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Goal

As our students progress from year to year they are required to gain knowledge and master multiple standards in multiple subjects. Florida standards slowly progress by grade levels to ensure that students leave one grade level with the knowledge to succeed in the next grade level. Unfortunately, not every student gains the knowledge that they need to be successful in their current grade. According to the initial STAR Enterprise Assessment given to our fourth graders, 34% of our students are below proficiency based on the FSA cut scores that correlate with STAR. As fourth grade teachers, we strongly feel that we can decrease the percentage of students that are not on grade level by using specific hands- on tools that will effectively and actively engage our students subject by subject and promote a positive learning atmosphere. To help us provide a hands-on, interactive, and engaging classroom we believe we need more technology to make this dream a reality. Presently, technology is life for most of our students. Students enjoy doing pretty much anything and everything with electronics. Students respond well to the use of technology and electronics, and at times may not even realize they are learning skills while using them. We believe that students would be greatly impacted if we had All in Learning clickers to incorporate into our daily lessons and activities. We feel these clickers will help increase student engagement and build confidence in our students which will later increase the proficiency of our fourth grade students.
Multiple studies show that technology is key to success. According to nea.org, “Clickers promote active participation, engagement, and discussion among all students, even those who might not participate in typical class-wide discussions. Clickers can also be assessment tools, providing students with useful and motivational feedback on their own learning, and providing instructors with information about student learning that helps them respond to immediate student learning needs”. While reading the article, we discovered that there are multiple benefits of using clickers in the classroom that can enhance student learning and engagement daily in our classrooms. Students are able to show what they know without having to talk to a neighbor about it, which will allow students to think of their own response before hearing the classroom discussion. The data displayed through the use of Clickers will help us as educators immediately see what concepts and skills need to be addressed again and when we can press forward with new skills to further our learning. Students are able to present their answer anonymously, which will engage each student every time with every skill without the feeling of embarrassment if they are not confident in their knowledge of skills presented.
Florida Reading Standard LAFS.4RI.3.7 states that students must “interpret information presented visually, orally, or quantitatively and explain how the information contributes to the understanding of the text”. Students could use the clickers to help determine data presented and to analyze the charts and graphs presented from our class responses. Each Florida standard taught in fourth grade can be directly related to the use of clickers because they can and would be used in each taught subject.

Clickers are so diverse in the applications they offer, students would have the tools at the touch of their fingers to help them be successful and meet the requirements needed to be proficient on the STAR Enterprise assessment.
Not only will the use of clickers help meet the needs for student engagement in reading, but also other subject areas as well. Currently, 58% of fourth grade students are at or above 4th grade level based on the STAR Math assessment. We feel that the effective use of clickers will increase our scores in Math as well. We would be able to link the use of clickers to each Florida Math standard to further benefit our student’s learning.

We as fourth grade teachers could also use these clickers to better enhance our direct instruction process, because we would be able to circulate around the room while checking student’s learning from anywhere in the classroom quickly, easily, and effectively. This will also assist with student engagement, because it will allow us to monitor what the students are doing all around the room and not just in the central location of our teacher station.
Teachers will be able to tackle the diverse needs of each student by accessing the use of clickers in small group rotations, during whole group instruction, for games and various forms of practice and checking knowledge. By the end of the year, it is our expectation that 80% of students will demonstrate proficiency on the Florida State Assessment, teacher created classroom assessments, and/or STAR Enterprise assessment in both reading and math.
 

What will be done with my students

If granted the clickers, we will permanently integrate them on a daily basis. Students will use them daily; use them during whole group instruction, small group instruction, for the use of lessons, games, and various forms of practice. Students will learn to contribute to class in each subject area each time and show what they know without the fear of embarrassment of not knowing the correct response. As a teacher, I can better differentiate instruction for the benefit of my students. By May of 2017, students will be comfortable with the use of clickers and the scores should prove that in the successful learning of students.



Florida Reading Standard LAFS.4.SL.2.5 states that students must “add audio recordings and visual displays in presentations when appropriate to enhance the development of main ideas or themes. Students use the clickers to become familiar with visual displays of graphs for student response. This would benefit students in teaching them to recognize, read, and interpret visual graphs, thus helping students master this Florida standard.
Each Florida standard can be linked to the use of Clickers. We as teachers can use the clickers in every subject, every time, every day.
 

Benefits to my students

Currently there are 67 students and 3 teachers that would benefit from having clickers in the classroom, and many more students for years to come. By the end of this school year, it is our goal that 80% of students will demonstrate proficiency on the Florida State Assessment, teacher created classroom assessments, and/or STAR Enterprise assessment in both reading and math. We strongly feel that the use of clickers can make that possible.  

Budget Narrative

We chose the clickers system because they are cost effective and will allow each classroom to have 1 set per classroom. We currently use other All in Learning tools and are familiar with the services they provide.

 

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