PicCollage and meaningful Technology Integration

This is Deniece from This Little Piggy Reads.  The end of my school year is right around the corner.  In fact, since I teach a pull-out class, my classes end this week (but I have to go to work 2 more weeks).  

I presented at a Digital Fluency Conference earlier this month.  I took a class that did an amazing activity and I immediately thought...that would be a great idea to share with my Literacy Land Ladies!

As we left, the presenter asked us to create a 4 or 5 picture collage that summarized our experience at the conference. I used the app, PicCollage.  There are other apps you could use, this is just the one I downloaded.  Do your students bring their own devices?  Mine do. It allows me to seamlessly integrate technology daily.  So, back to that great idea...For this particular assignment, we were supposed to tell our tale using a familiar kids book, story or song.  Since I was presenting, I was carrying 3 different bags!  Yes, 3.  I wasn't the only one.  Everywhere I looked, I saw a sea of bags.  There were bags inside of bags!  So, I did a play on "Do You Know the Muffin Man?" called "Do You Know the Bag Lady?"  Pretty clever huh? Yea, I won a $25 gift card.  We had to make the collage, tweet the collage with the conference's hashtag and e-mail it to our presenter.        

In my mind I saw this as the perfect exit ticket for any article, book or read aloud.  I thought this would be a great way to see if students not only comprehended what they read, but are also able to analyze and critically examine the theme, character relationships and text structure.  I also think it's a FABULOUS way to meaningfully integrate technology in a Reading Classroom. 

My students and I just finished the read aloud, So B. It by Sarah Weeks.  It is a wonderful book about a young girl in search of her own truth - where she came from, who her mom really is and how she ended up where she is.  My students identified with the book because many of them don't see one or both of their parents very often.  They loved that this book had a sense of mystery!   Below you'll find a story map made with PicCollage.

Can you think of any uses for PicCollage in your classroom??