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, …

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 …