Snapshot
Project Title: SMART Brainstorming
Learning Innovation Grant Recipient
As a language arts teacher it is often difficult to design engaging opportunities for my students to be a part of when responding to text-based questions. In order to achieve this feat and increase my students’ comprehension and written expression skills, I plan to create multiple opportunities for students to acquire various brainstorming strategies in a digitally interactive way using a SMART Kapp board. (A SMART Kapp board is a technology driven dry erase board that lets users write and draw on its surface while instantly capturing and sharing work with Wi-Fi connected devices in real time.) Students will utilize my Chromebook lab to wirelessly connect to the SMART Kapp board that I will purchase. Once they are connected, all information that is written on the board will appear on their Chromebook screens. (Students will also have the opportunity to connect other smart devices such as phones, ipads, and tablets as well.) Together my students and I will write on the SMART Kapp board as well as manipulate the content placed on the board using the connected Chromebooks and other smart devices. I also plan to purchase the premium app for controlling the SMART Kapp board that will allow me to utilize additional features with my students. By the end of this action research study, I expect that my students will learn to routinely use specific brainstorming strategies prior to completing extended responses that are text-based.