Early Childhood Education Commons^™

Beginnings: How Families Come To Be, Heather Bourgeois

Diverse Families Bookshelf Lesson Plans and Activities

 The student will compare children and families from the book "Beginnings: How Families Come to Be" with what families looked like and did in the past.  The student will explore the concept of family diversity by comparing and contrasting the characters’ experiences.  The student will recall information about the book to answer questions about family diversity.

Drawn Together, Paityn Pohren

Diverse Families Bookshelf Lesson Plans and Activities

No abstract provided.

Families, Families, Families!, Amanda Sanchez

Diverse Families Bookshelf Lesson Plans and Activities

Students will write a personal narrative about their families using a logical sequence of events, transitions, and an ending. ● Students will improve their writing as needed by planning, revising and editing. ● Students will present their writing about their families using complete sentences, appropriate volume, and clear pronunciation.

A Shelter In Our Car & Uncle Willie And The Soup Kitchen, Christina Fluegel

Diverse Families Bookshelf Lesson Plans and Activities

The student will compare and contrast the themes in A Shelter In Our Car and Uncle Willie and the Soup Kitchen. ● The student will define homelessness and know how it can affect people in their community. ● The student will demonstrate how citizens can volunteer to support members of their community.

Carmen Learns English, Ashley Beckstrom Dokter

Diverse Families Bookshelf Lesson Plans and Activities

The Student will be able to identify and describe the main story elements in Carmen Learns English. ● The Student will be able to identify and explain the moral of Carmen Learns English. ● The Student will be able to present information orally using complete sentences and appropriate volume.

Gay & Lesbian History For Kids: The Century-Long Struggle For Lgbt Rights, James Bunch

Diverse Families Bookshelf Lesson Plans and Activities

● The Students will utilize timelines to understand the history of the LGBT community. ● The Students will use primary and secondary sources to understand the challenges faced by the LGBT community throughout history. ● The Students will identify ways of being a good citizen including, acceptance, inclusion, and developing an appreciation of equity. ● The Students will use digital writing tools to collaboratively plan, draft, and revise a writing. ● The Students will use context clues, figurative language, word relationships, reference materials, and/or background knowledge to determine the meaning of multiple-meaning and unknown words and phrases.

Lovely, Mackenzie Cates

Diverse Families Bookshelf Lesson Plans and Activities

The student will be able to identify descriptive words in a text. The student will be able to explain descriptive words in a text. The student will be able to ask and answer questions about words they don’t know. The student will be able to communicate with their peers about descriptive words orally using complete sentences.

Chocolate Me, Abigail Singh

Diverse Families Bookshelf Lesson Plans and Activities

The students will show respect and kindness to classmates. ● The students will identify and explain the moral of self-acceptance and individuality in the story in the story Chocolate Me.

Supporting Meaningful Learning Experiences With Button-Operated Robots In Early Childhood Settings, Jacob Hall, David J. Mulder

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

Bringing together recent research on button-operated robots in early childhood settings and developmentally appropriate practices, this chapter details strategies for the integration of robots. Educators are encouraged to design and implement robotics experiences that are intentional, active, constructive, cooperative, and authentic (Howland et al., 2012). To achieve these aims, educators should embed challenges within play-based activities and empower children to set and achieve their own goals. Additionally, educators can support children’s active engagement by selecting a button-operated robot that gives clear feedback and by offering just-in-time support as children address errors in their programs. For constructive learning, educators should prompt …

Effects Of Parental Involvement On Academics, Jessica Stamer

Master's Theses & Capstone Projects

A child needs their parents to be involved in their educational experience to support social emotional growth and academic growth during the developmental years of their life. It is no surprise that there are many issues that come from little parental involvement. In order to have the optimal parental involvement, educators must encourage involvement through a variety of ways based on the needs to the families in their classroom. Districts must have set plans, support, and encouragement for staff in place to ensure this goal is being met.

Implementing Play-Based Learning, Brooke Patton

Master's Theses & Capstone Projects

This school improvement plan discusses play-based learning (PBL), a subject often debated within an early childhood setting. This plan will review current research to define what play- based learning is and the impact PBL learning has on the development of preschool and kindergarten students. Research shows that PBL learning can be highly effective for academic growth and that children learn best in this type of setting. PBL lets children make connections between their personal lives and their environment. In addition, it provides children with joyful experiences associated with their learning, adds motivation, and keeps children’s attention. Consistent, intentional planning that …

Preschool Approach To Teaching Alphabet Knowledge, Ashley Kreinbrink

Master's Theses & Capstone Projects

This action research project was completed by a researcher interested in the alphabet knowledge curriculum. More specifically, in the study of letters, and how to incorporate the relationship of uppercase and lowercase identification, letter sounds awareness, sound placements, and writing letter formation as critical components of an alphabet knowledge curriculum. This researcher taught preschool for thirteen years. The students were able to participate in the study. Students received Enhanced Alphabet Knowledge (EAK) lessons daily. The study was part of our priority standards aligned to the Iowa Early Learning Standards and Teaching Strategies GOLD. The students were asked to identify uppercase …

Developing Communication Skills In Preschoolers, Andrea Schlotman

Master's Theses & Capstone Projects

This school improvement plan looks at how the implementation of a Functional Communication Training Program in preschool classrooms can improve academics, social skills, and eliminate challenging behaviors. The literature review examines research that details the importance of communication and social skills curriculum for young learners. Children who can communicate effectively are less likely to display disruptive behaviors and are more likely to succeed in building strong relationships throughout their academic careers.

Addressing The Behavioral And Emotional Needs Of Elementary School Students: A School Improvement Project, Katherine Ross

Master's Theses & Capstone Projects

Elementary school students are found to have increased behavioral and emotional needs require support above and beyond the scope of a general educator's capabilities. Research indicates the need for additional teacher training in the areas of adolescent behavioral disorders and trauma informed care in order for them to provide the best possible education, academically and socially. School counselors are often called upon to address student social emotional needs, however classroom teachers are typically the first to notice when a student needs access to additional support and also spend the most time with students; this school improvement plan addresses the necessity …

Major Components Needed In A Literacy Curriculum To Promote Student Success, Brooke Smith

Master's Theses & Capstone Projects

This school improvement plan focuses on what components are beneficial in a literacy curriculum to promote success in students' reading skills and improve FAST Test scores. Research has found phonics, phonemic awareness, comprehension, fluency, vocabulary, writing, and science of reading concepts should be included in a literacy curriculum to be effective. These components will help find a new literacy curriculum for a school district. In all success, an effective literacy curriculum will be found with creating a system to look through to find an effective literacy curriculum, piloting, and analyzing data. The objective in the end is to discover a …

Improving Trauma-Informed Practices In A School System, Maria Sloniker

Master's Theses & Capstone Projects

According to research, trauma informed practices have faced disconnect when educating stakeholders who work directly with individuals who have faced a variety of traumatic events. With such disconnect, staff in the school systems have been unable to stay educated on the different resources available and training on best practices used. Administrators being present and working together to provide more effective professional development to help both students and staff who are directly impacted by trauma and trauma informed practices. Current research has supported the lack of knowledge and increase of teacher burnout when working with individuals who have faced adversity. A …

Using Restorative Practice To Decrease Behavior And Increase School Community, Kaylee West

Master's Theses & Capstone Projects

The purpose of this school improvement plan (SIP) is to address the student behavioral concerns at Huntington Elementary School using restorative practices. Studies suggest that restorative practices can improve student behavior and social emotional skills. The restorative practices that the author intends for the school to use are described within the plan. The SIP aims to use training on restorative practices and restorative circles to improve school culture, community, and student behaviors.

Improving Reading Comprehension And Vocabulary For English Language Learners, Rachael Vande Hoef

Master's Theses & Capstone Projects

Research on the education of English Language Learners (ELL) has shown that ELL students underperform native English speakers academically. Right from the start, students’ home language impacts school readiness amongst ELL students. Fortunately, implementing vocabulary and reading interventions is successful in closing learning gaps among ELL students. The implementation of a blended learning approach has been found to increase literary gains among ELL students. Given this research, a school improvement plan was developed to enhance the literary gains of ELL students. This multi-faceted plan involves teacher collaboration, parental engagement, vocabulary and reading interventions, as well as a blended learning approach.

Improving Understanding Of Mathematics Concepts In Kindergarten Students Through Movement Integration, Kendall Stallings

Master's Theses & Capstone Projects

This action research project stemmed from the noticeable benefit of movement woven throughout the Wilson Fundations curriculum in developing early phonemic awareness. Knowing that kindergarteners have a natural inclination to move, this project aimed to determine whether similar benefits of movement could be garnered in mathematics instruction by boosting number sense and fact fluency. Participants completed an end-of-unit assessment and then received instruction with movement integration for the following unit before completing its endof- unit assessment. Assessment scores were converted into the school’s grading scale of M, W, or B, and a chi-square test of association was used to determine …

There's Only One You, Carrie Binkley

Diverse Families Bookshelf Lesson Plans and Activities

The students will explain why it is important that everyone is unique. ● The students will identify the parts of print (book title, author, illustrator) and their roles. ● Students will use uppercase and lowercase letters to write their name. ● Students will create a self-portrait through the use of a multitude of mediums. ● Students will share their self-portraits and explain why they are unique.

Contextualizing The Mathematical Knowledge For Teaching Framework For Teachers Of Emergent Bilinguals, Luis Miguel Fernandez, Mayra Ortiz Galarza

School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

We are amid a rapid demographic shift, with Emergent Bilinguals (EBs) being the fastest growing K-12 student population. This has created an ambitious goal for teacher education programs as they must prepare mathematics pre-service teachers (PSTs) to assess the needs of EBs. As a response, this study conducted a qualitative analysis of 16 PSTs to propose a contextualized version of the Mathematical Knowledge for Teaching (MKT) framework as an emerging knowledge base of teaching that can be used to further guide the planning and enactment of teacher education programs in the mathematics education of EBs, specifically.

Addressing Secondary Traumatic Stress, Burnout, Resilience And Turnover In The Child Welfare Workforce: Results From A 6-Month, Cluster-Randomized Control Trial Of Resilience Alliance, Rebecca Orsi-Hunt, Courtney L. Harrison, Kayla E. Rockwell, Anita P. Barbee

QIC-WD Journal Articles

Introduction: US child welfare agencies have historically struggled with workforce retention and turnover. As part of the Quality Improvement Center for Workforce Development in Child Welfare, we tested an adaptation of the Resilience Alliance (RA) model in a large, Midwestern state to address workplace stress, burnout and actual workforce turnover. RA is a 24-week, facilitated program designed to mitigate the impact of secondary traumatic stress among child welfare professionals, and to therefore increase job satisfaction, resilience and optimism and to decrease turnover, stress reactivity and burnout.

Methods: Supervisory units of caseworkers and supervisors were randomized to the RA treatment …

Family Strengths Among Native American Families And Families Living In Poverty: Preventing Adverse Childhood Experiences, Natira Mullet, Emily A. Waterman, Katie Edwards, Briana Simon, Skyler Hopfauf, Ramona Herrington

Nebraska Center for Research on Children, Youth, Families, and Schools: Faculty Publications

Objective: The purpose of this study was to understand how youth, caregivers, and community professionals perceive family strengths and adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) in their community. Specifically, this study was focused on the protective role of caregivers and families, positive youth development, and how Native American families and families living in poverty support adolescents’ social–emotional development and help them thrive in the face of adversity.

Background: Research documents the concerning rates and negative outcomes of ACEs. However, very little research has examined the views of families and professionals on how to prevent ACES among these populations.

Method: Participants were youth …

White Privilege And Teacher Perceptions Of Teacher-Child Relationship Quality, Kathleen Moritz Rudasill, Colin M. Mcginnis, Sheng-Lun Cheng, Dwayne Ray Cormier, Natalie A. Koziol

Nebraska Center for Research on Children, Youth, Families, and Schools: Faculty Publications

In this study, we investigated differences in teachers’ perceptions of the teacher-child relationship from kindergarten through second grade as a function of child race and gender from the perspective of critical race theory and the cultural synchrony hypothesis. Given the extensive evidence of White privilege and anti-Black racism in the US education system, we expected that teachers, particularly White teachers, would perceive their relationships with White children more positively than with Black children. Controlling for family SES and child gender, results supported this hypothesis. Black boys had the highest risk of being perceived by teachers as having poor relationships with …

I Grew Up Indoctrinated, Consuelo Ferschweiler

Whittier Scholars Program

My capstone project is looking at homeschooling as an educational path. I started with researching homeschooling and studies done to show the affects, outcomes, and comparisons of homeschooling with other methods commonly used such as Public or Private schools. I then read a few books and material that fall into the memoir and researched memoir genre, such as Educated, to understand how the voice and gain familiarity of memoir writing and the process of researching into your own life and history.

I have been looking back on my education of growing up homeschooled and writing scenes from those memories, …

Teaching Accurate And Age-Appropriate History To Elementary Students: Teaching Third Graders About Historic Thanksgiving, Ashley Schepis

Honors Program Theses and Projects

This educational and historical research is based on teaching accurate and age-appropriate history to elementary students. Unfortunately, instead of true history elementary schoolers are often taught myths, to avoid teaching children about the embarrassing and gruesome parts of United States history. When history is not taught truthfully, it can perpetuate stereotypes and leave students confused when they reach secondary and higher education and discover that some of what they know is incorrect. The purpose of this project is to investigate what really happened at the 1621 Harvest Feast and its evolution into the holiday that is celebrated today, assess how …

Job Stress Moderates The Effects Of A Mindfulness Intervention On Early Childhood Teachers' Emotion Dysregulation, Emily J. Starr

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Addressing the current crisis of early childhood (EC) teacher turnover is essential for supporting the development of young children. Teacher attrition remains a concern for policymakers globally, and in the United States, early childhood teachers frequently cite job stress and lack of support as reasons for leaving the field. For over 40 years, researchers who study childcare have been concerned about the consequences of work-related stressors. Even if these stressors do not result in turnover, EC teachers’ psychological well-being may be impacted, leading to increased emotion regulation difficulties and more frequent negative teacher-child interactions. Young children’s emotional development is significantly …

Arkansas Parent Pre-Kindergarten Survey 2023, Sarah C. Mckenzie

Arkansas Education Reports

The Office for Education Policy at the University of Arkansas administered a survey to Arkansas parents about their perceptions of their students’ PreKindergarten experiences. The survey, administered in March of 2023, was sent to parents of Kindergarten students currently attending an Arkansas public school, as well as parents of students currently enrolled in Pre-Kindergarten programs housed in Arkansas public schools or enrolled in a Head Start program. A total of 772 parents responded to the survey

Science Club, Danielle Gibson, Krista Andersen

Honors Expanded Learning Clubs

Honors After School program for elementary age children to engage with scientific principles. Students performed hands-on experiments to explore various STEM fields. Each weekly lesson consisted of a different concept to be learned or explored by early elementary aged students.

Development Of The Emirati Child Adaptation Scale (Ecas) For Assessing The Behavioral Adaptation Skills Of Children With And Without Disabilities In The Uae., Ousha Almuhairy, Efthymia Efthymiou, Hala Elhoweris, Mahmoud Alshathly, Abdelaziz Sartawi

All Works

Behavioral problems cause limitations in the social skills of children without disabilities and affect the functionality of children with disabilities. The Emirati child adaptation scale (ECAS) was developed in the UAE to provide reliable and valid information on the behavioral adaptation skills in children with and without intellectual disability (ID). The scale’s item pool consists of 651 items that identify behavioral adaptation deficits across the 10 domain–skill areas of communication, pre-academic, listening, social, self-care, self-orientation, motor skills, operational society, life, and health and safety. The scale was administered to 1542 children with disabilities and 920 children without disabilities. The scale …