Term

Spring 2023

Capstone

Capstone Project

Degree Name

MAT

Facilitator(s)

Kelly Killorn

Content Expert

Emily Chambers

Abstract

By the year 2025, approximately 25% of U.S. public school students will be multilingual learners. However, many mainstream teachers have not received any development in supporting this particular group of students. This capstone explores best literacy practices for multilingual learners, multisensory learning, and teacher professional development to answer the focus question: how can multisensory instruction be utilized to add engagement and rigor in order to improve the literacy skills of multilingual learners between 5 - 8 years old who score between a 1.0 - 2.9 on the WIDA Access Assessment and are struggling with basic reading skills? Multisensory literacy instruction can be used to close the opportunity gap for multilingual learners who are struggling readers. The research concludes that dual coding theory explains how multisensory instruction can support struggling readers by activating working memory through both the phonological loop and the visual-spatial sketchpad, as well as increased repetition and review. This project is comprised of four hour-long professional development sessions in a series intended for all literacy teachers of multilingual learners. Through this development, teachers will increase their knowledge of multisensory instruction as well as their levels of self-efficacy in teaching multilingual learners.

Project Type

Professional Development

Keywords

ESL/ ELLs, Literacy, Teachers/ Teaching, Multisensory Instruction

dc_type

text

dc_publisher

DigitalCommons@Hamline

dc_format

application/pdf

dc_source

School of Education Student Capstone Projects

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