UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND UNIVERSITY COLLEGE

Grant Proposal
NEA Student Achievement Grant
Anna Newton Summer 2012 EDTC 630

This grant proposal is based on the NEA Student Achievement Grant. The grant instructions can be found on the following website: http://www.neafoundation.org/pages/educators/grant-programs/studentachievement-grants/student-achievement-application-instructions/.

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Lead Applicant Information: Anna Newton Social Studies Teacher North Point High School 2500 Davis Road Waldorf, MD 20603 School Phone: 301-753-1759

Partner Data: Kathy Edman Media Specialist & Testing Coordinator North Point High School 2500 Davis Road Waldorf, MD 20603 School Phone: 301-753-1759

Fiscal Agent Note: Barbara DiMauro Financial Secretary North Point High School 2500 Davis Road Waldorf, MD 20603 School Phone: 301-753-1759

Grant Proposal
Summary of Proposed Work: Through the adoption of the SMART Classroom Suite, I plan to increase student achievement in critical thinking and problem solving skills in my eleventh grade World History classes. I plan to use the SMART Classroom Suite to create and implement lessons that allow students to manipulate multiple types of primary sources to analyze the impact of historical events, movements, and people, create multiple types of presentations to examine and evaluate the significance of events, and solve problems from history through collaborative assignments. The SMART Classroom Suite has multiple features that will allow students to interact and analyze history, while allowing the teacher to guide students learning so they can reach greater achievement. Project Description: Description of Technology: The SMART Classroom Suite software has four components, SMART Sync classroom management software, SMART Response CE interactive response software, SMART Notebook SE (student edition) software, and the SMART Notebook collaborative learning software (SMART Technologies, 2011). The Sync classroom management software allows me to support student collaboration, monitor students, and guide students by broadcasting my computer screen to demonstrate concepts or examples to the class. The interactive response software also allows the students to interact with the content and materials through multiple choice questions or assessments during the lessons through the SMART Response software. The interactive software also allows me to use the responses of students as formative and summative assessment and manage all of the assessment data. The formative assessment would allow me to check student 3

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understanding of concepts and check students critical thinking and problem solving skills. The student edition of the SMART Notebook software allows students to organize their assignments and notes. This organization tool will help students achieve more because they are staying on track with their schedules and work. The SMART Notebook collaborative learning software allows me to find and share lessons on the SMART Exchange website, enhance lessons with learning tools in the SMART Notebook softwares Gallery, import questions from third-party sources, export results for further analysis and to third-party gradebooks, and create interactive lessons using various tools such as drawing, annotation, and presentation. Goals and Standards for Student Learning: The adoption of this software suite will allow me to facilitate greater student achievement, particularly in the areas of students critical thinking and problem solving skills in the study of World History. The goals for learning I have for my students are to improve student critical thinking skills through the use and manipulation of primary sources from World History to analyze the impact of historical events, movements, and people, create multiple types of presentations to examine and evaluate the significance of events on people and the world, and solve problems from history through collaborative assignments. Using primary sources to analyze the impact of historical events, movements, and people requires students to use their current knowledge of the subject and critical thinking skills to interpret the meaning of the document to support or refute ideas and theories in history. The description on how I plan to reach these goals is described in the Activities Description section of this proposal. These goals connect to the Charles County Public Schools World History curriculum 1500 to the Present. The curriculum is based on the Maryland State Department of Education

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Core Learning Goals (CLGs) and Content Standards as part of the statewide high school improvement initiative (CCPS, 2010). The skills connected to my proposed work that is stressed in the World History curriculum standards of Charles County are (CCPS, 2010): Critical Thinking Skills Identify the author or source of a historical document and explain the literal meaning of the document. Assess the uses and credibility of a source by examining personal and contextual influences and by corroborating with other historical sources. Differentiate between historical facts and historical interpretations. Analyze change or continuity in areas of the world over time based on text and non-text information. Analyze cause-and-effect relationships and multiple causation, including the importance of the individual and the influence of ideas. Consider and compare multiple perspectives in primary and secondary sources. Evaluate multiple perspectives of various peoples in the past by demonstrating their differing motives and beliefs. Identify the author or source of the historical document or narrative and assess its credibility. Problem Solving Skills Draw comparisons across eras and regions in order to define enduring issues. Identify the author or source of the historical document or narrative and assess its credibility. Formulate historical questions. Obtain historical data from a variety of sources. Identify the gaps in the available records; marshal contextual knowledge and perspectives of the time and place. Support interpretations with historical evidence in order to construct closely reasoned arguments. Identify issues and problems in the past. Marshal evidence of antecedent circumstances. Identify relevant historical antecedents. Evaluate alternative courses of action. Formulate a position or course of action on an issue. Evaluate the implementation of a decision

Needs Assessment: Academic Assessment Data & Areas of Need:

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My World History class does not have a county or state exam that they must pass in order pass the course or for graduation requirements. Many of my World History students take the SAT and ACT during the school year. According to the Maryland Department of Education (2010), out of the 303 North Point students that took the SAT in 2010, there was an average composite score of 1442 out of 2400, writing was 472, reading was 486, and math was 484; each are out of 800. All students in the state of Maryland must pass the Biology, English, and Algebra HSA test in order to graduate. The English HSA has skills that are linked with skills that students would learn and apply in History classes as well, such as reading and interpreting documents and applying evidence from document to support their argument in a piece of writing. The passing score for the English HSA taken during 10th grade is 396. According to the Maryland Department of Education (2010), 9.1% of 11th graders still have not passed the English HSA. I use this data, along with students grades in class, to form improvement goals for my classroom. Based on my classroom and school data, students need more skills in critical thinking and problem solving skills. My goal is to improve critical thinking and problem solving skills of my students to help them increase their scores on the HSA, SAT, ACT, and other exams and to help prepare them for higher education. To achieve this goal, I will the SMART Classroom Suite software. The addition of this software will allow students to improve critical thinking and problem solving skills through an authentic, engaging, and hands-on study of history. School and Class Demographics & Areas of Need: North Point High School, the school where I teach World History (Honors and A-Level) and AP European History, is a large and diverse community in Charles County, Maryland that services slightly over 2,200 students. World History is primarily an eleventh grade class. North

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Point is the school of science, technology, and industry. Students must apply to be admitted to one of the 17 science, technology and industry (referred to as STI) programs. An estimated half of the student body is enrolled in one of these programs, while the other half receives a normal high school education. The table below shows the schools demographics. Demographic American Indian African American Asian/Pacific Islander White Hispanic Male Female Special Education Limited English Proficient Free & Reduced Meals 504 Plan Number of Students 17 1,205 138 778 66 1,131 1,073 115 Number not given 260 24 Percentage of School Population 0.8% 54.6% 6.3% 35.3% 3.0% 51.3% 48.7% 5.2% Less than 1% 11.8% 1.1%

While the above table depicts the schools demographics, however, the demographics of the classes I teach vary from class to class and year to year. All of my World History classes tend to have 22 to 30 students on average. My Honors level World History classes tend to mirror the school demographics; however, sometimes there is more of an even percentage of White and African American students. In my A-Level courses, there tends to be more African American students than White and more male than female students on average. The Hispanic and Asian population is very low in all of my classes. Out of all of my classes, I had one student that had special education services, two with 504 plans, one student with limited English skills, and about 10% of my students were in the FARMS program. According to the Maryland department of Education (2010), 47.6% of students who receive special education services and 13.2% of students who are in the FARMS program in the 7

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11th grade did not pass the HSA English exam. There was no data for students with limited English skills. These students will benefit from the hands-on approach to improve critical thinking and problem solving skills that the SMART Classroom Suite has to offer. The critical thinking and problem solving skills that they will learn in my History classroom will also help them to pass their English HSA, which also requires those skills. Activities Description I plan to engage students in critical thinking skills through the use and manipulation of primary sources from World History to analyze the impact of historical events, movements, and people. The SMART Classroom Suite will allow me to teach students skills they need to analyze and interpret primary sources by broadcasting the document and using annotation tools to analyze and evaluate the primary source. The interactive response software will also be used to assess students ability to analyze primary sources. The formative assessment data produced by the interactive responses made by students will be examined by me to change lessons and strategies to help all of the students achieve. The interactive response software will allow me to see individual student scores, which will give me the data I need to help students based off of their individual needs. Formative feedback given based off of the data from the interactive response system will help students achieve because according to Shute (2008), it reduces uncertainty about how well the student is performing on a task, can effectively reduce the cognitive load of a learner, especially novice or struggling students, and provide information that may be useful for correcting inappropriate task strategies, procedural errors, or misconceptions (p. 157). The interactive response system and the Notebook program, which has annotation tools, will also encourage student discussion when analyzing primary sources. I will create questions based on primary sources that require students to analyze or evaluate to promote discussion that 8

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leads to a deeper understanding of complex issues in World History (Sternberger, 2012, p. 123). Students will also use the Notebook and the annotation tools to add visuals on the primary source document to prove their argument during discussion. I plan to engage students in solving problems from history through collaborative assignments, such as creating a presentation to evaluate the implementation of a decision made by a country or leader of a group. Students will use primary sources as evidence in presentations, debates, research papers, and discussions based off of the critical thinking and analytical skills they learned. The critical thinking skills learned will help students to examine the credibility of evidence, to develop and assess arguments, resolve dilemmas, and look at issues of logic, presumption and fallacies (OMahony, 2009, p. 125). The SMART Sync monitoring software will allow me to monitor students when they work individually and in small groups using the SMART Notebook student edition. Collaborative learning can increase student communication skills and academic achievement, but the teacher should always monitor group activity to ensure that are not veering too far off task. The teacher should also be available to answer student questions and guide discussion if necessary (Coffey, 2008). The monitoring software will allow me to help students stay on task and monitor their progress in real time. I will take on new roles as a collaborator with my students and as a coach to help guide students when they are solving or evaluating the impact of problems in history (OMahony, 2009, p. 123). Evaluation & Sustainability: Evaluation: The student learning goals will be evaluated in order to determine if the goals and objectives have been met and if the technologies and training purchased have met the needs of 9

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the teacher and students. The forms of evaluation will consist of observation of student progress and technology use, personal reflection on the goals and objectives and the technologies being used, and assessments to measure student learning. Evaluations will happen during the school year and at the end of projects. I will make observations of students progress and make notes with a summary of my observations at the end of classes. I will then reflect upon these notes once a week to make changes to lesson plans and activities for future lessons if needed. See the below table to see the details of the evaluation plan. Evaluation of Goals and Objectives: Goal Goal 1: Improve student critical thinking and problem solving skills through the use and manipulation of primary sources from World History to analyze the impact of historical events, movements, and people. Objective Objective A: Students will respond to questions using the interactive response system to engage in discussion and analysis of primary sources. Evaluation & Assessment Evaluation of the technology will include a personal reflection of the ease of set-up, use by the teacher and students. The teacher will also compare amount and quality of class discussion from previous years to years where the SMART software was used to determine if the technology impacted student achievement.

To assess the objective, the teacher will use the data from the assessment questions to see if there is an improvement in critical thinking skills. If the number of correct responses students make goes up, then the students are improving their critical thinking skills. Objective B: Students Evaluation of the technology will include a will create multiple personal reflection of the ease of set-up, use types of presentations to by the teacher and students. The teacher will examine and evaluate also compare presentation samples from the significance of previous years to years where the SMART events on people and the software was used to determine if the world. technology impacted student achievement. To assess the objective, the teacher will have a rubric to grade the final product. The teacher will also compare previously created presentations before the use of the SMART software to see if there was an improvement. 10

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Objective C: Students will solve problems from history through collaborative assignments, such as creating a presentation to evaluate the implementation of a decision made by a country or leader of a group. Evaluation of the technology will include a personal reflection of the ease of use by the teacher and students. To assess the objective, the teacher will have a rubric to grade the final product. The teacher will also conduct a survey of the students to see if collaborative assignments with the SMART software were useful for the students.

Sustainability of the Project: This project is easily sustainable because it can be easily adapted to the needs of new students and changes in the curriculum. The SMART Classroom Suite is a technology that is easily updated and has an excellent support network for teachers, such as the SMART Exchange. The SMART Exchange is an online site where teachers can find lessons and materials for their grade and content, some are free and others have a fee to purchase the resource. Teachers can also upload their resources to share with other teachers and can connect with each other on a blog and forum to share experiences and strategies to use in the classroom. Budget & Justification: The table below provides the budget for the proposed work. My classroom already has a SMART interactive whiteboard, so that does not need to be purchased. Product or Training SMART Classroom Suite SMART Classroom Suite and Sync Certification SMART Notebook and Response Quantity 1 Teacher license Comes with unlimited student licenses 1 Course 1 Course Price $1,261.00 $ 1,059.00 $ 2,436.00 11

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Combo Certification Grand Total: $ 4,756.00

The SMART Classroom Suite was chosen because I currently have a SMART interactive whiteboard in my classroom and I believe it can be used to increase student achievement in critical thinking and problem solving skills. The software has four components, SMART Sync classroom management software, SMART Response CE interactive response software, SMART Notebook SE (student edition) software, and SMART Notebook collaborative learning software, which means the program allows me to do multiple tasks to increase student achievement for a better price (SMART Technologies, 2011). I will monitor students progress on laptops and make sure they are using class time for projects and collaboration appropriately using the sync system. I will also use the interactive response system to monitor student progress and promote discussion that will require students to use critical thinking skills. The collaborative notebook, both the student and teacher edition will allow students, as well as the teacher, to work together to solve problems in history. The two trainings will allow me to learn how to use all of the components of the SMART Classroom Suite to their fullest potential. Conclusion: Thank you for considering my proposal for the NEA Student Achievement Grant. Resources: Audio Visual Innovations, Inc. (2012). SMART classroom suite software quote. Retrieved from http://www.avispl.com/

CCPS. (2010). World history curriculum map. Retrieved from http://instruction.ccboe.com 12

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CCPS. (2010). World history outline. Retrieved from http://instruction.ccboe.com

Coffey, H. (2008). Cooperative learning. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Retrieved from http://www.learnnc.org/lp/pages/4653

Maryland Department of Education. (2010). 2010 Maryland report card: Assessments: North Point high school. Retrieved from http://msp2010.msde.state.md.us/Assessments.aspx?K=080623&WDATA=School

Maryland Department of Education. (2010). 2010 Maryland report card: Demographics: North Point high school. Retrieved from http://msp2010.msde.state.md.us/Demographics.aspx? K=080623&WDATA=School#ENROLLMENTgrade3all

OMahony, D. (2009). How can I encourage my pupil to think critically through collaborative online-learning? Educational Journal of Living Theories, 2(1), 121-139.

Shute, V. J. (2008). Focus on formative feedback. Review of Educational Research, 78(1), 153189. doi: 10.3102/0034654307313795

SMART Technologies. (2011). SMART classroom suite. Retrieved from http://downloads01.smarttech.com/media/sitecore/en/pdf/brochures/classroom/classroom suite_factsheetedu.pdf

SMART Technologies. (2012). SMART technologies corporation education price list: Services. Retrieved from http://smarttech.com/education

Sternberger, C. S. (2012). Interactive learning environment: Engaging students using clickers. 13

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Nursing Education Perspectives, 33(2), 121-124. doi: 10.5480/1536-5026-33.2.121

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