LEA Jefferson County
Project Name: Reading, ‘Riting & RAM
Project Contact: Jimmy McMahan
Date: April 10, 2000
1. Using specifics, compare your timeline and benchmarks in the grant
to what is actually occurring
in your project.
The 3R’s project timetable for the third quarter was follows (this timetable takes into consideration the late start of the school year):
January 2000 Students will work
in teams to create PowerPoint multimedia presentation
focusing on the elements of a story. Students will
work in teams to create PowerPoint
multimedia presentation focusing on the elements of a
story. Students in grades 1-2 will create
a large group multimedia presentation.
February 2000 Students will focus on the use of email and ICQ
as communication tools for
Internet projects. Students will also learn to conduct
web searches and be trained to use
Pablo, a graphic tool, to create original clipart for
PowerPoint presentations and newsletters.
March & April 2000 Students will prepare a 3R’s Showcase
for parents and the
community. Students will demonstrate skills they
have learned throughout the year and
present Internet projects. Post testing of students will
be conducted using TCAP Writing
Assessment, Terra Nova testing, and S.T.A.R.
What is occurring: The actual timeline of the project differs from the grant timeline by about one month. This deficit can be attributed mainly to four days off due to snow, some unexpected absences of the technology facilitator, and the late arrival of some of the software (for example, S.T.A.R. did not arrive until February). Because of the time constraints from these delays, the February portion of the proposal had to be abandoned. The January and March portions have been retained, with the 3R’s showcase for parents and community scheduled for April 29.
2. What progress have you made toward reaching the objectives and goals that you set in your proposal?
The Tennessee Master Plan Goals addressed in this project are:
State of the art technology will be used to improve curriculum.
Tennessee Report Card Performance Indicators
Competency (Reading and Writing)
Students in grades 1-2 have
continued to use reading software (Reader Rabbit, etc.) to further enhance
the reading curriculum.
The self-paced nature of these programs allowed the higher-achieving
students to work at their
own pace, keeping them challenged and interested. These students
also
thrived on the chance to
be creative in their newsletter and PowerPoint projects. Students
in grades
3-5 were also excited about
the creative nature of the newsletter and PowerPoint projects. Higher-
achieving students have
been challenged by each other and excited by the more advanced features
they
could use in MS Word and
MS PowerPoint. Many have thrived on the challenge to create materials
worthy of putting on the
Jefferson County web site.
3. What progress has been made toward the National Goal or Goals as you presented in your proposal?
The National Goals this project addresses are:
Improved student achievement through the use of technology as a tool
to enhance the reading curriculum.
Student reading levels class-wide have increased in the last two months,
according to the results of S.T.A.R. testing. The students were given
a S.T.A.R. test in the middle of February and again at the beginning of
April. The growth reports for each class showed that every class
had an increase in average student reading level. In addition, every
class but one had its average student national percentile ranking increase
from three to ten percentage points (the one class that didn’t improve
only dropped by one percentage point).
4. At this point, how is the Goals 2000 funding affecting the education of the children in your county?
Every student in grades 1-5 has learned how to use computer programs
like MS Word and MS PowerPoint to create documents and slide presentations,
as well as learn typing skills through the use of typing programs as well
as the use of the computer keyboard to use other computer software. Teachers
have also been able to learn about programs like Word and PowerPoint, too.
Students have also gained valuable experience in using the Internet for
research. They have also been aided in reading through the use of
Accelerated Reader. Students are motivated to read more and more
challenging books, both by their teachers and through their own initiative.
Parents have also stayed involved by continuing to fill out monthly reading
checklists, monitoring their child’s reading progress. Many of these
parents have seen marked improvement in their child’s reading habits in
the past three months.
5. Describe some great happenings concerning your project. Please send any articles or documentation to us for our files.
Students in grades 1-2 have been creating individual PowerPoint presentations that tell different things about themselves. They have been able to print these slides out and take them home, as well as see them being presented on their computer screens. They have also been able to create a class newspaper, with the help of the technology facilitator, that described exciting happenings at school and/or in their classrooms.
Students in grades 3-5 have been using the Internet for research on journal entries, class newspapers, and PowerPoint presentations. The class newspapers gave students the opportunity to work as members of a team, responsible for specific information and images that would ultimately be included in the newspaper. Some students used the digital camera for pictures, while others interviewed teachers for their stories. Students were able to view their class newspaper on the Web, which was exciting for them. Students in these grades have been, and still are, creating PowerPoint presentations based upon a research topic of their choosing (the topic was related to Women’s History Month). Students were able to use their Internet research skills and their own creativity to create these multimedia presentations. Students whose projects were sent to the Jefferson County site were able to view them via the Internet.
Samples of these newspapers and PowerPoint presentations can be found
at the following URL:
http://208.183.128.3/3r/
Samples will continue to be added to this site as they become completed.