Piloting innovative play-reading workbook with Texan and global students

Grant Information
Categories	Arts , Education
Location	International
Cycle Year	2014

Organization Information
Organization Name (provided by applicant)	Big Fun Education
Organization Name (provided by automatic EIN validation)
Secondary Addressee
EIN
Website	http://www.bigfuneducation.org

Contact Information
Contact Name	Annabelle Howard
Phone	203 535 2949
E-mail	annabelle@bigfuneducation.org
Address	33 Lovers Lane Madison CT 06443

Additional Information
Used for	We will create a multi-genre play-reading workbook that complements our online adaptation of Shakespeare’s Macbeth. We will give the online Macbeth and 30 play-reading workbooks to five 9th grade English classes in TX and to five English classes elsewhere in the world. We will structure and host collaborations between these 300 students through Google Hangouts.
Benefits	The world needs young people to be literate, able to read multiple genres across many media so that they can be self-directed learners and flexible thinkers. According to 2005 SAT data, students involved in drama performance coursework or experience outscored non-arts students by an average of 65 points in the verbal component and 34 points in the math component; just as importantly, work in theater arts teaches us how to be better humans. We will archive our process through YouTube videos so that the process will be available worldwide long after this project ends.
Proposal Description	This new phase of work will build upon Macbeth Goes Social, supported by a prior DTD grant (thank you!). We benefit teachers who have no training in theater and yet are routinely told to teach classics like Macbeth - giving them an online performance tool with embedded extensions and whole-class discussion prompts as well as paperback books that broaden and deepen students’ understanding and knowledge while reinforcing the acquisition of academic vocabulary. We provide one-on-one professional development to help teachers collaborate with others via Google tools that they’ll be able to use for many purposes in the future. We benefit students by giving them a sociable reading project. Students love drama and rarely get a sustained educational exposure to a play that motivates them to read extensively. The paperback book will give students more to think about and say when they collaborate with others around the world through Google Hangouts. These books will give students the research-based number of encounters with certain academic words that is necessary for vocabulary acquisition. The autograph page will make this paperback a keepsake and personal - unlike other disposable workbooks they are given. While we are determined to continue offering the online plays for free, the paperback book will become a revenue source for our non-profit, BIG FUN Education, and thereby help sustain our educational efforts. $6,000 2 months to write the paperback book $2,500 3 months of work to select 10 classrooms, identify specific collaborative projects, and agree on a timetable $1,500 Send 30 books @ $5 each to 10 classrooms (300 students) $3,000 1 month of teacher support and hosting of collaborative Hangouts