Grant Proposal
Part I: Brief project description
Briefly summarize the transformation you would like to see in your students, the technology or set of technologies that you would like to acquire to facilitate this, the specific teaching and learning problems that this technology will address, the key activities that you will be enabled to integrate, and how you will evaluate the success of this integration.
Students of today will not be successful in the future unless they are technologically literate. The basis for this literacy must begin in elementary school, with basic keyboarding and computer skills. To ensure attainment of these skills, I wish to acquire a classroom set of Writer keyboards. These keyboards would streamline learning in the areas of keyboarding, writing, spelling, and grammar. Students would engage in daily keyboarding lessons, as well as spelling practice and daily journaling/writing lessons with the keyboards. The keyboards provide students with an “iScore,” which gives them an instant grade level at which they are writing and suggestions for improvement. Stories written on Writer keyboards can be easily transferred to computers in the computer lab, where students can work cooperatively to edit, revise, rewrite, and print their final pieces. Writer keyboards have “help” features (spell check, thesaurus, etc) that can be disabled for assessment. I will evaluate the success of this integration by: 1.comparing Writer keyboarding scores with our “traditional” keyboarding program 2. comparing writing samples from beginning of the year to the end, and 3. comparing writing of my students to their peers in the same school who did not use Writer keyboards.
Part II: Putting your cards on the table In the context of this assignment this means writing a section that lays out the subject matter and grade level that you teach, and some challenging concepts of the content area that you think students have trouble understanding. Be thinking about a specific technology or combination of technologies, and the affordances thereof, which will help you to alleviate the difficulties your students typically have in this area.
I am instructing 5th grade students in all subject areas in a Title One building in Waterford, Michigan. The content areas I am focusing on are keyboarding, writing, and spelling. Students at this grade level typically receive one 35-45 minute keyboarding practice session per week. Writing is done almost exclusively with paper and pencil, with editing tried first by the student, then a peer review, and finally by the teacher. What I have found over the past two years is that even with daily grammar activities, students continue to make the same errors in their writing. There is very little transfer of the grammar knowledge to the writing process.(Evidence: students could all pass with a B or higher a multiple choice grammar test, yet continued to make errors in written work.) Spelling tends to fall in the same category: skills are learned in isolation with some applied practice, but there is very little transfer to daily writing. Using the Writer keyboards will accomplish three things: 1. Provide daily keyboarding practice that will greatly enhance student skills, 2. Allow students to add spelling lists and use practice lessons that are embedded in the software which may lead to better transfer to writing, and 3. The software will give writing prompts that will help teach grammar skills within context. Writer keyboards will increase student motivation (research by Jody Roman, Clarenceville School District), and allow them to see real-time evidence (by use of the i-Score) that making grammar changes can improve their writing. In addition, use of these keyboards in our building will help close the technology gap that exists between students of a lower socio-economic background and those in middle and upper class. (http://www.scu.edu/ethics/publications/iie/v6n1/homepage.html)
Part III: Outline the transformation you would like to see in your teaching and your students’ learning.
What do you want your students to know, be able to do, and how would you know it? Be sure to focus your ideas primarily on student content area knowledge and skills, not just on student technology skills This section takes off on the idea of “backward design” (The Wiggins & McTighe reading on Understanding by Design). Connect this with the “Six facets of understanding” that we discussed:
Which facets are most important to the domain you will be teaching (and to your students)?
What skills or understandings do you want your students to have as a result of the technology integration you propose?
How will you design your assessments?
What role can technology play in this assessment of understanding?
Understanding writing and grammar is an on-going process that requires students to experiment, revise, edit, and explore in order to be successful. True understanding of this process will only come when students have the opportunity to apply lessons and work with peers to evaluate their work and others. This "public" evaluation will result in students gaining greater perspective, empathy, and self-knowledge of the writing process.
Given that in the past my students have not applied their knowledge of spelling and grammar to their written work, I would like to change my teaching of these subjects through the use of technology. Using Writer keyboards, I would like to give students the opportunity to construct their own learning through use of i-Score (a grade-leveling device) spelling/grammar tools, spelling programs, and peer editing sessions. My teaching would be transformed because I could teach a grammar lesson and have the students actually work with the concepts on their keyboards in “real time.” Rather than calling on one student to tell what is wrong with a sentence, I could have the entire class type a corrected sentence into their system and then use the grammar check to assess their own understanding. As a class we could explore right and wrong answers (on a teacher computer, using Microsoft Word applications, connected to a television or projected onto a screen). This would fulfill both explanation interpretation aspects of understanding.
Writing lessons could take a similar format: student work would be transferred to a computer where it could then be shown on a SMART board or projected on a screen, thus allowing students to conduct peer editing sessions. This allows the students to see their work and other’s from different perspectives, thus enhancing the learning experience. Because each student will have an opportunity to be in the “spotlight,” they will develop empathy for one another as the process evolves. As work is edited, students will use either the editing function of Word or cut and paste into a new document in order to track changes that are made to the piece. I could then move to a “guide on the side” role, working with small groups or individual conferencing. Whole group mini-lessons could be conducted using the same methods.
Student learning would be transformed because students would take a more active role in editing and revising their own work: the onus would shift from teacher doing the editing (passive student) to student(s) doing the editing (active student). Engaging students in group evaluation helps them develop empathy as they are both evaluators and are evaluated. As students become more proficient at helping peers improve their writing, they also become more able to transfer those skills to their own work. Using technology and group work will increase student success, engagement, motivation, and responsibility.
Assessment of understanding comes in this realm through the applied use of skills taught in a variety of writing situations. Assessment will be two-fold: both through a writing portfolio to gauge growth over time, as well as through use of a rubric. Individual pieces will be graded by the teacher, student author, and the peer review group. This will allow the student, as well as peers, to maintain investment in the process, and give them voice in the process. The portfolio will be used for conferencing and assessing skills application. Students will create a written reflection after each writing piece is published, critiquing the process, evaluating what lessons they applied, what worked, and what goals they have for their next piece. Technology can play a role because the students will use either editing functions of word, or a cut and paste into a new document to track changes that have been made to the piece as the process goes along. In addition, writing pieces will be kept in a folder on the computer, as well as a print copy, so pieces can be easily edited, and changes can be tracked.
Learning is least useful when it is private and hidden; it is most powerful when it becomes
public and communal. Learning flourishes when we take what we think we know and
offer it as community property among fellow learners so that it can be tested, examined, challenged, and improved before we internalize it.
By Lee S. Shulman
Note: This article was originally published in Change, July/August 1999. Volume 31,
Number 4. Pages 10-17.
Part IV: What role does technology play in this process?
Outline the specific technology or combination of technologies that you would like to integrate in order to facilitate the transformation in learning you outline above
I want to structure writing in my classroom this year as a process of discovery for my students. In the past I have had a large portion of students who loathed writing, and regarded it as something “hard,” or something “they weren’t good at.” Others would write a piece that I liked, earned an A, or was otherwise lauded, which thereafter was the model for everything that they wrote. It became a formula, not a means of communicating thoughts, ideas, or opinions. Thus I realize I need to begin at the beginning, and find out what ideas and opinions my students have about writing, and how I can build on them, re-work them if necessary, and make it a process to be enjoyed, even anticipated. THE POWER OF WORDS. How do I use what I know about learning theories to best communicate this? What do I use from their world to bring this about? Favorite songs, commercials, books, poems, lines from movies… So I begin the year with creating webs about all of our subject areas: what we know, what we think, how we feel about Math, writing, reading, social studies, science…(Idea: students volunteer to be a “lifesaver” for each area - everyone must sign up for at least one. Play off the idea that everyone has a talent in something. We will have periodic lunch bunches where kids can stay in with the lifesavers to work on that subject area.)
I would like to integrate use of Writer keyboards, computers, and a projector or SMART board to facilitate the learning of fifth grade language arts and spelling GLCEs . In addition, to enhance/facilitate these projects, we will use digital cameras, video cameras, and Power Point, moviemaker, and other available software.
Rather than giving students direct instruction on the keyboards, I will allow them some exploration time, and give them opportunity to discover and teach each other. We will create a board where students can post the “cool” things they have learned or discovered about the technologies we are using. We will have a section for each: Writer keyboards, different computer applications (Word, Publisher, Power Point, etc) and have them add content as we go. (A paper wiki, so to speak, that will become a real wiki later in the year.)
To encourage and allow for creativity and expression, I will introduce the idea of adding images to writing projects (citing sources and using allowable images) or using images to inspire writing, perhaps even using the fewest words possible to enhance an image…or create a slideshow of images to show what our typical day is like, vs. writing a few paragraphs about it - which is more powerful? How can we combine words and images to make the most powerful statement? Get our point across? How does this translate in the world that we know? (commercials?) So can we create a “commercial” for our class, showing who we are, what we do, and where we want to go? (use digital cameras, video cameras, slideshow, power point, etc) to be used for curriculum night, conferences, or end of the year?
Inquiry is satisfied by students working on the writing process with peers, sharing ideas about the story content, editing, etc. Construction is satisfied as the students build their piece of writing: they begin with the planning stages, go on to writing of paragraphs, work on great leads and powerful endings, tear down and build back up through editing (idea: hard hat area…work under construction) Communication The writing process is inherently about communication - this is enhanced by group work - students have the opportunity to verbally communicate and refine their written communication as a result. Expression: Allow students to publish their writing in a variety of formats available: word, publisher, etc. Give them opportunity to change fonts, colors, backgrounds, add pictures, clip art etc. as long as it enhances the text or adds meaning.
Technology to be used: Writer keyboards, school computers, projector and screen, SMART board (if available). The Writer keyboards would be used as outlined above. SMART boards, if available, would be used to project student work and allow students to work in groups to edit on the screen. Editing conversations could be taped using hand-held tape recorders to allow teacher to work with other groups and listen in to group conversations later. (click to link to next section)
Part I: Brief project description
Briefly summarize the transformation you would like to see in your students, the technology or set of technologies that you would like to acquire to facilitate this, the specific teaching and learning problems that this technology will address, the key activities that you will be enabled to integrate, and how you will evaluate the success of this integration.
Students of today will not be successful in the future unless they are technologically literate. The basis for this literacy must begin in elementary school, with basic keyboarding and computer skills. To ensure attainment of these skills, I wish to acquire a classroom set of Writer keyboards. These keyboards would streamline learning in the areas of keyboarding, writing, spelling, and grammar. Students would engage in daily keyboarding lessons, as well as spelling practice and daily journaling/writing lessons with the keyboards. The keyboards provide students with an “iScore,” which gives them an instant grade level at which they are writing and suggestions for improvement. Stories written on Writer keyboards can be easily transferred to computers in the computer lab, where students can work cooperatively to edit, revise, rewrite, and print their final pieces. Writer keyboards have “help” features (spell check, thesaurus, etc) that can be disabled for assessment. I will evaluate the success of this integration by: 1.comparing Writer keyboarding scores with our “traditional” keyboarding program 2. comparing writing samples from beginning of the year to the end, and 3. comparing writing of my students to their peers in the same school who did not use Writer keyboards.
Part II: Putting your cards on the table In the context of this assignment this means writing a section that lays out the subject matter and grade level that you teach, and some challenging concepts of the content area that you think students have trouble understanding. Be thinking about a specific technology or combination of technologies, and the affordances thereof, which will help you to alleviate the difficulties your students typically have in this area.
I am instructing 5th grade students in all subject areas in a Title One building in Waterford, Michigan. The content areas I am focusing on are keyboarding, writing, and spelling. Students at this grade level typically receive one 35-45 minute keyboarding practice session per week. Writing is done almost exclusively with paper and pencil, with editing tried first by the student, then a peer review, and finally by the teacher. What I have found over the past two years is that even with daily grammar activities, students continue to make the same errors in their writing. There is very little transfer of the grammar knowledge to the writing process.(Evidence: students could all pass with a B or higher a multiple choice grammar test, yet continued to make errors in written work.) Spelling tends to fall in the same category: skills are learned in isolation with some applied practice, but there is very little transfer to daily writing. Using the Writer keyboards will accomplish three things: 1. Provide daily keyboarding practice that will greatly enhance student skills, 2. Allow students to add spelling lists and use practice lessons that are embedded in the software which may lead to better transfer to writing, and 3. The software will give writing prompts that will help teach grammar skills within context. Writer keyboards will increase student motivation (research by Jody Roman, Clarenceville School District), and allow them to see real-time evidence (by use of the i-Score) that making grammar changes can improve their writing. In addition, use of these keyboards in our building will help close the technology gap that exists between students of a lower socio-economic background and those in middle and upper class. (http://www.scu.edu/ethics/publications/iie/v6n1/homepage.html)
Part III: Outline the transformation you would like to see in your teaching and your students’ learning.
What do you want your students to know, be able to do, and how would you know it? Be sure to focus your ideas primarily on student content area knowledge and skills, not just on student technology skills This section takes off on the idea of “backward design” (The Wiggins & McTighe reading on Understanding by Design). Connect this with the “Six facets of understanding” that we discussed:
Which facets are most important to the domain you will be teaching (and to your students)?
What skills or understandings do you want your students to have as a result of the technology integration you propose?
How will you design your assessments?
What role can technology play in this assessment of understanding?
Understanding writing and grammar is an on-going process that requires students to experiment, revise, edit, and explore in order to be successful. True understanding of this process will only come when students have the opportunity to apply lessons and work with peers to evaluate their work and others. This "public" evaluation will result in students gaining greater perspective, empathy, and self-knowledge of the writing process.
Given that in the past my students have not applied their knowledge of spelling and grammar to their written work, I would like to change my teaching of these subjects through the use of technology. Using Writer keyboards, I would like to give students the opportunity to construct their own learning through use of i-Score (a grade-leveling device) spelling/grammar tools, spelling programs, and peer editing sessions. My teaching would be transformed because I could teach a grammar lesson and have the students actually work with the concepts on their keyboards in “real time.” Rather than calling on one student to tell what is wrong with a sentence, I could have the entire class type a corrected sentence into their system and then use the grammar check to assess their own understanding. As a class we could explore right and wrong answers (on a teacher computer, using Microsoft Word applications, connected to a television or projected onto a screen). This would fulfill both explanation interpretation aspects of understanding.
Writing lessons could take a similar format: student work would be transferred to a computer where it could then be shown on a SMART board or projected on a screen, thus allowing students to conduct peer editing sessions. This allows the students to see their work and other’s from different perspectives, thus enhancing the learning experience. Because each student will have an opportunity to be in the “spotlight,” they will develop empathy for one another as the process evolves. As work is edited, students will use either the editing function of Word or cut and paste into a new document in order to track changes that are made to the piece. I could then move to a “guide on the side” role, working with small groups or individual conferencing. Whole group mini-lessons could be conducted using the same methods.
Student learning would be transformed because students would take a more active role in editing and revising their own work: the onus would shift from teacher doing the editing (passive student) to student(s) doing the editing (active student). Engaging students in group evaluation helps them develop empathy as they are both evaluators and are evaluated. As students become more proficient at helping peers improve their writing, they also become more able to transfer those skills to their own work. Using technology and group work will increase student success, engagement, motivation, and responsibility.
Assessment of understanding comes in this realm through the applied use of skills taught in a variety of writing situations. Assessment will be two-fold: both through a writing portfolio to gauge growth over time, as well as through use of a rubric. Individual pieces will be graded by the teacher, student author, and the peer review group. This will allow the student, as well as peers, to maintain investment in the process, and give them voice in the process. The portfolio will be used for conferencing and assessing skills application. Students will create a written reflection after each writing piece is published, critiquing the process, evaluating what lessons they applied, what worked, and what goals they have for their next piece. Technology can play a role because the students will use either editing functions of word, or a cut and paste into a new document to track changes that have been made to the piece as the process goes along. In addition, writing pieces will be kept in a folder on the computer, as well as a print copy, so pieces can be easily edited, and changes can be tracked.
Learning is least useful when it is private and hidden; it is most powerful when it becomes
public and communal. Learning flourishes when we take what we think we know and
offer it as community property among fellow learners so that it can be tested, examined, challenged, and improved before we internalize it.
By Lee S. Shulman
Note: This article was originally published in Change, July/August 1999. Volume 31,
Number 4. Pages 10-17.
Part IV: What role does technology play in this process?
Outline the specific technology or combination of technologies that you would like to integrate in order to facilitate the transformation in learning you outline above
I want to structure writing in my classroom this year as a process of discovery for my students. In the past I have had a large portion of students who loathed writing, and regarded it as something “hard,” or something “they weren’t good at.” Others would write a piece that I liked, earned an A, or was otherwise lauded, which thereafter was the model for everything that they wrote. It became a formula, not a means of communicating thoughts, ideas, or opinions. Thus I realize I need to begin at the beginning, and find out what ideas and opinions my students have about writing, and how I can build on them, re-work them if necessary, and make it a process to be enjoyed, even anticipated. THE POWER OF WORDS. How do I use what I know about learning theories to best communicate this? What do I use from their world to bring this about? Favorite songs, commercials, books, poems, lines from movies… So I begin the year with creating webs about all of our subject areas: what we know, what we think, how we feel about Math, writing, reading, social studies, science…(Idea: students volunteer to be a “lifesaver” for each area - everyone must sign up for at least one. Play off the idea that everyone has a talent in something. We will have periodic lunch bunches where kids can stay in with the lifesavers to work on that subject area.)
I would like to integrate use of Writer keyboards, computers, and a projector or SMART board to facilitate the learning of fifth grade language arts and spelling GLCEs . In addition, to enhance/facilitate these projects, we will use digital cameras, video cameras, and Power Point, moviemaker, and other available software.
Rather than giving students direct instruction on the keyboards, I will allow them some exploration time, and give them opportunity to discover and teach each other. We will create a board where students can post the “cool” things they have learned or discovered about the technologies we are using. We will have a section for each: Writer keyboards, different computer applications (Word, Publisher, Power Point, etc) and have them add content as we go. (A paper wiki, so to speak, that will become a real wiki later in the year.)
To encourage and allow for creativity and expression, I will introduce the idea of adding images to writing projects (citing sources and using allowable images) or using images to inspire writing, perhaps even using the fewest words possible to enhance an image…or create a slideshow of images to show what our typical day is like, vs. writing a few paragraphs about it - which is more powerful? How can we combine words and images to make the most powerful statement? Get our point across? How does this translate in the world that we know? (commercials?) So can we create a “commercial” for our class, showing who we are, what we do, and where we want to go? (use digital cameras, video cameras, slideshow, power point, etc) to be used for curriculum night, conferences, or end of the year?
Inquiry is satisfied by students working on the writing process with peers, sharing ideas about the story content, editing, etc. Construction is satisfied as the students build their piece of writing: they begin with the planning stages, go on to writing of paragraphs, work on great leads and powerful endings, tear down and build back up through editing (idea: hard hat area…work under construction) Communication The writing process is inherently about communication - this is enhanced by group work - students have the opportunity to verbally communicate and refine their written communication as a result. Expression: Allow students to publish their writing in a variety of formats available: word, publisher, etc. Give them opportunity to change fonts, colors, backgrounds, add pictures, clip art etc. as long as it enhances the text or adds meaning.
Technology to be used: Writer keyboards, school computers, projector and screen, SMART board (if available). The Writer keyboards would be used as outlined above. SMART boards, if available, would be used to project student work and allow students to work in groups to edit on the screen. Editing conversations could be taped using hand-held tape recorders to allow teacher to work with other groups and listen in to group conversations later. (click to link to next section)