Student Phase...More Money, More Money, More Money!
 New
Deadline: Wed., April 10, 5:00pm EST
Check your Status
 TLG
Deadline Extension Update
Teachers in Tennessee now have an opporutnity to earn up to $1400
through the TLG 2000. To do so each teacher will take their students
through a process similar to that of the TLG '99.
Purpose:
1. Demonstrate the use of the Internet for student learning among thousands
of Tennessee teachers and their students.
2. Determine whether Internet-based units can help students develop
thinking skills. This will be an option for teachers who want to
try such a unit.
3. Determine the effectiveness of using the Internet for instruction.
This will be an option for teachers and school systems who want to help
us do some research to answer the kinds of questions that many school boards
and legislators are asking about the investment of technology.
What are the Tasks for the Student
Phase of Tech Literacy?
Complete these steps:
Register
This program is limited to any one who will be teaching a unit to students.
You must have an active email account. Each interested teacher will
register. Separate information will be provided for each class and subject
as an "entry". For example, a middle or high school teacher may enter
once for each of 4 classes and have 4 "entries". An elementary teacher
with only one class may enter for each subject he or she teaches to the
same class and have 4 "entries". Maximum is 4 entries. The teacher will
take a new survey in Profiler for each entry.
Task 1:
State Learning Gap & Evidence
For each entry, a teacher will identify the learning gap and explain
the evidence for the learning gap. Each teacher should read Tasks 3a, 3b,
3c and 4 before completing registration.
Find a learning gap in student performance in your classroom (one content
area and grade level) and describe how you know that a leaning gap exists.
Prepare a brief explanation and enter it in the form below. Be sure you
include the grade level, content area, and evidence the gap exists in your
response.
If you plan to use Terra Nova scores for your evidence on the learning
gap you must be specific. In other words if your learning gap identifies
math/percentages as a weakness, then you must report from your Terra Nova
scores the mastery/nonmastery numbers for the area of percentages.
You cannot just report the information from the web that shows low gains
in math...it is too general and doesn't address the weakness that was identified.
For this reason you might want to consider using class mastery/failure
percentages on teacher made tests.
Back
Task 2:
Identify subject, grade level cluster and all relevant content standards
from Tennessee
Curriculum Frameworks. (Copy and paste standards from
the Framework.) On the Online Submission
Form report your information.
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Task 3a: Pre-Survey.
For each entry, a teacher will take the "Pre-Survey" on thinking skills.
This can be located by clicking "All Tasks" after logging in. Print
out or make note of your results in order to have a record of what you
have said!
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Task 3b:Identify
Internet Unit. For each entry, a teacher will describe
how the unit addresses the learning gap and the content standards in terms
that are useful to other teachers. When a teacher registers, he or she
will provide the information for Task 1, Task 2 and Task 3a and 3b. At
this point, an advisor will be assigned to provide feedback as needed.
If appropriate include a statement describing how the Profiler “Pre-Survey”
impacted your choice of unit.
Sometimes a web page is created so that the actual address doesn't
show. This will cause you to have the wrong address when you submit
your tracks. To keep this from happening, notice the URL when you
link to the page an make sure it has changed. If the URL looks as
if it isn't a direct address you can find the direct address by doing the
following:
1. Click the word Communicator on the menu line.
2. Move the mouse to Tools.
3. Click History. The first address that you see
will be the direct address for your site. Double click it and you
should go directly to that site.
BE SURE EVERYONE COPIES DIRECT ADDRESS! Failure to do
so will create a revision in your application.
On the Online Submission Form report
your information.
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Task 3c:Create
a Tennessee Track. Using TrackStar,
which was demonstrated in the Cookbook of the earlier phase, a teacher
will "make a track" at http://www.lessons.k12.tn.us/
. Prior to creating their own track, teachers should visit and browse
through the main TrackStar site. Each teacher creates his or her own track
using a minimum of five URLs, one of which must be the unit selected in
3b. URL descriptions should include guided questions that address
the learning expectations (copied and pasted from content standard site).
These questions should encourage higher level thinking skills as indicated
on the Profiler “Pre-Survey”. The unit is expected to take 1 to 2 weeks
to teach. Once you "submit" the track, it is assigned a "code". You
will be asked to create a password. You can search in TrackStar with
that code and password for your Track to review or edit.
For example, see Track # 9, http://lessons.k12.tn.us/~trackstar/tracks/f00009.html
Researching Topics on the Web, a learning gap related to ninth grade English
and technology content standards. On the Online
Submission Form report your information.
 This
is as far as you can go until an evaluator looks at your work.
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Task 4: Create
a Rubric.
What is a rubric? Webster says it is “a rule for conduct.”
In education, it might be a rule to measure student progress. A rubric
is a graduated performance indicator that assesses student performance
and measures the effectiveness of a lesson. It is actually a roadmap of
sorts that gives both the student and the teacher clear directions for
success. Assessment therefore becomes more consistent and objective. A
rubric enables the teacher and the student to remain focused with clear
expectations. Although there are different types of rubrics, they contain
common features. They focus on measuring a stated objective, use range
to rate performance, and contain specific performance characteristics arranged
in levels indicating the degree to which a standard has been met.
Requirements for the Rubric:
1. One learning expectation per URL (minimum of 5)
2. Each learning expectation must have a minimum of 4 levels of achievement
written in grade level appropriate language (poor, good, better, best or
beginning, intermediate, mastery, outstanding, etc.) (Evidence File Examples)
A rubric has two parts.
1. What do teachers want students to learn?
( the objective/Learning Expectation)
2. How many tasks or to what extent must the
student perform the tasks to receive an A, a B, a C, or a D? Instead of
A, B, C, or D, rubric descriptions might be Distinguished, Outstanding,
Average, Fair OR Awesome, Average, Adequate, Acceptable.
In a rubric, which is really a chart, both the teacher and students
can readily see what students are expected to learn and what standards
must be met to reach a certain level of mastery.
A good rubric will have at least five objectives.
Follow these steps in rubric development.
1. Draw a block with 5 columns and at least 4 rows. (For this
grant, teachers do not have to draw blocks. They simply fill in the
blanks on-line.)
2. In the top row, label your columns:
a. Objective, Beginning, Developing, Mastery, Exemplary
or
b. Fair, Average, Outstanding Distinguished (teacher should
use your own terminology.)
3. In the other blanks, list the required student behavior for each
level of achievement.
Teachers should create their rubrics at a level beneficial to them
and their students. Sometimes, simple is better. Sometimes,
the difficulty of the unit and the ability level of students warrant detail.
 Some rubric
samples can be found at the Rubric
Bank
http://intranet.cps.k12.il.us/Assessments/Ideas_and_Rubrics/Rubric_Bank/rubric_bank.html)
To view these you must have Adobe
Acrobat Reader.
A good rubric site to visit is http://discoveryschool.com/schrockguide/assess.html
Be sure that the learning expectations are measurable and relate
back to the units of instruction.
Create a rubric and place it in Tennessee's rubric template found at
http://170.142.130.39/rubric/.
See Examples. Share the rubric in some manner in advance of teaching
the unit with the students so they will know what is expected of them.
Need more help with rubrics?
To edit the Rubric after you have created it, go to Rubric Maker
and scroll to the bottom sections. There you have an option to edit
with your rubric number and last name.
On the Online Submission Form report
your information.
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Choose one
of either Task 5a or Task 5b.
Task 5a: Teach Unit and
Complete Post-Surveys
Teacher has already taken Profiler “Pre-Survey” on computer.
Students may take Profiler “Pre-Survey” on paper.
Unit is taught with Students using TrackStar.
Students may take Profiler “Post-Survey” on paper.
Teacher takes Profiler “Post-Survey” on online.
Task 5b: Teach Unit, Complete
Post-Surveys and Participate in Research.
Teacher has already taken Profiler “Pre-Survey”.
Teacher has to register students on Profiler.
Students must take Profiler “Pre-Survey” online.
Unit is taught with Students using TrackStar.
Students take Profiler “Post-Survey” online.
Teacher takes Profiler “Post-Survey” online.
Teacher and class are available for observation.
Student statewide test data may be viewed but is never connected to
teacher or reported by teacher name.
On the Online Submission Form report
your information.
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Task 6: Reflect
on the experience.
Teacher summarizes and reflects on strategies used and student growth
in thinking skills. The reflection should relate to specific items from
the student and teacher Profiler “Surveys”. reflection examples)
The reflection process will help teachers consider what worked, what
didn’t work, whether they would repeat the process and what, if anything,
they would change.
Reflection Example: "My Farthest
Back People was a good site for an initial unit. It provided
a structured activity that helped students organize their thinking and
tasks. It helped them understand the reasons for the research on
the Web and the types of questions to ask in the interviews. Additional
sites were used to provide factual information on Tennessee history and
the customs of the countries of origin of the settlers of Tennessee.
I will use this unit again for beginning research in the history of Tennessee.
I chose to use "My Farthest Back People" because it encouraged my students
to think of different ways to tell others what they learn according to
the Profiler Teacher "Thinking Skills Survey." The interview process
improved my students skills in asking questions to help them and others
understand a topic better as indicated on the Profiler Student "Thinking
Skills Survey." I would certainly use this unit again."
On the Online Submission Form report
your information.
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What is the result of completing the Tasks?
Depending on the decision of the superintendent of each school system,
at least one of the following options will be possible.
If approved, a minimum of $500 will be used
to purchase technology for the classroom of the participating teacher's
entry.
The teacher may go through the process 3
additional times, and receive $200 for each approved application.
If the teacher agrees to participate in the research
aspect of the program the class will recieve an additional $300.
Depending on the number of total participants, additional funds beyond
the minimal of $500 may be available on an equal basis for every participant.
Money left in the TLG account will be evenly divided between the approved
applicants after April 1, 2000. We will not know how much money may
be available for this option until we see how many teachers participate.
Funds may be used to purchase computer technology hardware, software
or consumable supplies. It may also be used to pay for professional
development and as stipends for teachers to attend training. Funds
cannot be used as a supplement to teacher’s salary because the activity
is instruction for which teachers are being paid. Schools and school
systems may consider pooling the money for any technology purposes, including
teacher training.
How long should the Internet unit be?
The unit should represent a learning gap, activities and student product
that will take 1 to 2 weeks to complete. Since a teacher may make
more than one entry, it will be necessary to assure that the gap and unit
is of sufficient length that student progress can be meaningfully assessed
by the teacher. Individual daily lessons or activities should be
combined into a unit. Teachers will be given some feedback after
registering and providing the information for Tasks 1, 2 and 3a to assure
that the units seem reasonable to other teachers. (Teachers who served
as evaluators in the Professional Development phase will also provide this
feedback.)
Will I be evaluated based on the results?
No. A teacher will assess his or her students using the rubric
created and evaluated by the participating teacher. This Tech Lit
grant phase is designed to encourage Internet use and ask teachers to reflect
on its effectiveness. It is not designed to gather student data.
Why should I participate in the research component
(5b)?
A $300.00 stipend will be paid directly to the teacher because he/she
will be required to compile data on their own time. For 2600 teachers who
choose to participate in the research portion, student data will be provided
but this data will never be linked to an identifiable teacher nor used
in any way to evaluate a teacher.
When is the deadline?
Teachers will be able to start a unit in early November. The
unit may be completed at any time. When all tasks are completed,
the dollars will be awarded on a periodic basis. The soon a teacher
finishes, the sooner the dollars will be available. All units must
be completed by April 1, 2000.
Does every participant get the $500?
Yes, if (a) a teacher has selected a unit that is at least 2 weeks
of student learning, and (b) if all 6 tasks are completed and approved
by an evaluator.
Can a teacher enter more than once?
Yes. A teacher may submit a maximum of three additional units.
Payment for these units will be $200.00 per submission.
Can you use the same subject when you enter again?
You may do all four units on the same subject as long as the learning
gaps,
standards, URL Online Units, etc., etc., etc. are DIFFERENT.
 Need
Help? These teachers have been trained to help you through the
process in each school:
Jefferson County Schools
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