything

from tricking my grandma.

from White Water at a water fountain in town.

from 6 blocks away from the bus stop.

I’m from drinking out of a colored water fountain.

from telling a lie to the bus driver.

from I can do anything

from drinking lots of water because fresh water is good.

I AM FROM

I’m from not being able to drink the white water

from pretending to be sick.

from that good ol’ time of riding the bus to town, waiting to drink water.

from boy you better not do that

I’m from white people sitting in the front seat

from going to town with my grandma

from trying to get white water because I thought it was fresh and cool.

from nasty muddy gritty yuck!

from I can do anything

I’m from

I’m from a water fountain

I’m from I can do anything

Andy Plemmons

School Librarian

David C. Barrow Elementary

Athens, GA

http://barrowmediacenter.wordpress.com

http://www.clarke.k12.ga.us/webpages/aplemmons

Finding Images for Student Projects

Do your students need images to include in their presentations and other media projects? GALILEO has several resources that include great images for educational use.

Encyclopædia Britannica isn’t just a collection of encyclopedia articles. It also includes many wonderful images and videos for multimedia projects. Just search for a topic and look in the Multimedia section on the right to find the images. Tip: Note the “More Multimedia” link at the bottom of this section to see more images. Check the bottom of each image for a pre-formatted citation of the image.

There are also a variety of images in SIRS Discoverer and SIRS Issues Researcher. In SIRS Discoverer, look for the Pictures section on the right of the screen under Database Features, or search for a topic and click the Pictures tab in the search results. In SIRS Issues Researcher, click on the red SIRS Issues Researcher link and then choose the Images link right above the search box to limit the search to images.

Images at EBSCOhost offers many images from the Getty Images collection and includes pictures from around the globe and from many world events making it a good source of pictures for history and current events projects.

For historical images, particularly historical  Georgia images, the Digital Library of Georgia is a treasure trove. You can search for a topic and limit the Media Type on the left of the screen, or you can choose to Browse by Media type to see collections with photos, maps, or some other visual work. To cite items from the Digital Library of Georgia, look for the Rights and Usage section in the item information.

Find all of these resources and more in the Images, Maps, and Flags section in High School or the Pictures, Maps, and Flags section in Teen.

Please Contact Us if you have questions or comments or if you need to report problems.

Courtney McGough
GALILEO Support Services
Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia

Image from “I Use Science Tools” article in SIRS Discoverer

Express Links for Databases Mentioned in this Post:

Encyclopædia Britannica School Edition

http://www.galileo.usg.edu/express?link=zebs

Encyclopædia Britannica High School

http://www.galileo.usg.edu/express?link=zehs

Compton’s by Britannica (for middle school)

http://www.galileo.usg.edu/express?link=zebm

Britannica Elementary

http://www.galileo.usg.edu/express?link=zebk

SIRS Discoverer

http://www.galileo.usg.edu/express?link=zssd

SIRS Issues Researcher

http://www.galileo.usg.edu/express?link=zsks

Images (EBSCOhost)

http://www.galileo.usg.edu/express?link=zbim

Digital Library of Georgia

http://www.galileo.usg.edu/express?link=dlg1

Find All Your Express Links (what’s this?)

One Book, One Conference Discussion of The Shallows Continues: Chapter 2

Chapter 2 – AASL 2011 National Conference & Exhibition via kwout

from Carl Harvey:

I have really enjoyed reading everyone’s comments and thoughts on Chapter 1.  I think we’re going to have a lively discussion as we continue through the book.  Here are some discussion questions from Chapter 2, but please feel free to add your own questions, thoughts, and ideas as well!

How do our experiences impact our perceptions?  Thinking about the connection with Gary Hartzell and the work he has done in how administrators understand school libraries.  How can we create experiences that will better educator today and future administrators?

There are two trains of thoughts shared in Chapter 2 whether nature or nurture have an impact on how our brain learns?  What are your thoughts?

On page 41 Carr writes, “Evolution has given us a brain that can literally change its mind – over and over again.”  How do you think this impacts how we prepare students for their future in the library?

What role do you think neuroplasticity plays in students who have over time developed habits that they can’t learn or succeed?

Join the conversation at the AASl 2011 Ning!

Unlimited E-Learning at Webjunction Georgia!

From the Georgia Public Library Service:

I’m writing to announce a couple of enhancements to Webjunction Georgia (WJGA). Effective immediately, WJGA members (you must be an employee of a public, academic, or school library in the state; an employee of GALILEO; a trustee of any Georgia library or library system; or a library science student at Valdosta State University) will be able to enroll in unlimited courses without charge. Here’s a short video promoting the changes that I encourage you to share with your colleagues throughout our library community.

The highlights of these enhancements include:

• Free, unlimited access to 300+ courses available anytime, selected for relevance to libraries.
• Simplified course enrollment process
• All course prices are set to $0. You no longer need to apply for a free course scholarship and deal with the complexities of that process.
• If you are already enrolled in a course, you will continue to have access to the course for 12 months from the date you enrolled.
• You must be a WJGA member and logged into your account to see the course catalog on our page, http://ga.webjunction.org/catalog.

Also, Webjunction has enhanced how it handles its webinars. WJGA members will now receive advance registration notices for WJ webinars and attendance certificates that may qualify for continuing education credit. All members of the WJ community will continue to enjoy the free online webinar programming that WJ offers each month.

The Webjunction service provided by GPLS can be an invaluable resource in supporting your continuing education and learning needs. Please share this message or our promo video with your colleagues and encourage them to register for a WJGA account if they have not done so already and begin enjoying unlimited access to quality, online learning.

Feel free to shoot Jay an email or give him a call if you have any questions!

If you decide to sign up for a Webjunction account…please read this information:

• Signing up for an account is easy and membership is free for your media specialists — there’s nothing that an individual, their school system, or individual school needs to purchase.
• All that a media specialist will have to do is go to the Webjunction Georgia site, click “Create an Account,” and then complete a short application.   Accounts are typically approved within 72 hours.
• Since there is a limit to the total number of active users I can have in the system at any given time, I ask that people to contact me if they try out WJGA and decide that they won’t actively use it. This will allow me to deactivate those accounts to free up space for other potential users.
• In the event that we hit our cap, I will selectively reduce the number of non-public library user accounts in the system, which could result in some/all media specialists being booted from the system. I really don’t think this will happen, but I just want you to know in the interest of full disclosure (and I’d definitely communicate with you in advance if I suspected this would be necessary).

Jay Turner| Director, Continuing Education| Georgia Public Library Service

1800 Century Place, Suite 150, Atlanta, GA 30345-4304

404.235.7124 | 404.235.7201 fax |

jturner@georgialibraries.org | www.georgialibraries.org

Jump-starting Teacher Technology Use

Over the past 3 years, I’ve built some incredible collaborative relationships with teachers at my school incorporating technology, information literacy, and great literature.  However, when I look at the school as a whole, there are still many teachers who are hesitant or unsure of how to dip their feet into the waters of using technology for student product creation.  I wanted to support the teachers by offering them a whirlwind tour of what I felt were the most likely technologies that they might explore with students during the year:  Photo Story, Glogster, Animoto, Wordle, Tagxedo, and Audacity.  I invited some of the teachers who I have collaborated with to be the leaders of 4 different sessions that all teachers rotated through.

Before the professional learning session, the lead teachers and I sat down to plan.  We each voiced our preferences about which technology we would share and what format we would use.  In the end, we decided that at each of our sessions we would show a final product so that teachers saw one possibility upfront before being bogged down by how the technology worked.  Then, we would walk through some of the basics of the technology and give teachers time to explore.  Finally, we wanted teachers to have a chance to brainstorm how the technology might be used in their units of instruction during the year.  I created a simple handout that was emailed to all teachers in advance of the professional learning session so that they could easily access the links we would use as well as have electronic notes that they could refer back to after the session or add-to during the session.

My principal allotted a 90-minute afterschool professional learning block, and we held the sessions in adjacent teacher classrooms for minimal transitions.  Each session was a fast and furious 20-minute block.  We grouped teachers by grade levels:  k-1st, 2nd-3rd, 4th-5th, and resource teachers.  All teachers brought their own laptops and we provided any other technology needed such as digital microphones and webcams for the exploration phase.

As usual, some surprising things happened:

• Most teachers were unfamiliar with the technologies that we explored
• Teachers voiced their worries about clicking on the wrong thing or not knowing how to answer a student’s question, which surfaced a great conversation about how we don’t need to have all the answers.  We need to provide the space and tools for students to create and then we work as a community of collaborators to support one another.  I’ve had other students answer many questions for other students rather than all of the answers coming from me.
• Even though teachers were overwhelmed with the beginning of school, they were buzzing with ideas and energy during the sessions
• Several teachers approached me as soon as the sessions were over to talk about collaborating on projects
• People found ways to use the technologies in their everyday tasks.  For example, my own paraprofessional has to do our daily email announcements.  She is going to highlight all of the announcements and paste them into either Wordle or Tagxedo and use that as an image at the top of the announcement to serve as a preview of some of the words people will see in the announcements.

I am so thankful to the supportive group of teacher leaders who helped me jump-start technology this year.  I feel like this session was a starting point for thinking about how technology can and should become a part of each grade level’s instruction.  Now as I talk with teachers about projects they will have a base of information to think about final products that students might create.  How have you been proactive in jump-starting technology use and collaboration in your school?

Andy Plemmons

School Librarian

David C. Barrow Elementary

Athens, GA

http://barrowmediacenter.wordpress.com

http://www.clarke.k12.ga.us/webpages/aplemmons