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Articles 1 - 30 of 135
Full-Text Articles in Education
Best Practices To Help English Language Learners Succeed In Community College, Santina Caster
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
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
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
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
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 …
The Norms And Procedures Needed For Successful One-To-One Device Implementation In An Upper Elementary, Katie Coulson
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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 …
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
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
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
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 …
Using Multicultural Literature To Teach Grammar To English Learners, Laura Anderson
Using Multicultural Literature To Teach Grammar To English Learners, Laura Anderson
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
The research question addressed in this project was, What are the implications for using multicultural literature as mentor texts to teach academic English language grammar structures in an elementary setting? The author describes her past personal and professional experiences as a student and teacher that led her to developing this research question. Then, the author reviews professional literature on the topics of multicultural literature, best practices in teaching ESL, and culturally responsive teaching to connect each topic to the research focus. Next, the author describes the project, which is a curricular unit of ten lessons teaching prepositions to second grade …
A Lesson Unit On Aurally Differentiating Between The Phonologies Of English & Arabic: /P/ And /B/, Iten Ezz
A Lesson Unit On Aurally Differentiating Between The Phonologies Of English & Arabic: /P/ And /B/, Iten Ezz
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
This project analyzes one of the common English pronunciation errors experienced by Arab learners of English which is /p/ and /b/. Such error is systematic, not accidental. The most important factors leading to this error are the interference of the first language and the difference in the sound systems between Arabic and English. A specific curriculum was developed to help Arab learners of English overcome their pronunciation error. The curriculum started with controlled activities, then practiced in authentic speech using interactive learning activities to ensure learners exposure to the target sounds.
An Exploration Of Portfolios As An Alternative Assessment To Standardized Testing, Carolyn Schmitz
An Exploration Of Portfolios As An Alternative Assessment To Standardized Testing, Carolyn Schmitz
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
The research question addressed in this project was, How can portfolios be used as an assessment of Common Core reading standards in an eighth grade middle school classroom? As standardized testing continues to drive educational policy and decision-making, the author questions if traditional standardized tests are what is best for students, educators, or families. Researching through the lenses of attitudes toward standardized testing as well as the effectiveness of standardized testing, the author ultimately pursues the research of the use of portfolios as an alternative means of formally assessing students. An examination of the existing literature reveals that portfolios hold …
Implementing Tier I And Ii Fluency Based Interventions In An Elementary Classroom, Shelley Rhein
Implementing Tier I And Ii Fluency Based Interventions In An Elementary Classroom, Shelley Rhein
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
The research question addressed in this project was, how do regular education classroom teachers best use fluency based interventions in the classroom to accelerate fluency skills and improve comprehension? The project is a reference guide that includes a compilation of fluency based strategies for elementary teachers to use when creating an intervention plan for students to address reading fluency needs. The project integrates learnings from the research of reading behaviors, definitions and examples, fluency strategies, and assessments. The author based the information in her project on the most heavily researched, proven strategies for effective fluency instruction specifically by Rasinski, Allington, …
What Are The Parental Beliefs On The Relationship Between Poverty And Low-Grade Achievement?, Selamawit Ayalkebet
What Are The Parental Beliefs On The Relationship Between Poverty And Low-Grade Achievement?, Selamawit Ayalkebet
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
This project addresses the question: What are the parental beliefs on the relationship between poverty and low-grade achievement? It documented a well-written essay of the correlation between poverty and low-grade achievement. For my Literature Review chapter, I used sources that researchers conducted on studies related to my research question and I talked about how to understand low-grade achievement with the following lens: socioeconomics status of children and their families, socio-cultural status, family background and how these concepts are connected to low-grade achievement and what schools and teachers can do to best help students who come from lower socioeconomic backgrounds to …
Creating A Culturally Proficient El Program: An Evaluative Toolkit, Julie Krohn
Creating A Culturally Proficient El Program: An Evaluative Toolkit, Julie Krohn
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
Improving achievement of English learners (ELs) requires districts to examine the effectiveness of their EL programs, a measure required by Federal Title III law. This capstone project examines how might an EL program review toolkit, including an analysis of data, policies, practices, and beliefs, shape an EL program? To answer this question, a program evaluation toolkit was created to help leaders of EL programs analyze the effectiveness of their EL programs. Leading a team of teachers through the EL program toolkit, the author and team analyzed qualitative and quantitative data, identified an area of growth, and created a vision and …
Electronic Portfolios: Best Practices To Help Increase Student Ownership And Engagement In The Third-Grade Classroom, Bridget Farrell
Electronic Portfolios: Best Practices To Help Increase Student Ownership And Engagement In The Third-Grade Classroom, Bridget Farrell
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
This project was created to explore the question: what are the best practices related to implementing electronic portfolios that will help increase my third-grade students’ sense of ownership and engagement? The project presents a synthesis of the research related to electronic portfolios; including a definition of electronic portfolio, the various types of electronic portfolios, best implementation practices, and how best practices can help increase students’ sense of ownership and engagement. The project includes the creation of a professional development session aimed at building and improving other educators’ knowledge and practice with electronic portfolio implementation, to positively impact students' learning.
Social And Emotional Learning Strategies In The Elementary Classroom And Their Impact On Student Success, Megan Williams
Social And Emotional Learning Strategies In The Elementary Classroom And Their Impact On Student Success, Megan Williams
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
During the course of my project, I explored social and emotional learning strategies that can be easily implemented into the elementary classroom, specifically my fourth grade classroom. These students attend an elementary school in a first ring suburb of a large metropolitan area in the upper midwest. My intention was to develop strategies that were easy to implement and promoted a positive learning environment that allowed students to increase their academic success. The successful implementation of these strategies helped students develop and use conflict resolution skills and therefore promoted a positive classroom climate. This project was the first step in …
Using Self-Regulated Strategy Development To Teach Middle School Writing, Julia Breen
Using Self-Regulated Strategy Development To Teach Middle School Writing, Julia Breen
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
Being able to write well is a skill critical to students’ success in higher education. Yet standardized test scores reveal that many students are moving into high school and college without these writing skills. Writing is a complex task; in addition to content knowledge, students must use self-regulation skills (including staying focused on the task, working through frustrations) to see success. This capstone project sought to answer the question: How can the teaching of self-regulated skills be integrated into lessons focused on developing the expository writing of middle school students? The result is a series of lesson plans that seek …