NHS Teachers Win State Grant For New Writing Program

By Martha Coville

Newtown High School English teachers Lauren Cerulo and David Kimball recently won a $64,183 grant from the Connecticut State Department of Education to fund a new, computer-assisted writing program.

Mr Kimball said that Vantage Learning’s My Access software “uses artificial intelligence to assist student writing.” Ms Cerulo explained that My Access gives students “instant feedback” on essays and other writing assignments.

“Students will type their assignments,” she said, “and file them with the program, and get feedback literally within 30 seconds about what they’re doing wrong. Students can check on their progress, and see, ‘Oh, I’m opening all my sentences the same way.’”

Mr Kimball added, “It actually tells them in their paper what they need to improve, from grammar to not giving enough support information.”

Ms Cerulo and Mr Kimball stressed that teachers who use My Access will continue to grade students’ assignments themselves, and to provide individualized feedback. Correcting essays is laborious work: it might take a busy English teacher a week or longer wade through a stack of 20 essays. My Access allows teachers to respond much more quickly to student needs. Using the program means a teacher can ask students to hand an essay in during one class, and teach to students’ particular needs in the following class.

“It works two-fold,” Mr Kimball said. “It provides students with immediate feedback they couldn’t get [as quickly] from their teachers. And it also gives the instructors feedback on the fly.”

Ms Cerulo said: “It allows us to focus on what we’re teaching to their needs.”

One of the most attractive features of My Access, the teachers agreed, is its flexibility. The program can be set to correct student papers for any number of particular errors.

Because My Access stores students’ work, students can log onto the program and see how they are progressing throughout the semester. Parents can log on, too, and see their children’s work.

Teaching Digital Natives

Ms Cerulo is excited, she said, to be able to start using the program.

“Kids are so into technology these days, so they’re very comfortable with it. For a school this size,” she said, “we really don’t have that much technology. And then when we found about this software, we were like, ‘Wow.’”

Ms Cerulo and Mr Kimball said that when they researched the program, they checked to make sure that the goals of the state grant aligned with district goals.

“We checked the program’s rubrics, compared to our own graduation requirements,” Mr Kimball said.

Programs like My Access also align with new Superintendent Janet Robinson’s goals for the district. Like Ms Cerulo, Dr Robinson said that when she joined the Newtown School district, she was surprised by the age of classroom computers, and by the relatively limited nature of student access to them. Her budget for the 2008–2009 school year includes a 50 percent increase over last year’s spending in hardware purchases, and a 35 percent increase in areas like computer staff salaries and teacher training.

Board of Education member Lillian Bittman also said implementing technology is important to educating students in the 21st Century. “People say that people in our generation are ‘Digital Immigrants,’” she said at a January 29 Board of Education meeting. Digital immigrants are people who did not grow up with technology like personal computers, cellphones and iPods. For them, mastering new technology is often difficult. “But students today are called ‘Digital Natives.’ They’ve grown up with technology. It’s how they learn.”

Mr Kimball and Ms Cerulo also said they hope My Access will help improve NHS students’ Connecticut Aptitude Performance Test (CAPT) scores.

“Part of the goal is the CAPT scores,” Ms Cerulo said. “We want to improve our CAPT scores by improving our teaching. We’re looking at this as a tool to improve our teaching.”

But Mr Kimball says My Access is not just about technology for technology’s sake. “A lot of research out there says that students need to do more writing, period.” If the program works out, he said, the school might consider using it in other content areas, like math or history.

Eager To Volunteer

Ms Cerulo and Mr Kimball finish have each been at NHS for three years. Ms Cerulo teaches freshman and sophomore English, and Mr Kimball teaches sophomore English, journalism, and senior composition and poetry. He is also an adjunct instructor at Southern Connecticut State University.

Ms Cerulo said the program will be implemented next year. Seven English teachers have volunteered to use My Access in eight classes, teaching a total of 176 freshman and sophomore students.

“It started with NHS Assistant Principal Jason Hiruo,” Mr Kimball said. “He brought it to our attention.” Mr Hiruo sent an e-mail about the grant to the English department as a whole, and “We both just volunteered for the project,” Ms Cerulo said.

 The two teachers wrote their grant application quickly, because the state scheduled the deadline five weeks after announcing the grant. “We started to work with Assistant Superintendent Linda Gejda,” Mr Kimball said. “Linda’s worked with grants in the past, so she was key in helping us. We pulled together a lot of information. I was able to get up to Hartford and look at past grant applications.”

Ms Cerulo is pleased with the response to their first attempt at writing a grant application.

“We did really well for never having done a grant before,” she said. “We asked for $64,983, and were awarded $64,183. We got 24 laptops with batteries, an overhead projector, and money for professional development. We also wanted a desktop, but we didn’t get it.”

Training for the program is expected to begin this month.