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Co-Teaching Secondary Dual Eligible Students, Heidi Macomber
Co-Teaching Secondary Dual Eligible Students, Heidi Macomber
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
Students who qualify for both English Language services and Special Education services tend to be underserved and have high failure rates in secondary schools. This project investigates the details related to dual eligible students’ underachievement and strives to create a curriculum that appropriately integrates language learning into topics such as identity and mental health. Research relates to methods of assessment that lead to qualification for both English language services and Special Education services. It also evaluates the complicated nature of co-teaching and the many methods for co-teaching that have been developed through research. In addition, this research shows that dual …
Providing Heritage-Based Social And Emotional Learning Opportunities For Middle Grade Latina Students, Brianna Bjorge
Providing Heritage-Based Social And Emotional Learning Opportunities For Middle Grade Latina Students, Brianna Bjorge
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
All students deserve opportunities that help them feel safe and connected to their school environment. For my capstone, I designed a culturally responsive extracurricular program designed for Latina immigrant-origin middle school students, focusing on heritage-based learning and gaining social and emotional learning (SEL) competencies. My capstone project sought to answer the question: “How can Latina immigrant-origin middle school students benefit from a culturally responsive extracurricular program that revolves around the explicit instruction of SEL skills?” In response to this question, I have designed an after-school curriculum that integrates heritage-based elements to address and support the distinct social and emotional needs …
Pen Pal Programs As An Effective Tool For Elementary Writing And Intercultural Learning, Michelle Babb
Pen Pal Programs As An Effective Tool For Elementary Writing And Intercultural Learning, Michelle Babb
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
Research has demonstrated how writing can be a challenge for young students. Motivation, authentic use, and low stakes environments are beneficial methods to build student writing confidence. Pen pal programs are an effective way to provide those benefits to student writing. These programs can also assist in students’ ability to build intercultural connections, which holds important skills in the modern world. However, research on pen pal programs is limited, and teachers often lack the time and resources to begin such a program for their students. The project involved creating a website resource for teachers who are interested in developing pen …
Teaching American History In Multicultural Classrooms, Vinita Kartha
Teaching American History In Multicultural Classrooms, Vinita Kartha
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
This capstone project explores the challenges and strategies involved in teaching American history within multicultural classrooms, focusing on creating a curriculum that addresses the diverse experiences of Black and Indigenous peoples before and after colonization. The project aims to develop a Grade 5 curriculum that highlights the complexity and richness of Black and Indigenous civilizations, offering a more nuanced understanding of history. The curriculum, based on the Understanding by Design (UbD) framework, spans seven days and covers three main strands: the pre-colonization civilizations of Black and Indigenous peoples, the impact of colonization, and the history of British settlers. The project …
Guide To Establishing A Classroom Library - With Racially Representative Considerations, Julie Sieben
Guide To Establishing A Classroom Library - With Racially Representative Considerations, Julie Sieben
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
The capstone project came from the educational space of equity in literature. Within the scope of using a new English Language Arts curriculum and a growing classroom diversity, the research question sought was: How can teachers establish a classroom library representative of a racially diverse student population? In order to locate research and educator journal articles within the literature review portion of the capstone, three main topic areas were explored: racial representation, multicultural education, and social justice. Diving deeper into racial representation, these themes emerged: misrepresentation, under-represented and selective inclusion. Considering the research question, the exploration continued with multiculturalism often …
Culturally Responsive Professional Development: Facilitating Transformational Learning Experiences, Kiana Erickson
Culturally Responsive Professional Development: Facilitating Transformational Learning Experiences, Kiana Erickson
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
Non Profit Organizations that engage culturally diverse populations as volunteers need support in delivering volunteer training that meets the learning needs of culturally diverse adults. Due to lack of staff capacity, non profit organizations often rely on cohorts of volunteers to train their peers in executing responsibilities of the volunteer roles. These volunteers often do not have background in adult learning nor do they have tools related to engaging culturally diverse groups of adult learners. This capstone aims to answer the question: How can adult educators and trainers use culturally responsive engagement strategies and emerging frameworks to effectively facilitate professional …
Inclusive Approaches To Teaching Writing To Users Of Diverse Englishes In The Secondary Ela Classroom, Rachel Mann
Inclusive Approaches To Teaching Writing To Users Of Diverse Englishes In The Secondary Ela Classroom, Rachel Mann
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
Many teachers expect their students to produce writing that adheres to academic language norms. However, these expectations are often rooted in socially-constructed ideologies rather than founded on established linguistic facts. Academic language forms derive from standard language varieties, which, contrary to popular belief, are not more correct, more prestigious, or more valuable than any other variation. Instead, “standard” language is an embodiment of the linguistic practices of the dominant social group, and notions of its superiority are used to reinforce societal power structures. Since academic language is derived from standardized forms, it too is used to maintain social hierarchies and, …
Engaging Social Studies Student Through A Culturally Relevant Student Centered Lesson Plan, Chee Kue Lee
Engaging Social Studies Student Through A Culturally Relevant Student Centered Lesson Plan, Chee Kue Lee
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
Student learning and engagement with curriculum has greatly decreased as schools transition back from online education to in person instruction. The COVID-19 global pandemic, increased use of technology, and personal electronic devices are all contributors to student disengagement, however research has shown that student centered approaches and culturally relevant approaches to teaching can positively impact student engagement. Investigating the research question: How can understanding and implementing students’ cultural narratives and identities impact student engagement in the classroom?, this capstone project reviews four themes through its literature review: culturally relevant teaching (CRT), student motivation, student diversity in education, and student …
Using Diverse Literature To Increase Empathy And Cultural Understanding In The Classroom, Joanna Sevre
Using Diverse Literature To Increase Empathy And Cultural Understanding In The Classroom, Joanna Sevre
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
Research demonstrates a direct connection between reading literature and building empathy, aiming to foster a more inclusive classroom. This capstone explores the pivotal role of diverse literature in nurturing empathy and cultural understanding within a classroom. The first part of this project will focus on personal and professional insights to understand the significance of this topic. Then, the research delves into the origins of empathy as well as the connection between curating empathy during key points of adolescent development as a way to positively impact relationships and social understanding. Research also emphasizes the critical need for educators to create inclusive …
Second Language Acquisition For General Educators: An Accessible Professional Development Course, Angela Cabreana
Second Language Acquisition For General Educators: An Accessible Professional Development Course, Angela Cabreana
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
This capstone project was built in response to the research question “How can general education educators learn the process of language acquisition in an accessible way?” With the population of multilingual learners (MLs) in public schools steadily increasing and teacher preparation programs often not preparing teachers for these students, many general education teachers are looking for professional development (PD) on best practices for teaching MLs. Thus the idea for developing a free, asynchronous website professional development course that instructs general educators on the process of second language acquisition (SLA) was born. The literature review explores the theories and processes that …
Spanish-Speaking English Learners’ Experience In Spanish/English Dual Language Immersion Schools, Sara Worthington
Spanish-Speaking English Learners’ Experience In Spanish/English Dual Language Immersion Schools, Sara Worthington
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
Research has demonstrated that dual language immersion (DLI) schools provide one of the most viable pathways for students of families who speak a language other than English to maintain and develop their home language proficiencies while also learning and improving their proficiencies in English. The professional development (PD) designed for this project focuses on maximizing the English instruction time in Spanish/English dual language immersion schools. Across the United States, the number of DLI programs has increased dramatically in the past few decades yet often the educators employed in the programs have little or no specific training in teaching English as …
The Disappearing Of The Hmong Language, Choua Yang
The Disappearing Of The Hmong Language, Choua Yang
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
Within my personal and professional experience, I have observed that the Hmong oral language has declined since the Hmong people arrived in the United States. Over the past 50 years in the United States, there have been growing concerns regarding the decline in usage of the Hmong language within Hmong children. In my personal experience, my children who are second generation Hmong, only the five older children are bilingual while my three younger children only speak English. As for my seven grandchildren, who are third generation Hmong, they only speak English. They do not understand nor speak the Hmong language. …
Supporting Multicultural Mental Health With Culturally And Linguistically Relevant Practices, Codi Shogren
Supporting Multicultural Mental Health With Culturally And Linguistically Relevant Practices, Codi Shogren
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
Teaching through the COVID-19 pandemic as an English teacher to elementary school learners highlighted many mental health needs for learners that were amplified even more once everyone was back in school full time. My fellow educators and I have been surviving and reacting to mental health needs and behaviors as they pop up during the school year but that is neither a long term solution nor does it provide the needed support to learners. These experiences in the classroom led to the question: How can elementary educators support multicultural learners with their mental health? After researching culturally and linguistically responsive …
Elevating Student Voices Through Rigorous Academic Discussion: A Unit Of Study For The Middle School English Language Arts Classroom, Emily O’Brien
Elevating Student Voices Through Rigorous Academic Discussion: A Unit Of Study For The Middle School English Language Arts Classroom, Emily O’Brien
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
Although speaking and listening skills are included in the Common Core State Standards, they are often underemphasized in English Language Arts (ELA) classrooms and across disciplines. Research shows the benefits of cooperative and discussion-based learning for students, yet students are often not provided with the instruction and practice necessary for success in these areas. Especially in middle school, students thrive when given opportunities to connect with others. This project, a unit of study designed for a middle school ELA classroom, was designed to provide students with the academic discussion tools necessary to deepen literacy skills. Written through a culturally responsive …
Best Practices: To Supporting And Including Slife, Preliterate, Pashtu Students In Secondary, Western, Schools, Claire Madden
Best Practices: To Supporting And Including Slife, Preliterate, Pashtu Students In Secondary, Western, Schools, Claire Madden
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
The research question addressed in this capstone project was: what are the best practices for supporting and including SLIFE (Students with Limited or Interrupted Formal Education), preliterate, Pashtun students in secondary, Western, schools? Topics explored in this literacy review were the challenges of SLIFE students, literacy development, multiculturalism and Pashtu culture. This paper and three part professional development series discusses methods for all secondary teachers to include and support SLIFE, preliterate, Pashtu students in Western schools. This professional development utilizes the research of Aguilar (2013). Aguilar’s (2013) work in adult education assisted in the creation of this professional development series. …
Incorporating Opportunities For Diverse Literature Into The Early Elementary Classroom, Mary Cline
Incorporating Opportunities For Diverse Literature Into The Early Elementary Classroom, Mary Cline
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
The research shows that student engagement is positively impacted by literature that contains mirrors to their own lives and experiences. This is a set of lessons that are created to be incorporated into the school’s literacy curriculum for 1st and 2nd grade. Through reading and discussing various books, these lessons strive to add places for multicultural students to see their lives mirrored back to them as well as to give all students a chance to see another way of life by looking through a window into someone else’s world. The lesson plans focus on creating space for students to engage …
Creating Inclusive Spaces: Using Book Clubs To Increase Diverse Literature In Schools, Clare Ng
Creating Inclusive Spaces: Using Book Clubs To Increase Diverse Literature In Schools, Clare Ng
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
Multiple studies have identified that many groups of underrepresented students, including non-Christians, LGBTQ+, Native-Americans, children of immigrant families, and youth of color, feel invisible or not included in school settings because there is a lack of visibility of non-dominant groups in school, or a lack of policies and practices that support the needs and experiences of non-dominant groups. This may include a lack of representation in recognized celebrated holidays, curriculum topics, or literature discussed in school. This capstone project will focus on how we can create inclusive spaces for students to promote positive school culture by obtaining diverse literature for …
How Can Culturally-Responsive Instruction Help Middle And High School Teachers Address Muslim Students' Needs?, Mona Aly
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
This capstone project explores how middle and high school teachers can create positive relationships with Muslim students by using culturally responsive instruction. Educators must understand that Muslim students have unique cultural identities based on their religious beliefs. Regardless of nationality, language, skin color, or cultural background, all Muslims are bound by these Islamic cultural practices. These practices directly impact students’ academic progress, social life, and self-esteem. By familiarizing themselves with these cultural and religious practices, teachers can better relate to Muslim students and address their social and academic needs. I seek answers to this research question by discussing four main …
Students With Interrupted Formal Education: A Toolbox For Instruction, Mary Palmer
Students With Interrupted Formal Education: A Toolbox For Instruction, Mary Palmer
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
The research question addressed in this capstone project is: What are best practices for schools to support students with interrupted schooling? This paper and three-session professional development series showcase ways that content teachers can help facilitate learning for a growing multilingual learner population, students with limited formal education (SIFE). Within the professional development series, there will be three strategies that are highlighted including: Culturally Relevant Teaching, using aspects and background knowledge from a student’s own lived experience to facilitate knowledge acquisition; Mutually Adaptive Learning Paradigm which bridges the skills that students with limited formal education come to classrooms with to …
Cultural Relevance In Art Matters: An Accessible Curriculum, Mary Beth Magyar
Cultural Relevance In Art Matters: An Accessible Curriculum, Mary Beth Magyar
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
Research shows that allowing students room for their artistic voice is empowering and can help them explore their racial identity. In addition to supporting cultural identities, art can enhance one’s mood. Multiple studies show how visual art can build positive mental health and reduce anxiety. There has been a troubling rise in statistics for teenagers with poor mental health and suicide attempts, particularly in the LGBTQIA+ populations. When these students feel welcome at school their mental health is markedly improved. As the No Child Left Behind Policies grew, access to the visual arts decreased. Art does not test well therefore …
The Role Of The Native-Speaker Listener In English As A Lingua Franca Interactions, Leah Fruechte
The Role Of The Native-Speaker Listener In English As A Lingua Franca Interactions, Leah Fruechte
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
Research agrees that monolingualism, through a lack of linguistic and metalinguistic awareness and general linguistic reflexivity, is the source of a widely observed listening problem where monolingual native-speakers (NSs) of English fail to correctly perceive the meaning of spoken English that diverges from their own in phonological forms or contextual norms. On the other hand, research has also shown multilingual communities, such as those which use English as a Lingua Franca (ELF), to display the intuitive use of collaborative, pragmatic listening strategies that keep them from misunderstanding each other, despite their differences in forms and norms. As a result, this …
Subverting The Academic Language Hegemony: Implementing Language Architecture And Similar Pedagogies, Viviana Chavez Garcia
Subverting The Academic Language Hegemony: Implementing Language Architecture And Similar Pedagogies, Viviana Chavez Garcia
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
The field of English language teaching is continually evolving in order for teachers to best serve the students. The field’s connected history with colonization and racism must be acknowledged in order to confront the reasons why academic English is valued higher than all other forms of English and other languages. Under the current framework, teachers are asking multilingual students to change their language in order to reverse their own oppression. According to language architecture, the languages that students bring to class are already sufficiently cognitively sophisticated to achieve content standards and participate in academic activities. This is where the foundation …
Employing Culturally Responsive Teaching Practices In English Language Arts Classrooms, Austin Niederkorn
Employing Culturally Responsive Teaching Practices In English Language Arts Classrooms, Austin Niederkorn
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
Culturally responsive teaching (CRT) is a well renowned approach to teaching that connects students’ cultures, languages, and personal experiences to the curriculum they learn in school. CRT helps students access higher level learning while also promoting increased student achievement, a positive classroom environment, meaningful teacher-student relationships, and impactful connections with communities and families. All teachers can benefit from using CRT in their classrooms, yet English Language Arts (ELA) teachers have unique opportunities to use students’ cultural and linguistic backgrounds to shape their reading and writing instruction. Despite being widely praised, culturally responsive teaching is not often the focus of professional …
Supporting Multilingual Learners In The Content Classroom Through Culturally And Linguistically Responsive Teaching Practices, Karen Martinez Tinajero
Supporting Multilingual Learners In The Content Classroom Through Culturally And Linguistically Responsive Teaching Practices, Karen Martinez Tinajero
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
Culturally and linguistically responsive teaching practices have been demonstrated to yield positive learning outcomes for multilingual learners. The curriculum designed for this project focuses on making direct use of the culturally and linguistically responsive guidelines, frameworks, and strategies as proposed by Zaretta Hammond, Sharroky Hollie, Sydney Snyder, and Diane Staehr Fenner in a secondary level history classroom for the purpose of maximizing learning opportunities for multilingual learners. This project involved creating a dynamic curriculum complete with teacher considerations to transform content learning through cultural and linguistic responsiveness. The curriculum will primarily be used in secondary social studies classrooms for multilingual …
Inquiry-Based Astronomy Curriculum For The Online Setting That Is Culturally Sustaining And Equity-Centered, Sophie Morris
Inquiry-Based Astronomy Curriculum For The Online Setting That Is Culturally Sustaining And Equity-Centered, Sophie Morris
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
The guiding question for my capstone project was: how can inquiry-based astronomy curriculum that is culturally sustaining and differentiated be effectively adapted to the online setting with student equity as a prime consideration? The curriculum designed for this project focuses on integrating CAST’s Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework into online lessons. Lessons also increase engagement by incorporating inquiry and culturally sustaining content. The curriculum is intended to be used in the online setting as a high school astronomy elective, but lessons could also be used in regular classrooms or environmental learning centers. A key takeaway of the project is …
Translanguaging In Efl Settings, Erica Johnson
Translanguaging In Efl Settings, Erica Johnson
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
This Capstone seeks to ask how can teachers embed a translanguaging pedagogy into an EFL (English as a Foreign Language) setting? It was born out of the author’s realization that the majority of the literature surrounding the topic of translanguaging practices took place in English as a Second Language (ESL) settings in Western countries. To adequately adopt the translanguaging framework into the classroom, one must understand not only translanguaging pedagogy but translanguaging theory as well. Translanguaging theory is the view that people, particularly bi/multilinguals have one complete linguistic system, which they draw from strategically in order to communicate. In covering …
Developing Critical Consciousness In The English Language Arts Classroom, Benjamin Moberg
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
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
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 …
Best Practices To Improve English Language Acquisition For High School El Students Who Have Experienced Trauma, Hannah Sundermeyer
Best Practices To Improve English Language Acquisition For High School El Students Who Have Experienced Trauma, Hannah Sundermeyer
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
English Learner students are a rapidly growing subset of the U.S. student population with unique strengths and needs compared to their monolingual peers. My experiences as an EL teacher with secondary EL students who have experienced trauma led to my capstone question: what best practices can be used for high school EL students who have been impacted by trauma to build their English language acquisition? While there is a plethora of research on EL students and on trauma, there is little research connecting the two topics. However, research demonstrates a number of proven strategies to help EL students and students …