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How to GiggleIT - at your place
The GiggleIT Project allows your students to creatively communicate their personal knowledge and what they learn, using your school library as their research and writing lab.
Originally designed for students ages 10-14, GiggleIT is easily adapted for use by younger gifted students, youth with special needs, and English Language Learners of all ages.
Teachers and teacher-librarians are encouraged to use the resources provided by the GiggleIT team as presented or adapt to local curricular needs. Please send project adaptations and your new ideas to the GiggleIT at IASL.GiggleIT@gmail.com to add to the repository of resources available on the IASL website.
As a collaborative Project between educators and students around the world, the GiggleIT Project operates under a Creative Commons license which allows everyone to share ideas and resources while still recognizing the work done by the original authors.
The GiggleIT Project for global student writing through school libraries was created by the Children and Young Adult Literature Special Interest Group of the International Association of School Librarianship, publishing online 2009-2019 and moving to “publish at your place” in 2020.
GiggleIT in your school’s curriculum
Curricular units can easily be enriched and extended through a GiggleIT Spotlight Project that empowers students to creatively show your community what they have learned.
A scheduled unit on poetry, animals, or local history is a good collaboration starting point for teachers who may be reluctant to take on a brand-new project.
Give your teachers the one-page Teacher Handout and point out the many Student Outcomes that one Spotlight Project can help students explore and master in interesting ways.
Show student works from GiggleIT’s first decade on the GiggleIT home page as good examples of how teachers can integrate creative work and research in the school library with their existing curricular units. Be sure to note that students can write in small groups or as individuals.
GiggleIT can also be used for your school writers’ club, day camp, or enrichment program. See each theme for projects suitable for Parents’ Night and community involvement at your school library.
Ask older students to be inspired by GiggleIT Spotlight Projects to create creative learning materials for younger students and community members, especially in learning a new language or discovering local history, animals, plants, and geology
Each of the five GiggleIT themes includes two Spotlight Projects:
Factors to consider:
- Adapting instructions for local needs (curriculum, age group, collaboration venue)
- Hands-on time with students (in-person or online)
- Project duration (from introduction to students through final copy completed)
- Final product (ebook, webpage, animation/movie, poster, etc.)
- Alternate plans (in case of tech problems, schedule changes)
Your school library has many resources that students can use to verify what they think they know (especially important for Animal Antics projects!) and be inspired by poems and stories from around the world (Trickster Tales, in particular).
Look at From Plan to Publishing for a suggested work-flow to use with your students as you remind them that all written work needs multiple drafts and that pre-planning produces better artworks.
Be patient with your students. You may need to increase the scheduled time for drafting and rewriting or enforce deadlines for students who want to keep polishing their final work over and over. Remind them that these are their works to use later as they wish.
Publish at your place with GiggleIT
The final product format of your students’ work will determine how you will facilitate their display. See the Publishing Resources section of the GiggleIT Resources page for possible programs and websites.
Safety note: use only students’ initials when publishing their works, whether online publicly, as a wall poster at school, or behind a password-protected portal, so individuals aren’t personally identifiable by outsiders.
As a collaborative Project between educators and students around the world, the GiggleIT Project operates under a Creative Commons license which allows everyone to share ideas and resources while still recognizing the work done by the original authors.
Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike Creative Commons License 2020 -IASL-Online.org/advocacy/giggleIT