Final Grant Application

8/12/2019 Final Grant Application

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Catherine HolthausEdTech 551Final Grant Application

Opening Doors With Tablets

Needs Assessment

Schools across America, both public and private, are facing a financial crisis.

Private schools in particular are experiencing financial hardships not previously

encountered. Due to increased operating costs and decreased enrollment, funding for the

Spanish program at All Saints Catholic School (ASCS) in Lewiston, Idaho has been

eliminated. Currently, the school is depending on a volunteer to teach Spanish to 134

students in grades K-6, twice per week. Of those 134 students, ten percent are minorities.

We live in a world that has evolved from one of relative isolation to one of a

highly mobile population. Success is often based on ones ability to clearly articulate

using more than one language. Those pursuing professional careers and pleasure travel

abroad realize the importance of being able to verbally communicate in the host country.

We can no longer afford to be monolingual.

Currently, ASCS is the only elementary school in the city out of nine providing a

foreign language to the students. The students at ASCS currently participate in two

thirty-minute Spanish classes per week. With the integration of tablets, students would

potentially have access to Spanish classes five days per week. The additional foreign

language classes will better prepare the students as they enter high school. All students in

Idaho must complete at least two credits of a foreign language prior to graduation. The


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Idaho Department of Education recommends for college freshmen have more than two

credits of a foreign language prior to applying for enrollment for post-secondary schools

in Idaho.

Students who begin learning a foreign language in elementary school experience

increased listening ability, memory, creativity, and critical thinking skills. As adults,

students who have studied a foreign language in grades K-12 and in college, are highly

sought after in the workforce. There is an ever increasing demand in America for

workers who speak a second language, specifically Spanish, in both the corporate and

blue-collar sectors. The demand for bilingual workers is also high internationally.

Unfortunately due to budget constraints, many schools are discontinuing foreign

language classes. The lack of available classes poses a threat to people seeking

employment nationally and internationally. Workers not meeting the bilingual

requirement criteria set forth by the employer will not be hired.

Being bilingual has many benefits other than professional success. Research has

shown bilingual senior citizens perform general tasks at a faster rate than their

monolingual peers. Senior citizens who speak multiple languages daily produce more

brain activity. Young children who have access to bilingual education and continue to

speak more than one language throughout life will experience a healthier existence as

they age. It is desirable all children learn to speak more than one language fluently. In

order to achieve this, students beginning in kindergarten, need to regularly participate in

foreign language education. Should funding for a state certified teacher be unavailable,

educators must resort to an alternative means. Tablets are a viable option in filling this

gap.


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Goal

Graduates of All Saints Catholic School (ASCS) will be exposed to language and culture

important in the bilingual and multi-cultural globalized workforce of today with the

integration of tablets.

Objectives

To increase the availability of bi-lingual instruction for ASCS students by morethan 50% from two thirty minute sessions per week to five by Fall 2014.

To increase individual classroom scheduling flexibility in grades K-6 for bilingualinstruction by 40% by Fall 2014.

To increase scaffolding options for students in grades K-6 depending upon learnerability from beginner to advanced by Fall 2014.

To increase exposure to the Spanish culture by 50% utilizing technology by Fall2014.

To increase the creation of bilingual visual or auditory presentations by 100% forall sixth grade students graduating from ASCS.

Narrative

The focus of this grant project is to increase the accessibility to bilingual

instruction for students at ASCS with the integration of technology, specifically tablets.

ASCS is committed to educating the whole person and helping the students grow in

knowledge, preparing them for the multi-cultural globalized workforce of today. At this

time ASCS students attend Spanish classes taught by a volunteer twice per week.


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Equipment purchased with the approval of this grant proposal will allow all students to

receive foreign language instruction five times per week, therefore increasing

instructional availability by 50%.

Currently class scheduling for Spanish instruction is restricted to the volunteers

schedule depending upon their availability. With the addition of the tablets, the teaching

staff will collaborate to create a schedule meeting the needs of each individual class vice

working around the volunteers schedule. The existing schedule allows two thirty-

minute class periods per week. A revised schedule will increase instruction time to two

sixty-minute periods or four thirty-minute periods. As the primary source for guiding

instruction, the tablets will be available for each class to use at the designated time.

When the tablets are not in use, teachers wanting to incorporate additional foreign

language instruction will have the flexibility to achieve this. The tablets will be available

on a first come basis and will be returned promptly to ensure availability for the next

scheduled class.

At the present time, regardless of individual ability, all students participate in

Spanish as a whole class. Scaffolding, which is an assisted learning process supporting

students according to their ability, is not an option due to the lack of resources and length

of existing class periods. Students at ASCS have varying levels of understanding of the

Spanish language. Depending upon student ability, tablets will allow the teacher to

scaffold instruction starting from novice through advanced language knowledge.

Scaffolding will allow students to proceed at their own pace while learning a second

language.


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Expanding exposure to the Spanish language and culture will help prepare the

students attending ASCS for the bilingual workforce of today. Utilizing the equipment

purchased with this grant, students will experience an increased availability of bilingual

language and cultural instruction by 50% each week. With the increased accessibility, the

additional exposure will result in overall greater knowledge of the Spanish language and

culture. Students will demonstrate their knowledge of Spanish by actively using the

language in all oral and written work. All audio and video presentations will also be

completed in Spanish.

In addition to oral and written language, students will be exposed to the music,

dance, and art of the Spanish culture. Each quarter throughout the school year, the

students will focus on one style of Spanish music, dance, and art. Students will learn

about four genres of Hispanic music including but not limited to Salsa, Mariachi, Latin

pop, and Latin Jazz. After researching and listening to the different styles, the students

will be able to identify the differences between the four genres. Students will create a

slide presentation discussing the music styles focusing on the significance each style on

the Spanish culture. Students will also create audio clips using the tablets replicating the

sound of the focus genre. These will be included on the slide presentations. In addition

to learning about music, students will learn the steps to the Mambo, Salsa, Merengue, and

Flamenco dances. Working in small groups, the students will create a video montage

using the camera on the tablet demonstrating the four different styles of dance. They will

be able to identify and discuss the meaning of each dance. Art is another important

aspect of the Spanish culture. Studying about such artists as Salvador Dali, Jean-Michael

Bazquiat, Pablo Picasso, and Frida Kahlo, students will learn about the style and impact


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each artist has had on the world. Students will demonstrate knowledge of each style of

art by creating a drawing, scanning the work using the tablets, and downloading the file

to a slide presentation. All slide presentations will be downloaded and embedded on the

school website for viewing.

As stated earlier, all students graduating from ASCS will be able to create visual

and audio presentations using tablets using Spanish. These presentations will become

more complex and exhibit higher order thinking as the student progresses through the

grades. The integration of tablets will provide the students with the resources necessary to

complete the assigned tasks along with increasing their knowledge and demonstration of

a second language. Students will not only be developing a greater understanding of a

second language and the culture, but they will also be improving technology skills

necessary to be competitive in the bilingual workforce they will be entering as adults.

Budget

The goal of this grant proposal is to ensure the graduates of All Saints Catholic

School (ASCS) are exposed to language and culture important in the bilingual and multi-

cultural globalized workforce of today with the integration of tablets. By providing the

students the opportunity to study foreign language with the use of tablets, they will have

increased access to bi-lingual instruction.


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proposed budget provides funding for ASCS to procure the equipment necessary to

provide students in grades K-6 access to a foreign language.

Evaluation

Grant Evaluator Contact Information:

Denise Hammrich, Principal, All Saints Catholic School

208-743-4411

[email protected]

641 5thAvenue, Lewiston, Idaho 83501

To best manage the implementation of the tablet driven Spanish program at

ASCS, the following procedures will be put in place immediately upon receipt of

funding. The objectives will be evaluated by the following means.

To increase the availability of bi-lingual instruction for ASCS students by more

than 50% from two thirty minute sessions per week to five by Fall 2014.

Teachers will provide the principal with a schedule documenting the newlyrevised schedule for Spanish instruction increasing class length from two thirty

minute classes to either four thirty minute classes or two sixty minute classes per

week.

Teacher lesson plans will be reviewed by the principal quarterly to ensurecompliance to the agreed upon schedule for Spanish instruction.

To ensure the equipment purchased with this grant is used to its fullest potential,the principal will conduct unannounced spot checks quarterly during scheduled

foreign language periods.
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]


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The principal will conduct quarterly observations in grades K-6 and complete anevaluation for each teacher. The recipient will make comments as necessary.

The program will be continually assessed. Teachers will collaborate quarterlyduring a staff meeting regarding the effectiveness of the applications being used.

Applications used in all grades will be reviewed quarterly and either be updated

or replaced as necessary. A running record of all applications being used in

grades K-6 will be maintained on the school server. The running record will

include name of application, site URL, comments, and the date the application

was initially used or the date the site was determined to be no longer useful.

All serial numbers will be recorded and kept in a file maintained on the schoolserver.

To increase individual classroom scheduling flexibility in grades K-6 for Spanish

instruction by 40% by Fall 2014.

Classroom teachers will completequarterly surveysassessing the program.To increase scaffolding options for students in grades K-6 depending upon learner

ability from beginner to advanced by Fall 2014.

Lesson plans will be collected quarterly documenting the applications used ineach grade and the level of difficulty ranging from novice to advanced will be

annotated.
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To increase exposure to the Spanish culture by 50% utilizing technology by Fall

2014.

The implementation dates will be disseminated to the teachers prior to the end ofthe 2013-2014 school year.

Teachers will collaborate and provide the principal with a schedule documentingthe newly revised length of class.

To ensure compliance with the program, the principal will assess all lesson plansassociated with this program quarterly in grades K-6.

Student work will be assessed using a grade level appropriate standard four-pointrubric.

To increase the creation of bilingual visual or auditory presentations by 100% for

all sixth grade students graduating from ASCS.

Student slide presentations will be collected and kept in an electronic portfoliodemonstrating an increased level of difficulty as the students progress through

grades K-6. Students in grades 4-6 will be responsible for posting their work into

a pre-assigned folder. The classroom teachers in grades K-3 will maintain student

portfolios.

The evaluations from the observations will be collected and assessed by the principal.

Once the assessments are completed, the evaluations will be placed in the teachers

personnel record for future use. Quarterly surveys completed by the teachers will be

collected, evaluated, and stored for three years. The principal will consider all

suggestions or recommendations to improve the program. All lesson plans for the


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program will be collected quarterly and assessed by the principal to ensure compliance

with the program. The lesson plans will be stored on the school server for future

reference. Classroom teachers will be responsible for assessing student work in

accordance with a grade level appropriate rubric. All students participating in the

program at ASCS will to create an electronic portfolio beginning in kindergarten and

culminating in the sixth grade upon graduation. The portfolio will document the

students progress in the acquisition of a foreign language while attending ASCS and

serve as an artifact for future foreign languages classes.

Documents

Final Grant Application