“Developing Students’ Information Literacy and Research-Based Skills”

A Student Achievement Grant Proposal for The NEA Foundation

Rachel NachmanFifth Grade Special Education Teacher

Oakland Terrace Elementary School

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Project Title – “Developing Students’ Information Literacy and Research-Based Skills”

Requested Amount – $5,000

Proposal Budget

Item or Service Quantity Cost Per Item Total Cost For Item

32 GB Dell Venue 8 Pro Tablet 23 $249.99 $5,749.77

NoodleTools Teacher Subscription 1 $60.00 $60.00

Projected Funds Earned Through Additional Sources

N/A N/A - $810.00

TOTAL $4,999.77

Students Benefitted

Twenty-three students will benefit from this project.

Educators Benefitted

Three educators will benefit from this project (one general educator, one special educator, and one library media specialist).

Additional Support

Additional support will be provided by funds raised through two different fundraisers. First,

money will be raised through Scholastic Book Clubs. The profit from these book clubs will go

towards purchasing the technology outlined in the budget. Additionally, money will be raised

through a fundraiser created on “Donor’s Choose”. Potential donors will be able to read a

summary of this project as well as the rationale for the Dell tablets. The link to this Donor’s

Choose fundraiser will be sent to my colleagues and students’ families, and the profit raised from

this fundraiser will also be used towards purchasing the technology outlined above. It is hoped

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that approximately $810.00 will be raised through additional sources; however, should there be

extra funds raised from these two fundraisers, additional tablets will be purchased for student

use.

Summary

Recent technology has changed the way that people access information. It is a teacher’s

responsibility to help students develop the information literacy skills needed to contribute to

today’s society. This grant will allow Ms. Nachman to purchase the technology needed to help

her students develop these information literacy skills. By giving students greater access to

technology, they will have an increased number of opportunities to improve their research-based

skills, such as locating and evaluating information on a given topic, and taking, organizing, and

synthesizing their notes. Overall, this grant will help deepen students’ learning and enhance

students’ higher-order thinking skills.

Description, Goals, and Standards

This project will entail students engaging in inquiry-based research that focuses on a historical

movement that occurred within the United States. More specifically, students will be asked to

identify the causes, major events, and key figures of this movement. Additionally, they will be

asked to determine the impact that this movement had on the United States Constitution. If

awarded the grant, students will conduct the research for this inquiry project using the Dell

tablets. Furthermore, students will also utilize the NoodleTools software to assist them with

organizing and paraphrasing information retrieved from digital sources. Once students have

engaged in the research process, they will then create a final product to demonstrate what they

have learned.

The standards that align with this project are as follows:

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Grade 5 Maryland Technology Literacy Standards for Students (2007)

Standard 5.0 – Use technology to locate, evaluate, gather, and organize informationA.1. Select and use information resources available through technology

a) Select relevant information from appropriate technology resources

b) Select and read to gain information from electronic personal interest materials, such as brochures, books, magazines, cookbooks, and websites

e) Understand search strategies for age-appropriate Web search engines/directories

B.1. Select and use technology tools to organize information

Grade 5 Common Core State Standards (2010)

RI 5.7 – Draw on information from multiple print or digital sources, demonstrating the ability to locate an answer to a question quickly or to solve a problem efficiently.

Grade 5 Maryland State Standards – Social Studies (2006)

Standard 1.0 – Political Science

A. The Foundations and Function of Government

2. Analyze the historic events, documents, and practices that are the foundations of our political systems.

These goals and learning objectives for this project are as follows:

Goal #1: Students will be able to utilize technology to conduct research.

Objective: Given access to a computer and to the Internet, students will be able to

independently use technology to locate at least one appropriate source for their research

topic.

Objective: Given access to an electronic source, students will be able to independently

use technology to identify at least three relevant, accurate facts on their research topic.

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Objective: Given access to note-taking software, students will be able to independently

organize at least three facts on their research topic into different categories.

Goal #2: Students will be able to identify the causes, key people, and major events of their

historical movement.

Objective: Given access to electronic sources, students will be able to independently

identify at least three causes of their historical movement.

Objective: Given access to electronic sources, students will be able to independently

identify at least three key people within their historical movement.

Objective: Given access to electronic sources, students will be able to independently

identify at least three major events that occurred during their historical movement.

Goal #3: Students will be able to identify the effects and evaluate the impact that their

historical movement had on the United States Constitution.

Objective: Given access to electronic sources, students will be able to identify at least

three effects of their historical movement.

Objective: Students will be able to evaluate the impact that these effects had on the

United States Constitution.

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To measure students’ progress towards achieving these goals, data will be collected in the

following areas:

Students’ ability to locate appropriate digital sourceso Students’ ease with utilizing technology to locate digital research sourceso Students’ strategies for locating appropriate digital research sourceso The number of appropriate research sources located

Students’ ability to use technology to select accurate informationo The number of relevant facts selected on a topico The accuracy and relevance of the facts selected

Students’ ability to use technology to organize notes on a given topico Students’ ease with utilizing technology to organize noteso The categories in which the information is organizedo The number of facts appropriately organized

Students’ ability to identify causes, major events, and key figures of their historical movement

o The number of causes, major events, and key figures identified

Students’ ability to identify effects and evaluate the impact of their historical movemento The number of effects identifiedo Students’ connection between the effects of their movement and the United States

Constitution

Student Need

Not only must students be able to access information from printed sources, but they must also be

able to “read” digital materials as well. Our students must possess the skills needed to conduct

research using technology, and they must develop the higher-order thinking skills that are

required to organize and evaluate information. The way we locate information and construct

meaning is continuously changing due to technology, and our students must be prepared when

they leave our classrooms.

The ideas discussed above are all embedded within the vision and core principles of

Montgomery County Public Schools; however, the technology that is available within each

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classroom is not sufficient enough to help students develop these crucial skills. There are

currently three desktop computers within my classroom, two of which are used primarily by the

two teachers. However, in many cases, students use these two “teacher computers” due to there

being only one other computer available. While students can use these computers to conduct

research, there is not enough technology available to grant all students equal access. Thus, I am

expected to develop my students’ information literacy skills; however, I do not have the adequate

technology to do so. This grant would allow me to provide additional technology for student use

and would allow for greater opportunities for students to develop these crucial skills.

I teach in a fifth grade inclusion classroom. Within my classroom, there are twenty-three

students, two teachers, and one paraeducator. Five students have Individualized Education

Programs (IEPs) and receive special education services, eight students are identified as Gifted

and Talented and consistently require enrichment, and two students receive ESOL support in

reading and writing. Overall, this class is comprised of a heterogeneous group of students with

regards to strengths, needs, and academic performance. However, even with these diverse needs,

there is one statement that holds true among a majority of students – many students need

additional support with utilizing technology to conduct research. More specifically, many of my

students struggle with using technology to apply research-based skills, such as locating and

evaluating information on a given topic, or taking and organizing notes. While this can be

attributed to the specific learning needs of my students, it is also due to the limited proficiency

they demonstrate with regards to technological skills. Therefore, this project is designed to give

students additional opportunities to develop their information and digital literacy skills.

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Furthermore, my students require additional support with higher-order thinking skills such as

synthesis and evaluation, which are two main components of this research-based project. I find

that many students can retain and recite information; however, when asked questions that require

critical-thinking, many students often require prompting. Thus, this project is designed to build

upon students’ strengths (such as identifying factual information about the causes, figures,

events, and effects of their movement) as well as develop students’ higher-order thinking skills

(such as synthesizing the information they collected and evaluating the impact of their

movement).

Instructional Activities

To begin this project, I will collaborate with both the general education teacher as well as my

school’s library media specialist in order to design and implement lessons that focus on helping

students develop their information literacy skills. Together, we will teach lessons that address

how to use the Internet, as well as computer software applications, to access information. We

will also teach students the skills needed to evaluate information found within digital sources.

After each lesson, students will then use the Dell tablets to apply the skills they have learned to

their own inquiry-based research. Students will be required to use technology to locate

appropriate sources, identify important information, and then evaluate the relevance, accuracy,

and significance of this information. Students will also be asked to complete a graphic organizer

to take notes as they conduct their research. Furthermore, students will work independently as

they engage in the research process; however, due to the diverse needs of the students in this

class, support will be provided to those students who require extra assistance or scaffolding.

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Once students have applied their information literacy skills and collected a sufficient amount of

information, they will then be introduced to the NoodleTools software. This software serves as a

digital tool that allows students to collect, organize, and paraphrase information. To introduce the

software, we (the general educator, special educator, and library media specialist) will again

provide explicit modeling of how to use this technology. We will implement a series of lessons

to model how to input, organize, and paraphrase information using the NoodleTools software.

After each lesson, students will apply what they have learned for their own research project. This

will require students to not only determine appropriate categories for their information, but to

then accurately categorize their research. Additionally, students will be required to construct

meaning of their information in order to paraphrase.

Once students have finished organizing and paraphrasing their information, they will then be

asked to create a final product to demonstrate their understanding. This final project will require

students to synthesize the research they have collected in order to develop a cohesive, clear

reflection of what they have learned. Because all students best express their understanding in

different ways, I will allow students to choose from a variety of final product formats, including

a written essay, multimedia presentation, or animated movie. The guidelines for this project will

differ based on the type of project students are creating; however, the academic content

requirements for each project will be the same. All projects must include information about the

causes, key figures, and major events of the movement. Additionally, students will also be

required to include information about the effects of the movement and evaluate the impact that

these effects had on the United States Constitution. Thus, this project requires students to not

only state factual information, but to synthesize and evaluate the information they collected

through research.

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Sustainability

This project will be sustained beyond the grant period. The research model used within this

project can be applied when conducting research on any given topic, and thus, the instructional

activities described above can be utilized by educators of all grade levels and subject areas. The

Dell tablets purchased through this grant will also be shared with other teachers within the

school. Therefore, this will allow an increased number of teachers to incorporate research-based

projects within their classrooms without the challenge of an insufficient amount of technology.

Additionally, students will develop research-based skills by engaging in this project. Students

can transfer these skills to research projects that they will complete in the future. This project

does not focus on one isolated concept, process, or skill – rather, its primary focus is to teach

students the information literacy skills that they need to succeed both in the classroom and in the

world around them. Thus, the effects of this project have limitless boundaries and will better

prepare my students for the technological society in which they live.

Lastly, it is important to note that in order for students to continue to apply the research-based

skills they develop throughout this project, continuous instruction must be provided. More

specifically, students must continue to not only have opportunities to apply their research-based

skills, but to also continue to receive instruction that focuses on both effective and appropriate

information literacy skills. I will be sure to incorporate this instruction within my classroom on a

continuous basis.

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References

Maryland State Board of Education. (2007). Maryland technology literacy standards for students.

Retrieved from

http://mdk12.org/instruction/curriculum/technology_literacy/vsc_technology_literacy_sta

ndards.pdf

Maryland State Department of Education. (2006). Grade 5 Maryland state standards – social

studies. Retrieved from

http://mdk12.org/instruction/curriculum/social_studies/standard1/grade5.html

National Governors Association Center for Best Practices & Council of Chief State School.

(2010). Common core state standards (English language arts). Retrieved from

http://www.corestandards.org/ELA-Literacy/

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