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Co-Teaching Secondary Dual Eligible Students, Heidi Macomber
Co-Teaching Secondary Dual Eligible Students, Heidi Macomber
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
Students who qualify for both English Language services and Special Education services tend to be underserved and have high failure rates in secondary schools. This project investigates the details related to dual eligible students’ underachievement and strives to create a curriculum that appropriately integrates language learning into topics such as identity and mental health. Research relates to methods of assessment that lead to qualification for both English language services and Special Education services. It also evaluates the complicated nature of co-teaching and the many methods for co-teaching that have been developed through research. In addition, this research shows that dual …
School-Wide Policies To Support Ell Students With Lgbtqia+ Identities, Camille Verly
School-Wide Policies To Support Ell Students With Lgbtqia+ Identities, Camille Verly
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
My research question is What school-wide policies can be implemented to support ELL students with LGBTQIA+ identities? LGBTQIA+ high school students face a myriad of challenges in achieving full integration within academic and school culture. These challenges are especially pronounced for students from an English Language Learner (ELL) background, who may also grapple with language barriers and cultural differences. This intersectional group is at higher risk of marginalization, and as such, they are in particular need of holistic support within their educational environment. This project is the development of a comprehensive website designed to serve as a resource for all …
Integrating Language And Content Learning For Ells: The Role Of Functional Grammar, Anna Harding
Integrating Language And Content Learning For Ells: The Role Of Functional Grammar, Anna Harding
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
With the ever growing population of English language learners (ELLs) in today’s schools, the implementation of effective instruction to meet their needs is paramount. This capstone explores the promise functional grammar has as a tool to support this instruction, while addressing the following research question: How can functional grammar be incorporated into English language development instruction in the mainstream elementary school classroom in order to meet ELD standards and develop students’ English language proficiency? Within this capstone paper, a literature review outlines what functional grammar is and how it has been shown to benefit ELLs in both their content and …
Best Practices In Screening Kindergarten Students For Multilingual Services, Kathryn Conover
Best Practices In Screening Kindergarten Students For Multilingual Services, Kathryn Conover
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
This research paper aims to answer the question, “what do teachers need to know in order to effectively screen kindergarten students for multilingual services?”. Through a synthesis of relevant research, the paper details the multilingual learner screening process in Minnesota, identifies inefficiencies and validity issues with the process, and suggests revisions to make the process more accurate. Researchers have emphasized the importance of accuracy in screening students, arguing that the overidentification of multilingual students is costly, stealing time and resources from students and teachers. There are many different strategies that can be taken at each step of the kindergarten multilingual …
Netiquette For Upper Elementary Multilingual Learners: A Curriculum Resource, Denise Price
Netiquette For Upper Elementary Multilingual Learners: A Curriculum Resource, Denise Price
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
This capstone paper explores the research question: When teaching computer-mediated communication (CMC) skills to upper elementary students, how can teachers include politeness (netiquette) instruction tailored to meet the needs of multilingual learners (MLs)? After reflecting on her own previous difficulties trying to learn the netiquette rules of another language, the author conducted a literature review that revealed an important gap: despite the increasing prevalence of CMC at the elementary level, little research currently exists on how best to teach netiquette skills to this age group. In the accompanying project, the author wove together ideas from traditional linguistic theories about polite …
Building Skills For Success: An Esol Job Readiness Curriculum For Adult Ukrainian Refugees, Shannon Daniels
Building Skills For Success: An Esol Job Readiness Curriculum For Adult Ukrainian Refugees, Shannon Daniels
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
The growing number of Ukrainian refugees in North America has highlighted the need for English language learning resources focusing on employment content. This capstone project aims to fulfill this requirement by developing an ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) curriculum on practical employment skills and communication. The curriculum considers the importance of cultural identity and the impact of trauma on the learner. It is based on Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) principles and Task-Based Learning (TBL). It is intended to assist refugees in making meaningful contributions to their families and communities through work. The curriculum emphasizes communication strategies relevant to …
Supporting Biliteracy In English Language Classrooms, Maria White
Supporting Biliteracy In English Language Classrooms, Maria White
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
This project was inspired by a large influx of Spanish-speaking students in the past year. This project is designed to answer the following research question: How can teachers support the Spanish literacy of their Spanish-speaking students in ways that will transfer to English and support their English literacy development? The literature review synthesizes research on different language models and their use of heritage language instruction, foundational literacy skills in English and in Spanish and a comparison of the two languages, followed by a review of the research on what literacy skills transfer across languages. The resulting project is a four-hour …
Second Language Acquisition For General Educators: An Accessible Professional Development Course, Angela Cabreana
Second Language Acquisition For General Educators: An Accessible Professional Development Course, Angela Cabreana
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
This capstone project was built in response to the research question “How can general education educators learn the process of language acquisition in an accessible way?” With the population of multilingual learners (MLs) in public schools steadily increasing and teacher preparation programs often not preparing teachers for these students, many general education teachers are looking for professional development (PD) on best practices for teaching MLs. Thus the idea for developing a free, asynchronous website professional development course that instructs general educators on the process of second language acquisition (SLA) was born. The literature review explores the theories and processes that …
How Student Name Choice Affects Identity, Raquel Hunt
How Student Name Choice Affects Identity, Raquel Hunt
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
Over the years, research on language and identity has been abundant in the field of sociolinguistics. This capstone reviewed some of the background literature on language and identity as well as more recent literature on how multilingual learners’ identities are affected by what name they choose to be called at school and what teachers actually call them. A few themes emerged: multilingual learners have difficulty with non-English names in school, multilingual learners and their families consider many factors as they choose a name to use at school, and teachers can profoundly impact students’ identities by the way they treat student …
Components Of Successful Distance Learning Programs For Adult English Language Learners, Trisha Mcintyre
Components Of Successful Distance Learning Programs For Adult English Language Learners, Trisha Mcintyre
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
The COVID-19 pandemic forced many Adult Basic Education (ABE) programs in the United States to quickly pivot from traditional in-person classes to Distance Learning (DL). After the end of the pandemic, many ABE programs continue to provide flexible and accessible DL options to meet their learners’ needs. This project sought to research different components of DL programming for adult English Language Learners (ELLs) and to look at the indicators of success of those components. Important programmatic considerations are looked at such as technology, instruction, learner onboarding and orientation, and teacher and staff support. This project consists of web pages and …
Spanish-Speaking English Learners’ Experience In Spanish/English Dual Language Immersion Schools, Sara Worthington
Spanish-Speaking English Learners’ Experience In Spanish/English Dual Language Immersion Schools, Sara Worthington
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
Research has demonstrated that dual language immersion (DLI) schools provide one of the most viable pathways for students of families who speak a language other than English to maintain and develop their home language proficiencies while also learning and improving their proficiencies in English. The professional development (PD) designed for this project focuses on maximizing the English instruction time in Spanish/English dual language immersion schools. Across the United States, the number of DLI programs has increased dramatically in the past few decades yet often the educators employed in the programs have little or no specific training in teaching English as …
Self-Regulated Learning For English Language Learners In Asynchronous Online Community College Courses, Nicole Olalde
Self-Regulated Learning For English Language Learners In Asynchronous Online Community College Courses, Nicole Olalde
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
The number of students who take asynchronous online courses has soared, notably since the onset of COVID in 2020. Success in these courses requires a significant amount of self-discipline. Students who struggle in this context have cited a lack of support, feelings of isolation, and difficulties regulating their learning. For adult English language learners, (ELLs) this is an additional burden because they are taking post-secondary education courses in a language that is not their first language. There is a positive correlation between the use of self-regulated learning (SRL) and academic performance. The ability of students to self-regulate accounts for a …
A Ninth Grade English Language Arts Supplemental Curriculum That Integrates Language And Content Instruction For English Language Learners Using A Co-Taught Model, Hanna Brown
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
The research question addressed in this capstone project is: How can ninth grade English Language Arts curriculum be designed to integrate language and content instruction to support academic English proficiency for English Learners using a co-teaching model? The paper provides an in-depth literature review on both academic language development and co-teaching. Topics of this paper are: long-term English language learners (LTELs) in the mainstream, academic and language standards, content instructional models for secondary English language learners which includes co-teaching practices and building academic language. Following this paper, a supplemental curriculum for ninth grade English language arts was created in order …
Planting The Foundational Roots In Co-Teaching Between Secondary Ell Teachers And Mainstream Content Teachers, Amanda Cummings
Planting The Foundational Roots In Co-Teaching Between Secondary Ell Teachers And Mainstream Content Teachers, Amanda Cummings
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
The research question in this capstone project that was explored was, “in what ways can building early collaboration between secondary mainstream teachers and ELL teachers positively impact student learning?” This research question explores collaborative co-teaching and its process based on past personal experiences and research to assist and boost ELL students’ achievement through collaboration. Based on research, secondary teachers are often on their own islands and do not have much of an opportunity to collaborate. Secondary teachers are also often voluntold to co-teach instead of volunteer. Even if a co-teaching pair is open to the idea, many have no idea …
The Disappearing Of The Hmong Language, Choua Yang
The Disappearing Of The Hmong Language, Choua Yang
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
Within my personal and professional experience, I have observed that the Hmong oral language has declined since the Hmong people arrived in the United States. Over the past 50 years in the United States, there have been growing concerns regarding the decline in usage of the Hmong language within Hmong children. In my personal experience, my children who are second generation Hmong, only the five older children are bilingual while my three younger children only speak English. As for my seven grandchildren, who are third generation Hmong, they only speak English. They do not understand nor speak the Hmong language. …
On-Ramps For Refugees: A Workplace Safety Iet Curriculum For Low-Proficiency English Learners, Annamarie Hansen
On-Ramps For Refugees: A Workplace Safety Iet Curriculum For Low-Proficiency English Learners, Annamarie Hansen
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
This capstone project aims to address the question: “How can current career pathway programs be expanded to create more “on-ramps” for Refugee ELL students at lower English proficiency levels? What role can community-based organizations take in creating “on-ramps”? This paper was inspired by the teacher’s professional experiences working with refugees with lower-level English proficiency seeking to re-enter their chosen career fields. The paper provides an overview of the literature with a specific focus on Vocational English as a Second Language (VESL), the Career Pathway model, Integrated Education and Training (IET) programs, and the need for “on-ramps” to create additional points …
A Plurilingual Approach For Secondary Efl Students In Panama, Charlie Kersey
A Plurilingual Approach For Secondary Efl Students In Panama, Charlie Kersey
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
This capstone project was guided by the following research question: How can we develop a pedagogy for emerging bilingual EFL students that leverages their full linguistic potential? The research question was identified in response to the shortcomings of an English immersion program that was not promoting the full linguistic potential of its bilingual students. This paper pursues solutions to this problem through a multidisciplinary literature review designed to explore the benefits of bilingualism, how to increase language awareness among students, as well as the explicit use of students’ L1 to learn a L2. Topics explored in the literature review include …
Implementing Equitable And Effective Practices For Dual-Identified Learners, Annelise Walsh
Implementing Equitable And Effective Practices For Dual-Identified Learners, Annelise Walsh
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
Walsh, A. (2023). Implementing Equitable and Effective Practices for Dual-Identified Learners English learners in special education make up approximately 1% of students in the United States. As the overall population of English learners rapidly increases, so does this population of dual-identified learners. Educators often do not receive adequate preparation to support dual-identified learners, and misconceptions that these students do not require services in both areas still persist in American public schools. Additionally, disproportionality of English learners in special education remains an ongoing issue. As a result, dual-identified learners are a misunderstood and underserved population. This capstone seeks to answer the …
How Can Guest English-Speaking Teachers Best Promote Students’ Identity And Culture In South Korean Schools, Tracy Olsen
How Can Guest English-Speaking Teachers Best Promote Students’ Identity And Culture In South Korean Schools, Tracy Olsen
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
English language education in South Korea has complex layers. Ideas of Westernization, globalization, neoliberalism, native-speakerism, language ownership, culture, and identity all play a role in how Koreans view themselves as English language learners. Guest English-speaking Teachers (GETs) should promote student culture and identity to empower students as English speakers in a globalized world and work against ideas of native-speakerism and Westernization. The project created is a website for new and current GETs teaching English in South Korea. Based on research on culture and identity in English language learning in Korea and critically and culturally sustaining pedagogy, this website is meant …
Supporting Multicultural Mental Health With Culturally And Linguistically Relevant Practices, Codi Shogren
Supporting Multicultural Mental Health With Culturally And Linguistically Relevant Practices, Codi Shogren
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
Teaching through the COVID-19 pandemic as an English teacher to elementary school learners highlighted many mental health needs for learners that were amplified even more once everyone was back in school full time. My fellow educators and I have been surviving and reacting to mental health needs and behaviors as they pop up during the school year but that is neither a long term solution nor does it provide the needed support to learners. These experiences in the classroom led to the question: How can elementary educators support multicultural learners with their mental health? After researching culturally and linguistically responsive …
Best Practices: To Supporting And Including Slife, Preliterate, Pashtu Students In Secondary, Western, Schools, Claire Madden
Best Practices: To Supporting And Including Slife, Preliterate, Pashtu Students In Secondary, Western, Schools, Claire Madden
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
The research question addressed in this capstone project was: what are the best practices for supporting and including SLIFE (Students with Limited or Interrupted Formal Education), preliterate, Pashtun students in secondary, Western, schools? Topics explored in this literacy review were the challenges of SLIFE students, literacy development, multiculturalism and Pashtu culture. This paper and three part professional development series discusses methods for all secondary teachers to include and support SLIFE, preliterate, Pashtu students in Western schools. This professional development utilizes the research of Aguilar (2013). Aguilar’s (2013) work in adult education assisted in the creation of this professional development series. …
Supporting Dual-Identified Learners’ English Expressive Language Development, Sara Hommes
Supporting Dual-Identified Learners’ English Expressive Language Development, Sara Hommes
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
This project seeks to answer the questions: How can educators support ELL and dual-identified learners’ English language development in the modalities of writing and speaking? What is the intersectionality between language acquisition and SLD issues? This project was born out of the author’s own experience in supporting dual-identified learners as well as from a desire to better support expressive language production in her class, with the goal of helping students exit the EL program. The author consulted research that offered information on the diverse identities and various labels of ELL learners, the issues in identifying SLD in ELLs, various perspectives …
Supporting English Language Learners In A Co-Taught Classroom Through The Curriculum, Emilia Witthuhn
Supporting English Language Learners In A Co-Taught Classroom Through The Curriculum, Emilia Witthuhn
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
Co-teaching is a common strategy used to support English Language Learners in the content classroom. However, English Language Learners can still struggle in these classrooms. Research has shown that co-teaching can be a benefit for students, but this takes collaboration between the content teacher and the English Language teacher to make the class accessible. This project was designed to take an existing English Language Arts curriculum and modify and adapt the curriculum to better meet the needs of English Language Learners. The WIDA 2020 standards and Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe’s Understanding by Design were used as resources in developing …
Incorporating Opportunities For Diverse Literature Into The Early Elementary Classroom, Mary Cline
Incorporating Opportunities For Diverse Literature Into The Early Elementary Classroom, Mary Cline
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
The research shows that student engagement is positively impacted by literature that contains mirrors to their own lives and experiences. This is a set of lessons that are created to be incorporated into the school’s literacy curriculum for 1st and 2nd grade. Through reading and discussing various books, these lessons strive to add places for multicultural students to see their lives mirrored back to them as well as to give all students a chance to see another way of life by looking through a window into someone else’s world. The lesson plans focus on creating space for students to engage …
Curriculum Design That Supports Multilingual Learners' Literacy Development: Pairing The Science Of Reading And Oral Language Development Utilizing Read-Alouds, Eleanor Christman
Curriculum Design That Supports Multilingual Learners' Literacy Development: Pairing The Science Of Reading And Oral Language Development Utilizing Read-Alouds, Eleanor Christman
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
The curriculum designed for this project focuses on combining the science of reading with oral language development through read-alouds, with a focus on understanding text structure. The purpose of this study is to determine best practices for teaching multilingual learners how to read and to give teachers concrete materials to use in the classroom. Research suggests that phonics-based instruction supports the reading development of multilingual learners more than whole language instruction. Researchers also recommend teachers focus on more than just decoding, especially for multilingual learners as it connects to comprehension. Additionally, research emphasizes the importance of developing oral language in …
Metaphor Matters: Teaching Metaphoric Competence, Linda Pope
Metaphor Matters: Teaching Metaphoric Competence, Linda Pope
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
Research shows that metaphoric competence is necessary for communicative competence and this paper suggests Cognitive Metaphor Theory (CMT) may be useful in teaching metaphoric competence at all levels of English. Even though causality is difficult to establish, research underscores the link between metaphoric competence and overall language proficiency. This, and the pervasiveness of metaphor in everyday and specialized English, strongly suggests a pedagogical shift towards recognizing and engaging deeply with metaphoric language. This means making room for metaphoric competence training in the ESL and legal English classroom. The project models the analyses of two diverse texts: an intermediate-level newspaper article …
Avid For Ells In Content Classes, Whitney Selimovi Ć
Avid For Ells In Content Classes, Whitney Selimovi Ć
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
Students classified as English Language Learners (ELLs) continue to lag behind the academic performance and graduation rates of their peers (Bravo & Cervetti, 2014; Minnesota Department of Education, 2022). Although English Language Development (ELD) teachers are highly trained in language acquisition, they are not with their students all day, and much of the responsibility of English Language instruction falls on the classroom teachers, who report both less training in the knowledge required and less comfort in supporting this ELL population (Carabantes & Paran, 2022; de Jong & Barko-Alva, 2015; Harklau & Ford, 2022; Murphy & Torff, 2019). This knowledge gap …
How Adult Efl Teachers Can Effectively Utilize Duolingo In Their Curriculum, Rebecca Nelson
How Adult Efl Teachers Can Effectively Utilize Duolingo In Their Curriculum, Rebecca Nelson
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
The proliferation of cell phones and application technology has changed the way individuals access learning. It’s also opened up a space for profit-driven companies to be included in educational options. This project focuses on Mobile-Assisted Language Learning applications, in particular Duolingo, and how they can best be used by Language teachers, especially English teachers of adults in non-immersive environments, to use Duolingo as a supplement to their teaching. The literature shows that these applications can be helpful, but need traditional support to be most effective. The question the literature brings to mind is how teachers can best use these apps. …
A Framework For Incorporating Best Practices To Provide Foundational Literacy Skills To English Learners For Sustained Academic Success, Gabriel Arechigo
A Framework For Incorporating Best Practices To Provide Foundational Literacy Skills To English Learners For Sustained Academic Success, Gabriel Arechigo
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
English Learners (ELs) have experienced a lack of sustained academic success for generations, especially compared to their non-EL peers. The cause of this experience is multifaceted and the importance of making its history visible cannot be stressed enough. This capstone aims to empower individuals with the knowledge of this topic and create empathy for the EL community so that awareness becomes actionable and change is demanded for the way foundational literacy skills are taught in public schools. Knowledge for this topic includes a historical context of language policies, theories of learning, literacy instruction, and misconceptions stemming from these facets that …
Planning For Expressive Language In Math For Multilingual Learners, Stephanie Deehr
Planning For Expressive Language In Math For Multilingual Learners, Stephanie Deehr
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
Many multilingual students are struggling to keep up in their math classes. They are not given enough opportunities to use the language of math to explain and justify their thinking. The research question addressed in this project was, How can planning for expressive language in math affect the academic achievement and language development of third grade multilingual students? The author describes her personal and professional experiences that guided her to the question. Then, the author reviews professional literature on the topics of learning language through content, math as a second language, and scaffolds and strategies for using expressive language in …