Standard+8

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The teacher understands and uses formal and informal assessment strategies to evaluate and ensure the continuous intellectual, social, and physical development of the pupil.
 * __Standard 8__: Teachers know how to test for student progress. **

 ** __Rationale 8__: ** Assistive Technology in the field of visual impairments is constantly changing, evolving, and seeking to become more functional in the mainstream environment. In the face of these constant technology updates, there is a stunning lack of quantitative data available to support the plethora of anecdotal evidence in favor of assistive technology use. The ultimate goal of this project is to provide measurable proof that the iPad, a piece of mainstream technology that is accessible to the visually impaired right out of the box, increases the motivation of students to participate in educational activities, both in the direct instructional setting with a vision teacher and in the general education classroom. Five students will each be provided with an iPad, wireless keyboard, carry-case, earphones, portable workstation, and screen-care kit. Teachers will provide quantitative data via checklists and students will provide qualitative data via personal reflection and rating scales. This grant-writing experience taught me a lot about both grant-writing and assessment. Grants are very detail-oriented and require a lot of support, formal and informal assessment, quantitative and qualitative assessment, and recordable outcomes in order to be successful. I took a lot of different information into consideration before developing the very detailed checklists, surveys, and reflection questions contained within this proposal. I believe that this activity has increased my knowledge of monitoring student progress and brought to light areas in which I might improve as a professional by creating well-defined methods of determining student progress.
 * __Evidence 8 __: Grant Proposal - “iPads as Motivational Tools for the Visually Impaired” **

Every checklist and survey that I created was directly related to the outcomes and timeline laid out in the grant proposal. The assessments were meant to evaluate student progress and motivation as well as to prove that the grant had been utilized successfully and a positive outcome occurred.
 * __Knowledge__: **
 * 8.K.2 The teacher knows how to select, construct, and use assessment strategies and instruments appropriate to the learning outcomes being evaluated and to other diagnostic purposes. **

As part of the assessment portion of the grant proposal, I created several student surveys that asked students to rate and reflect upon their motivation to participate in several classroom responsibilities. The information supplied via the teacher checklists would not be enough to support the success of this effort without the additional information provided through student responses.
 * __ Skills or Performance __**** : **
 * 8.S.3 The teacher uses assessment strategies to involve learners in self-assessment activities, to help them become aware of their strengths and needs, and to help them to set personal goals for learning. **

The assessment checklists and surveys provided in this proposal were also meant to be ongoing, beyond the life of the grant. The checklists are also easily adaptable to measure progress in several other classroom areas, as well. In addition to my own evaluations, classroom teachers and students were asked to assess student motivation, as well, so that well-rounded information could be gathered.
 * __Dispositions__: **
 * 8.D.1 The teacher values ongoing assessment as essential to the instructional process and recognizes that many different assessment strategies, accurately and systematically used, are necessary for monitoring and promoting student learning. **