EDU 690 Spring 2017 Names and Links Introductions
Kelly Jasinowski
https://mastersprojectsite.wordpress.com/
What Kind of Impact Does Teaching Informational Text Have on Student Learning?
Incorporating informational texts in a primary aged classroom has many benefits. But why does it matter to the students? What good will it do for them? Informational texts expose young students to texts that they will see more of in the intermediate levels. This early exposure will help prepare them for what’s to come. It also helps prepare student to handle real-life reading; which they will do for the rest of their lives. If the Common Core’s main goal is to get students “college and career ready,” then having informational texts in the classroom makes perfect sense. This type of non-fiction reading can also be very appealing to readers’ preferences. When students are given the opportunity to read what they want to read, it can help improve their attitudes towards reading. Students are full of questions and their brains never turn off. Teaching informational texts can easily address students’ questions and interest; which can help motivate students to learn more. Besides informational texts being non-fiction and narratives being fiction, another major difference is the type of words found within. Informational texts can boost vocabulary and other kinds of literacy knowledge for students. In my opinion, the best way for students to learn how to read is while they are reading to learn at the same exact time.
I intend to explore my question, “What kind of impact does teaching informational text have on student learning” through the first grade curriculum. Within the writing curriculum, “Small Moments” better known as personal narratives are introduced first, followed by informational texts. This is a huge transition for young students. They are moving forward from “I”, “I”, “I” to learning through reading about the life around them. At the beginning of the next curriculum I would have my first grade students complete a quick and easy little survey on their feelings towards informational texts. This would give me a good idea to see students’ interests, if they enjoy informational texts, or whether or not they even know what informational texts are. From there, I would present a visual representation of a fictional book next to a non-fictional book. Seeing the books side by side would give the students a good idea on how they are different and what you use the different kinds of books to read for. For example, I might intend to teach a lesson on penguins; I could show the students a “Tacky” book and an informational book on penguins. Once students have an understanding of how informational books are set up (table of contents, headers, photographs, captions, glossary, etc.) and what they are used for, the goal of the curriculum would be for the students to create their own informational texts.
While examining my Master’s Graduate Research Project I expect others to realize, if they have not yet already, how vital having access to informational texts in the primary grades is. No two students are ever going to be the same. Within one given classroom, there might be a handful of students who love reading about princesses or robots; but there also might be a handful of students who want to know more about space or insects. Heck, there might be some students who can’t stand reading at all. It’s the teachers job to know their students and make sure they have access to every kind of reading out there. Find out what those students who don’t enjoy reading are interested in; more than likely, there is an informational book on the topic somewhere out there in the world. Get those books in the classroom and allow your students to become experts on a given topic. Once these students become more knowledgeable on a given topic, that’s when they gain their confidence and can take that information, and turn it into their own writing piece. Informational text is wonderful because the students can read about it and then it can tie into writing at the same time.
I’ve been in numerous primary grade levels over the past ten years and only within the past few years have I seen informational texts being taught. This early exposure might be a little “scary” for some students and even some teachers but it is necessary for success. It is important for teachers to think of the long run. Reading informational texts will prepare young students for the literacy demands that will be presented just a few short years later. It also doesn’t hurt to know fun facts about the world around us! Allowing students to become experts on something they care about is a very rewarding feeling for them and could change their outlook on the process of reading and writing.
Ann Klass
https://ackcheckpoint.wordpress.com/
Master’s Curriculum Research Project Introduction
Every year, I am faced with the same blank stares during my fifth-grade math class. My students continually ask me, “Why do we need to know this?” and “When will we ever use this stuff again in our lives?”. I spit back the same, rehearsed phrases of “just you see!” or “wait until you do your own taxes!”. But still, the same blank stares look back at me. I am not gaining interest. I have not made a connection.
It is my goal to create a Master’s Curriculum Research Project that allows my students to use the information they learn in math class and apply it to real life situations. I want my students to see when they will use these concepts again or why it is so important to know this stuff. It is my belief that when students see these skills applied to everyday life, they will be able to form a connection to the material. It will be meaningful to them. They will learn and have fun doing it.
My Master’s Curriculum Research Project will be entitled “My Simulated Life”. Within this project, my students will be able to take on simulated lives that guide them through banking, housing, transportation, investments, money management, food costs, the stock market, and taxes. They will be faced with unexpected events that they will learn to adapt to within their budget. Given all of these factors, the main goal of the project will be to live within the budget each profession gives them while providing for a family. They will experience, first hand, how difficult (and fun!) life can be, but more importantly, what a strong role math plays in all of it.
Research Questions
1. How can we gain interest in mathematics with middle school students?
2. How important is forming a connection to the material for students learning math?
3. Can real life connections make an impact on my students’ learning?
Methods with Anticipated Participants
It is my goal to work with fifth grade math students for this project. Given the standards of fifth grade math, I believe the topics align directly with the topics of this particular project. Students will be working with percents, decimals, measurement, addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and money management skills. I believe both boys and girls would have a vested interest in such project as well.
Anticipated Results
The goal of this project is to have students care about math. I want them to form a connection to the material and concepts. By having a greater outlook of how these topics impact their daily lives, I hope my students will pay closer attention and begin to be interested in math. Once they are interested, I believe they will have an easier time understanding and learning the concepts.
I also anticipate this project to be used by various math teachers within the middle school curriculum. The project can be taught throughout the school year or solely at the end. It will be easy to match the topics taught in fifth grade math to the topics of the project. Because of this, it allows teachers to use the project as the guiding force behind their teaching. Or, teachers can use this project as a final assessment to have students show off what they learned throughout the school year in a project format.
Amanda Gunn
https://amandagunnblog.wordpress.com
The research question I investigated is “What are the impacts of play and autism spectrum disorders? I chose this question because I have a family member that has autism and I could see that it effected his everyday life, especially when it came to being a “normal” kid because let’s be honest, he is not a normal kid!
My participants are children in a prekindergarten and children with ASD. These children would use the dramatic play centers to learn how to play together, solve problems, and become social with their peers. These dramatic play centers will benefit children with ASD and their classmates.
My results are that other teachers will use my Master’s Curriculum Project as a resource to help them possibly mainstream children with ASD into classrooms. They can use the dramatic play centers with their curriculum or on their own.
I can use my Master’s Curriculum Research Project in the future when I get my owl elementary classroom. Autism has been in my life since my cousin was diagnosed so I have been around it for 10 years.
I still hope that I can reach other special education teachers and parents who have children with ASD at home or in their classroom. My goal is to help people who come in contact with a child who has ASD.
In conclusion, I hope to gain insight on what I can do as an educator to help children with an autism spectrum disorder and children who do not have this disorder. I hope to be able to better myself as a teacher on this topic and be able to help students and parents who are going through this difficult diagnosis.
Katie Froom
https://katiefroom.wordpress.com/
Master’s Curriculum Research Project Introduction
You will often hear the term “learn through play” in an early childhood classroom but where is this play taking place? Outdoor play has a significant place in any classroom and especially in a preschool classroom. Outdoor play opens up a many facets of play for children such as imaginative play, physically risky play, as well as solo play. However, many schools are not providing an ample amount of outdoor play to their curriculum if any at all.
The purpose of this research project is to investigate through literature what impact outdoor play has on young children not just physically but cognitively? I will also be looking at which areas of development would be impacted through play out of doors?
This research project will be helpful for educators and parents of young children ages two to five (while focusing on a 3 year old preschool program) who would like more information on the impact outdoor play has on preschool-aged children. It will provide evidence as to why outdoor play is vital to the development of young children as well as give examples of how to implement outdoor play into a school setting. It will also give tips for educators and parents for outdoor play scenarios that will positively benefit children. This information will aide childcare teachers and caregivers of the importance of outdoor play and hopefully provide young children with more opportunities of outdoor play which has been shown to provide positive feelings, build confidence and physical strength, and increase one’s cognitive flexibility. These characteristics have been statistically proven to transfer to other aspects of an individual’s life as well.
Nicole Huntington
https://nicolehuntingtonblog.wordpress.com/
Project Introduction
Does the implementation of a project-based instructional approach in social studies increase student engagement and achievement?
This is a question that has plagued me for some time. Having reflected upon my own Social Studies experiences and identifying how much I disliked Social Studies, I am interested in exploring methods in which engagement and achievement can be increased. This is a question in which can apply to other content areas as well. Before beginning to seek out answers to this question, I wanted to see if I was alone in my dislike of the Social Studies content areas. When asking students to describe their impressions of their Social Studies classes, I have received responses ranging from “This is my favorite class” to “Social Studies is my worst class, why do we even need to learn about the past anyway?” Sadly, the latter is the more popular of responses. For me, my reasons were largely due to the way in which the class was taught. My teachers instructed with a lecture based model, supplemented with the text book. Needless to say, the text book was very hard to read and considerably boring. It seems that this is the case with many of our children today, they do not understand the material in the text book as it is boring and often they cannot understand half of the words in the text, and their teachers generally just lecture while they try to keep up with taking notes.
In order to assess the validity behind this question, I would like to use a mixed-method approach, utilizing both quantitative and qualitative methods. Ideally, I would focus this around the middle school grade levels of grade 7 and grade 8. In order to sufficiently measure achievement, I would be inclined to split my participants into two groups. In one group, I would offer the material via a lecture based model, using the text book as a supplement to primary sources, videos, and webpages. Students would be assessed using traditional multiple choice and short answer models. The other group would be instructed using the project-based approach in which they will examine primary sources, web pages, videos, and brief lecture or mini-lesson models. The majority of their assessment will be based upon projects that they will complete during the course of the term, with a multiple choice and short answer model exam at the end of the unit (note: this would be the same exam as the other group).
In a perfect world, I would anticipate to receive results indicating that the project-based learning group demonstrates higher levels of achievement than the traditional lecture based group. This research can be used to create curriculum implementation models for middle school Social Studies teachers. The ultimate goal would be that this can be adjusted and tailored to fit any of the content areas.
Ultimately the idea of making learning fun is one which plagues many teachers, by veering away from the lecture based instructional models and more toward project-based learning, students are given the opportunity to create their own questions, dig deeper, follow new leads, demonstrate learning in a variety of ways, and ultimately exhibit greater levels of achievement in their content area classes.