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ESL Curriculum: Oral Language Acquisition for Teaching Under-Privileged School-Aged Children of Hopeful Academy, Ibadan, Nigeria
Get PDFThis project is centered on the development of the ESL curriculum for teaching of oral language to under-privileged school-aged children of Hopeful Academy, Ibadan-Nigeria. It investigated the question “How does Poverty impact the Oral Language Acquisition of English by School-Aged Children in Nigeria?” The content-based learning approach and the input-based approach served as useful guides in designing this ESL curriculum. The materials, activities, and units of this ESL Curriculum are mostly based on the Total Physical Response (TPR) from the WIDA English Language Proficiency standards. Children’s poor environments prevent them from being exposed to higher quantity and quality language learning environments. Learners do not always learn the same way since they are influenced by age, gender, and motivation. Learners need flexible tools and techniques like lesson warm-up, classroom discourse, pairing and grouping of students, and visuals to learn effectively. Learners learn differently when they are exposed to authentic materials as opposed to memorizing rules and vocabulary words. Future research may examine how Kids Youtube influences the oral language acquisition of children ages one to five
Increasing Ocean Environment Awareness in Land-Locked Middle School Students
Get PDFAbstract The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has defined ocean literacy as an “understanding of the ocean’s influence on you — and your influence on the ocean” (NOAA, 2013). Students are future decision-makers and engaging them in ocean literacy is vital as they will continue to be confronted with climate change throughout their lives. This capstone project addresses the question: How can experiential education on the topic of coral reef restoration increase the investment of land-locked, middle school students in marine conservation? This document identifies how ocean literacy and marine science topics are poorly represented in school curricula despite the marine ecosystem — specifically coral reefs — being of utmost importance to the planet. This document also focuses on experiential learning as one of the best means to educate students, make an impact, and have them retain what they learn. The project involves a facilitator guide for assembling coral propagation tanks along with a 12-week, experiential learning project for students of growing corals to witness the effects of increasing ocean temperatures. The project is created from the Next General Science Standards and utilizes the backward design framework of Understanding by Design from Wiggins and McTighe (2011)
Inquiry-Based Astronomy Curriculum for the Online Setting that is Culturally Sustaining and Equity-Centered
Get PDFThe 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 that astronomy naturally lends itself to culturally sustaining instruction, but this opportunity is frequently overlooked. Throughout history, almost all cultures have studied the night sky, attaching their own stories and significance to the movement of the heavens. Studying the contributions to astronomy of different people groups helps students realize that astronomy is truly one of the oldest sciences with collaborators all over the world. Another important finding is that online instruction must balance differentiation with clear instruction. Offering too many options can actually be counterproductive and create confusion on exactly what is required. It is the responsibility of the educator to assess the needs of their learners and design activities that allow for student choice while still enabling all learners to meet tangible learning objectives
Developing Effective Resources To Maintain The Target Language Of A Dual Language Immersion Program
Get PDFDual Language Immersion programs (DLIPs) have been around for more than 60 years in the United States. DLIPs focus on teaching students subject matter in a second language. This project connects the topics and goals of dual language immersion education to a website that can be used as a source of practice for students that are no longer directly in an immersion program by investigating the question, “What supports can teachers put in place that students can use when they are not directly in a dual language immersion program?” The research intends to illustrate the importance of continued practice and personal motivation to maintain the second language skills students have worked hard to learn throughout a school year. There is a need for a space where students can enrich their learning safely and easily and this research and website design is made for that purpose
Supporting Upper Elementary Newcomer Students in the Areas of Speaking and Writing
Get PDFMultilingual students, especially those who are new-to-the-country, need access to language rich curriculum that meets their unique needs. There is not a one-size-fits-all approach on the best way to meet these needs and a lack of age-appropriate material led to the research question: “How can teachers best provide writing and speaking opportunities for upper elementary newcomer multilingual students in a content classroom?” A push to have language learners in the content classroom as much as possible regardless of English proficiency and grade level were driving factors in the creation of this fourth grade language arts curriculum project. This curriculum is a novel study for beginning proficiency students and builds on their oral language development while bridging to academic writing. The knowledge that oral language develops before written language is well known in the world of English language education, but how to take students’ current speaking abilities and bridging to more formal academic writing is less understood, especially when considering the proficiency levels of newcomer students. This project reviews literature surrounding current trends in English language instruction and reflects on these trends through a curriculum influenced by Pauline Gibbons’(2015) research on developing speaking and writing with multilingual students
Representation of Cultures and Languages in Children’s Picture Books
Get PDFThis 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 classroom libraries were books that were only in English. The major learnings I had were that classroom libraries have changed and now include electronic reading sources for students. Additionally, while there is still a lot of underrepresentation happening in classroom libraries, the white percentage was lower than in Dahl’s 2018 study and hopefully, books will continue to become more culturally diverse in who they represent
Students Writing Restorative Justice
Get PDFThe need for systemic change has never been stronger. Schools are at a breaking point. In the wake of the uncertainties of COVID and the injustice seen in the racial uprisings after the police murder of George Floyd of 2020, students are dealing with trauma that needs to be addressed in schools. The practices of restorative justice, when applied with a cultural shift within the schools, are powerful ways to support students in their healing (Morgan, 2021). Studies find that when students are at the center of creating a restorative system, it is more effective because it directly reflects the needs of those students (Darling, 2019). The research question for this project is: How can student-written lessons establish a culture of Critical Ethnic Studies and Restorative Justice in a middle and high school? This capstone explores how restorative justice practices are best integrated into a small urban secondary school, grades 6-12. The project explores how to create a curriculum that prepares students to take on leadership roles in that shift as activists and artists within a Critical Ethnic Studies class. The curriculum overview uses the Understanding by Design planning method (Wiggins and McTighe,1998), and includes two major units: The first unit uses Arts Literacy performance cycle (Landay and Wooton, 2012) and Theater for Social Change (Boal, 1985; Madell and Wolf, 2003; Rhod, 1998) as models of how to build community, develop safe space, and share about identity through the arts. In the second unit, students will examine a model activism unit in which they take the lead on sharing Restorative Practices (Boyes-Watson and Pranis, 2015) within the school by designing their own Social Emotional Learning lessons to teach to other students (Berger, Vilen, & Woodfin, 2000). Finally, students will then use the knowledge they gain in CES to create activism projects to make change in their own school community. The goal of the project is to promote student leadership in shifting schools towards a more just and equitable environment, and to embed restorative practices into a CES classroom itself
Subverting the Academic Language Hegemony: Implementing Language Architecture and Similar Pedagogies
Get PDFThe 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 for anti-racist education may be discovered and where the profession can uphold its commitment to truly honoring multilingual students
Trauma-Informed Mathematics: Using Portfolios to Promote Reflection and Resilience
Get PDFMathematics has a reputation for being abstract, complex, and for many, incomprehensible. In schools, it is common for students to dislike math and to feel self-conscious about their abilities or performance. The typical structure of math assessments, namely tests that are time constricted and highly stressful, creates a cycle of poor performance, disengagement, and high anxiety. This suggests that a new way of assessing students is needed, one that shows the fuller picture of students\u27 math capabilities. This leads to the research question: how can the use of portfolios in math class help students begin to heal from trauma or anxiety related to mathematics, while fostering resilience and flexible thinking skills? Topics explored include the causes and symptoms of math anxiety and trauma, as well as trauma informed teaching practices. The use of portfolios draws inspiration from an approach to mathematics education known as Habits of Mind, which emphasizes flexible thinking and problem solving skills rather than procedural calculations. Portfolios offer a holistic way of assessing students\u27 mathematical thinking and practices, while also utilizing a cycle of feedback and revision to help students reflect and see their own potential for growth. The culmination of this project is an outline for how portfolios can be implemented in a high school classroom, a rubric to assess student’s habits in the classroom, a rubric to assess student deliverables, as well as two surveys to gauge students feelings and attitudes around math. The goal of these materials is to facilitate open and meaningful discussion with students about their problem solving, and to document and celebrate their growth in both mathematical skill and confidence
Maximizing the Effectiveness of Peer Interaction in the English-Language Classroom
Get PDFThe research question addressed in this capstone project is the following: How can teachers maximize the effectiveness of peer-to-peer interactions in an English Language classroom at the secondary or post-secondary level? The paper documents this practitioner’s exploration of the research literature on peer interaction to discover what makes for high quality peer interactions and how various teacher-controlled practices can affect interaction quality. This document also follows the creation of a professional development presentation intended for English-language teachers to help familiarize them with the field’s current understanding of peer interaction and possible best practices in their classrooms. The topics of focus include: sociocultural theory and the interactionist approach, patterns of pair interaction, language-related episodes, the effects of peer familiarity, proficiency level, and linguistic background on dyadic interaction, teacher scaffolding of peer interaction, and the effects of various task types. Included with the project are the literature review of research, professional development presentation, participant workbooks, and a teacher’s guide for the presentation