Using Ellii Polls for Interactive Classroom Sessions

Summary

In this video, Ben from Ellie demonstrates how Ellie Polls can enhance classroom interactivity by allowing students to participate in live discussions using their own devices. He showcases creating a poll on a current event, launching it with a QR code and web address for student access, and real-time updates on responses. The poll includes various question types, from yes/no to vocabulary and opinion questions, fostering immediate class discussions. Ben highlights the utility of Ellie Polls for warming up lessons, engaging students, and facilitating educational conversations.

Takeaways

• 😀 Ellie Polls is a tool designed to create live, interactive sessions in classrooms.
• 📊 It offers a variety of polls based on current events, general interest topics, or lesson-related content.
• 🔍 Teachers can preview all poll questions and answers to decide if they are suitable for their class.
• 📱 Students can join the session using their own devices by scanning a QR code or entering a web address.
• 👨‍🏫 Teachers control the poll flow, starting and stopping it as needed to facilitate discussion.
• 📈 Real-time results are displayed, allowing for immediate class interaction and engagement.
• 💬 Polls can be used to spark conversation, debate, and discussion among students.
• 📚 Vocabulary polls help teachers gauge students' knowledge and introduce new terms.
• ✅/❎ Agree/disagree questions allow for immediate class feedback and can lead to deeper discussions.
• 💭 Opinion questions encourage students to express their views, fostering critical thinking and dialogue.
• 📚 Ellie Polls can be integrated into lessons as a warm-up, cool-down, or to lead into a specific topic.

Q & A

What is the purpose of Ellie Polls in a classroom setting?

Ellie Polls are designed to create live, interactive sessions that spark conversation, debate, dialogue, and discussion among students using their own devices to participate in group conversations.

How can teachers access Ellie Polls?

Teachers can access Ellie Polls by clicking on 'Materials' and then selecting 'Ellie Polls' where they will find an index of polls based on current events, general interest topics, or lessons on the site.

What does the overview section in Ellie Polls provide for teachers?

The overview section in Ellie Polls provides teachers with an index of questions and answers that will be in the poll, allowing them to decide if the poll is appropriate for their class.

How do students join a poll using their devices?

Students can join a poll by scanning a QR code or entering a web address provided by the teacher, which directs them to a page where they can input their name and become part of the poll session.

What happens when the teacher starts a poll?

When the teacher starts a poll, a QR code and web address appear, allowing students to join the session using their devices. The teacher's action to start the poll syncs instantly across all student devices.

How do real-time results appear during the poll?

As students submit their answers, the results update in real time on the teacher's screen and on the devices of all participating students, allowing everyone to see the results as they come in.

What is the purpose of the 'stop and discuss' feature in Ellie Polls?

The 'stop and discuss' feature allows the teacher to halt the poll, preventing further submissions, and encourages students to look up at the results and engage in a discussion based on the poll's outcomes.

How does the vocabulary poll section work in Ellie Polls?

In the vocabulary poll section, students are asked to choose words they know from a list. The results are then displayed as a word cloud, highlighting the words least and most known by the students, which the teacher can use to focus on teaching.

What type of questions are included in the agree/disagree section of Ellie Polls?

The agree/disagree section of Ellie Polls includes questions that prompt students to express their opinions on statements related to the topic, such as whether using a GPS while driving is dangerous.

How do opinionated questions in Ellie Polls facilitate deeper discussions?

Opinionated questions in Ellie Polls require students to submit their own views on specific topics, such as the primary cause of distracted driving. This encourages students to engage in deeper discussions and express their reasoning.

When can Ellie Polls be used during a class session?

Ellie Polls can be used at various points in a class session, such as at the beginning for a warm-up, at the end for a cool-down, or to lead into a particular lesson, enhancing student engagement and participation.

Outlines

00:00

📊 Interactive Classroom Polls with Ellie Polls

Ben from Ellie introduces a feature called Ellie Polls designed to create live, interactive sessions in classrooms. These sessions aim to stimulate conversation, debate, and discussion among students using their own devices. Ben demonstrates how to access Ellie Polls, select a poll based on current events or lesson topics, and launch it for students to participate. Once a poll is started, a QR code and web address are provided for students to join using their devices. Ben shows the process of students joining via a phone's camera app or a web browser, and how the teacher can monitor and manage the poll in real-time. The poll results update instantly on all devices, allowing for immediate discussion and interaction. Ben also explains how to use the poll for vocabulary practice, where students can indicate which words they know, and the teacher can highlight and teach those words. The session ends with a 'stop and discuss' feature, encouraging students to look up at the teacher's screen for results and engage in conversation.

05:00

🗣️ Deepening Engagement with Opinion Polls

In the second paragraph, Ben continues to explore the features of Ellie Polls, focusing on opinion-based questions that allow students to express their views on specific topics. He demonstrates how to navigate through agree/disagree questions and opinion questions, which require students to submit their own thoughts. The real-time updating feature ensures that all students and the teacher can see the responses as they are submitted, facilitating immediate class discussions. Ben emphasizes the importance of these polls in getting students to talk, engage with the material, and participate actively. He suggests using these polls at various points in a class session, such as a warm-up, cool-down, or to lead into a lesson. The session concludes with a 'stop and discuss' prompt, signaling the end of the poll and encouraging students to look up at the screen to discuss the final results and share their opinions.

Keywords

💡Ellie Polls

Ellie Polls is a feature within the Ellie platform designed to facilitate interactive and engaging classroom sessions. It allows teachers to create or select polls based on current events, general interest topics, or lesson-related content. In the video, Ben demonstrates how to access Ellie Polls, choose a topic like 'distracted driving,' and launch a poll for students to participate in using their own devices, fostering real-time interaction and discussion.

💡Interactive Sessions

Interactive sessions refer to educational activities that involve students actively participating in the learning process. In the context of the video, Ben uses Ellie Polls to create such sessions where students can respond to questions and engage in discussions using their devices. This method enhances student participation and makes learning more dynamic.

💡QR Code

A QR code is a type of barcode that can be scanned by smartphones to quickly access online information. In the video, Ben generates a QR code when launching a poll, which students can scan using their phones to join the session. This is a convenient way for students to access the interactive poll without manually entering a web address.

💡Real-time Results

Real-time results are immediate outcomes that are displayed as soon as data is inputted. In the video, as students answer poll questions, their responses are instantly updated on the teacher's screen, allowing for immediate feedback and discussion. This feature of Ellie Polls enhances the interactivity and immediacy of classroom discussions.

💡Vocabulary Poll

A vocabulary poll is a type of question in Ellie Polls designed to gauge students' knowledge of specific words or terms. In the video, Ben uses a vocabulary poll to find out which words students are familiar with, such as 'distracted' and 'daydreaming.' This helps the teacher identify areas for vocabulary focus and instruction.

💡Word Cloud

A word cloud is a visual representation of text data, where the size of each word indicates its frequency or importance. In the video, after students submit their vocabulary poll answers, the results are displayed as a word cloud, with more known words appearing smaller and less known words appearing larger. This visual aid helps the teacher and students to quickly identify which terms need more attention.

💡Agree/Disagree Questions

Agree/Disagree questions are a type of poll question that asks students to express their agreement or disagreement with a statement. In the video, Ben uses these questions to spark debate and discussion among students. For example, students are asked whether they agree or disagree that using a GPS while driving is dangerous, leading to a more in-depth conversation.

💡Opinionated Questions

Opinionated questions are those that prompt students to share their personal views or beliefs on a topic. In the video, Ben uses such questions to delve deeper into the subject of distracted driving, asking students to identify the primary cause. This encourages critical thinking and allows for a more nuanced exploration of the topic.

💡Participatory Learning

Participatory learning is an educational approach where students actively engage in the learning process, often through discussion and collaboration. Ellie Polls, as demonstrated in the video, promotes this by allowing students to use their devices to participate in polls, fostering a more inclusive and interactive classroom environment.

💡Classroom Engagement

Classroom engagement refers to the level of interest and involvement students have in the learning activities. The use of Ellie Polls, as shown in the video, is a strategy to increase engagement by making lessons interactive and responsive to student input, thus creating a more dynamic and stimulating learning experience.

Highlights

Introduction to using Ellie polls for live interactive sessions in classrooms.

Accessing Ellie polls through the materials section.

Overview of polls based on current events, general interest topics, or related lessons.

Selection of a specific poll topic: 'distracted driving'.

Teacher's view of poll questions and answers before launching.

Launching a poll generates a QR code and web address for student access.

Students join the poll using their own devices by scanning the QR code.

Alternative access for students without phones through a web URL.

Real-time updates of poll results as students submit their answers.

Teacher's ability to stop the poll for discussion after each question.

Using poll results to spark classroom conversation and debate.

Transition to vocabulary polls to assess student knowledge.

Real-time updates of vocabulary poll results displayed as a word cloud.

Teacher-led discussion on vocabulary using poll results.

Agree/disagree questions to gauge student opinions.

Final section for students to submit their own opinions on causes of distracted driving.

Polls designed to encourage student participation and engagement.

Flexibility in using polls for warm-up, cool-down, or leading into lessons.

Encouragement to use Ellie polls frequently for interactive learning.

Transcripts

hi everyone I'm Ben from Ellie in this

video I'm going to show you how you can

use Ellie poles to create live

interactive sessions in your classroom

that spark conversation debate dialogue

and discussion where students use their

own devices to participate in that group

conversation all right so I'm on Ellie

polls right now and you can get there by

clicking to materials and then Ellie

polls and once you land on Ellie polls

you're going to see an index of of polls

down below these polls are going to be

based on current events things that are

happening in the news general interest

topics or they might be related to

lessons that we have on the site I'm

going to click on distracted driving

it's a topic that we're talking about in

a conversation class already that I'm

hosting and once I land inside of this

pole area I see sort of an overview

for teachers now this part here is not

for students it's for the teacher to

look at and decide whether or not this

poll is appropriate for your class you

can see all the questions that are going

to be in the polls or in the poll you

can sort of Click through those

questions and see what what they are and

what the answers are and then if you're

happy with the poll you can launch it so

I'm going to go ahead and hit start poll

and when I do that a QR code comes up

and a web address comes up so that my

students in the class either in a

physical classroom or online if you're

teaching an online class can all join in

with their own devices so I've got a

phone right here that's already set to

the camera app if you go to the camera

app on your phone and you scan this QR

code like this it will bring you to this

page right here ellie.com play where you

can put in your name I'm going to put in

my name Ben as the student so student

number one pops up right there and the

teacher knows that one student is now

logged on

all right and the um uh web address up

here ellie.com play is for students that

may not have a phone but instead may

have a computer where they're just going

to go to that URL so that's what I've

done over here I've set up another

address or pardon me another web browser

over here and in an incognito window and

they went to la.com play and they're

going to the student is going to put in

two one two three eight and click next

and then we're going to put in a name

here for that student so she's going to

type in Tara and now we've got two

students in here all right that are

waiting to start the pool and then one

more student on my other screen over

here is going to join as well two one

two three eight

and this student is going to put in her

name Ginny and we should have now three

students in the pool all right so three

students are there I've got three

students in my class ready to go and uh

let me just move this out of the way

here this little thing here and you can

see that there are three students in the

class if I click this little item right

here band Tara engineer all right there

all right so let's start the poll so I'm

going to go ahead and click Start pull

and as you can see on my phone here the

minute that the teacher click Start poll

it updates uh instantly or syncs on my

device and same thing over here on this

other student here for Tara and I'll

start I'll click continue and again my

phone updates uh right away and so it is

Tara's and so does Jenny's so the

question is do you ever text while

driving well Tara is going to say yes

she does and she's going to submit that

and Ginny is going to say yes she does

and Ben myself is going to say no I

don't and you can see that in real time

the results sort of pop up on the screen

and everybody can be seeing those

results and then right now as a teacher

I'm going to go ahead and click stop and

discuss

and now that just simply means that no

more students can submit their answers

and on my screen right here it says the

poll has ended lookup so students are

meant to look up and see what the

results are look up at the teachers

screen and we can all see this together

now you can highlight one of those

responses and put students together in

pairs and say you know who answered yes

who answered no why why do you text him

and drive Etc and you can spark a little

conversation just from those results

alone after the first question we always

go into uh some type of vocabulary poll

we try to find out what the students

know or what type of vocabulary they

know so I'll click this and it updates

right there on my phone as well and it

asks choose the words that you know so

Tara knows distracted and she knows uh

daydreaming and then she's going to

submit that

and Jenny knows also distracted and

daydreaming but she also knows

multitasking so she's going to submit

that

and ban myself I know distracted and

daydreaming and multitasking as well so

I'll hit submit

and you can see those results sort of

change in real time and the teacher can

then click stop and discuss and it turns

it into a word cloud so the words that

are least known to your students become

the largest and the ones that are most

known become the smallest so distracted

and daydreaming are a little bit smaller

so they sort of get out of the way where

GPS and hazardous are known by by zero

people so they're sort of brought to my

attention and I can focus on them so if

the teacher clicks on them I'll go ahead

and click this then the definition and

an example sentence pops right up for

all the students so Tara could see this

definition over here and I can see it on

my phone Ben can see it on on his phone

and then the teacher can close that and

click on hazardous as well and that all

pops up so you're sort of controlling

what they see what definitions they see

and um and going over them one at a time

to teach those words all right so that's

how you do the vocabulary part of the

pull then we can go into

some agree disagree questions let's do

that again we all get updated in real

time adjusting a GPS while driving is

dangerous agree disagree Tara agrees and

she's going to submit that

and Ginny also agrees she'll submit that

and Ben disagrees so again we've got a

6733 split teacher can stop and discuss

and focus on the answers put students in

pairs who said which why did you say

that and you just sort of spark a

conversation all right and I'm just

going to click through these agree

disagree ones to the final section which

is where we go a little deeper and

students have to submit their own

opinions so they're more opinionated

questions so I'll click one of these

which do you think is the primary cause

of distracted driving Tara is going to

say using a mobile device for texting

and calling and she's going to submit

that Ginny is going to say eating or

drinking while driving

and Ben will say uh talking to

passengers or attending to children

uh so we all ended up with a different

response uh 33 or a third for each of us

again it's a great way to sort of put

students together into Pairs and discuss

why they feel what they feel about that

particular question and when you're

ready you just simply click stop and

discuss and then students have to look

up it says over here the poll has ended

look up so that's what all the students

see on their device they have to look up

to the screen and see what those results

are those final results and then they

can start to engage in a conversation

about it and express their opinions and

why they think so so these polls are

meant to get students talking they're

meant to use the phones or the devices

not to just be in a solitary state but

to make it more participatory and to

make it more engaging and then we can

just go on there's a few more of these

types of opinionated questions and then

the poll ends and things for

participating so you can do these at the

beginning of your class or as a warm-up

or at the end of your class as a cool

down or you can do them to lead into a

particular lesson that you might already

already be teaching it's not the same

questions from the lessons they are

different questions so it's a great way

to warm up particular lessons so that's

polls I hope you really like them and

hope you use them often all the best