Education Commons^™

Improving Science Literacy Using Photographic Documentation Of Laboratory Activities, Mary Radus

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Theses and Dissertations

Digital photography is a valuable educational tool which has been shown to improve language acquisition and vocabulary usage. Photography can also be used to enhance hands-on laboratory activities in high school science classes. This study examined the impact of photographic documentation of lab activities on students’ literacy in science. In this convergent, mixed methods investigation, 9th grade biology students took photographs during a lab activity, which they used to create collaborative photo projects based on the activity. Changes in literacy were measured by assessing the students’ usage of scientific vocabulary terms before and after the photo project, and assessing the …

Multisensory Literacy Instruction: Efficacy For Struggling Multilingual Learners, Stephanie Sowma

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

By the year 2025, approximately 25% of U.S. public school students will be multilingual learners. However, many mainstream teachers have not received any development in supporting this particular group of students. This capstone explores best literacy practices for multilingual learners, multisensory learning, and teacher professional development to answer the focus question: how can multisensory instruction be utilized to add engagement and rigor in order to improve the literacy skills of multilingual learners between 5 - 8 years old who score between a 1.0 - 2.9 on the WIDA Access Assessment and are struggling with basic reading skills? Multisensory literacy instruction …

Supporting Social-Emotional Learning With Diversely Representative Children’S Literature: Toolbox Supplementary Read Aloud Lesson Plans, Taylor Rose

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

Read aloud texts play an essential role in shaping social-emotional learning skills, implementing routines, and bolstering early literacy skills in the early elementary classroom. Yet, despite the increasing racial and cultural diversity of the United States student population, children’s literature often lacks meaningful, intersectional representations of diversity. This capstone project pairs diverse children’s literature with the Toolbox social-emotional learning curriculum to explore the question, How can early elementary students' social-emotional skills develop through the intentional reading and conversation about children's literature featuring characters, authors, and themes of diverse and intersectional identities? The research concludes that the representational children’s literature can …

English Learner Families, Rural County Public Libraries, And Rural Public Elementary Schools, Carmel Murphy

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Theses and Dissertations

English Learner families in rural areas have unique experiences in accessing bilingual materials in home languages for literacy learning. This research focused on gathering the perceptions of parents of elementary school ELs regarding the barriers that impede collaboration between public elementary schools and county public libraries for improving the literacy of ELs in rural communities. This qualitative research followed a grounded theory process and community-based research from data collection via interviews with parents of ELs, rural public elementary school educators, and rural county public librarians. Seven participants from Central Minnesota included two bilingual parents of ELs, three educators, and two …

Joy In Choice: Cultivating A Choice-Centric Literacy Classroom In Upper Elementary, Alexandra Pickell

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

The research question addressed in this project is: How do teachers initiate and nurture joyful, personally meaningful opportunities for reading in the classroom? This project is an introductory website detailing how and why teachers can shift their reading block to make it a time in the day when students are making choices for themselves. In so doing, student motivation and joy for reading is at the forefront of the classroom (Gambrell, 2015). The intended audience is any upper elementary teacher looking to decenter the teacher’s voice during independent reading, but is of particular importance for teachers who already have an …

An Intervention To Support Comprehension During Independent Reading Time, Jacob Klis

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

The question that guided this project was: How can using an intervention based on a comprehension strategy increase student reading interest? This question guided research on digital and print texts, student reading interest, and a brief history of balanced literacy. Many schools use a mix of digital and print resources and students need to be prepared to understand each. Using independent reading time at school has shown to give students greater success in literacy and other areas of school. It has shown that dedicated independent reading time is important at school. The goal of this project was to make independent …

Phonological Awareness In The Elementary Classroom, Marisa Brown

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

Research has demonstrated that teaching all elementary aged students phonological awareness skills in an explicit manner builds a strong literacy foundation. The blog designed for this project focuses on each explicit instructional skill set to best set our students up for success and is inspired by the work of Dr. Louisa Moats. The creation of the project involved looking at the background of how educators teach students to read including whole language and balanced literacy approaches. The goal of this project is to provide an online resource that can serve as a form of a professional learning community. The blog …

Studying The Self: Students Examining Culture And Identity For Improved Engagement And Achievement, Zara Pylvainen

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

Research has demonstrated that incorporating culturally relevant and culturally sustaining pedagogy (CSP) into teaching can lead to greater academic success. The curriculum designed for this project focuses on using concepts of identity and culture as topics of study in a seventh-grade English language arts (ELA) class with the aim of improving student engagement and academic achievement. CSP argues that young people are in a fluid process of developing their identities, and our pedagogy should foster that development. CSP also maintains that classrooms need to provide space for communities of color to maintain, nurture, and sustain cultural practices. This curriculum design …

Re-Integrating Play-Based Learning (Pbl) Activities Into The Primary Classroom, Katherine Horstmann

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

Can we even call it kindergarten anymore or should we rename it to be called first grade part one? Students entering into kindergarten today are now expected to meet much higher academic standards that were once designed for first grade. Five-year-olds are now expected to write complete sentences, and even read and comprehend complex texts by the end of the year with play having been removed from the kindergarten classroom completely. This leaves children with no prior exposure to school settings with a much steeper hill to success. Re-incorporating play-based learning experiences back into the kindergarten classroom could be the …

Strengthening Early Literacy Skills Through Data-Driven Decision Making, Kaari Bly

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

As part of this research, nine professional development sessions and a data workbook were designed to address the research question: how can a school establish a sustainable system for making data-based decisions to strengthen the literacy skills of kindergarten and first-grade students necessary for further educational success? Data-driven decision-making is an essential component of an MTSS framework and is based on the steps of a problem-solving model. Key tenets of a data-driven school include strong leadership, a comprehensive assessment system, easy access to data, time and resources to examine data, and clear connections between data and potential interventions. Often schools …

The Science Of Reading For English Learners, Allison Hanson

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

In recent years, a movement of researchers, educators, and parents promoting the science of reading has been reigniting the so-called “reading wars.” This movement has pointed out the ways in which typical balanced literacy practices do not reflect research on how students learn to read, especially in the acquisition of word recognition skills. However, the current debate is sometimes ignoring the unique needs of a rapidly growing segment of the U.S. student population: English Learners (ELs) and other multilingual students. This capstone project addresses the question: How does the science of reading inform reading instruction for ELs within a balanced …

Does Lexia Core 5 Support Accelerated Reading Growth In Third Grade Intervention Students During Independent Reading Time With Minimal Teacher Support?, Whitney Strand

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Theses and Dissertations

This capstone addresses the following research question: Does Lexia Core 5 Support Accelerated Reading Growth in Third Grade Intervention Students During Independent Reading Time With Minimal Teacher Support? The author first examines the previous research around Lexia Core 5 done by O'Callaghan et al. (2016) & Maracuso et al. (2019). This mixed methods study investigates how using Lexia Core 5 impacts participants’ overall reading growth via pre- and post- assessment data. It follows participants’ Lexia Core 5 usage over the course of 7 weeks tracking both the minutes spent and number of units completed. Data for this study also includes …

Representation Of Cultures And Languages In Children’S Picture Books, Kristen Neff

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated cultural representation in children’s picture books located in classroom libraries. The literature review explored what is culture, the history of children’s books, what past studies have found on representation in books, and why this topic is important. The research methodology was a qualitative study that involved inventorying classroom teachers’ libraries, as well as interviews with teachers about diversity and their libraries. The results included each of the individual teachers’ libraries as well as all the libraries’ data together; data revealed that the majority of characters were animal or non-human characters. Additionally, most of the books in these …

Using An Interactive Word Wall To Increase Spanish Language Acquisition For Urban Middle School Learners, Jordan Schuneman

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

My primary research question for my capstone project is: What are the ways in which interaction, collaboration, and dialogue impact students’ Spanish language acquisition? More specifically, my research and project aim to answer: How can an interactive word wall affect Spanish language acquisition in an urban classroom? I have created an interactive word wall curriculum. This was specifically designed to fit my context as a middle school Spanish teacher, grades 6-8. However, this interactive word wall curriculum can be utilized effectively in any content area. Through considering culturally and linguistically responsive teaching (Hollie, 2018) as well as how to best …

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 …

Influencing Middle School Students' Perspective Of Media Literacy, Ray Doss

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

This project interrogates the influence middle school teachers have over media literacy in the classroom. It utilizes existing literature concerning media literacy and social studies curriculum. A curricular approach is offered to address media literacy in a middle school social studies classroom. By using this project, students will develop their understanding of media literacy and form the skills needed to navigate a media-saturated world.

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

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

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 …

Maintaining And Retaining The Home Language While Learning English, Panhia Vang

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

The Hmong are an Asian ethnic group that has been living in the United States for over 50 years now. Given the history of the Hmong, many Hmong parents have had no formal education or the highest education attainment they have is a high school diploma. Having little to no formal education, many parents do not know how to navigate the American school system to support their children with their academics. With the influence of American media and the school system, many Hmong American students are fluent in English, however, they are losing their cultural identity and home language. Despite …

Relevant History: Using Historical Fiction To Make History Engaging, Kayleigh Maloney

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

This project sought to research effective ways in which secondary school teachers can use historical fiction in a history setting in order to better engage their students. Works of historical fiction were found to be a useful tool for engagement and relevance to the class, as long as they are used in the proper context, with special attention given to reading strategies, accuracy of information within the texts, and the allowance of student choice throughout the class. The curriculum itself gives a pattern, or template, that teachers can use to fit their classroom needs. Students rotate between reading historical fiction, …

Looking In To Speak Up: How White Educators Can Utilize Literacy To More Confidently And Competently Discuss Race And Racism With Early Elementary Students, Morgan Hanlon

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

literacy to more confidently and competently discuss race and racism with early elementary students? Research indicates children are ready to begin discussing race and racism as early as three or four years old, but that educators tend to avoid these conversations assuming their students are not yet ready to handle these topics. This paper reviews literature on racism in education, understanding bias, developmental readiness, and literacy resources supporting discussions of race. The project created in connection with this research question involves a five session professional development course aimed at supporting educators in feeling more confident and competent in discussing these …

Teachers Describe Their Confidence In Teaching Secondary Students With Low Literacy Skills, Tamara Polzin

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Theses and Dissertations

For some students, grasping the concept of literacy is completed with ease. For others, the challenges of developing literacy skills to aid in their ability to move from learning to read to reading to learn proves challenging. These challenges cause a gap in literacy growth and have shown to increase as students get older preventing them from fully accessing the concepts found in the secondary setting. As such, secondary educators are being called upon with the assumption that all teachers are teachers of reading. With this in mind, this qualitative research study aimed to uncover secondary social studies teachers’ understanding …

Effective Teaching Of Embedded Phonics Instruction In A Middle School Special Education Resource Room, Amanda Nichols

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

This capstone addresses a gap in middle school instruction for students identified for special education services in reading. In Minnesota’s state standards, phonics instruction is only required through 5th grade (Minnesota Department of Education, 2011). However, students in middle school and beyond still may be learning to read past 5th grade. This research question is: What is the most effective way to integrate phonics instruction into reading lessons in a middle school, resource room special education classroom? This paper introduces what phonics is, the reason phonics should be integrated into reading instruction, a framework for embedded phonics, a description of …

The Joy Of Reading: Increasing Intrinsic Motivation Through Choice Texts And Reading Conferences In Middle School, Joshua Overby-Lang

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

Research has proven that middle school is the time in which students abandon recreational reading for the rest of their lives if they do not find the process to be engaging. In order to hook readers and urge them to continue this pursuit, teachers need to give students access to high interest books and the time to read without any high stakes assessment attached to it. The curriculum designed for this project uses the influences of Allen, McClure, and Serravallo to implement a series of reading conferences in conjunction with independent silent reading time and mini-lessons in the middle school …

Increasing Student Motivation In English Language Arts Through Student Choice, Jennifer Baker

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

The purpose of this capstone project was to design and implement a digital website where resources are readily available for teachers and students in order to increase motivation in reading. This project sought to answer the question Can providing student choice improve student motivation in a middle school English Language Arts class? My love of reading happened early in my life and it has made me a lifelong reader, and this inspired me to instill that love in middle school students. The research conducted in this capstone indicates that increasing student engagement in reading is highly dependent upon building student …

Implementing Cultural Sustaining Literacy: Curriculum Unit Plans, Adewale Adenodi

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

Abstract

The research question that is being addressed in this capstone project is: How can we create curriculums and environments that integrate equitably and culturally sustaining literacy practices in high school Social Studies settings that intentionally consider all learners? This paper discusses the creation of curriculums rooted in the approaches of Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy and Equitable Literacy Practices. Additionally, this document discusses the creation of a 12th Grade US Government curriculum that seeks to respond to the work of Muhammed (2020), Hammond (2015) and Paris & Alim (2014). Historically Responsive Literacy Framework from the book Cultivating Genius is one of …

The Texts Matter: Essential Text Characteristics For Comprehension Intervention In The Intermediate Grades, Tia Clasen

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Theses and Dissertations

Results on state and national reading assessments indicate that students in the U.S. overall, and in Minnesota specifically, continue to struggle to comprehend expository texts; only one-third of fourth graders meeting grade level proficiency on state assessments designed to analyze reading achievement. Further, a significant gap persists for fourth grade students based on race, language, and socioeconomic status. Contemporaneously, technology continues to advance rapidly, demanding increased literacy skills and a better understanding of comprehension intervention. This research study aims to identify essential text characteristics of expository texts that will eventually be included in an online, automated reading strategy tutor providing …

A Middle School Professional Development That Uses Reading Comprehension Strategies To Create Engagement And Comprehension In Middle School Classrooms, Madison Gallagher

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

Many elementary students enter middle school disengaged with reading and lack literacy comprehension skills. All middle school teachers can make reading fun in their content classrooms to help students comprehend and engage with classroom content. This capstone project introduces a year-long, seven-session reading comprehension strategies professional development plan. This professional development plan motivates middle school teachers to use reading comprehension strategies to engage and help students understand their classroom content. This reading comprehension strategies professional development plan explains that each middle school teacher has their teaching style, and each student learns in their unique way. This capstone professional development plan …

Using A Text Set Of Diverse Media To Teach Alternative Perspectives To Third Grade Students, Christina Benson

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

This capstone project is centered on the question, how can a text set made of diverse books be used to teach alternative perspectives to third grade students? The author documents their experience both personally and professionally as well as their research that led them to create a fifteen lesson third grade literacy unit that teaches the critical literacy skill of alternative perspectives. This literacy unit focuses on students being able to distinguish their perspective from that of an author or character. Through the creation of this project, the author discovered important things about the topics of critical literacy, diverse books, …