For Parents
Aloha, Parents!
Your child’s teacher is participating in KĀKAU MEA NUI 2.0 (KMN 2.0), a professional development course. KMN 2.0 is part of a research project led by a team from the College of Education, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.
As part of this course, your child’s teacher will: learn strategies to support student success in writing, receive tools and practical resources, and receive coaching on classroom instruction.
We would like your consent to track your child’s improvements in writing skills. This will help us determine if the KMN 2.0 project has been successful in helping students improve their writing. If you are okay with us tracking your child’s writing progress, please complete a consent form and return it to your child’s teacher.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us. We appreciate you taking the time to learn about the KMN 2.0 project.
Mahalo!
View the parent video below. Click on the “Settings” icon to enable captions in English.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
If you agree for your child to be in the project, we will use some of your child’s class assignments to track improvements in their writing skills. We will also ask your child to answer a short questionnaire about their feelings about writing.
Yes, you can choose to allow your child to take part, or not take part in this project. If you agree to allow your child to participate you can change your mind at any time. If you decide to have your child stop being in the study, there will be no penalty or loss to you or your child. We assure you that your child’s participation or non-participation in the study will not impact his or her grades, class standing, relationship with his/her teacher, or relationship with his/her school.
The purpose of the Kākau Mea Nui 2.0: Culturally Responsive Approach to Writing Process using the 6+1 Traits of Writing (KMN 2.0) project is to provide professional development to teachers in Hawai`i to improve their writing instruction. We believe that as writing instruction improves students’ writing skills will improve.
The KMN 2.0 curriculum will be implemented in your child’s classroom regardless of whether your child participates in the project or not. If you and your child agree for your child to be in this study, your child will not need to do anything differently. The curriculum will take about 10 weeks. The curriculum being studied will involve regular coursework and writing time. Your child will be one of about 1,860 student participants. Participation in the project means that we will have permission to use your child’s class assignments and also have them respond to two short questionnaires about their feelings about writing. If you or your child decide not to participate, we will not use your child’s writing samples.
We may observe your child’s teacher implementing lessons in person, through Zoom, or with a telepresence robot. These observations will allow us to determine if the teacher is using the lessons as intended. Your child’s teacher may also video record lessons that will be shared with us at a later time when live observation is not possible. There is a separate consent form where you can let us know if it is okay to have your child be video recorded.
We believe there is little or no risk to your child when participating in this project. There may be some risk of loss of privacy due to participation in this project. For example other students may know that your child is participating.
There will be no direct benefit to you or your child for participating in this project. However, the results of this project might help teachers and researchers learn how to better support students in developing writing skills.
Any information that is obtained in connection with this study and that can be identified with your child will remain confidential and will be disclosed only with your permission. All records will be stored in a secure location (i.e., double password protection for electronic files, double locked storage for paper files). Any video recordings of your child (if you consent to video recording) will be destroyed immediately after being viewed by project staff. When we observe in-person or via Zoom, we will not be recording the session.
Questions?
If you have any questions about this project, please call or email Dr. Holly Manaseri at hmanaser@hawaii.edu or (808) 956-4457.