Here at NECC, the American Education Corporation (AEC) is introducing the A+® Classroom Student Response System™ (A+ Classroom SRS™) which will provide teachers the ability to administer very short and very frequent individual assessments in an engaging whole-class setting, using various classroom response devices, or “clickers.”
Designed by LearnStar, A+ Classroom SRS is compatible with response systems from LearnStar (v24 StarPads and StarLite), InterwriteTM (PRS), Renaissance (ResponderTM and AlphaSmart’s NEO2TM), Pearson (EngageTM), Fourier (NOVA) or any Windows®, MAC® or Linux® based computing device communicating on a school local area network. Here to talk about it is LearnStar President David Camp and AEC President Tom Shively.
ESD: What makes A+ Classroom SRS such a great choice for teachers who want to engage their students?
DC: The presentation format utilized by LearnStar creates a highly motivating, inclusive environment in the classroom that generates an intensively engaging event for students. What’s more, as recent studies and white papers have described, very short and very frequent formative assessment is recognized as a highly effective method of increasing understanding and retention. The optional competition format of A+ Classroom SRS contains 'pre-announcement' feedback to the students in the form of clues or coaching points that correct or confirm the students’ thoughts. This formative feedback, provided to the student even before the correct answer is revealed, is the most immediate feedback and direction available in classroom response systems. This makes A+ Classroom SRS one of the most effective tools available to provide formative assessment for learning.
TS: What will really separate A+ Classroom SRS from other response programs on the market today will be the ability for teachers to evaluate student learning data from A+ Classroom SRS and then assign lessons in the A+nyWhere Learning System®, our award-winning K–12 curriculum courseware, in order to remediate knowledge gaps or deficiencies. It’s a win-win for teachers and students. Students get to take part in an exciting learning activity and teachers gain valuable data to inform instruction.
ESD: This all sounds extremely complicated.
DC: Not at all. A key design feature of this product is the ease of use for the teacher. Included with the program is a library containing more than 30,000 questions that are organized by age group/grade level and study topic. A teacher simply navigates to the appropriate library, selects a 10-question activity, and then launches the activity for classroom participation. In addition to the library of activities, teachers can create their own “on demand” activities by searching the question bank by specific standard objective or expectation in order to create custom activities for their class. Teachers can even take it a step further and use the A+ Classroom SRS editor to create custom questions or import questions from Word documents.
ESD: So where can schools buy the A+ Classroom Student Response System?
TS: The A+ Classroom SRS product is available from AEC and its authorized distribution partners. Highly affordable licensing is offered on a site basis and includes unlimited teacher and student use.
For more information, visit www.amered.com and www.learnstar.com.
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