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Using Video Games To Teach Social Studies, Model Careers, And Develop Environmental Identities Within Our Classrooms
Get PDFDecades of research point towards great, but unfortunately untapped, potential video games provide classrooms for meaningful learning and enrichment. Despite a lot of academic thought being poured into the subject of video games’ educational value, we do not see them being used commonly within classrooms or even cohesively studied as different games are focused on and successes are measured in non uniform ways. The content created for this project focuses on taking much of the academic foundation or merit of learning through video games and advocates them to a general audience alongside modern games that exemplify learning principles covered. The video game landscape evolves quickly so the important works of academics such as James Paul Gee or David Williamson Shaffer are still incredibly valid in providing an academic validity to video game play, but more recent games and ideas were included to update and support their work. In addition to addressing video games being used within classrooms in general, they are evaluated through the specific lenses of teaching social studies concepts, modeling potential student careers, and developing environmental identities. The research and prominent findings lead to the creation of the Low Five Education Project within the website Lowfivegaming.com. The Low Five Education Project is a series of multimedia creations including a video essay, written articles, and podcasts that teach a general audience about the many ways of which players learn when playing games while advocating for their greater use in schools alongside recommendations and advice to do so properly
Maintaining and Retaining the Home Language While Learning English
Get PDFThe 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 being able to speak, read, and write in English more than in their home language, many of these students are ELL students and academically behind. With the creation of a website to support the research question “How can school personnel at a Hmong school help students retain their Hmong language and learn English effectively?” school personnel will be able to learn more about their Hmong students and gain new strategies to support them
Implicit Racial Bias and Placement Processes in Education
Get PDFThe awareness of implicit bias has grown significantly since 1977. Its subconscious and automatic processing effects are found to be significant factors in explicit action and attitudes in schools. There is an increased need for creating an equitable schooling experience for students in schools. Current literature suggests that there is a significance in teacher implicit racial bias in the classroom which leads to the inequity and disproportionality of exceptionality classes. A noted disproportionality in race for exceptionality classes in both Individuals with Disabilities Act and Every Student Succeeds Act urged the question: How can teachers’ recognition of their own implicit racial bias impact the equity of student placement into exceptionality programs? A professional development workshop was created to bring awareness to this topic; its function and applicability is explained. The workshop consists of a website platform that offers a nine week course to provide information on a teacher’s implicit racial bias. The professional development workshop has implications for all staff members who are involved with student placement
Implementing Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy Through the Use of Music in the ESL Classroom
Get PDFIn a time when progressive educators in the United States are increasingly motivated to develop their pedagogies to embody anti-racist and culturally sustaining teaching practices, there is demand for authentic curricula that ground these theories in practice. One core component of Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy is teaching in a way that puts students’ lived experiences at the center of their learning. However, finding curricula that center student choice in an authentic, culturally sustaining way can be a challenge. Music, being a meaningful component of personal identity and culture for most people beginning in adolescence, provides a means to craft such curricula. By incorporating music into the high school ESL classroom, educators can leverage it to help secondary students with the process of English language acquisition. This project has been developed to answer the question of how a culturally sustaining curriculum can incorporate the use of student-selected music into the process of English acquisition
Together In Discussion: Creating Space And Inspiring Conversation To Support Underrepresented Adolescent Student Identity Development
Get PDFThis capstone addresses the question: How can same-identity peer groups impact adolescent development? The paper focuses on research around adolescent identity development and exploring affinity groups and other safe spaces that are options for schools to implement. There are many different theories on adolescent identity development, social development being an important part of a teen’s identity development, but what about students that do not have peers that they can easily identify with? How can they safely explore and develop their identity? The project is a curriculum guide that helps support adolescent identity development, the curriculum is geared for high school students that are adopted. It is created to follow a nine week trimester schedule, with a lesson plan and other curriculum materials for each week. The use of an affinity group that consists of adopted adolescent exploring their identity can have lasting impact on their overall development
Effective Reading Strategies for Multilingual Learners in the Mainstream Classroom
Get PDFThis 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 feel confident that they are supporting language and literacy development simultaneously. The project that was created after analyzing the research was a resource website designed to offer examples, visuals, videos, explanations, and tools to help mainstream teachers and multilingual learner program leaders implement a more inclusive and supportive learning environment. A few key takeaways from the creation of this website were the importance of creating language rich environments that seek to offer multiple entry points for language learners to access the content and the integral role a diverse book can play in the inclusion of other cultures, backgrounds, and experiences that are reflective of a wide-range of voices. The goal of this website and paper is to help educators and leaders build their competence and grow their confidence in the area of multilingual learner education
Effective Teacher-Parent Communication Tools To Empower Families To Be Active In Their Children’s Learning
Get PDFCreating an environment that is conducive for learning is an essential component of education. In search of ways to achieve this goal through family engagement the question was posed, How can educators effectively communicate with families to empower them to take an active role in their child’s learning? Research has demonstrated that there is a link between student success and teacher-parent partnerships through one way and two way communication methods. The project involved creating a set of resources for educators to foster and maintain teacher-parent partnerships with the goal being student success. The resources are accompanied by a professional development session to provide educators with the rationale and motivation for the resources to be utilized. The goal of the project is to give elementary school teachers the tools they need to successfully connect with parents to create strong partnerships for students\u27 social and academic success
The Impact of Climate Change Education in an Outdoor Classroom on Middle School Students\u27 Attitudes and Understandings Towards Climate Change
Get PDFThis capstone paper and project seek to answer the question: how does learning about climate change in an outdoor classroom impact middle schoolers’ attitudes and understandings toward climate change? The most effective methods to teaching climate change include a place-based, multidisciplinary approach with high levels of inquiry and engagement. When students learn outdoors, they also engage in place-based learning that is highly inquiry based. Combining climate change education with outdoor education is an effective way to approach climate change education. Through use of the Learning Cycle and Understanding by Design, a unit on ecosystem dynamics, biodiversity, and ecosystem services was developed. This fifteen day unit is to be completed entirely in an outdoor classroom while still in the formal middle school setting. The unit meets the middle school Next Generation Science Standards for life science and includes a summative assessment. While none of the life science standards directly address climate change, students learn about climate change through threats to ecosystems and biodiversity. This project provides a framework for further development of outdoor units addressing climate change under NGSS
Courage Under Fire: Culturally Responsive Teaching In A Divisive Time
Get PDFThis capstone addresses the question: How can educators create culturally responsive and sustaining classrooms and curriculum that best reflect students while navigating the rapidly changing public perception of cultural relevance in the classroom? Based on one educator’s experience with a public reaction to culturally responsive practices in their classroom, the project seeks to examine the work being done in classrooms to help students examine and honor the culture they experience every day through education. Included in the project is a literature review addressing the history and progression of culturally responsive teaching, the impacts of culturally responsive pedagogies in the classroom, and the current climate around culture in schools. Also included is a professional development seminar designed for current and future teachers. The professional development examines the experience of the aforementioned teacher through the framework of transformative learning, drawing on the personal experience of the aforementioned educator’s journey through and reflection on their own values in teaching.The professional development is designed to help teachers examine their practices and consider their purpose in the face of increasing opposition to culturally responsive work in the classroom
Linguistic Justice in Peer Tutoring
Get PDFAcademic standards in higher education often require students to conform to Standard American English language practices—a linguistically unsound approach to language use that can be harmful to multilingual and multidialectal learners. Peer tutors in Writing and Tutoring Centers often find themselves enforcing these standards without reflection. This capstone project addressed the following questions: How have the monolingual language policies of the U.S. education system encouraged linguistic biases? How might linguistic biases lead to inequitable outcomes for multilingual students? What training and education can be provided to peer tutors to critically reflect on and begin to address these inequities while tutoring peers in a college context? The product resulting from this line of inquiry is a 5-unit linguistic justice curriculum organized around the themes of monolingual language ideology, language myths, language bias, communicating across difference, and student-empowering tutoring strategies of code-meshing and translanguaging