Grant Proposal - Smart Response Clickers
This grant proposal is written in the format of the MACUL grant. Now that I have the general format, I will involve three other people from my school: our school principal, our social studies chairperson, and a 2nd grade teacher who is motivated to use clickers. We will edit down to the final format and word count and submit this proposal in June 2010.
Project Narrative
Our top priority is the success of all students in our charge. Success in school is comprised of many things, including academic achievements, personal growth, and engagement in the learning process. This project focuses on student engagement. We intend to increase the motivation and engagement of our students during social studies lessons by purchasing a set of SMART Response LE clickers, which allow students to click in with an answer before feedback is shared with them. The data is recorded for teacher use. The devices are simple for students to use, and they integrate with software we already have for our teachers. If we are successful in receiving funding for one set, our school board will purchase the Smart Response Primary SE, which is a version with fewer buttons for younger students. Once we receive the response systems, the district will provide substitutes for each grade level to be given dedicated professional development time to learn the software and create social studies lessons to engage students as they gain a deeper understanding of the content. Much of what is already available with the clicker questions is in quiz format. We want to create model formative assessment questions within lesson for each of the major topics in K-2 social studies. The lessons we create will be shared on the Smart Exchange website as well as our school website so that others can benefit from our content creation.
Project Need
We have many tools to help us teach social studies. We use many excellent print and media resources to engage in the process. Students learn the content and many are passing the GLCE-based common assessments that we use, but many of these common assessments measure a basic level knowledge of the content. In 3rd grade and above, when they begin MEAP testing, we are still seeing lower scores in social studies than we would like to see, and we believe that more in-depth instruction at the lower levels would help more students pass the social studies assessments. In a classroom of children participating in a lesson, it is easy for students to tune out the lesson. This is caused by a number of factors including disinterest and distractedness. These students need to learn as much as more focused students, so teachers use a variety of motivations such as bringing in interesting media and getting students up and moving. However, we are looking for something that tells us each and every student understands the content during the lesson. Our solution is to use the Student Response System to check for student understanding during lessons.
Project Goal
Our goal is to improve the engagement of our K-2 students during social studies lessons by having students check in during lessons to answer questions. Improved engagement leads to greater comprehension which leads to higher school achievement. Students will attain this goal by learning to use the clickers and then learn to use the feedback to monitor their understandings. An ancillary goal is to increase the comfort of teachers in their use of technology as an educational tool.
Project Objectives
95% of students in our K-2 setting will score 3 or 4 out of a possible 4 on all of the grade level common assessments after participating in the lessons that teachers. Teachers will learn to create and integrate the lessons in their teaching. As teachers build the lessons, they will consider several research-based ideas, such as keeping a clear goal in mind, using 3-4 well-planned questions spaced out in a lesson around the content, and building in feedback for students to clear up misunderstandings.
Project Activities
Our project will begin with all 18 K-2 teachers, with our specialists invited to participate as well. In September, each grade level team will meet and begin building the lessons for first trimester social studies topics. From September through November, teachers will use these lessons to teach the social studies topics for our first trimester, then record their data for the common assessments to compare to last year.
In December, a second half-day will be given to create lessons for 2nd trimester topics, and the process will repeat.
In March, a third half-day will be given to teachers to create lessons for the 3rd trimester topics.
In March, we will present our lessons at the MACUL conference to showcase the ability of clickers to engage students during social studies lessons.
In May, the social studies chairperson for our building will present our lessons and data to our school board and will take students to show the board how the process works.
Equipment/Materials
The Smart Response clickers will assist teachers in content delivery for social studies. Some classrooms have Smartboards to use the Smart Response clickers with, and the other classrooms have access to a Smartboard in the library. The software that comes with the clickers will integrate with our Smartboard software. To teach a lesson with the clickers, teachers will open the SmartNotebook software and engage the questions for the lesson they are teaching.
Plan for Sharing
This project will be shared in a variety of ways. We will share ideas within our staff during the district-provided professional time, and we will also discuss progress during monthly Technology meetings as well as weekly grade level meetings.
The district Social Studies committee chair from our building will share the lessons and ideas with the chairs from other buildings.
We will share our lessons publicly on the Smart Exchange website, where educators from around the world share their Smart Notebook files.
We will present our lessons at the district board meeting in May 2011.
Information about our grant and our lessons will be posted on the school web site as well as the Curriculum/Achievement portion of the district web site.
A team made up of our social studies chairperson, the grant writer, our school technology chair, and the principal will contribute to an article to submit to the MACUL Journal. These people will also prepare and present a session at the MACUL Conference.
Evaluation
We have two methods of evaluating the project. For measuring successful engagement of the students, we will survey the teachers in late February. The survey will ask them to compare student engagement with and without the clickers to teach their social studies lessons. For short-term student achievement comparisons, we will compare the 2010-11 scores for social studies common assessments with those of the past two years to document improvement. We will also participate in ongoing informal evaluation at intervals throughout the year (discussions at grade level meetings and technology meetings).
Project Narrative
Our top priority is the success of all students in our charge. Success in school is comprised of many things, including academic achievements, personal growth, and engagement in the learning process. This project focuses on student engagement. We intend to increase the motivation and engagement of our students during social studies lessons by purchasing a set of SMART Response LE clickers, which allow students to click in with an answer before feedback is shared with them. The data is recorded for teacher use. The devices are simple for students to use, and they integrate with software we already have for our teachers. If we are successful in receiving funding for one set, our school board will purchase the Smart Response Primary SE, which is a version with fewer buttons for younger students. Once we receive the response systems, the district will provide substitutes for each grade level to be given dedicated professional development time to learn the software and create social studies lessons to engage students as they gain a deeper understanding of the content. Much of what is already available with the clicker questions is in quiz format. We want to create model formative assessment questions within lesson for each of the major topics in K-2 social studies. The lessons we create will be shared on the Smart Exchange website as well as our school website so that others can benefit from our content creation.
Project Need
We have many tools to help us teach social studies. We use many excellent print and media resources to engage in the process. Students learn the content and many are passing the GLCE-based common assessments that we use, but many of these common assessments measure a basic level knowledge of the content. In 3rd grade and above, when they begin MEAP testing, we are still seeing lower scores in social studies than we would like to see, and we believe that more in-depth instruction at the lower levels would help more students pass the social studies assessments. In a classroom of children participating in a lesson, it is easy for students to tune out the lesson. This is caused by a number of factors including disinterest and distractedness. These students need to learn as much as more focused students, so teachers use a variety of motivations such as bringing in interesting media and getting students up and moving. However, we are looking for something that tells us each and every student understands the content during the lesson. Our solution is to use the Student Response System to check for student understanding during lessons.
Project Goal
Our goal is to improve the engagement of our K-2 students during social studies lessons by having students check in during lessons to answer questions. Improved engagement leads to greater comprehension which leads to higher school achievement. Students will attain this goal by learning to use the clickers and then learn to use the feedback to monitor their understandings. An ancillary goal is to increase the comfort of teachers in their use of technology as an educational tool.
Project Objectives
95% of students in our K-2 setting will score 3 or 4 out of a possible 4 on all of the grade level common assessments after participating in the lessons that teachers. Teachers will learn to create and integrate the lessons in their teaching. As teachers build the lessons, they will consider several research-based ideas, such as keeping a clear goal in mind, using 3-4 well-planned questions spaced out in a lesson around the content, and building in feedback for students to clear up misunderstandings.
Project Activities
Our project will begin with all 18 K-2 teachers, with our specialists invited to participate as well. In September, each grade level team will meet and begin building the lessons for first trimester social studies topics. From September through November, teachers will use these lessons to teach the social studies topics for our first trimester, then record their data for the common assessments to compare to last year.
In December, a second half-day will be given to create lessons for 2nd trimester topics, and the process will repeat.
In March, a third half-day will be given to teachers to create lessons for the 3rd trimester topics.
In March, we will present our lessons at the MACUL conference to showcase the ability of clickers to engage students during social studies lessons.
In May, the social studies chairperson for our building will present our lessons and data to our school board and will take students to show the board how the process works.
Equipment/Materials
The Smart Response clickers will assist teachers in content delivery for social studies. Some classrooms have Smartboards to use the Smart Response clickers with, and the other classrooms have access to a Smartboard in the library. The software that comes with the clickers will integrate with our Smartboard software. To teach a lesson with the clickers, teachers will open the SmartNotebook software and engage the questions for the lesson they are teaching.
Plan for Sharing
This project will be shared in a variety of ways. We will share ideas within our staff during the district-provided professional time, and we will also discuss progress during monthly Technology meetings as well as weekly grade level meetings.
The district Social Studies committee chair from our building will share the lessons and ideas with the chairs from other buildings.
We will share our lessons publicly on the Smart Exchange website, where educators from around the world share their Smart Notebook files.
We will present our lessons at the district board meeting in May 2011.
Information about our grant and our lessons will be posted on the school web site as well as the Curriculum/Achievement portion of the district web site.
A team made up of our social studies chairperson, the grant writer, our school technology chair, and the principal will contribute to an article to submit to the MACUL Journal. These people will also prepare and present a session at the MACUL Conference.
Evaluation
We have two methods of evaluating the project. For measuring successful engagement of the students, we will survey the teachers in late February. The survey will ask them to compare student engagement with and without the clickers to teach their social studies lessons. For short-term student achievement comparisons, we will compare the 2010-11 scores for social studies common assessments with those of the past two years to document improvement. We will also participate in ongoing informal evaluation at intervals throughout the year (discussions at grade level meetings and technology meetings).