Professional Development for E-Reader Implementation

FRIT 7232: Professional Development Grant Proposal

Kimberly Fleming

Elizabeth Fliss

Emily Metz

Kelsey Prentice

Lee Stieve
Abstract
Our project initiated for funding is a professional development for e-reader

implementation for Thomson High School. The goals of the professional development are to

allow teachers to demonstrate proficiency in operating an e-reader, setting up their digital library,

and using and explanation tools available with the e-reader technology. These areas each have

deep actions and information measures that the teachers will need to be skillful in to allow them

to teach students how to utilize the e-readers efficiently for their learning. At the end of nine

weeks, an observer will make observations using a checklist of skill in the classrooms of teachers

involved in the professional development. Each observer should be able to see the students using

these same skills in their lessons. Additionally, data will be collected from teachers on the

effectiveness of the professional development. The program’s implementation process will

comprise of two sessions of professional development. Teachers will discuss the need for e-

readers in the classrooms. The instructor will model how to use the basic functions of the e-

reader, including specific tasks that will be evaluated in the future. Teachers will be asked to

follow along with the instructor, providing opportunity for questions and assistance while

facilitating the e-readers. Additionally, teachers will create a mock library for a unit and

understand how the annotation process works on the e-readers. The professional development

should allow teachers to feel comfortable asking questions for clarification, in addition to share

feedback on using the e-readers.

I. Proposal Text

A. Demonstrated Need

Thomson High School, located within the McDuffie County School District, is in need of

e-readers for the student population. The Leadership Team met at the beginning of the 2016-

2017 school year to review last year’s standardized test scores and found that only 18% of 9th
Grade students and 32% of 11th Grade students tested at or above the proficient level in the area

of Literature and Composition. Specifically, only 27% of students in 9th Grade Literature and

Composition showed mastery above the remediate learning level in Reading and Vocabulary,

while only 24% of students in American Literature and Composition showed mastery above the

remediate learning level (Appendix A). The low percentages of students who are able to master

on-level reading passages and questions in both grades illustrates a need for reading intervention

strategies, such as the incorporation of E-readers.

E-readers have been shown to “assist students' writing process and make the recursive

circle of steps more efficiently” (Hung & Young, 2015). The writing process involves a great

deal of editing, and research proves that the e-readers can help aid in that particular endeavor,

thus causing the Literature and Composition scores to increase. Students are growing up in a

digital age, and “[prefer] to read on screen than on paper” (Picton, 2014, p. 4). Screens are what

students are comfortable on and what they read on at home. Schools need to utilize digital

readers to increase enjoyment and the comfort level of their students. E-readers allow for so

many functions that plain pen and paper just no longer compare. Student engagement is another

area that e-readers increase, when being used regularly in the classroom. As aforementioned,

most students prefer the digital tools as opposed to pencil and paper, and they will perform at a

higher means. Students using e-readers are more likely to use resources like dictionaries or other

tool to better understand a certain text. For example, a student who is reading an informative text

comes upon a word they do not know. That student with an e-reader can quickly look the word

up on the device, rather than a dictionary on the shelf. “Students accessed reading support

resources (e.g., a dictionary) more frequently while using an electronic reader” (Wright, Fugett

& Caputa, 2013). The e-readers motivate and encourage students to discover learning on their
own at their own pace. Most importantly, there is data to support the notion that e-readers do in

fact increase reading comprehension scores. When used in a third grade classroom over the

course of the year, “student achievement increased” from the students’ second grade end of the

year assessment to their third grade Criterion Referenced Competency Test (Union, Union, &

Green, 2015). The goal of every teacher is for students to show increased understanding, and this

technology is proven to be an effective step toward that goal.

B. Goals and Objectives

Objective 1: By the end of the professional development, all Thomson High School

teachers will demonstrate proficiency in operating an e-

reader, including changing the font size, adjusting page setup, navigate through pages,

and set-up audio narration, in order to provide this information to their students.

Objective 2: By the end of the professional development, all Thomson High School

teachers will demonstrate proficiency in setting up their digital library, including how to add and

delete books, in order to create libraries for their individual classes.

Objective 3: By the end of the professional development, all Thomson High School

teachers will demonstrate proficiency in annotation tools available with the e-reader technology,

including highlighting a text, adding notes, and bookmarking specific pages, in order to utilize

close-reading strategies in the classroom with e-readers.

C. Plan of Operation

In order to prevent teachers from feeling overwhelmed and to allow time for teachers to

process the information presented, there will be two sessions of professional development. The

first session will cover Objectives 1 and 2, while the second session will focus on Objective 3.

These sessions can occur on teacher workdays and/or be built into faculty meetings.
 The first session will begin with an introduction and explanation of the purpose behind

the professional development. In order for professional development to be effective, teachers

need to see the connection it has on their actual classrooms (Bayar, 2014). The professional

development instructor will review the standardized test data from the school’s previous year and

discuss the need for e-readers in the classrooms. Once the explanation is complete, the instructor

will conduct the rest of the session in an “I do, we do, you do” format. The instructor will model

how to use the basic functions of the e-reader, including changing font size, setting up the pages

and audio narration, and navigating through a sample text (Objective 1). As the instructor is

reviewing this material, teachers will be asked to follow along, as well as given an opportunity

afterwards to ask any questions. Adem Bayar states that a crucial component of effective

professional development is “[allowing] the participants to engage in active participation during

the activities.” (2014). By providing opportunities for teachers to actively practice the instruction

on their own, they are more likely to be fully engaged in the professional development. Since

they are completing the steps on their own devices, teachers will also have opportunities to ask

questions as they face real-time problems or obstacles. After the instructor has reviewed how to

operate the e-readers and answered any questions, the teachers will be given a break. When they

come back from the break, the instructor will model how to create a digital library for a specific

topic (Objective 2). Again, teachers will follow along on their own device, and opportunities will

be given to allow the instructor to answer individual questions. By the end of this session,

teachers will be asked to create a mock library for a unit on the Civil War in Georgia. They will

receive feedback on their library before leaving the session. If they feel they are ready to start

libraries for units related to their content areas, they may with their remaining time.
 The second session will begin with a review of the previous sessions’ activities and an

opportunity for teachers to share feedback on using the e-readers since the previous session.

Since the sessions are conducted on separate days, teachers have a chance to work with the

technology at their own pace and in their own setting before seeing the instructor again. This

long-term engagement with the professional development material makes it more likely that the

material will have a “deep and lasting influence on teacher learning.” (Bayar, 2014). After the

review, teachers will be shown how the annotation process works on the e-readers. The rest of

the second session will be also be conducted in an “I do, we do, you do” format, similar to the

first session. Teachers will follow along as the professional development instructor models how

to annotate a text in the e-reader and be exposed to all of the functions available. Then, they will

all annotate the first paragraph of the same article together and be able to ask their remaining

questions (Objective 3). Lastly, teachers will work at their own pace as they annotate the rest of

the article, gaining the necessary knowledge to individually give instructions for their own

classrooms. Since they are working at their own pace, teachers will be able to receive answers to

questions they come across as they are working and work with the professional development

instructor one-on-one for specific inquiries.

Session 1

Time Activity Objective

0:00 - Introduction/Explanation of Professional Development

0:05
Modeling of E-Reader Functions
 Teachers follow along on their individual device. Objective
0:05 - 1
0:20
 Q & A: E-Reader Functions Objective
1

0:20 - Break
0:25
Modeling of Crafting a Digital Library Objective
0:25 -  Teachers follow along on their individual device. 2
0:30
Crafting a Digital Library: Civil War in Georgia
0:30 -  Instructor walks around to answer specific questions/provide
0:40 one-on-one support Objective
2
Q & A: Crafting a Digital Library

0:40 -
0:55

Objective
2

0:55 -
0:60

Session 2

0:00 - Session 1 Review/General Q & A

0:10
Modeling E-Reader Annotation Objective
0:10 -  Teachers follow along on their individual device 3
0:25
Q & A: E-Reader Annotation

E-Reader Annotation: Teachers Practice Objective

0:25 -  Instructor walks around to answer specific questions/provide 3
0:30 one-on-one support
Objective
0:30 - 3
0:45

II. Evaluation Plan

For all three goals:

Evaluation of skills learned:

Before each professional development session, a pre-test will be given in order to evaluate each
teacher’s prior knowledge of e-readers and their functions. This score will be compared to
scores of a post-test to be given at the end of each session in order to measure new knowledge.

Evaluation of teachers reaction to the Professional Development:

At the end of each professional development, a survey will be given to each teacher asking the
following questions:

Survey:
Teachers will complete a Google Form after they have attended both sessions. See Appendix B.

S.M.A.R.T. Goal #1 Evaluation of Use of Knowledge:

By the end of the At the end of the training, teachers will be asked to demonstrate
professional these skills and offer real classroom situations in which these
development, all skills can be used.
Thomson High School
teachers will demonstrate Evaluation of Results:
proficiency in operating At the end of nine weeks, an observer will make observations in
an e-reader, including the classrooms of teachers involved in the professional
changing the font size, development. Each observer should be able to see the students
adjusting page setup, using these same skills in their lessons. ( See Appendix D)
navigate through pages,
and set-up audio
narration, in order to
provide this information
to their students.

S.M.A.R.T. Goal #2 Evaluation of Use of Knowledge:

By the end of the At the end of nine weeks, teachers will provide a list of content
professional downloaded to their digital libraries and an explanation of how
development, all they are organized.
Thomson High School
teachers will demonstrate Evaluation of Results:
proficiency in setting up At the end of nine weeks, observations will begin in classrooms of
their digital library, teachers who participated in the professional development. The
including how to add and observers will have a checklist of skills learned from the
delete books, in order to professional development. Each teacher should be able to show
create libraries for their examples of these skills in action in their teaching. (See Appendix
individual classes. D)

S.M.A.R.T. Goal #3 Evaluation of Use of Knowledge:

By the end of the At the end of nine weeks, an observer will make observations in
professional the classrooms of teachers involved in the professional
development, all development. Each observer should be able to see the students
Thomson High School using these same skills in their lessons. ( See Appendix D)
teachers will demonstrate
 proficiency in annotation
tools available with the e-
reader technology,
including highlighting a
text, adding notes, and
bookmarking specific
pages, in order to utilize
close-reading strategies in
the classroom with e-
readers.
Evaluation of Results:
Teachers will annotate everything beyond the first paragraph of
the article. They will then send it in, so that data will be collected
on the effectiveness of the professional development.
Article: http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2016/09/14/is-
school-reform-hopeless/poor-schools-need-to-encompass-more-
than-instruction-to-succeed

III. Budget:

Beyond the cost of the e-readers, there will be no additional costs to implement the

training or professional development. Teachers and technology leaders at the school will

implement the training on the e-readers. The training will happen on teacher work day(s) and

faculty meetings if need be at no cost to the school. Administrators will be able to implement the

continued evaluation plan in conjunction with TKES observations or as a separate observation.

IV. References

Bayar, A. (2014). The Components of Effective Professional Development Activities in terms of

Teachers' Perspective. International Online Journal Of Educational Sciences, 6(2), 319.
doi:10.15345/iojes.2014.02.006

Picton, I. (2014). The Impact of ebooks on the Reading Motivation and Reading Skills of
Children and Young People (pp. 1-21, Rep.). National Literacy Trust. Retrieved from
http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED560635.pdf

Union, C.D., Union, L.W. & Green, T.D. TECHTRENDS TECH TRENDS (2015) 59: 71.
doi:10.1007/s11528-015-0893-3

Wright, S., Fugett, A., & Caputa, F. (2013). Using E-readers and Internet Resources to Support
Comprehension. Educational Technology & Society, 16 (1), 367–379. Retrieved from
http://www.ifets.info/journals/16_1/32.pdf

Young, S., & Hung, H. (2015). The Effectiveness of Adopting E-Readers to Facilitate EFL
Students' Process-Based Academic Writing [Abstract]. Journal of Educational
 Technology and Society, 18(1). Retrieved from https://eric.ed.gov/?q=e
readers&id=EJ1100083.

Appendix A

Appendix B

The following link has the Google Form survey for teachers to complete after both sessions of
professional development:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfZELnnBZXgZlXjTOl87CXQggwfMwf9eg_7buc4tlj_
GPcJBQ/viewform

Appendix C

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Rm-5LrQYtlcsOZg_pvb0YLuqHcvvsV-
uGYxjfhqzSl4/edit?usp=sharing

Appendix D

Students’ Checklist: At the end of nine weeks, students will be able to exhibit the following
skills:

 Changing the font size

 Adjusting page setup

 Navigate through pages

 Set-up audio narration

 Highlight a text

 Add notes

 Bookmark specific pages

Teachers’ Checklist: At the end of nine weeks, students will be able to exhibit the following
skills:

 Create individual classroom libraries

 Add Books to libraries

 Delete books from libraries