Kristi Dunckelman

EDTL Capstone
Artifact 5
iPad Math Initiative for 1st and 2nd grade Title 1 Tutoring Program
Program Description:
Once materials are obtained, students who are already enrolled in the Title 1 tutoring program
(1st and 2nd grade) will utilize iPads to access xtramath.org as well as apps that boost math fact
fluency. The program will begin with a small pilot cohort of students in the Title 1 tutoring
program. If the project shows positive growth in student math performance, it is the intent of the
project creator to implement this program in all other Title 1 tutoring grades. Also it is the vision
that this program could be eventually implemented school wide.
Program Rationale:
Allen Ellender School currently utilizes Title 1 funds to finance an afterschool tutoring program
three times a week. Students in 1st-8th grade are selected to participate in the program based on
standardized testing scores and how many subgroups each child fits into when determining
Ellenders School Performance Scores. The students attend one hour of tutoring, three days a
week, facilitated by classroom teachers at the school. The program focuses on both math and
English language arts improvement.
Allen Ellender currently has a variety of intervention programs in place for English language arts
deficiencies. These include a Title 1 funded reading interventionist and subscriptions to Lexia
Core 5, Reading Eggs, Reading A to Z, and iReady. However, there are no such intervention
resources for math.
Also in the previous academic year, the administrators implemented a math minute quiz
program. The program involved math teachers administering daily fact fluency quizzes (based on
each grade levels Common Core required fluency standard) and students tracking their
performance data. The program head reported an increase in student fact fluency, but did not
have specific numbers to share. This program was implemented due to low performance on ath
standardized testing school wide.
Project Goal:
Eighty percent of 1st and 2nd grade students participating in the tutoring iPad math initiative will
receive an eighty percent or higher on a post program exam, which will be aligned to the
Common Core math fact fluency standard for the appropriate grade level.

Action Steps:
1. Secure five iPad Air 2s, cases, and accessories.
2. Instruct students on how to operate iPads and access all necessary programs.
3. Implement iPad math initiative in small groups during Title 1 tutoring.
4. Administer post program assessment.
Procedures:

Students will be progress-monitored weekly utilizing xtramath.org quizzes. Xtramath is a

free online resource that allows students to take fluency quizzes and sends performance
data to teachers.
Students will attend Title 1 tutoring three days out of the week.
Students will be split into two small groups.
On the first day of tutoring, Group A will complete Math interventions and Group B will
complete ELA interventions.
On the second day of tutoring the groups will switch interventions.
On the third day the teacher will pull the five lowest performing students in Math
interventions for small group instruction. The other five students will complete ELA
interventions.
The math intervention block will begin with an xtramath quiz. These quizzes will be
utilized by the teacher to track performance data and determine which students will
receive small group instruction on the third day. After the xtramath quiz, students will
access math apps and instructional videos for the remainder of the intervention block.

Timeline:
December 2014-May 2015
Secure funding and resources
September 2015-December 2015 Implementation
December 2015
Final evaluation of initiative pilot cohort

Stakeholders and Buy-In:

Stakeholder
Administrators
Tutoring instructors

1st and 2nd grade

teachers
Parent Teacher
Organization
Families of student
participants
Students

Role in Initiative
Approval
Encourage buy-in from other stakeholders
Implementation of initiative
Engaging students and families in initiative
Securing funding through grant writing and
sponsorship letters
Engaging students and families in initiative
Securing funding through grade level
fundraising and sponsorship letters
Engaging families in initiative
Securing funding through weekly
fundraiser and sponsorship letters
Engaging students in initiative
Securing funding through sponsorship
letters
Participation in program
Engaging families in project

Plan for Buy-In

Email
Email

Email and Survey

Email

Flyer

Presentation
during tutoring

Budget:
Description of Item
iPad Air 2
Griffin Technology Survivor Case for Apple iPad Air 2
Sony Over the Ear Headphones
Griffin Technology - PowerDock 5 Docking Station
Total: $3019.90

Quantity
5
5
5
1

Price Per Unit

$499
$69.99
$19.99
$75.00

Total
$2495
$349.95
$99.95
$75.00

All prices are from Apple, Amazon, or Best Buy.

Acquisition of Funds:
It is the hope of the project author that the majority of funding for this initial pilot cohort could
be raised exclusively through fundraisers. The rationale behind this is the small amount of
money necessary to get this initiative started, and hopes of increasing this project to other grade
levels and classrooms in the future. If the project is broadened in the future, grant funding would
be necessary because of the larger costs.

Fundraising Projects and Goals:

Fundraiser

Description

Popcorn Sale The PTO has agreed to donate four weeks of

profits from their Thursday popcorn sales.
Penny Wars A penny war fundraiser will be held, where
students bring in spare change. The teachers in
winning grade level will be pied at a Friday
morning assembly
Sponsorship All stakeholders will send out sponsorship letters
Letters
to local business partners.
Donors
The project author will set up a project request
choose
(focusing on acquiring the iPads) on the
donorschoose.org website. This is a crowd funding
site with a specific educational focus. All
stakeholders would take part in promoting
awareness of the project request.

Responsible
Party
PTO

Goal

1st and 2nd grade

teachers

$500

All stakeholders

$2200

Project author
creation of project
request

$2495

All stakeholders
publicizing project
request

$400

Mrs. Matherne,
I am contacting you regarding an initiative that I would like to implement with my first
and second grade Title 1 tutoring students. In this email I will outline the initiative. However,
before I delve into the specifics, I wanted to make you aware that if this project is successful, it
should easily transition into a project we can use in all tutoring grades and possibly even school
wide.
I would like to acquire five iPad Air 2s, cases, and headphones. These materials will be
utilized to split our ten tutoring students into even smaller groups of five. Use of the iPads would
be focused on math fact fluency intervention. Students will access xtramath.org which is a free
website that allows student to take fact fluency and tracks data from their performance. Students
will also access apps that practice fact fluency. I will use the data from xtramath as weekly
progress monitoring.
I know that as a school, math is a weakness across all grade levels on standardized tests.
Last year we started the math minute fluency quiz initiatives and I see this as an extension of this
program. When developing this initiative I also took into account the countless resources
teachers have available at our school to implement ELA interventions (i.e., Lexia Core 5,
Reading Eggs, iReady, Reading A to Z, and our Title 1 reading interventionist).
My hope is to have this program fully funded through a few fundraisers. I have developed
a plan to engage our PTO, first and second grade teachers, families, and students in this program.
I would love to sit down and discuss the initiative as well as action steps to put the program in
place.

Thank you,

Kristi Dunckelman

Ms. Bailey,
I have recently received approval from Mrs. Matherne to start an iPad math intervention
program with my first and second grade Title 1 tutoring students. It is our hope that we will see
positive results from the students, and will eventually put this program in place with more
students.
I would love to sit down with you and share more about the program. I would also like to
discuss possible partnership with the PTO in raising money for the initiative. This first phase of
the project will cost slightly over $3100. While this may initially seem like a large amount of
money, I truly believe with a few fundraisers at school and a sponsorship letter campaign we will
be able to fully fund the initiative. If we expand the project, we will pursue grant funding.
I look forward to meeting with you to share with you my full vision for helping our
students achieve academic success.

Thank you,

Kristi Dunckelman