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English Language Learners: Closing the Achievement Gap
Get PDFThe purpose of this research is to investigate the best practices and effective teaching strategies that teachers and other educators can use with English Language Learners (ELLs) to close the achievement gap. The research intends to illustrate that English language proficiency requirements should not in any way be a barrier to the academic performance and achievement of English Language Learners. ELLs are continuously lagging behind their native English speaking peers academically. Various reports indicate that ELLs continue to under-perform in state tests, course grades, and college placements tests. They face numerous challenges including lack of interaction with native speakers of English, feelings of embarrassment, being misplaced in education programs, being taught low-level academic content, being given little attention by teachers, and demands for use of English as the only language of communication. The research first lays out why it is important for teachers to have enough background information since it establishes the basis for making worthwhile relationships with ELL students that will foster their learning. This capstone sets forth the theories behind the underperformance of ELLs. I am hopeful that the understanding of these theories will enable teachers to plan to teach ELLs effectively in their classrooms. Several studies have shown that many mainstream teachers hold deficit views about ELLs in their teaching practices. The culmination of this research is to put forward the best practices and teaching techniques for teachers to use with teaching ELLs in their classrooms. This research will be used to create professional development sessions that will greatly benefit teachers. Finally, it is my expectation that the results from this research will form the basis for more research into the future on ELLs’ academic performance and achievement
Scouts BSA Wood Badge Through the Lens of Senge’s Disciplines of a Learning Organization
Get PDFThis qualitative case study used researcher participation, participant surveys and participant interviews to explore the presence of the five disciplines of Senge’s learning organization in the training of adult volunteer leaders in Scouts BSA’s Wood Badge in 2021. It also examined how the prevalence of Senge’s five disciplines affected Scouters’ perceptions of Wood Badge training.The study included survey results from 30 participants and interviews with four participants at Northern Star Council’s Wood Badge course in 2021. Findings indicated that all five of Senge’s disciplines were present in Scouts BSA’s Wood Badge course. The study confirmed that Scouts BSA is a learning organization
Teaching Pragmatic Suprasegmentals in the Adult ESL Classroom
Get PDFWhile many ESL teachers acknowledge that there is more to learning English than understanding letter sounds, grammar, and vocabulary, suprasegmental work still gets relatively little attention in most classrooms. The curriculum designed to address this need looks at how to create effective and engaging material in order to teach pragmatic suprasegmental features in the adult ESL classroom. It is designed to be delivered in 10-15 minute bi-weekly “mini-lessons” that draw on what students already know and incorporate visual, auditory, and kinesthetic components to engage all learning preferences. Drawing on the work of Celce-Murcia et al., (2010) the suprasegmental features that were designated as most sensitive to speaker intent are prominence and intonation. Therefore, the first four-week unit focuses on prominence, the second on intonation, and the third on how prominence and intonation work together to convey meaning. In alignment with Knowles’ (1990) assumptions of androgyny, the lessons are designed to show students why learning these suprasegmental features will benefit them in communication. The curriculum is also designed in such a way that teachers can alter the examples used in most lessons to align with their current classroom unit. In this way, the suprasegmental work will flow into and reinforce the other classroom work, all the while improving students’ comprehension and intelligibility in English
Integrating Translanguaging into the Classroom: A Professional Development for Primary Elementary Teachers
Get PDFResearch has shown that translanguaging strategies can positively benefit language learners inside schools today. The benefits of translanguaging strategies can be incorporated into the classroom daily. This project incorporates useful strategies and the benefits that are connected to translanguaging into a three session, professional development series for K-2 general educators. The series begins by introducing translanguaging and the benefits aligned with translanguaging along with benefits of bilingualism. Each session will also introduce a new translanguaging strategy that educators can introduce into their classrooms. The three strategies from the framework provided in the CUNY-NYSIEB guide include building a translanguaging classroom, content and literacy strategies and language development strategies (Celic & Seltzer, 2013). The three sessions will be partnered with ongoing modeling and observations between English Language teachers and general education teachers. The strategies are what is to be modeled and observed in between sessions. The goal of the project is to get more and more teachers incorporating translanguaging strategies into general education classrooms to benefit our language learners. It shifts the classroom by looking at language learner students with an asset based approach, rather than the deficit approach that is often used with language learners
Relevant History: Using Historical Fiction to Make History Engaging
Get PDFThis 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, discussing the text while unpacking the historical context, and learning about the time period or event mentioned in the text. It is my hope that this project will be useful for the academic work of educators in expanding student interest in history class
Teaching Growth Mindset in a Secondary Mathematics Classroom
Get PDFCarol Dweck’s research in fixed and growth mindsets has garnered attention in mathematics education, especially as the frustration of students of mathematics becomes more apparent with new or more difficult content. The literature review and subsequent project seeks to answer the question: How can teaching high school students about growth mindset affect their attitudes toward mathematics learning and academic achievement? Research demonstrates that students with a growth mindset perform better academically than students with a fixed mindset. While these mindsets may be more inherent in nature, students have the potential to develop a growth mindset through classroom learning and skill building. Integrating growth mindset into classroom practices presents an opportunity for school and district educators to stretch students’ perspectives about learning and find success in mathematics. By teaching students to understand the relationship between learning and mindset, we may empower them to take on the responsibility of deepening their understanding of the content taught in the classroom. With this aim, the project consists of a series of professional development sessions for mathematics educators, instructional coaches, and administrators to understand growth and fixed mindsets, learn teaching strategies to help students develop a growth mindset, and reflect on current and future classroom practices that may lead to a student’s growth mindset
Place-Based Education and Nature Journaling Curriculum Development
Get PDFnature. Educators must find ways to bring nature to the classroom. Nature journaling uses unique geographies of places as a basis for teaching natural science and other subjects. The nature journaling curriculum development project here, dedicated to natural science and environmental education asks, in what ways could nature study and place-based education be taught to students who live in the urban environment? Goals, learning benefits, and results of nature study and place-based education will be discussed in the literature review. Nature journaling as a tool of learning, along with its benefits, will be discoursed to better understand why the project could be beneficial to education. Development of nature journaling curriculum for students who attend public schools follows the need for continual environmental education development, a longtime goal of the field. Environmental education approaches and already established nature journaling curriculums appear to be most understated at the level of high school students, the chosen level of learner to develop curriculum for. Influences of the project include naturalists and educators who were founders of the field of nature study, first inspiring the ideals that became environmental education. Nature journaling authors Laws and Lygren provide an exceptional guide to assist in the adaptation of a curriculum project meant to meet NGSS cross-cutting concepts in an Understanding by Design development unit. Wisconsin State Standards for Environmental Education and Sustainability are used as educational goals
The Ableist Gaze and Disability Trauma: How OnScreen Representation Erases the Truth
Get PDFThis project critically engages with disability representation in the media through an uncensored autoethnography of everyday ableism. In particular, it focuses on how the Netflix series Special reveals the duality of representation: being seen is validating yet (re)traumatizing. As a queer woman with Cerebral Palsy, I’ve spent my whole life trying to find myself in TV shows and movies, latching onto the few disabled and disabled-coded characters available. I never felt fully seen until I watched Special: a show about a gay man with Cerebral Palsy gaining independence through a writing internship and romantic prospects. Special allowed me to acknowledge the trauma surrounding my disability and ableism and to reflect on how the dominant disability on-screen representation is ableist propaganda hidden in plain sight. Despite a “commitment” to break from old models of marginalization and to reject enduring stereotypes, today\u27s media continues to emphasize what I term disability comfort, that is, centered in and by the families of disabled people and not disabled people themselves. Disability comfort leads to disabled people being used as props under so-called disability allyship. This project frames critical readings of contemporary disability representations through personal experience with disability to criticize this progressive reinforcement of ableism. Through humor and anger, I contextualize the real harm of such false representation: the ableist actions of non-disabled people traumatizing and degrading the mental health of disabled people. I write through the lens of disability trauma in order to discomfort abled readers and recenter the narrative on actual disabled people like myself
The Benefits of Incorporating Comprehensive Sex Education into a Curriculum as Early as Kindergarten
Get PDFResearch has demonstrated that there are a variety of benefits that students, schools, and communities experience when comprehensive sex education is implemented. These benefits include positive changes in student mental and sexual health, positive changes in violence reduction amongst students, and positive changes in community norms. The capstone project created as a result of this research is a website that advocates for comprehensive sex education in the state of Minnesota. The website is meant to be a resource for both parents and educators to learn about comprehensive curriculum, the current sex education standards and where they are lacking, and to have the option to encourage legislators to change the standards so that comprehensive curriculum is a requirement for all students
Play-Based Learning for Academic, Social, and Emotional Growth in First Grade Students
Get PDFResearch has shown that play-based learning is beneficial for student growth and development in academic, social, and emotional skills. The professional development course designed for this project focuses on implementing a play-based learning pedagogical approach in first grade classrooms, in order to strengthen student social and emotional skills and increase academic knowledge. Play-based learning has been widely used and studied in preschool and kindergarten classrooms, but research on play and implementation at the first grade level is limited. The project involved creating professional development sessions that engaged teachers in play while learning best practices for creating change in their classrooms. The professional development sessions were created for first grade teachers, but are not standard specific and could be applied to other grades. The goal of this project is to help teachers create developmentally appropriate learning opportunities for students through collaboration and play