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School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

Theses/Dissertations

2022

Reading

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Full-Text Articles in Education

Joy In Choice: Cultivating A Choice-Centric Literacy Classroom In Upper Elementary, Alexandra Pickell Oct 2022

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 …


An Intervention To Support Comprehension During Independent Reading Time, Jacob Klis Jul 2022

An Intervention To Support Comprehension During Independent Reading Time, Jacob Klis

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

The question that guided this project was: How can using an intervention based on a comprehension strategy increase student reading interest? This question guided research on digital and print texts, student reading interest, and a brief history of balanced literacy. Many schools use a mix of digital and print resources and students need to be prepared to understand each. Using independent reading time at school has shown to give students greater success in literacy and other areas of school. It has shown that dedicated independent reading time is important at school. The goal of this project was to make independent …


The Science Of Reading For English Learners, Allison Hanson Jul 2022

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 …


Increasing Student Engagement In Kindergarten Read Alouds, Sydney Cassidy Jul 2022

Increasing Student Engagement In Kindergarten Read Alouds, Sydney Cassidy

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

Research has shown that when students are given the opportunity to showcase their learnings in various settings, there will be a greater chance of student engagement and motivation when completing various classroom activities. The curriculum designed for this project uses Howard Gardner’s (2006) Theory of Multiple Intelligences and Thomas Armstrong’s (2009) work with integrating these intelligences into a classroom environment to target the various ways that students learn in the classroom that is best suited to the way their brain processes and applies information. The project involved creating a curriculum that was suitable for kindergarten students to engage in various …


Strengthening Early Literacy Skills Through Data-Driven Decision Making, Kaari Bly Jul 2022

Strengthening Early Literacy Skills Through Data-Driven Decision Making, Kaari Bly

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

As part of this research, nine professional development sessions and a data workbook were designed to address the research question: how can a school establish a sustainable system for making data-based decisions to strengthen the literacy skills of kindergarten and first-grade students necessary for further educational success? Data-driven decision-making is an essential component of an MTSS framework and is based on the steps of a problem-solving model. Key tenets of a data-driven school include strong leadership, a comprehensive assessment system, easy access to data, time and resources to examine data, and clear connections between data and potential interventions. Often schools …


Creating An Elementary Reading Curriculum That Leads All Students To More Equitable Success, Ian Lyon Jul 2022

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 …


Phonological Awareness In The Elementary Classroom, Marisa Brown Jul 2022

Phonological Awareness In The Elementary Classroom, Marisa Brown

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

Research has demonstrated that teaching all elementary aged students phonological awareness skills in an explicit manner builds a strong literacy foundation. The blog designed for this project focuses on each explicit instructional skill set to best set our students up for success and is inspired by the work of Dr. Louisa Moats. The creation of the project involved looking at the background of how educators teach students to read including whole language and balanced literacy approaches. The goal of this project is to provide an online resource that can serve as a form of a professional learning community. The blog …


Developing Critical Consciousness In The English Language Arts Classroom, Benjamin Moberg Apr 2022

Developing Critical Consciousness In The English Language Arts Classroom, Benjamin Moberg

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

Critical consciousness, first conceived by Freire (2014), and later adopted into Ladson-Billings’ (1995) culturally relevant pedagogy, supports students in understanding systemic injustice and their capacity to create change. With a specific focus on the English Language Arts discipline, the curriculum designed for this capstone incorporates a number of reading, writing, and discussion strategies to answer the research question: What are the most effective strategies for developing critical consciousness in students in the English Language Arts classroom? In this eight week curriculum, students learn to read with and against a classical text, discuss and debate the ideologies underpinning the text, and …


Effective Reading Strategies For Multilingual Learners In The Mainstream Classroom, Megan Hebert Apr 2022

Effective Reading Strategies For Multilingual Learners In The Mainstream Classroom, Megan Hebert

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

This capstone project was designed to provide educational support for the literacy development of multilingual learners in the mainstream classroom. The guiding questions this project seeks to answer are: How can multilingual learners develop strong literacy skills within their mainstream classrooms? What strategies, resources, and instructional models best support them in this learning? These questions led to relevant literature that provided research in the areas of instructional model design, engagement strategies, home language scaffolds, and cultural considerations. Through these four key areas, educators will be able to grow in their ability to meet the needs of their multilingual learners and …


Utilizing Bipoc Class Novels In The Middle School Classroom To Promote Empathy, Bailey Fowler Apr 2022

Utilizing Bipoc Class Novels In The Middle School Classroom To Promote Empathy, Bailey Fowler

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

The research focus for my capstone is: Utilizing BIPOC Class Novels in the Middle School Classroom to Promote Empathy. I have designed a website titled “Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) Literature” to be accessed and utilized by parents and teachers of middle school students. For adults who seek high quality literature by / about People of Color that also incorporate empathy-building Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) skills, this website is an excellent resource. As the adolescent brain develops, so does the capability for empathy. Perspective-taking occurs after learned experiences. The perspective-taking element of empathy can be explicitly taught to adolescents in …