Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Grant Professional Development
Grant Professional Development
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
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
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
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
Objective 1: By the end of the professional development, all Thomson High School
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
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
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
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
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
Session 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
Survey:
Teachers will complete a Google Form after they have attended both sessions. See Appendix B.
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
IV. References
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:
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