Chester Academy NCLB Title IID 21C Proposal Application

Combination of laptops, cameras, and other tools Other computer configurations Interactive whiteboards, personal response systems, document cameras, teacher laptops, netbook labs Number

District Application Cover Page

Project Manager: Susan Kessler

Position Title: Technology Integration Specialist

Mailing Address: Chester Academy, 22 Murphy Drive, Chester NH 03036

Email Address: susank@chesteracademy.org

BE SURE TO READ ALL OF THE FOLLOWING

I hereby certify that:

1 To the best of my knowledge, the information contained in this application is correct,

and the school board of the district named above has authorized me as its

representative to submit this application

2 The District has submitted to the New Hampshire Department of Education (NHDOE) a

General Assurances signature page for the current year

3 The District has consulted with the appropriate non-public schools during the design and

development of this Ed Tech project prior to all decisions that affect the opportunities of private school children to participate in the program

4 All funding for this project will be obligated and reported no later than the quarterly report ending 3/31/2011 and expended and reported no later than quarterly report ending 6/30/2011.

5 The grant funds expended will supplement, not supplant, funds from non-federal

sources

6 The District will keep records and provide information to the NHDOE as may be required

for program evaluation, consistent with responsibilities under NCLB Title II-D as outlined within the Grant Request for Proposals (e.g., surveys, reports, ARRA monthly reports)

7 The schools to be funded by this program are compliant with the Children’s Internet

Protection Act (CIPA) because the district employs a filtering mechanism for student access OR because Ed Tech funds referenced in this application will NOT be used to purchase computers used to access the Internet or pay for direct costs associated with accessing the Internet

Superintendent of Schools (blue ink preferred) Date

Please also snail mail a signed original of ONLY this page to:

Dr Cathy Higgins, Office of Educational Technology

New Hampshire Department of Education

101 Pleasant Street, Concord, NH 03301

Name of Applicant District: Chester

Application Form for 21st Century Classrooms Project

Digital Tools Indicate the primary configuration of digital tools that will be used in your

project classrooms to create a 1:1 environment (CHOOSE ONLY ONE):

Sub-notebooks/ mini-laptops / netbooks Standard laptops

Handheld computers (e.g., Palm, Nintendo DS, iTouch, etc.) Combination of laptops, cameras, and other tools

Other computer configurations Interactive whiteboards, personal response systems, document cameras, teacher laptops, netbook labs

Number of

Classrooms There will be six classroom, one in each of the following grades, 1, 3, 4, 6, 7, and, 8, configured with a 1:1 environment The Library/Media Center and

the Learning Lab will be configured with an approximate 3:1 environment There will be three classrooms in grade 1, two in grade 3, two in grade 4, three in grade 6, 4 in grade 7, and 3 in grade 8 used as control groups, with ratios greater than 1:1.

Teachers

Special Ed

Teacher

Special Ed

Technology

Integration Spec

Administrators

Project Abstract (10 Points)

FUMIFU (First Use Must Inspire Future Use) is key to Chester Academy’s school-wide reading and

language arts initiative Using interactive whiteboards, personal response systems, document cameras, laptops, and other digital tools will enhance teaching and learning and increase student involvement and

Name of Applicant District: Chester

performance Learning in this environment will meet the varying styles of visual, auditory, and kinesthetic learners Integrating technology, reading, and language arts with all subject areas will provide today's learners with 21st century classrooms

Project Description (30 Points)

8 will have a 2GB jumpdrive to back up their work and facilitate the transfer of student work between school and home (Note: The term FUMIFU is borrowed with permission from Dale Fowler, a Polyvision reseller.)

Goals

Chester Academy’s Technology Plan 2009-2011 states, “It is our belief that technological resources should

be used to enhance and enrich instruction and learning Technology is not a separate discipline but a tool to support the content areas Technology does not dictate curriculum but rather our curriculum drives our technological choices Students must become actively engaged in the learning process and its applications

to the real world while teachers become facilitators of learning.” It continues, “Now in the 21st century, we are aware that the workplace is ever-changing With this in mind, it is important to realize that the

instructional and curricular goal is to integrate the use of technology into all aspects of instruction and curriculum It should never be static but always evolving.” The proposed FUMIFU grant project supports the

District’s technology goals

District Technology Goals

4.1 Communication and Information Access Goal: Establish point of access for exchanging and retrieving current on-line information for students, staff, and community members

 Objectives:

o Use telecommunications to enhance curriculum and instruction at all levels

o Provide the educational community with on-line access to current research and information

o Provide the district with equal access to instructional computer software across the network4.2 Instructional and Curricular Technology Goal: Integrate the use of technology into all aspects of instruction and curricula for effective communications, critical thinking, and problem solving which will enable students to become productive citizens

 Objectives:

• Provide software to enhance student’s skills for working both independently and in collaborative groups

• Provide software to develop critical thinking and problem solving skills

• Provide hardware and software that is able to adapt to the physical and intellectual needs of each learner

• Integrate technology into the instructional process

• Provide resources for students retrieval and interpretation of information from various sources

• Provide the tools and instruction necessary for students to expand research skills, and explore diverse

Name of Applicant District: Chester

ideas

• Follow ethical guidelines when using technology

Project Goals

To employ the functions of the interactive whiteboard and personal response system

• Evidence of goal: Teachers will be exposed to and learn the basic functions of the interactive

whiteboard and the personal response system Teachers will be able to use the interactive whiteboard

to enhance lessons and engage students in polls and surveys, utilize both formative and summative assessments and analyze the data showing trends across the units and throughout the year

To use the personal response system for peer and self evaluations according to rubrics provided

• Evidence of goal: All students will receive feedback from peers via the personal response system They will be able to revise their work based on self evaluation data and peer evaluation data

To use the personal response system to assess student mastery of subject

• Evidence of goal: Teachers will be able to utilize data from the personal response system to review their students’ formative assessment and adapt the curriculum as needed

To provide a multi-sensory component to classroom instruction for all learners

• Evidence of goal: Students will engage in interactive classroom activities presented using the

document camera, interactive whiteboard, personal response system, and netbooks

To use the document camera to provide greater access and participation in class demonstrations

• Evidence of goal: The teacher and/or a student will demonstrate lessons with the document camera Demonstrations will be saved as a video to be used by all students for review Examples of lessons are sentence structure, sharing examples of student writing, and vocabulary instruction, and

identifying specific information within text to support inferences and conclusion

To organize ideas/concepts by using prior knowledge or references to text to respond to a question

• Evidence of goal: Students will use basic transition words, when appropriate Students will organize ideas by using a beginning and an ending, given a structure including details relevant to topic and/or focus

To make the connection between language arts and other content areas

• Evidence of goal: Using the interactive whiteboard, document camera, personal response system, and other digital tools, all students will participate in a cross-curricular project

To use appropriate primary and secondary sources and technology to acquire information

• Evidence of Goal: Students will be able to evaluate and critique varied sources of information and useappropriately in their writing

To provide 1:1 access to real-time, interactive websites, and Web 2.0 programs

• Evidence of goal: Using the netbooks, all students will use interactive sites such as Wordle, Glogster, Word Central, and the Read, Write, Think website

To provide 1:1 access to online resources for research

• Evidence of goal: Using the netbooks, all students will be able to research and cite their sources whenusing data and research for informational reading and writing

To use appropriate sources and text features to gain meaning of essential terms and vocabulary, glossary, dictionary, texts, word lists

• Evidence of goal: Students will be able to recognize and understand relevant content related terms

To be able to find content related information

• Evidence of goal: Students will draw on the diversity of the content related sources, such as auditory and visual sources, documents, charts, pictures, architectural works, and music

To use phonemic awareness and letter knowledge to spell independently at grade level

• Evidence of Goal: Using the interactive whiteboard, document camera, netbooks, and personal response system, students will spell correctly 85% of the time

Name of Applicant District: Chester

To use pre-writing, drafting, revising, editing, and critiquing to produce final drafts of written products across the curriculum

• Evidence of goal: Students will create published works such as poetry, scientific observations,

learning logs, stories, research papers, and readers’/writers’ notebook

To add artifacts and a reflection to digital portfolios

• Evidence of goal: All students will add at least 1 artifact and reflection per content area per year to their digital portfolios

Scope of Work

 Order and have equipment installed

 Teachers attend training sessions to learn basics of interactive whiteboard, personal response system, document camera, netbook lab, and other related topics

 Demonstrate for students the interactive whiteboard, personal response system, and document camera (record for future use)

 Use interactive whiteboard with students for activities such as word structure and analysis, and

analyzing informational text

 Use interactive whiteboard to introduce and navigate websites to support curriculum

 Use personal response system for review, assessment of content learned, and for student evaluation

of classroom projects (both self and peer)

 Use document camera to project visual resources, such as photos and charts, from trade and text books to support curriculum Record presentation for future use

 Add artifacts to student digital portfolios and write reflection

 Evaluate current Internet safety instruction and determine appropriate program to be used (EX: NetSmartz, CyberSmart, iSafe)

 Evaluate FUMIFU grant project through surveys, class assessment, and GRADE test results

 Meet monthly as grant team to share successes, challenges, and new ideas

 FUMIFU grant team will develop training workshops for Chester Academy staff to extend technology integration and collaboration

 Meet with members of the community, School Board, and the PTA to share results of grant project

 Present FUMIFU project at conferences such as Christa McAuliffe Technology Conference

 Meet with neighboring schools to disseminate project

Product and Outcomes and Instructional Focus

The most important outcomes of this project will be increased student interest in learning and lifelong student achievement through enhanced teaching “According to Christopher Dede, a professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, students are better engaged and learn more deeply when they are taught in the context and environment where that learning normally occurs, such as solving a real-world problem.” (http://www.21stcenturyskillsbook.com/blog/?p=5) As we implement this project one will see classrooms with students actively participating and learning, asking and answering questions,

collaborating and communicating with fellow students, and taking responsibility for and ownership of their academic growth This will be evident through the creation of digital books, podcasts, multimedia

presentations, and research papers, as well as everyday activities in all content areas Following are someexamples of lessons and projects that will be enhanced via the integration of 21st century technology, but not limited to:

• Word structure and analysis

• Analyzing and interpreting literary and informational text by citing evidence, making inferences, and applying before, during, and after reading comprehension strategies

o Reading passages and pulling out the main idea sentence(s)

o Using the interactive whiteboard independently with a small group as a learning center for language arts activities

• Assessment and/or review of a lesson with the student personal response system

• Applying rules of standard English usage to correct grammatical errors (subject-verb agreement, pronoun-antecedent, consistency of verb tense, case of pronouns), capitalization rules, punctuation to various sentence patterns to enhance meaning

o Parts of speech: Appropriately moving nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc to complete sentences

o Writing/ editing: punctuation and capitalization

Name of Applicant District: Chester

o Writing/editing: starting with a simple sentence and adding words to improve the quality of the sentence

• Examine literature for themes, genre, plot, character, etc

• Internet safety

• Website evaluation

• Bibliography and copyright instruction

• Dewey Decimal System

• How to use library catalog

• Note taking skills

• Online reference materials, such as encyclopedias

• Teaching index and table of contents

• Parts of a book

• Dictionary skills

• Modeling use of software such as Kidspiration and Inspiration

• Key 3 Literacy Program for middle school students which uses comprehension strategies and tools such as 2 column note-taking

• Direct and explicit teaching to find main ideas and writing summaries for comprehension

• Providing multi-sensory opportunities for students to solidify concepts taught

• Access to Study Island, a pilot program for the middle school population this school year Teachers areable to assign enrichment, re-teach, and pre-teach opportunities in the areas of reading and math Teachers/students can communicate thru online message board

Intended Purchases, Teachers, and Grade Level/Class

Chester Academy will create 21st century classrooms by purchasing an interactive whiteboard, projector, personal response system, 3 minislates, teacher tablet, document camera, and teacher laptop for the following teachers: Jane Fowler – Grade 1, Katie Fuccillo – Grade 3, Sherri Dinger – Grade 4, Lauren Horsfall – Grade 6 English/Language Arts, Deena Haggart – Grade 7 English/Language Arts, and Paula Zofrea – Grade 8 English/Language Arts Rounding out the core components of a 21st century classroom are digital cameras, flip cameras, digital voice recorders, and printers which the school currently utilizes across the curriculum on a daily basis

The Library/Media Center will receive an interactive whiteboard, projector, document camera, and teacher laptop The Learning Lab will receive a mobile interactive whiteboard with attached projector and teacher laptop, and document camera The Learning Lab and the Library/Media Center will share a set of personal response systems and 2 minislates Susan Warnke is the Library Media Specialist Tracey Farrenkopf and Sheila Marcoux are special education teachers in the middle school Learning Lab

Three netbook labs with 25 netbooks, wireless Internet access, and a printer, will be purchased for the fifth grade team, the sixth grade team, and the eighth grade team To facilitate saving files and taking work home, we will purchase 2GB jumpdrives for all students in grades 5-8 We will purchase a site license for Inspiration 8 for the netbooks, teacher laptops and other computers in the classrooms The school has licenses for Microsoft Office which will be used on the netbooks The netbook labs will be housed in the following classes: grade 5 -Amy Campbell, grade 6 – Lauren Horsfall, and grade 8 – Paula Zofrea The existing grade 7 netbook lab is housed in Becky Hanna’s science class

Digital Tools

Although our instructional focus is on reading and English/language arts, it is not limited to those content areas By nature every content area is impacted by reading and language arts skills The FUMIFU project will focus on improving reading and language arts skills in the content areas including comprehension, word analysis and structure, writing process, and analyzing and interpreting informational text Research indicates that use of interactive whiteboards and personal response systems engage students and

increase student achievement In a report on interactive whiteboards the following was noted, “Because IWBs are a multi-modal tool, they provide a wider range of presentation options, addressing multiple learning styles so ideas and concepts become more tangible and easier to assimilate (Levy, 2002; Bell, 2002; Billard, 2002)” (http://educators.polyvision.com/portals/2/pdf/PolyVision_ARRAResearch

%20Summary_08May09.pdf) The report continued, “In addition to motivating students, teacher-related studies emphasize the time-saving benefits in lesson preparation and follow-up instruction The Walker Study (2002) noted that saving and printing what is on an IWB, plus including any notes made during a lesson, improved classroom efficiency.” (http://educators.polyvision.com/portals/2/pdf/PolyVision_ARRAResearch

%20Summary_08May09.pdf) The interactive whiteboard combined with the personal response system

Name of Applicant District: Chester

will have a positive effect on the curriculum and instruction In Must Have Technologies by Thomas G

Dolan, he notes “the interactive response system — currently in about six percent of the classrooms These devices, which look like TV remotes, are given to each student The students can choose to respond either with their name or anonymously Based on the responses, a teacher can gauge, whether moment by

moment or at the end of the day, what the individual students or class as a whole has grasped The teacher can then provide more instruction at the moment and/or that evening pull additional resources to bring to class the next day.” (http://www.peterli.com/spm/resources/articles/archive.php?article_id=1966)

The document camera is designated as one of the core components for the 21st century classroom Chester Academy teachers involved in the 2008-2009 digital tools project heartily agree Shawne Hilliard, fifth grade teacher notes, “I have been so surprised and pleased by all the different ways to support students using the document camera We have used it to communicate whole group instructions, to display student’s work for presentations, to document lab results and to facilitate the use of single copies of texts that integrate well with our content We are very fortunate to have this technology that so easily allows students to become more involved and motivated in their learning.” Amy Campbell, another fifth grade teacher shares her

thoughts, “The document camera has been a wonderful addition to my classroom I'm using it in more ways than I ever imagined I'm finding that it is making the delivery of directions easier; I can simply put the assignment under the camera and the students can follow along on their own copy, without having to make a transparency! The document camera is fantastic for whole group experiments I don't have to worry about finding a way that everybody can see; we just put it under the camera and problem solved The students love when we put a picture book that we may be reading under the camera as we read!” Becky Hanna, seventh grade science and math teacher says that her students “love to see their assignments on the large screen For project presentations students can have their picture or diagram under the camera and point to the parts while speaking to the class.” Their success has inspired the FUMIFU grant team to use document cameras

with their students and achieve the same results The grant team envisions using the document cameras

to improve accessibility to the information being discussed to all students The document cameras will also be used to record a demonstration/lesson which can then be used for review or for students who are absent This will improve student attention, interest, and ultimately achievement

Lastly, providing Chester Academy students with increased access to netbooks with robust software will give them the tools to improve their research skills and their writing The netbooks will have Microsoft Office, Inspiration 8, as well as free programs such as Irfanview, Picnik, and Audacity The Maine Learning

Technology Initiative (MLTI) reported that, “the evidence indicates that implementation of Maine’s one-to-one ubiquitous laptop program has had a positive impact on middle school students’ writing Five years after the initial implementation of the laptop program, students’ writing scores on Maine’s statewide test had

significantly improved Furthermore, students scored better the more extensively they used their laptops in developing and producing their writing And finally, the evidence indicated that using their laptops in this fashion helped them to become better writers in general, not just better writers using laptops.” The report continued, “Some researchers have found evidence suggesting a positive link between laptop use and student writing For example, several studies report improved writing scores Rockman et al (2000) found that students who used laptops outperformed students who did not use them.” (Maine’s Middle School

Laptop Program: Creating Better Writers, D Silvernail, A.Gritter,

http://www.usm.maine.edu/cepare/pdf/Writing_Brief.pdf) Although Chester Academy won’t have 1:1

netbook access, we believe that while the results may not be as great and may take longer than the Maine initiative, that the increased access will have a positive impact on our students, their writing, and their learning

With the advantages of learning with 21st century tools comes the responsibility of being digital citizens Chester Academy has integrated Internet safety programs such as Netsmartz and CyberSmart in its curriculum and used Portaportal accounts to provide the students with websites that have been screened and evaluated by the teachers (http://www.portaportal.com/ - grades 1-4 guest access is chester1-4, grades 5-8 guest access is chesteracademy, and the staff guest access is castaff) The health/guidance teacher has used components of NetSmartz and iSafe with her middle school students Two members of the FUMIFU grant team, Susan Kessler and Paula Zofrea, are certified CyberSmart instructors They have used the curriculum with students, but feel the need to explore alternatives with the grant team to make sure we are providing our students with the most effective Internet Safety instruction The grant team will explore the various programs during one of their beginning professional development days and implement

a program across the curriculum with their students

NH Standards

Name of Applicant District: Chester

The standards we have selected are directed toward the school wide reading and English/Language Arts initiative However, they apply to reading and writing in all content areas as well

R:WID Applies word identification/decoding strategies

W:SL:1: Students demonstrate command of the structures of sentences, paragraphs, and text

W:RC:1: In response to literary or informational text, students show understanding of plot /ideas/concepts Writing Conventions

W:C:1: In independent writing, students demonstrate command of appropriate English conventions

R–5 (Grades 5-8) Analyze and interpret elements of literary texts, citing evidence where appropriate by…

• R–5.1 Explaining or supporting logical predictions

• R–5.2 Describing characterization (e.g., stereotype, antagonist, protagonist), motivation, or interactions, citing thoughts, words, or actions that reveal characters’ traits, motivations, or their changes over time

• R–5.3 Making inferences about cause/effect, internal or external conflicts (e.g., person versus self, person versus person, person versus nature/society/fate), or the relationship among elements within text (e.g., describing the interaction among plot/subplots)

R-6.1 (Grade 5-8) Analyze and interpret author’s craft, citing evidence where appropriate by

Name of Applicant District: Chester

demonstrating knowledge of author’s style or use of literary elements and devices (e.g., imagery,

repetition, flashback, foreshadowing, personification, hyperbole, symbolism, or use of punctuation) to analyze literary works (Local)

• R-16.1 (Grades 5-8) Generates a personal response to what is read through a variety of means and through… Comparing stories or other texts to related personal experience, prior knowledge, or to

other books (Local)

• R-16.2 (Grades 5-8) Providing relevant details to support the connections made or judgments

(interpretive, analytical, evaluative, or reflective) (Local)

R–7.1 (Grades 5-8)

Demonstrate initial understanding of informational texts (expository and practical texts) by… Obtaining information from text features (e.g., table of contents, glossary, index, transition words/phrases, bold or italicized text, headings, subheadings, graphic organizers, charts, graphs, or illustrations) (State)

R–7.2 Using information from the text to answer questions, to state the main/central ideas, or to provide supporting details (Local)

R- 13 (Grades 5-8) Reading Strategies: Reading Comprehension Strategies Uses comprehension strategies (flexibly and as needed) before, during, and after reading literary and informational text Examples of reading comprehension strategies might include: using prior knowledge; sampling a page for readability; summarizing; predicting and making text based inferences; determining importance;

generating literal, clarifying, and inferential questions; constructing sensory images (e.g., making pictures

in one’s mind); making connections (text to self, text to text, and text to world); taking notes; locating, using, and analyzing text features (e.g transition words, subheadings, bold/italicized print, parts of the book); or using text structure clues (e.g chronological, cause/effect, compare/contrast, proposition and support, description, classification, and logical/ sequential.)

The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM, 1989) acknowledged the integration between the domains of mathematics and dreading with the inclusion of Standard 2 “Mathematics as

Communication: in the “Curriculum and Evaluation Standards for School Mathematics “ The emphasis for the grade groupings follows (http://www.ericdigests.org/2000-1/math.html)

Grades 1-4

 Mathematics can be thought of as a language

 Reading children’s literature about mathematics, and eventually text material, needs more emphasis inthe K-4 curriculum

 Children can meaningfully learn mathematics; teachers can help the process by providing

opportunities for them to communicate and to “talk math” with their friends

 Use connections to construct knowledge, learn alternative ways to think about ideas, clarify thinking, and communicate about problems

Name of Applicant District: Chester

5 Digital Citizenship - Students understand human, cultural, and societal issues related to technology andpractice legal and ethical behavior

6 Technology Operations and Concepts - Students demonstrate a sound understanding of technology concepts, systems, and operations

Library Standards (American Association of School Librarians Standards for the 21st-Century Learner)

1 Inquire, think critically, and gain knowledge

1.2.3 Demonstrate creativity by using multiple resources and formats

1.3.2 Seek divergent perspectives during information gathering and assessment

1.3.4 Contribute to the exchange of ideas within the learning community

1.3.5 Use information technology responsibly

1.4.2 Use interaction with and feedback from teachers and peers to guide own inquiry process

2 Draw conclusions, make informed decisions, apply knowledge to new situations, and create new

knowledge

2.1.4 Use technology and other information tools to analyze and organize information

2.1.5 Collaborate with others to exchange ideas, develop new understandings, make decisions and solve problems

2.1.6 Use the writing process, media and visual literacy, and technology skills to create products that express new understandings

3 Share knowledge and participate ethically and productively as members of our democratic society 3.1.2 Participate and collaborate as members of a social and intellectual network of learners

3.1.4 Use technology and other information tools to organize and display knowledge and

understanding in ways that others can view, use, and access

3.1.6 Use information and technology ethically and responsibly

4 Pursue personal and aesthetic growth

4.1.4 Seek information for personal learning in a variety of formats and genres

4.1.7 Use social networks and information tools to gather and share information

4.3.1 Participate in the social exchange of ideas, both electronically and in person

4.3.4 Practice safe and ethical behaviors in personal electronic communication and interaction

Needs Assessment

It is our strong belief, supported by the preponderance of literacy research, that the first three years of schooling are critical in building literacy skills The Reading First initiatives (grades 1-3) that have been launched in primary grades across the country are based upon the studies compiled in the National Reading Panel Report, © 2000, which has been the dominant theoretical resource for the past 10 years in literacy education We have dedicated much time and many resources to providing high quality literacy instruction in the primary grades in particular We continually strive to improve this instruction and find newways of motivating and encouraging growth in our students Chester Academy has newly implemented a kindergarten program Prior to the 2009-2010 school year, Chester’s first grade received students from 10-

20 different schools each year While we are excited about the opportunity to provide educational

opportunities to the majority of kindergarteners in Chester, approximately 25% of students will still be attending other programs which may or may not align with our in terms of reading and literacy instructionalgoals In the past we have noted distinct differences between the skills and exposure of the students coming from these programs We feel it is essential to use a variety of tools to build the literacy skills of all Chester Academy first grade students, as well as provide opportunities to access technologies that they may never have experienced previously

Chester Academy has been working for several years to improve literacy instruction for all of our students However, in 2009-2010, we find ourselves a “school in need of restructuring” In analyzing the student literacy data, several trends appear to have contributed to this designation They include a general relative weakness with informational text, a weakness in generalization of literacy skills from one content area to another, and weaknesses in the ability to extend thinking and make connections between topics and ideas.Grade level teams and the administration continually look for ways to actively promote content-area interests and development of authentic skills In the elementary grades, through our improvement efforts, the instructional foundations have been strengthened, and students generally receive good starting skills However, we continue to see evidence that some of our students are not learning to apply those skills in

Name of Applicant District: Chester

meaningful and authentic ways when faced with varied disciplines and new settings as they move to middle school These are the skills they will need to successfully transition to high school and the world beyond The students of Chester Academy are not alone The Reading Next report, published by the Carnegie Corporation in 2004 describes the challenges faced by educators of high school and middle school students across our country The report notes that adolescent literacy instruction is lacking in manyplaces Of the 15 key elements for successful instruction cited in this report, those that would be most enhanced by the activities proposed in this grant application include text-based collaborative learning, exposure and work with diverse texts, technology-based instruction, and independent work Additionally, student engagement and motivation and the use of authentic tasks and texts have been found to correlate with improved learning outcomes in literacy-focused classrooms Both of these aspects are met very well

by the use of interactive classroom technologies Providing students with 1:1 and interactive technologies will allow them to apply their literacy skills in meaningful ways, and expand them through collaboration and broad-based experiences Equipping our teachers with knowledge and our classrooms with 21st century tools will allow us to move beyond the bounds of traditional literacy instruction and foster skills in new and creative ways Supporting the teachers by providing training in using these 21st century

technologies in meaningful ways in the classroom will ensure that students achieve not only print literacy, but full digital literacy as well, not just in a technical sense, but as readers, writers and thinkers

The technology in the proposed grant project classrooms is limited at best However, the students have access to the static computer lab, the library/media center, a mobile lab, and a mini lab Currently, students

in grades 1-3 use the computer lab every other week for 45 minutes Students in grades 4 and 5 use the computer lab once a week for 45 minutes Students in grade 6 and 8 also have access to the computer lab once a week for 45 minutes They come to the lab during their English/Language Arts class Due to scheduling constraints seventh graders do not come to the lab with a classroom teacher They do however,come to the lab for one quarter (45 minutes a day, for 45 days) as part of their integrated arts rotation Following is a breakdown of the technology available per class and in the labs:

 Grade 1 – Jane Fowler – teacher computer (3 years old), LCD monitor, 1 student computer with CRT

monitor (8 years old), overhead projector (belongs to Jane Fowler), analog TV

 Grade 3 – Katie Fucillo - teacher computer (3 years old) CRT monitor, 1 student computer with CRT monitor (4 years old), overhead projector, analog TV

 Grade 4 – Sherri Dinger - teacher computer (5 years old) LCD monitor, 1 student computer (3 years old) with CRT monitor, overhead projector, analog TV

 Grade 6 – Lauren Horsfall - teacher computer (2 years old), LCD monitor, 3 student computer (3 years old) with 2 CRT monitors and 1 LCD monitor, overhead projector, analog TV

 Grade 7 – Deena Haggart - teacher computer (4 years old), LCD monitor, 3 student computers (7 yearsold) with 2 CRT monitors and 1 LCD monitor, overhead projector, LCD TV

 Grade 8 – Paula Zofrea - teacher computer (4 years old), LCD monitor, 3 student computers (6 years old) with 2 CRT monitors and 1 LCD monitor, overhead projector, Analog TV

 Grade 7 has a cart with 32 wireless networked netbooks (1 year old)

 Grade 5 has 2 classrooms with interactive whiteboards, ceiling mounted projectors, personal responsesystems, document cameras, and teacher laptops Two additional grade 5 classrooms have document cameras and ceiling mounted projectors This equipment was purchased in February 2009 Each fifth grade classroom also has 1 student computer (ranging in age from 3-5 years old) with a CRT monitor, and an analog TV

 Static computer lab has 27 workstations with LCD monitors (17 purchased in July, 2009, 5 are 4 years old, and 2 are 6 years old.), 3 networked laser printers (2 black and white and 1 color), 1 scanner, an interactive whiteboard (February 2009), ceiling mounted projector (February 2009), teacher laptop (February 2009), and external speakers (4 years old) There are 2 teacher workstations (4 years old) There are also digital cameras, digital video cameras, digital voice recorders, a document camera, andgreen screen available on an as needed basis

 Media Center – Susan Warnke – 2 teacher computers (4 years old and 6 years old), 2 LCD monitors, 7Linux based student workstations and 2 Windows based student workstations all with LCD monitors, a printer, and LCD TV, and overhead projectors and VCR/DVD for loan as needed

 Middle School Learning Lab – 4 teacher laptops (new), 3 student computers (5 years old) with 2 CRT and 1 LCD monitors, analog TV, and a network printer

 Elementary School Learning Lab – 2 teacher laptops (new), 2 student computers, (8 years old and 2 years old) with CRT monitors, analog TV, and laser printer

 Mobile Lab with 22 Windows based laptops (5 years old), printer and wireless access to the student network and the Internet available to all classes on an as needed basis