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Full-Text Articles in Education

Improving Reading Skills For Early Elementary Students, Kayla Bucheit Oct 2023

Improving Reading Skills For Early Elementary Students, Kayla Bucheit

Master's Theses & Capstone Projects

Research findings have indicated areas for improvement in early literacy programs in schools, and schools have been slow to respond, leaving students and teachers unsupported in the methods and knowledge needed for students to become fluent readers. Past studies have pointed to the need for teachers to have content knowledge of explicit instructional practices that focus on phonological and phonemic awareness. When students can manipulate sounds and letters, they are better able to decode and segment words, resulting in reading fluency. Using research findings, this school improvement plan was created to outline how to transition to explicit instructional methods while …


Implementing Social Emotional Learning With Fidelity: A School Improvement Plan, Courtney Reuter Jul 2023

Implementing Social Emotional Learning With Fidelity: A School Improvement Plan, Courtney Reuter

Master's Theses & Capstone Projects

Research findings indicate social emotional learning can have a positive impact on both teachers and students. Social emotional learning not only improves the social emotional well-being and competence in teachers and students, it can also benefit students academically. When students do not have access to social emotional learning instruction consistently, it can have a poor impact on both their behavior and academics. With research findings in mind, a school improvement plan was created to research, purchase, and implement a new social emotional learning curriculum with fidelity. The goal of this plan is to increase the fidelity in social emotional learning …


Major Components Needed In A Literacy Curriculum To Promote Student Success, Brooke Smith Jul 2023

Major Components Needed In A Literacy Curriculum To Promote Student Success, Brooke Smith

Master's Theses & Capstone Projects

This school improvement plan focuses on what components are beneficial in a literacy curriculum to promote success in students' reading skills and improve FAST Test scores. Research has found phonics, phonemic awareness, comprehension, fluency, vocabulary, writing, and science of reading concepts should be included in a literacy curriculum to be effective. These components will help find a new literacy curriculum for a school district. In all success, an effective literacy curriculum will be found with creating a system to look through to find an effective literacy curriculum, piloting, and analyzing data. The objective in the end is to discover a …


Play Based Learning A School Improvement Plan, Kalee Chamberlin Apr 2023

Play Based Learning A School Improvement Plan, Kalee Chamberlin

Master's Theses & Capstone Projects

Play-based learning is a topic that is often discussed at the early childhood level. Research has shown that play-based learning can lead to success within the classroom in the areas of social-emotional skills, literacy, and mathematics. Research conducted within the Muscatine Community School District suggests that children could benefit from additional time in play-based learning opportunities. This school improvement plan describes in detail the process needed to implement a plan to increase the amount of time spent in play-based learning opportunities within the preschool classroom.


Effective Literacy Differentiated Instruction, Lauren Kahl Jul 2022

Effective Literacy Differentiated Instruction, Lauren Kahl

Master's Theses & Capstone Projects

This school improvement plan details the importance of using literacy differentiated instruction within the classroom to instruct the vast array of students’ needs. This plan details different types of differentiated instruction and shares research of the success rates of differentiated instruction across various grade levels. It also highlights key components needed to make differentiation successful within the classroom, as well as obstacles in implementing differentiated instruction. The purpose of this school improvement plan is to display the need for using literacy differentiated instruction to improve students’ literacy rates, as well as to tailor instruction to match students’ individual needs.


Explicit Instruction To Improve Phonics And Decoding Skills In Elementary Newcomers, Madison Gates Oct 2021

Explicit Instruction To Improve Phonics And Decoding Skills In Elementary Newcomers, Madison Gates

Master's Theses & Capstone Projects

The present study investigated the effects of daily phonics and decoding instruction on Newcomer English Language Learners (ELL). Participants (n = 10) were identified as first year students in the United States, attending the same elementary school in Iowa. Participants’ literacy scores were measured using the FAST Early Reading Letter Sounds assessment, FAST Early Reading Nonsense Words assessment, and the FAST CBMReading assessment. Upon receiving their scores on the assessments, participants received fifteen minutes of explicit instruction each day, in their respective ELL class, for eight weeks. Results from the dependent samples two-tailed t-test revealed that there was not a …


Teaching Early Literacy Skills In Preschool And Future Kindergarten Success, Amanda Wehrhan Apr 2021

Teaching Early Literacy Skills In Preschool And Future Kindergarten Success, Amanda Wehrhan

Master's Theses & Capstone Projects

This literature review examines the importance and the effect of literacy on Kindergarten readiness and future school success for early childhood education, specifically on preschool students. Early Childhood Educators are feeling the pressure now more than ever to have their young students prepared to enter Kindergarten. In recent years there has been a shift away from a play-based classroom to more of a focus on academics. In this literature review, various research studies are examined to determine whether or not the real focus of the preschool curriculum should be play or literacy or both.


The Impact Student Behavior Has On Learning, Ashton J. Kirkpatrick Jul 2019

The Impact Student Behavior Has On Learning, Ashton J. Kirkpatrick

Master's Theses & Capstone Projects

This action research project was conducted to determine if a child’s behavior can affect their learning, especially in the area of early literacy. Information from FAST Bridge and the documentation from the “Check In/Check Out” process was used to determine if certain students using this process struggled in the area of literacy. After analyzing the data, it was determined that this certain student that was followed did struggle in the area of literacy and showed signs of emotional and social concerns alongside their behaviors. After the “Check In/Check Out process was implemented, the student showed academic growth according to the …


Impacts Of Parental Involvement On Early Literacy Skills, Sara Harlan Jul 2019

Impacts Of Parental Involvement On Early Literacy Skills, Sara Harlan

Master's Theses & Capstone Projects

This action research was conducted to identify a correlation in high literacy skills with parental involvement and support. Baseline data was gathered from kindergarten student's winter FAST screener scores. Parental involvement began by sending homework for my students to work on with an adult in their home. A spreadsheet was kept tracking which students returned their parent signature sheet weekly and which students did not. All students were progress monitored on letter sounds weekly. The spring FAST screener data was then used to gather ending data. Growth was compared from the winter to spring data with the amount of parental …


Using Guided Play To Acquire Literacy Skills, Kimberly Farrell May 2019

Using Guided Play To Acquire Literacy Skills, Kimberly Farrell

Master's Theses & Capstone Projects

The purpose of this action research was to determine if exclusively using guided-play based learning strategies with kindergarten students who have individualized education plan (IEP) literacy goals in letter sound identification assists these students in acquiring this skill. Students were provided instruction with the inclusion of technology and worksheets between the Fall and Winter FAST assessment screenings. Students were then provided guided play-based instruction to identify letter sounds between the Winter and Spring FAST assessment screenings. Data collection was obtained through bi-weekly IEP progress monitoring procedures and through the FAST assessment. Analysis of the data shows that students made overall …


Effects Of Print In Early Childhood Programs, Marcie Lentsch Aug 2018

Effects Of Print In Early Childhood Programs, Marcie Lentsch

Master's Theses & Capstone Projects

This paper will discuss the effects of print on early childhood classrooms. The first goal was to determine if referencing print during read alouds would increase foundational literacy skills. The second goal, was to identify if implementing the Sit Together and Read (S.T.A.R.) framework would increase emergent literacy skills with three, four and five year olds students. Two early childhood classrooms from the same school district were included in the study. One classroom embedded print references and the S.T.A.R. framework during repeated read alouds. The other classroom continued with normal read aloud routines. Data was analyzed using the Early Literacy …


How To Boost Literacy In Ages Birth To Three, Brianna Johnson May 2017

How To Boost Literacy In Ages Birth To Three, Brianna Johnson

Master's Theses & Capstone Projects

This literature review explores the history, viewpoints, theoretical frameworks, and themes in literature of early literacy in the United States. It also discusses legislation on this topic, such as No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). Literacy in ages birth to three has been a long time educational issue. The ‘pendulum’ has swung between different approaches to literacy instruction. It is important for every person to be informed on this subject because early literacy affects each life. What one learns or fails to learn in the first three years of life affects the rest of …