Term
Fall 2018
Capstone
Capstone Project
Degree Name
MALED
Facilitator(s)
Patty Bjorn & Maggie Struck
Content Expert
Megan Hanlon
Abstract
This capstone explores the question; How can visual thinking tools be used as a foundation for middle school student’s critical approach to understanding nonfiction texts? Although adolescent learners in the U.S. have greater literacy demands placed on them in the 21st century than ever before, some remain poorly prepared for the rigor of post-secondary education and many content area specific teachers lack instructional techniques to support student literacy in their field. As such, I was drawn towards visual learning tools as avenues to get my students thinking more critically about nonfiction text. Through these understandings, I have assembled a visual thinking toolkit that can be incorporated into instruction by any content-area teacher. Ideally, the student can learn one visible thinking strategy in science one week and apply that same strategy to understand a series of non-fiction texts for a social studies project the following week. The aim is for the instructional practice to center on the students’ needs. In doing so, the student can become the center of the literacy strategy. This project offers suggestions about how visual thinking tools can be the “swiss-army knife” of literacy instructional techniques and additionally a critical piece in supporting adolescent learners reach the ever-increasing literacy demands placed on them.
Project Type
Handbook
Keywords
Literacy, Reading, Teachers/ Teaching, Visual Thinking Tools
Recommended Citation
Lund, Anna, "Visual Thinking Tools To Enhance Nonfiction Reading Comprehension In The Middle School" (2018). School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects. 290.
https://digitalcommons.hamline.edu/hse_cp/290
dc_type
text
dc_publisher
DigitalCommons@Hamline
dc_format
application/pdf
dc_source
School of Education Student Capstone Projects