Education Commons^™

Memorization And Mastery: Teaching Disciplinary Vocabulary In The Secondary Classroom, Matthew Granoff

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Theses and Dissertations

This capstone posed the question, how can disciplinary vocabulary best be taught in a secondary classroom? As little direct research had previously been conducted on that topic, this curriculum design project drew from work in a variety of connected fields, such as the science of memory, second language acquisition and effective assessment practices and study habits, to create an original structure for instruction. Designed to complement rather than replace existing units, this capstone offers not a set of specific lessons but a set of detailed guidelines (grounded in theories such as depth of processing and the "testing effect") which can …

Best Practices To Help English Language Learners Succeed In Community College, Santina Caster

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

After researching various types of support to help English Language Learners (ELLs) succeed in community colleges, the support methods were categorized into four groups: family, peers, faculty and institutions. To share these practices with ELL students and professionals, a website was developed. The intent of the website is to create a community to encourage students to seek out resources and for professionals to implement more support methods, with the ultimate goal of increasing the retention rate of ELL community college students. The website includes a tab with a form asking for feedback on whether the website was helpful and inviting …

How Can Mentor Texts Be Used To Teach Students In A Second Grade Classroom?, Caroline Thorvig

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

Mentor texts is a popular term in the education world right now. This capstone defines mentor texts, how experts suggest selecting them, and how using mentor texts fits into best practices in literacy education. The use of mentor texts in reading, writing, and content areas is discussed. This capstone project gives examples of four mini-lessons taught with different mentor texts at a second grade level. Other possible mini-lessons are suggested to show the reader how one text can be used to teach many concepts.

Implementing The Math Workshop Model: Techniques And Benefits, Nicole Middendorf

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

The research question investigated in this Capstone Project was: what are the necessary components of professional development to support second grade teachers in implementing math workshop? Many instructional techniques that have been incorporated into math classrooms in the past have led to lower levels of understanding and decreased abilities for students to reach higher levels of thinking. When using The Math Workshop model, it provides a framework that allows educators to meet the individual needs of every student through multiple methods and activities. The information provided in the literature review outlines the goals and components of implementation steps for a …

Secondary Teachers Should Expose Rural Readers To Books That Are Culturally Different Than The Student's Personal Choice, Sarah Roiger

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

This capstone addresses the research question, “How can secondary teachers expose rural readers to books that are culturally different than the student’s personal choice?” It documents one teacher’s creation of a book club that allows students a chance to read various novels that portray cultures that differ from the rural culture. It integrates differentiation of choice novels, reflections, and character comparisons. The author documents research from the literature review based on rural influence and motivation, classroom culture, and censorship by schools, parents, and librarians. This project includes the lists of books to use, the step-by-step layout, and the character comparison …

Writing To Learn Across Content Areas, Melissa Bertsch

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

Writing has predominantly been the relegated to literacy blocks at the elementary level and English language arts classes at the secondary level. Research shows that students need to write more, not only to improve their writing skills, but to improve their learning in all disciplines. This capstone traces the development of the write to learn movement, examines the connection between writing and the psychological processes of cognition and metacognition, as well as highlighting the sociocultural aspects of writing. This research shows that writing improves learning. The research then proceeds to highlight research­based best practices in relation to write to learn …

Decoding A New Age Of Informal Learning: Describing Public Pedagogy For The Web, Alison Holland

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Theses and Dissertations

The everyday, informal, out-of-school learning adults participate in has drastically changed in the past two decades as information and interaction online has grown and evolved (Blaschke, 2012; Skyrme, 2001). Instead of attending in-person workshops and noncredit courses, sending away for fact sheets and the like, much informal learning today occurs online, often beginning with a search engine or social network. However, long-standing, nonprofit, and governmental institutions have largely failed to understand and capitalize on the new information and education ecosystem, while nimble start-ups (e.g., Wikipedia) have thrived (Fuad-Luke, 2009; Skyrme, 2001). This dissertation aims to provide a model for a …

Examining Group Dynamics Of High School Adminstrative [Sic] Teams: How Individual And Group Leadership Traits Foster Integration Of Ideas And Actions In Learning Organizations, Steven Brady

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines the complexity of leadership teamwork and focuses on high school administration teams. These teams are complex and support multiple stakeholders throughout their educational institutions. The primary purpose of this study is to understand how high school administration teams construct strong group dynamics that foster integration of ideas and actions across a learning organization. The secondary focus is understanding leadership traits that teams and individual leaders of high school administration teams possess and how teams utilize communication to support effective leadership teams. The study analyzed high school administration teams, of three or more members, looking at the team …

The Norms And Procedures Needed For Successful One-To-One Device Implementation In An Upper Elementary, Katie Coulson

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

This capstone project focuses on answering the question, what are the impacts on digital citizenship when creating the norms and procedures for integrating one-to-one iPads into an upper elementary classroom? It documents one educator’s experience and research that led them to gathering and adapting six mini lessons that teach digital footprints, healthy media choices, digital citizenship, credible sources, private vs personal information, and setting up expectations for home and school. This project resulted in four major findings. First, collaborating within your school and district is essential for providing the support needed for 1:1 implementation. Second, having a strong classroom and …

Movement And Mindfulness In The Kindergarten Classroom, Kylie Rosenthal

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

The research question addressed in this project was: How will intentional movement and mindfulness opportunities in a kindergarten classroom impact the classroom environment, student behavior, and student achievement? The stress, emotional and behavioral management, self-regulation skills, and mental health of the students in her classroom led the author to research topics of the brain and movement, classroom environment and student wellbeing, the effects movement has on student achievement, examples of schools implementing movement and mindfulness, and yoga and mindfulness programs and curriculums. The research showed that movement and mindfulness provide many benefits to students’ emotional wellbeing, behavior, regulation, and academic …

Snow Science: Curricular Units For High School Outdoor Winter Inquiry, Elizabeth Wagner

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

Winter is typically viewed as a “dead” season in the midwestern United States, where temperatures are often below freezing and snow blankets the ground for much of the year. Teachers cite weather as a barrier to meeting proposed curriculum standards and point to cold climate as a barrier to outdoor learning. Outdoor education provides many social and emotional benefits to students. When we consider these benefits, we must ask ourselves why we allow the learning opportunities of winter to be wasted. One reason that few high school classrooms venture outside in the snow is due to the lack of lesson …

Strategies To Build The Academic Language Of English Language Students, Jill Wilsey

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

The demographics of classrooms all around the United States are steadily changing. Thus, educational practices must shift to meet the increasingly diverse needs of students entering the classroom. English Learners (ELs) require additional language support in mainstream classrooms to meet the rigorous Common Core standards, but many teachers feel ill-equipped to meet these needs. A review of the current literature concludes that strategies such as total physical response, accountable talk, think, pair and share, revoicing, sentence frames, reciprocal teaching, and thinking maps will increase ELs ability to use academic language effectively. This capstone provides lesson plans using the Making Meaning …

Effective Environmental Education Practices For Designing Urban Watershed Curriculum For An Elementary Classroom, Stephanie Davidson-Hatzenbihler

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

As human consumption of water increases the strain on the world’s water resources, the need for watershed education becomes more important to ensure water stewardship for future generations. Past studies have researched utilizing environmental education best practices, specifically water education best practices, to measure for program effectiveness and increases in knowledge and skill building of school-age children. Through the development of a place-based watershed curriculum for the elementary classrooms of Rochester, Minnesota, this capstone project puts into practice the findings from these studies to help answer the research question, what are the most effective environmental education practices for designing urban …

Curriculum For Addressing Potential Linguistic Misconceptions Of Early Elementary Somali- Speaking Learners Of English, Rachel Durkee

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

In this project, I examine common linguistic differences between Somali and English in an effort to answer my research question “How can I create a curriculum that explicitly addresses potential linguistic misconceptions of K-2 Somali learners of English?” This project consists of a document entitled “Somali/English Comparative Tool for ELD Teachers,” that points out common linguistic differences between Somali and English, and a corresponding curriculum that is created to be responsive to areas where students could potentially have challenges acquiring the grammatical form in English. Aspects of the Second Language Acquisition (SLA) theories of comparative and error analysis are used …

What Do Mainstream Teachers Need To Know About Bilingualism In The Classroom To Support Esl Students?, Sandra Westmoreland

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

The central question that is being answered for this project is: What do mainstream teachers need to know about bilingualism in the classroom to support ESL students? This capstone project provides information about language and literacy development, effectiveness of code-switching, discussed the importance of bilingualism in education and in the classroom. The capstone presents information about bilingualism and how bilingualism can help ESL students in the classroom, how code-switching can be a useful tool if used the correct way in the classroom. The information and resources that are provided in the capstone were condensed and put into a website. The …

How Environmental Education Based Camps Can Create An Inclusive Opportunity To Ensure Children With Autism Have A Positive And Meaningful Experience, Emma Leslie

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

In a world that is becoming increasingly disconnected, environmental education has the ability to reach diverse audiences and create an environmentally literate community capable of making decisions that support sustainable practices. Diversity implies inclusion of all individuals, including those with autism. Autism is one of the most prevalent developmental learning disabilities in the United States and those with the neurobiological disorder experience challenges in areas such as social reasoning, language, cognition, sensory sensitivities and emotional regulation. Environmental education often occurs in informal learning environments, including day camp programs. While day camps provide the ideal setting for addressing deficits in peer …

Strategies For Educators: Teaching Recently Arrived English Learners Who Have Experienced Trauma, Lisa Carlson

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

Immigrants and children of immigrants have been a part of this country’s history for centuries. The number of immigrants entering the United States is increasing, and many of these immigrants have or will experience trauma. Traumatic events can have detrimental effects on the brains and behaviors of children, making school particularly difficult for these students. Educators may not know how to help these students recover and heal. This capstone examines strategies that teachers can use to meet the social emotional needs of recently arrived elementary-aged Latino and Somali English learners (RAELs) who have experienced trauma. It provides information regarding who …

Movement Activities For Classroom Teachers, David Fischlowitz

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

This Capstone Project examines the connections between students’ use of various digital media, accompanying sedentary behavior, and the associated detrimental effects. Research has shown that excessive screen time and sedentary behavior can have a range of negative impacts on student development and progress. In a qualitative research method, the literature review shows physical activity as a mitigating factor to the negative effects of excessive screen time. This project grew from the research question: how can teachers use part of their instructional time in movement activities in order to improve student performance? Based on research that is beginning to suggest learning-skill …

Building Comprehension In Fifth Grade Students Using Guided Reading, Erica Schiebel

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

Guided reading is a strategy used in reading instruction. This project aims to answer the question, what is the impact of comprehension strategies when they are incorporated into a guided reading lesson plan in fifth grade? The author describes their personal and professional experience that led them to this question. The research literature on guided reading, comprehension, metacognition and assessment explain the importance of each and how they can be implemented in a classroom. Then the curriculum project is explained. The curriculum includes guided reading lesson plans and assessments by using the Understanding by Design framework. This curriculum is intended …

Getting More Young Children Outdoors By Supporting And Encouraging Their Teachers, April Greibrok

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Theses and Dissertations

This capstone thesis used an Explanatory Sequential Mixed Methods (ESMM) research design to answer the question, How do we support and encourage teachers to take their early childhood classes outdoors? While anecdotally, and through literature review, there appear to be barriers to outdoor activities, e.g., policies and regulations, or lack of safe clothing or equipment, there also is an abundance of research on the benefits of having children spend time in nature, or with natural elements. In the early childhood setting the mixed method survey research identified actual-stated common barriers to spending time outside with a class. An initial quantitative …

Recycling Influences: Exposure To Childhood Environmental Education, Janet Hollinger

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Theses and Dissertations

The research question addressed was what do people who participate or do not participate in a neighborhood recycling program report regarding their exposure to childhood environmental education? It focuses on 2 communities in the southwestern United States. The author documents details of a qualitative survey as well as presents data from 2 seven-week-long observations. While the survey was minimal, the observation results show that only a small change can markedly affect the participation in recycling programs.

What Middle School Teachers Can Learn From Athletic Coaches, Christopher Lutz

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Theses and Dissertations

The research question addressed in this study was: How can implementing athletic coaching techniques improve academic and social success for students in a middle school setting? Topics explored in the literature review include student safety, student relationships with adults, student relationships with peers, setting high expectations for students, motivation of athletes, and working as a team. A mixed methods approach was used to detail how the author implemented goal setting and groupwork strategies in his middle school math classes over 9 weeks of a school year. Results of both strategies are discussed and recommendations for interested educators are suggested.

A Hmong American Esl Teacher’S Struggles With Quietness And Its Effect On Oral Acquisition Of English: An Autoethnography, Nou Ly

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Theses and Dissertations

The research question addressed in this project was: What factors, whether internally or externally, contributed to my quiet behavior as an English learner (EL) and did these factors affect my own English language acquisition, and if so, to what extent? The purpose of this autoethnography was to reflect on my personal experience as an English learner (EL) in order to explore and make an attempt to identify some of the factors that may have caused me to be a quiet learner. Understanding what these factors are can help me and other educators understand why the majority of our Hmong English …

A Study On The Use Of Rubrics To Guide Writing And Self-Assessment In The L2 Elementary Classroom, Matthew Hoerr

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Theses and Dissertations

The use of rubrics in the classroom to guide writing or as a means of self-assessment are not new concepts but ones that have received little study at the primary level. This study took the

form of a classroom-based action research project, over a seven-week period, in a fourth- grade elementary school classroom, at an international school in Ecuador. Data was collected

through responses to narrative writing prompts scored by the teacher and self-assessed by the students using the 6-Traits Writing Rubric. The students received direct instruction on writing traits as well as training on how to use the rubric. …

A Culturally Relevant Opening Weeks Curriculum: Seeking To Engage All Students To Succeed In The Middle School Science Classroom, Altringer Nicholas

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Theses and Dissertations

The research question addressed in this project was How can a culturally relevant opening weeks unit help all students to succeed in the middle school science classroom? Topics explored in the literature review include challenges, themes, engagement of all students, gaps between students of color and their white peers, students of color and disproportionality trends in discipline, youth positions as hip-hop or survival mode, social construction of black inferiority, curriculum as windows and mirror, culturally responsive classroom management, using citizen science and student-driven investigation, restorative practices and restorative circles in the science classroom, shared responsibility for the classroom community, and …

Professional Development For Educators In Order To Support English Learner Students From Oral Cultures, Xue Xiong

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

This capstone project addresses the question, How can I create professional development for educators in order to support English Learner (EL) students from oral cultures? This project uses a series of frameworks and theories to provide the best comprehensive two-part professional development for educators supporting EL students from oral cultures. It is tailored to educators by recognizing their unique needs as adult learners who receive ongoing training in their field. By catering to adult learners and drawing from both EL best practices and culturally responsive teaching, this professional development offers educators insight and tools to implement when working with EL …

Adult Education, Community Building, Environmental Studies, Special Education, Staff Development, Teachers/ Teaching, Jennifer Whelan

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

Language and culture are dynamically connected. The culture of a place refers to its people, traditions, beliefs and products such as music or food. Despite the body of evidence to support the importance of teaching about these cultural aspects, many world language teachers struggle to include cultural study alongside their language instruction. One engaging way to improve students’ linguistic and cultural competence is through read-alouds. Read-alouds are the foundation of early literacy and provide a number of benefits for young learners: they support a solid linguistic foundation for further study of the target language’s grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation; they engage …

Dragonfly’S Toolkit: An Innovative Curriculum Framework To Facilitate Socio-Emotional And Character Development Skills In Preschoolers, Celeste Finn

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

The research question addressed in this project was, how can teachers scaffold development of the social-emotional functioning of preschoolers to improve their emotional health? To answer this question, the project included researching and developing ways to improve a child’s social-emotional awareness and character development to create a classroom culture where relationships are secure and children can thrive. This project reviewed studies from numerous experts in areas of social-emotional learning, early childhood curriculum development, executive functioning and character development to form the theoretical foundations to create a social-emotional learning and character development curriculum for children ages three to five. The research …

Supporting The Development Of Ecoliteracy In Middle School Students Through The Use Of Phenology, Amy Hamernick

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

The research question for this project was, how does knowledge of local phenology impact the development of ecoliteracy?It documents a science teacher’s development of a unit of lesson plans, and an accompanying website, to develop observation skills and strategies that will allow students to collect data in their local ecosystem. Phenology, the study and documentation of natural systems over time, is supported by the understanding of observation skills, use of field identification guides, and formats for recording and sharing data which are developed through the lesson plans. The website provides details for two observation sites, models how to collect and …

Preparing Teachers For Their Zoo Trip With An Interactive Website, Jamie L. Hardcastle

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

Zoos and aquariums have an attendance of 50 million children visitors every year with 12 million of those being student learners on field trips (Association of Zoos and Aquariums, 2018, Annual Survey Results, Informal Science Education). According to Willis, Weiser, and Kirkwood, (2014) field trips are not just a ‘day off’ from school, they serve to provide enriching experiences that help students to explore the world outside of their direct environment. To ensure that learning is happening before, during, and after the field trip takes preparation on part of the teacher. Anderson, et al. (2006) state that students should be …