Term

Summer 2020

Capstone

Capstone Project

Degree Name

MAT

Facilitator(s)

Kelly Killorn and Susan Manikowski

Content Expert

Andrea Preppernau

Abstract

The goal of the literature review and project was to help secondary students improve reading proficiency by identifying influential instructional practice and creating a systematic professional development. The literature review revealed four influential themes that became the pillars of a systematic professional development to be implemented over a three-year period and provide secondary teachers with direct and explicit reading comprehension strategy instruction. Themes were as follows: students need reading comprehension strategy instruction (RCSI) in the content area secondary classroom to learn how to comprehend complex text, teachers need to use direct and explicit strategy instruction with a scope and sequence in order for the strategy instruction to be effective, students need to frequently use complex text as their main source of learning in the disciplinary classroom, and teachers need to be provided coherent, ongoing, and long-term professional development with the use of coaches in order to successfully instruct reading comprehension strategies. Students also need to have declarative, procedural, and conditional knowledge of a strategy in order to independently use strategies for improving comprehension. The professional development is divided into four segments: pre-work, workshop for teachers and administrators, coaching and collaboration, and post-work to measure the program’s efficacy. The project includes activity descriptions, templates, surveys, presentations, assessments, and coaching training materials needed for the PD implementation.

Keywords

Literacy, Reading, Teachers/ Teaching

dc_type

text

dc_publisher

DigitalCommons@Hamline

dc_format

application/pdf

dc_source

School of Education Student Capstone Projects

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