Education Commons^™

Behind 'Loving Reading': Reading Behavior In Early Adolescents, Rachel White

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Theses and Dissertations

White, Rachel. “Behind ‘Loving Reading’: Reading Behavior in Early Adolescents” (2020).

The research question addressed in this study was: what is the lived experience of loving reading for middle school students? Topics explored in the review included loving reading in popular understanding, reading motivation, reading identity, reading volume and reading in the home. The review also included an overview of affective reading assessments and qualitative understandings of reading attitude. The qualitative research of this study employed the interpretivist paradigm and consisted of interviews with six middle school-aged participants. In the interviews, participants discussed their reading identity, reading habits, reading efficacy, …

How Does An Instructional Coach Support Elementary Teachers Who Have Students Struggling To Read With Characteristics Similar To Dyslexia?, Lori Felton

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

Felton, L. (2020). How Does an Instructional Coach Support Elementary Teachers Who Have Students Struggling to Read with Characteristics Similar to Dyslexia?

The role of an Instructional Coach in an elementary school is one that requires a person to be adept at a variety of skills. The main focus of an Instructional Coach is to improve the highly effective practices of teachers to ensure student growth and achievement. Drawing on Adult Learning Theory, this capstone discusses ways teachers are active participants in helping to solve a problem while providing opportunities to collaborate with peers, engage in meaningful activities and reflect …

Integration Of Culturally Responsive Pedagogy In Reading Intervention, Alison Pichel

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

Pichel, A. (2020). Integration Of Culturally Sustaining Practices In Reading Intervention

As the achievement gap persists in Minnesota between white students and students of color, many districts seek to accelerate achievement for students performing below grade-level expectations. Reading specialists diagnose and develop instructional plans to accelerate reading achievement. To accelerate reading achievement, teachers and reading interventionists must support culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students through culturally sustaining pedagogy (CSP). CSP builds an understanding of students’ cultural assets to inform instructional decisions which consequently reduces stress for students in the classroom allowing increased academic achievement. To support reading achievement, teachers make …

Critical Literacy And Read-Alouds For Social Justice Instruction In Primary Education, Erin Paul

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

Paul, E. How can primary-elementary teachers use critical literacy and read alouds to teach social justice to young learners? (2020)

Primary-aged children undergo extensive cognitive development. During these years, children’s estimation of self-worth and value goes under significant development and by age eight, children express whether or not they like themselves. As advocacy for social justice such as the Me Too and Black Lives Matter movements gain momentum, adults must determine how and when to have courageous conversations with children in which they support children’s pride in their own identities, disrupt pre-prejudices, and develop their skills to critically evaluate the …

Increasing Engagement And Comprehension Through Cooperative, Collaborative And Game-Based Learning In A Middle School Literacy Intervention Class, Tarah Eck

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

Eck. T. Increasing Engagement And Comprehension Through Cooperative, Collaborative and Game-based Learning in a Middle School Literacy Intervention Class.

Research has demonstrated that increased engagement in learning can lead to better understanding or comprehension of the concept and materials. This capstone addressed the question: How can cooperative, collaborative and game based learning increase engagement and comprehension in a middle school literacy intervention class? The English Language Arts website designed for this project focuses on using game-based learning and collaborative and cooperative learning strategies to engage and motivate students to learn in an intervention classroom, content area classroom, and at home. …

The Controversial Passage Of Proposition 227, Erin E. Kinney

Departmental Honors Projects

When Proposition 227 passed in 1998, it essentially ended a thirty-year program of bilingual education in California of students with limited English proficiency, and replaced it with a controversial, year-long, intensive English-immersion program. Paying close attention to how each side of the debate was framed in televised programming and local newspapers, this paper examines why such a controversial law was able to pass by popular ballot. After researching the popular opinions of the previous program of bilingual education as well as the narrative of the state concerning how it views its immigrant populations, with the children of Latin American immigrants …

It​ ​Is​ ​Time​ ​To​ ​Tackle​ ​Aspect!​ ​Some​ ​Insights​ ​To​ ​Help​ ​Clear​ ​Up The​ ​Tense/Aspect​ ​Mystery, Andreas Schramm

School of Education and Leadership<br />Faculty Publications

In this article, Dr. Andreas Schramm draws on the research of his graduate students, colleagues, and from his own recent sabbatical to describe what makes the tense-aspect system in English notoriously challenging to teach and learn, and to show that it can nonetheless be explicitly taught. Drawing from his experience as an English learner and one-time English teacher in training, he shares anecdotes and practical tips to help English as a Second and Foreign Language teachers unpack the meaning of tense and aspect for their learners.

Achievement And Engagement With The Workshop Model In The High School Literature Classroom, Sara Stensaas

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Theses and Dissertations

The research question addressed in this study is as follows: does the use of the workshop model improve engagement and achievement in an honors senior level literature classroom? This action research study sought to discover how two workshop treatment groups, Blau’s literature workshop and Tovani’s workshop model, compared to a control group in achievement on the target unit learning objectives and engagement change over the unit with high school honors-level senior students. Using pre- and post-treatment surveys, focus group discussion, and a unit test, this mixed-method research project looked for a parallel between increase engagement and achievement. Engagement measures under …

Culturally Responsive Grammar: Utilizing Contrastive Grammar Analysis To Support Knowledge Of Modern Dialects In The High School Classroom, Katie Corrigan

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Theses and Dissertations

Varying dialects are spoken depending on the speaker’s location and community. While each one of these dialects has very clear patterns and rules, only one dialect, Standard American English, is regarded as “correct grammar” according to academic and professional associations. For this reason, students learn the rules of Standard American English in school. However, this practice leaves students who speak other dialects at a significant disadvantage. This capstone addresses this dichotomy by providing curriculum that includes grammar instruction using a contrastive approach. Students are simultaneously taught grammatical rules in both Standard American English and African American Vernacular English in order …

Is A Single Or Multicomponent Reading Intervention Program More Effective At Enhancing Outcomes For Struggling Readers In Intermediate Grades?, Barbara Klun

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Theses and Dissertations

In 2015-2016, the selected school-site realized that reading instruction needed to change for the bottom quartile of readers. Struggling readers in grades five through eight were not making significant gains in reading. On the annual state assessment, students who scored a one the previous year remained at the same level the following year. In addition, students reading two or more grade levels behind their peers made the smallest gains throughout the school. This research project addressed the question, “Is a single or multicomponent reading intervention program more effective at enhancing outcomes for struggling readers in intermediate grades?” The purpose of …

Preparing White Teachers To Teach In Racially Diverse Schools, Cristina Benz

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Theses and Dissertations

My personal experience as a White educator in racially diverse classrooms led me to choose my capstone topic and develop my research question: “What core knowledge, essential skills, and experiences do White teachers believe have effectively prepared them to teach racially diverse students?” Based on my literature review, I chose five concepts and theories that I considered connected to my research capstone. Critical Race Theory was the overarching theory that provided related concepts of Racial Realism, Critical White Studies, and Colorblindness. A newer concept that I included, Equity Literacy, provided tools for teachers to consider and use. I used a …