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Joy In Choice: Cultivating A Choice-Centric Literacy Classroom In Upper Elementary, Alexandra Pickell
Joy In Choice: Cultivating A Choice-Centric Literacy Classroom In Upper Elementary, Alexandra Pickell
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
The research question addressed in this project is: How do teachers initiate and nurture joyful, personally meaningful opportunities for reading in the classroom? This project is an introductory website detailing how and why teachers can shift their reading block to make it a time in the day when students are making choices for themselves. In so doing, student motivation and joy for reading is at the forefront of the classroom (Gambrell, 2015). The intended audience is any upper elementary teacher looking to decenter the teacher’s voice during independent reading, but is of particular importance for teachers who already have an …
Students With Interrupted Formal Education: A Toolbox For Instruction, Mary Palmer
Students With Interrupted Formal Education: A Toolbox For Instruction, Mary Palmer
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
The research question addressed in this capstone project is: What are best practices for schools to support students with interrupted schooling? This paper and three-session professional development series showcase ways that content teachers can help facilitate learning for a growing multilingual learner population, students with limited formal education (SIFE). Within the professional development series, there will be three strategies that are highlighted including: Culturally Relevant Teaching, using aspects and background knowledge from a student’s own lived experience to facilitate knowledge acquisition; Mutually Adaptive Learning Paradigm which bridges the skills that students with limited formal education come to classrooms with to …
Maximizing The Effectiveness Of Peer Interaction In The English-Language Classroom, Benjamin Kahn
Maximizing The Effectiveness Of Peer Interaction In The English-Language Classroom, Benjamin Kahn
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
The research question addressed in this capstone project is the following: How can teachers maximize the effectiveness of peer-to-peer interactions in an English Language classroom at the secondary or post-secondary level? The paper documents this practitioner’s exploration of the research literature on peer interaction to discover what makes for high quality peer interactions and how various teacher-controlled practices can affect interaction quality. This document also follows the creation of a professional development presentation intended for English-language teachers to help familiarize them with the field’s current understanding of peer interaction and possible best practices in their classrooms. The topics of focus …
Training English Language Teachers To Help Adult General English Students With Complex Noun Phrases For Business Writing, Christina Cipriani
Training English Language Teachers To Help Adult General English Students With Complex Noun Phrases For Business Writing, Christina Cipriani
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
An overwhelming number of English Learners (ELs) are motivated to learn English because it can act as a tool to help them achieve career success. However, textbooks, which form the backbone of many General English (GE) courses, do not provide enough information in a number of areas related to success at work. Notably, few textbooks offer models for the language needed in job searching, including complex noun phrases. Since textbooks are not providing this material, teachers have to fill that gap themselves. In order to help teachers fulfill this task, my capstone project investigates the following research question: “How can …
Trauma-Informed Mathematics: Using Portfolios To Promote Reflection And Resilience, Ethan Somes
Trauma-Informed Mathematics: Using Portfolios To Promote Reflection And Resilience, Ethan Somes
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
Mathematics has a reputation for being abstract, complex, and for many, incomprehensible. In schools, it is common for students to dislike math and to feel self-conscious about their abilities or performance. The typical structure of math assessments, namely tests that are time constricted and highly stressful, creates a cycle of poor performance, disengagement, and high anxiety. This suggests that a new way of assessing students is needed, one that shows the fuller picture of students' math capabilities. This leads to the research question: how can the use of portfolios in math class help students begin to heal from trauma or …
The Role Of The Native-Speaker Listener In English As A Lingua Franca Interactions, Leah Fruechte
The Role Of The Native-Speaker Listener In English As A Lingua Franca Interactions, Leah Fruechte
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
Research agrees that monolingualism, through a lack of linguistic and metalinguistic awareness and general linguistic reflexivity, is the source of a widely observed listening problem where monolingual native-speakers (NSs) of English fail to correctly perceive the meaning of spoken English that diverges from their own in phonological forms or contextual norms. On the other hand, research has also shown multilingual communities, such as those which use English as a Lingua Franca (ELF), to display the intuitive use of collaborative, pragmatic listening strategies that keep them from misunderstanding each other, despite their differences in forms and norms. As a result, this …
Effective Consequences, Jenelle Poer
Effective Consequences, Jenelle Poer
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
The aim of this project is to explore the question: What are the most vital elements of effective consequences? What allows consequences to change student behavior? How can you reduce or eliminate the negative side effects of consequences? My research on the topic, reading studies and scholarly reports, shows that there are multiple strategies, but a few common elements can be distilled from the various techniques. The most vital of these elements are: clarity, teamwork, warmness, and reflection. The resulting project consists of a 4-part professional development workshop for teachers. Each workshop session focuses on one vital element of effective …
Citizen Science As Experiential Education In The Modern Classroom, Peter Swan
Citizen Science As Experiential Education In The Modern Classroom, Peter Swan
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
Secondary education has grown increasingly dependent on delivering instruction and materials via mobile devices and computers in the 21st century. Research has long shown the effectiveness of “student-centered”, experiential and “place based” learning in the classroom. Citizen science initiatives have been demonstrated to be meaningful ways to teach the nature - and practice - of scientific inquiry. This paper explores the current trends in secondary science education in light of recent societal transformations and investigates the body of literature regarding environmental, outdoor and experiential education. The project then proposes a solution to integrate experiential, citizen science into a modern, digital …
The Best Way To Utilize Makerspace In A 6th Grade Science Classroom, Amanda Mahlstedt
The Best Way To Utilize Makerspace In A 6th Grade Science Classroom, Amanda Mahlstedt
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
The research question addressed in this capstone project is: “How can the MakerSpace model be implemented in a sixth grade science classroom successfully?” This paper follows a sixth grade science teacher's journey into learning more about MakerSpace and how to implement the MakerSpace model in a science classroom. This paper also follows how this learning influenced the creation of a MakerSpace guide intended for educators that are interested in implementing a MakerSpace in their classroom, specifically a sixth grade science classroom. The topics of focus are: what is MakerSpace, what makes it different from other science programs, research behind MakerSpace, …
Project Based Learning For Chronically Absent Students, Amy Lynch
Project Based Learning For Chronically Absent Students, Amy Lynch
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
Research has shown that students who are chronically absent from school in the elementary years are far more likely to underperform academically, struggle socially and drop out of high school. Project based learning (PBL) is a process in which students and teachers engage in creation, discussion, and reflection. Teachers guide while students inquire independently and with peers. Learning is acquired through questioning, choice and action (Helle et al., 2006). Project based learning provides the opportunity for teachers to integrate social studies, science, reading, writing, math, and social and emotional skills over several weeks, ultimately creating a project that represents the …
A Podcast And Website For Informal Educators And How It Can Disseminate Best Teaching Practices, Graham Charles
A Podcast And Website For Informal Educators And How It Can Disseminate Best Teaching Practices, Graham Charles
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
Informal educators face barriers in delivering high-quality educational experiences. As they are not formally connected with teacher training programs, they frequently receive more content-area knowledge than pedagogical instruction. Thus, informal educators are challenged to discover and master best practices in their field on their own. Economic and learning theorists indicate that professionals share best practices through various socially mediated structures, such as peer learning, culminating in a spontaneous intragroup support structure which Wegner termed a community of practice. Many informal educators, however, cannot participate in such communities because they are physically located in different sites from colleagues performing similar work. …
Unlocking Math Minds: Using Inquiry-Based Instruction To Increase Student Engagement And Learning In A Third Grade Classroom, Eric Swendseid
Unlocking Math Minds: Using Inquiry-Based Instruction To Increase Student Engagement And Learning In A Third Grade Classroom, Eric Swendseid
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
This paper and supporting website include research and strategies to answer the research question, How can the implementation of inquiry-based math instruction increase student engagement and learning success in a third grade classroom? Inquiry-based learning is a process where the students are involved in their learning. The classroom is student-centered, not teacher-centered. Using the student-centered or inquiry-based approach, students do not learn through transmission. Instead, they collect information and synthesize the information they find through critical thinking skills. The learning process is considered to be higher-order learning. The research presented in this paper focuses on guided inquiry within a mathematics …
A Curriculum Resource For Teachers Of Low-Level Adult English Learners: Incorporating Digital Literacy Skills, Jennifer Sorlie
A Curriculum Resource For Teachers Of Low-Level Adult English Learners: Incorporating Digital Literacy Skills, Jennifer Sorlie
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
The use of technology in the workforce and in academia is ever increasing. Given the events of the past two years, more and more individuals are turning to technology as a means to help them function in today’s world. There are many individuals who arrive from other countries to the United States for various reasons. One possible reason is learning English. However, what happens when you arrive to a country that uses technology daily in a prolonged manner and you have never had this experience? This is the case for many learners who enroll in adult education programs across the …
A High School Economics Course Curriculum That Effectively Integrates Language And Content Instruction For English Learners, Jennifer Weddell
A High School Economics Course Curriculum That Effectively Integrates Language And Content Instruction For English Learners, Jennifer Weddell
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
While secondary English learners face barriers to learning across all content areas, social studies courses are especially linguistically complex, and have a high level of expected prior knowledge. In the author's experience as a high school EL teacher, economics is often a particularly challenging course for EL students. This prompted the research question: How can a high school economics curriculum be designed to help English learners gain a deep understanding of the course topics while improving their academic English proficiency? A review of the literature found that features of a sheltered instruction model will validate, engage, and benefit a diverse …
How Music Can Be Integrated Into Life Science Teaching In A Way That Enhances Scientific And Musical Learning In Middle School, Erin Hustad
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
Research has shown that students who learn interdisciplinary content lessons in school have a better understanding of the interconnectedness of the world they are entering. This paper, and the resultant project, focus on the interconnectedness of science and the arts, eventually ecology and music, in order to teach students both scientific and musical concepts. The project was created using backwards design, in order to ensure students have long term learning outcomes that center both science and music. Students first experience the scientific process and reflect on the similarities between scientific inquiry and artistic processes. Students then explore ecosystems and music …
Subverting The Academic Language Hegemony: Implementing Language Architecture And Similar Pedagogies, Viviana Chavez Garcia
Subverting The Academic Language Hegemony: Implementing Language Architecture And Similar Pedagogies, Viviana Chavez Garcia
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
The field of English language teaching is continually evolving in order for teachers to best serve the students. The field’s connected history with colonization and racism must be acknowledged in order to confront the reasons why academic English is valued higher than all other forms of English and other languages. Under the current framework, teachers are asking multilingual students to change their language in order to reverse their own oppression. According to language architecture, the languages that students bring to class are already sufficiently cognitively sophisticated to achieve content standards and participate in academic activities. This is where the foundation …
A Sense Of Place In Environmental Education: A Forest Ecology Curriculum, Samantha Selter
A Sense Of Place In Environmental Education: A Forest Ecology Curriculum, Samantha Selter
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
This project discusses the definition of a sense of place as it pertains to environmental education to present the influence of people-to-place relationships in developing environmental stewardship and pro-environmental behavior. Researchers across the fields of geography, environmentalism, and psychology have long identified places as being important to how people see the world and how they act in different places. Fostering place attachment and place meaning within environmental curricula can advance environmental understanding and responsibility through the use of local ecology and problem solving of environmental issues. The curriculum unit within this project focuses on invasive species and uses this environmental …
Growing Environmentally Literate Youth, Kimberly Harding
Growing Environmentally Literate Youth, Kimberly Harding
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
Research has demonstrated that the importance of producing environmentally literate youth is becoming a priority around the world Producing environmentally literate youth through E-STEM Garden-based learning practices will not only allow our students to become environmentally literate but also capable, aware, citizens with the 21st Century skills necessary to tackle today and tomorrow’s problems. The curriculum designed for this project focuses on using garden-based STEM practices to increase young students' environmental literacy. The project involved using the Next Generation Science standards, the learning goals of the proposed Michigan Environmental Literacy Plan, as well as the American Society for Engineering Education’s …
Technology And Student Centered Learning: Using Digital Tools To Instruct Student Centered Learning While Meeting The Needs Of All Students, Haley Geinnotta
Technology And Student Centered Learning: Using Digital Tools To Instruct Student Centered Learning While Meeting The Needs Of All Students, Haley Geinnotta
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
Every year, technology is further developing and the way that technology is being used in our classroom’s changes. As we have seen through the Coronavirus pandemic, technology has become a vital part of education. Technology can be used in many ways through many different digital applications and this capstone project leads to answer the question, How can secondary teachers best utilize technology to enhance student centered learning and meet the needs of all students? As technology continues to develop, research is being conducted to determine its effectiveness as an educational tool, the impacts of technology on student learning and engagement, …
Place-Based Education And Nature Journaling Curriculum Development, Emaline Kelley
Place-Based Education And Nature Journaling Curriculum Development, Emaline Kelley
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
nature. Educators must find ways to bring nature to the classroom. Nature journaling uses unique geographies of places as a basis for teaching natural science and other subjects. The nature journaling curriculum development project here, dedicated to natural science and environmental education asks, in what ways could nature study and place-based education be taught to students who live in the urban environment? Goals, learning benefits, and results of nature study and place-based education will be discussed in the literature review. Nature journaling as a tool of learning, along with its benefits, will be discoursed to better understand why the project …
Studying The Self: Students Examining Culture And Identity For Improved Engagement And Achievement, Zara Pylvainen
Studying The Self: Students Examining Culture And Identity For Improved Engagement And Achievement, Zara Pylvainen
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
Research has demonstrated that incorporating culturally relevant and culturally sustaining pedagogy (CSP) into teaching can lead to greater academic success. The curriculum designed for this project focuses on using concepts of identity and culture as topics of study in a seventh-grade English language arts (ELA) class with the aim of improving student engagement and academic achievement. CSP argues that young people are in a fluid process of developing their identities, and our pedagogy should foster that development. CSP also maintains that classrooms need to provide space for communities of color to maintain, nurture, and sustain cultural practices. This curriculum design …
Creating An Elementary Reading Curriculum That Leads All Students To More Equitable Success, Ian Lyon
Creating An Elementary Reading Curriculum That Leads All Students To More Equitable Success, Ian Lyon
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
Each year history repeats itself in the United States with high numbers of elementary students not being able to read proficiently, and an even higher number affecting BIPOC students. To address the opportunity gaps, teachers need an easy-to-follow road map of interventions led by the science of reading, culturally sustaining pedagogies, and student motivational strategies. This professional development capstone project will allow teachers to learn these three topics, one in each half day in the beginning of the school year. The first day will focus on the Science of Reading (SoR) with structured literacy influences from the Simple View of …
The Science Of Reading For English Learners, Allison Hanson
The Science Of Reading For English Learners, Allison Hanson
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
In recent years, a movement of researchers, educators, and parents promoting the science of reading has been reigniting the so-called “reading wars.” This movement has pointed out the ways in which typical balanced literacy practices do not reflect research on how students learn to read, especially in the acquisition of word recognition skills. However, the current debate is sometimes ignoring the unique needs of a rapidly growing segment of the U.S. student population: English Learners (ELs) and other multilingual students. This capstone project addresses the question: How does the science of reading inform reading instruction for ELs within a balanced …
Renewable Energy Education At Residential Environmental Learning Centers, Kim Corson
Renewable Energy Education At Residential Environmental Learning Centers, Kim Corson
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
This capstone project sought to answer the question, what are effective methods for teaching middle school students about renewable energy at residential environmental learning centers? Research shows that participation in a residential learning experience helps students retain knowledge and learn in a more hands-on and real world context. However, research connecting a residential environmental learning experience and renewable energy education is limited. This project involved creating a curriculum that utilizes effective methods for teaching and learning about renewable energy with the goal to help grow students energy and environmental literacy. The lesson targets middle school students but can be adapted …
How Can A Non-Personal Interpretive Guide Increase Place Attachment For Visitors, Encourage The Appropriate Development Of Sustainable Community-Based Ecotourism, And Increase Knowledge Of The Desert And Coastal Ecosystems And Migratory Whales Of Baja Mexico?, Mahin Hamilton
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
Small ecotour companies run whale-watching tours in remote, protected lagoons of Baja California Sur every winter, as gray whales migrate there to mate and give birth to their young. Often, tourists must drive for hours each way to reach the lagoons for their tour. When tourists get to the small villages that are the base camp for whale watching, their only guides are the boat captains, who do not normally speak English (the main language of tourists in the area). A non-personal interpretive guide would bridge the gap of information, so that tourists learn about the ecology, history, and culture …
Developing An Outdoor Learning Area And Guidebook For The Elementary Grades, Jordyn Kern
Developing An Outdoor Learning Area And Guidebook For The Elementary Grades, Jordyn Kern
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
Research has shown that outdoor education has major benefits for school-age children (Yildirim & Akamca, 2017). These benefits include increased academic success, better social-emotional development, better physical development, and better mental and physical health (Suttie, 2018). The guidebook designed for this project focuses on how to increase those five things in children across the country. The goal of the guidebook is to increase outdoor education within classrooms throughout the United States and eventually, the world. The guidebook is geared towards elementary school teachers but can be adapted to fit any grade, time frame, and experience level of the teacher. The …
How Adverse Childhood Experiences Affect Children In School And What Protective Factors Can Teachers Provide For These Students, Michelle Moorer
How Adverse Childhood Experiences Affect Children In School And What Protective Factors Can Teachers Provide For These Students, Michelle Moorer
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
The research question addressed in this Capstone Project is: How do adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) affect children in school and what protective factors can teachers provide for these students? I will start by giving an overview of ACEs, ACEs impact on adulthood, trauma and toxic stress, trauma informed practices, and finally discuss protective factors for children with ACEs. Research shows that having exposure to childhood adversity is connected to negative health and life outcomes. Protective factors against ACEs can be a buffer against the negative effects of ACEs. These factors can be provided in different contexts, for example in relationships, …
Utilizing A Culturally Relevant Ecology Curriculum To Help Students See Intersections Between Their Scientific And Cultural Identities, Emma Singer
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
The purpose of this capstone was to create a two-week long ecology unit for high school biology students rooted in culturally relevant practices. The project sought to answer the question “How can utilizing a culturally relevant ecology curriculum help students see intersections between their scientific and cultural identities?” Data shows that people of color and women are underrepresented within the sciences. Disengagement and lack of interest in the sciences begins in middle and high school, suggesting students feel the material is irrelevant or disconnected from their lives. To address this gap, this project utilized a culturally relevant lens to create …
Applying Multiple Intelligences Theory In Esl/Efl Classrooms, Shirin Soltani
Applying Multiple Intelligences Theory In Esl/Efl Classrooms, Shirin Soltani
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
The purpose of this project was to create a unit on activities that were inspired by multiple intelligences theory to help English Learners (ELs) develop their language proficiency. The questions explored in this capstone project were: How can language learners develop their multiple intelligences to become proficient language learners through classroom activities? What are ways to create a curriculum that includes both the traditional foundations of language teaching and multiple intelligences theory? I learned English as a foreign language through rote learning. During my teaching experience, I realized that not all ELs learn English the same way and they have …
This Could Have Been An Email: Adapting English Language Arts Curriculum To Better Suit Modern Communication Needs, Emily Millin
This Could Have Been An Email: Adapting English Language Arts Curriculum To Better Suit Modern Communication Needs, Emily Millin
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
As technology and society evolve, so do the modes and practices of communication. The teacher resources and classroom activities presented within this capstone project focus on the combination of Minnesota’s English Language Arts (ELA) and College and Career Readiness (CCR) standards to develop future-ready classroom curricula and activities. Through the creation of an asynchronous professional resource for educators, this project works to highlight key tenets of modern communication, skills students will need in their futures, and showcase how these skills can look in the classroom. With research focusing on academic standards, employability skills, and classroom curriculum and instruction, the goal …