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Introducing Ellii Polls

October 3, 2023

Hey again! 👋 We've released another new feature at Ellii called Ellii Polls that we know your students are going to love.

What is it? It’s a sessions-based tool that lets you conduct real-time interactive polls in your classroom (virtual or in person) to spark lively discussion, debate, and conversation with your English language learners.

It’s super simple, super engaging, and super fun. 😎


You can use Ellii Polls as a warm-up or cooldown activity to start or end any class. Or you can simply use Ellii Polls to introduce a new topic you might already be planning to teach. Review the description in each Ellii Poll for notes about related materials.

If you’re already a subscriber at Ellii, Ellii Polls are automatically included with your subscription.

Watch the demo to see Ellii Polls in action!

Here's how it works: 

  • Teachers browse the Ellii Polls Index page to find a topic their students might be interested in. (Find a direct link in the Materials drop-down.)
  • Teachers preview the contents of the poll on the Poll Preview page. In addition to the questions for the polls, some key vocabulary that students will see and review in the survey is also included. 
  • From the Poll Preview page, teachers click Start poll. A slide for a QR code/link appears to share with students.
  • Students join the activity in real time by scanning the code with the camera app on their phone or typing the link into a browser.
  • Teachers can see students joining the activity.
  • Teachers begin the poll, launching one slide at a time.
  • After students submit answers to a poll question, the class is prompted to look up at the teacher's screen to review and discuss the results.
  • Teachers move the activity along as quickly or as slowly as they wish. 

That's it! It's super simple and we'll be adding new polls regularly.

Note that this feature is in beta mode. We are counting on our active Ellii subcribers to use the feedback form at the end of each poll to help us improve the feature as we build many more polls for a wide variety of learners. Please share your feedback!

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Comments (14)

Pollyanna D.(Teacher)

Awesome idea! Can't wait to use it in my classes. Thanks a lot!

Reply to Comment

Tanya Trusler(Author)

Let us know how it goes, Pollyanna! We'd love to hear your feedback.

Johanna G.(Teacher)

Can teachers generate their own polls?

Reply to Comment

Tara Benwell(Author)

Hello! Thanks for your question. Not yet, but this is a feature we are considering for 2024!

Maurice J.(Teacher)

This is fantastic, can't wait to start a tsst session and see how it operates on the teacher side. Look like great fun indeed. Big thumbs up for Ellii.

Reply to Comment

Tanya Trusler(Author)

Thanks, Maurice! We hope you and your students enjoy using Ellii Polls. Let us know if you have any requests for topics!

Kathi S.(Teacher)

I just tried the Family poll in my class today. Great idea! Thank you for adding polls to ellii. When I am teaching online, after we've gone through the poll as a class, it would be helpful to have the students discuss their answers in small groups/break out rooms. Is there a way that I can share the link with them?

Reply to Comment

Tanya Trusler(Author)

Hi Kathi, we're happy to hear that you and your students enjoyed the Family poll! Our platform doesn't have the option for break-out rooms (yet!), so you might want to try using Google Meet or Zoom for their chat room feature after using a poll on our site. Your students can easily access the poll on their mobile devices while you're teaching online. Once you click "Start poll," have them scan the QR code or give them this link: https://app.ellii.com/gather/join

Hope that helps!

Cheryl R.(Teacher)

How do I create my own polls?

Reply to Comment

Tara Benwell(Author)

Great question! We don't have this feature yet, but we would love to offer this in the future. You can ask us for a topic, though!

Maryam L.(Teacher)

All my students loved this. What a cool interactive idea. I use it in all my classes now. Please add more topics..Thank you!!

Reply to Comment

Tara Benwell(Author)

That's great to hear, Maryam! I had fun demoing the Ellii Poll on Names at the ProLiteracy conference this week. That one is always a hit for new classes.

If you have any topic suggestions, please let us know! We had been adding new ones weekly, but now that we have 50+ polls, we are adding a few each month.

Shara D.(Teacher)

I would love to generate my own polls! Is this feature something that Ellii is still consdering for 2024?

Reply to Comment

Tara Benwell(Author)

Every +1 helps for feature requests like this, Shara! We know many teachers would love to be able to create their own Ellii Polls. This likely won't come in 2024 as our engineers are hard at work on some year-end features, but keep watching next year!

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