Week 3 Project Capstone Essay

Week 3 Project Capstone Essay

Instructions
Week 3 Project
In a Microsoft Word document of 2-3 pages formatted in APA style, you will describe the final proposal for your capstone project using the format below. Please note that the title and reference pages should not be included in the total page count of your paper.Week 3 Project Capstone Essay

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Introduction
The introduction establishes the scope, context, and significance of the research being conducted by summarizing current understanding and background information (literature) about the topic, stating the purpose of the work in the form of the research problem and research question(s), explaining briefly the methodological approach used to examine the research problem, and highlights the potential outcomes your study may reveal.

Problem Statement
A problem statement is the description of a currently existing issue which needs to be addressed with evidence-based interventions. The statement of the problem is the focal point of the research. Be sure to back up the noted issue/problem with evidence. Must include citations of evidence.

Research Questions
To help you formulate your research question or questions the following website may be useful: https://researchrundowns.com/intro/writing-research-questions/

One or two research questions for your capstone project are suggested. Based on the constraint of project length of 10 weeks you may not have time to address a multitude of questions. One research question may be sufficient for your project and will make your life a lot easier.Week 3 Project Capstone Essay

Methodology
The methodology section of a research paper answers two main questions: How were the data collected or generated? You must include when and how you will collect the pre-intervention data, what the intervention(s) is and when/how the intervention(s) will be implemented then how and when you will perform your post-intervention data measurement. Lastly, how the data will be analyzed. A friendly reminder that unless your project has gone through the IRB process you will not be allowed to collect data on more than 3 people. For data collection, you will choose 3 people from your aggregate.

Timetable
Develop a timetable considering the following questions:Week 3 Project Capstone Essay

When will your research start and finish?
Are there particular stages to the research – e.g. piloting, then main research? Screening interviews, then a main study? If there are stages, what are they?
What objectives have you set for this investigation? Are they addressed in the timeline?
Is the timetable realistic?
Is it influenced by external constraints or deadlines?
How will you provide regular updates and progress reports and to whom will you provide them? How will you demonstrate progress?
On a separate references page, cite all sources using APA format.

Use this APA Citation Helper as a convenient reference for properly citing resources.
This handout will provide you the details of formatting your essay using APA style.
You may create your essay in this APA-formatted template.Week 3 Project Capstone Essay

Learning has evolved over the years since the concept was first integrated into the curricula of contemporary schooling institutions. There is now a new concept which is known as Universal Design for Learning (UDL) (UDL At A Glance, 2010). Simply put, it is the process of improving academic achievement and retention through the usage of a variety of methods which are tailored by an educator to meet the specific needs of all students within his/her scope.

Title: The Life Cycle of Butterflies- Day 1

Subject: Science

Grade Level(s)- Pre-K – 2

Lesson Description

One of the lessons that utilizes the UDL is ‘The Life Cycle of Butterflies, Day 1’, which is a science lesson for students attending Pre-K-2 grade (CAST, 2011). The lesson is divided into two parts where the focus of the complete lesson is on the life cycle of butterflies which encompasses where they live, what they eat and a description of their growth stages. The lesson is designed in such a way as to enable students not only learn about the life cycle of butterflies but to also extend the knowledge learnt in the lesson to realize the differences between the butterflies’ cycle and other animals. The lesson is designed to engage the students in the learning process by being given a variety of opportunities to engage in activities that will enhance their uptake of knowledge about the subject matter. To this end, the first part of the lesson will explore and teach on the four stages of a butterfly’s life cycle.

Principle 1

One of the principles of meeting UDL guidelines is having multiple means of representation during teaching (Edyburn & Howery, 2014). In the presentation of the lesson, the teacher will use a variety of tools to present the life cycle of butterflies. Some of these include projection using an interactive software, a chalkboard or a whiteboard and leading the class in brainstorming sessions to pique the students’ interests and concentration. The brainstorming session will be a prequel to a class discussion where the students will organize and categorize the various ideas raised by their fellow students. Thereafter, the teacher will summarize the key points raised in the discussion then ask the students to draw what they presume the life cycle of a butterfly to look like.Week 3 Project Capstone Essay

One other way of encouraging multiple means of representation is by reading a book which describes the life cycle of butterflies (CAST, 2011). As the teacher reads the book, students are asked questions about the important stages of the life cycle of butterflies described in the book. Students should participate in class by answering questions appropriately. Use of the Functional Behavioral Assessment tool. The assessment tool is individualized for addressing student problem behavior. In this case, the tool will analyze the learning environment and provide a solution to what needs to be done to encourage positive behavior. As such, the tool captures current practices of the student and uses evidence-based techniques to provide interventional strategies that have worked in other student groups and are bound to work in this group. FBA-based interventions can be used to address various problem behaviors, such as disruptive and off-task behaviors, noncompliance, and inappropriate social interactions.Week 3 Project Capstone Essay

Furthermore, the teacher poses after reading about a stage to ask one of the students to write the name of that stage on the board. Conversely, the teacher asks the students to write the discoveries they are making as the reading is going on. The aim of this exercise is to enable the various students utilize their strong points in the lesson; some students could learn well by listening, drawing, visualizing or discussing with their fellows.

Principle 2

Use of multiple means of action and expression is one of the principles encouraged in the UDL lesson plans (UDL At A Glance, 2010). The teacher in this module provides the students with material such as audiobooks, websites or physical books with which they can advance their knowledge on the topic of discussion. Furthermore, the teacher asks the students to present their ideas either through drawings, discussions or stating out loud what they know concerning the life cycle of butterflies. The next step in the representation of the information learnt is by the teacher availing a set of cards which are akin to the life cycle of a butterfly. The students are then asked to sequence the cards according to their understanding of the life cycle of the butterflies.Week 3 Project Capstone Essay

Principle 3

The final guideline in UDL is the principle of engagement where students are given choices to fill their interests on the topic. The teacher in this model was aware of the different interests of the students and hence provided four learning centers in the classroom and the choice to either work alone or in pairs (CAST, 2011). The students have a choice of visiting two of the four centers as follows; the first center has physical materials like books, pencils, markers and crayons which the students will use to author their book on what they understand about butterflies; center two provides an opportunity for students to write about what they learnt; the third center has material which the students can use to make drawings representing the life cycle of butterflies and the last center is the graphic organizer where the students can use either words or pictures to complete maps representative of the life cycle of butterflies. The choice left to students will enable them to pick the method that they learn best and thus, they will have better understanding and retention of the subject matter.Week 3 Project Capstone Essay

Learning and Innovation Skills and Student Assessment

Introduction

The way learning is conducted in the contemporary 21st century is grossly different from other previous years. Institutions of learning have a set of objectives and goals that they should meet to ensure that learners are equipped for the job market of the current world. As such, it is of paramount importance to understand what the system requires of an educator to be conscious of the objectives of every lesson plan. In the current educational curriculum, the assessment of the educational outcomes is paramount to ensure that a student is grasping and meeting the required standards. To this end, this classroom management plan aims at explaining the mastery of MAED program learning outcomes (PLO 1, 2 and 3) through the use of assessments. It is a summary of the redesign of a previous lesson plan so that it incorporates all the necessary assessment that analyze the students’ grasp of learning and innovation skills to ensure that they are meeting the educational outcomes.Week 3 Project Capstone Essay

Summary- Modification

The age that we live in is one of the new ideas and concepts that encompass various aspects of the educational spectrum, as such, educators are the proponents of instilling the purposes of self-improvement in their students. The current 21st century demands a myriad of skills that the workforce is expected to have on completion of their educational curriculum and as such, the education system has some goals and expectations that each student should attain at the end of their study. To this end, I have ensured that my lesson plan captures the necessary modifications that are in line with PLO 1, 2 and 3. An example of doing this is when I redesigned my lesson plan to allow for assessments that will be conducted regularly. The assessments will also be inclusive of those with disabilities whereby they will be graded differently. I did this by creating the necessary conditions that ensure the students utilize their learning abilities even in instances where they have challenges; for example, students with learning disabilities and therefore have special needs as described under PLO 1, 2 and 3 (Wilcox, Rutherford Turnbull III & Turnbull, 2016).Week 3 Project Capstone Essay

Summary-Evaluation

It is essential to have in place an authentic assessment tool to evaluate each student’s abilities to understand what they require to attain the needed educational outcomes for their grade level. As such, assessment is an essential tool that supports the attainment of educational outcomes for students in a particular class. To assess my students’ abilities, I will employ the use of oral interviews, class discussions and giving them tests on various topics to evaluate their grasp of the content taught in class. The assessment that I will use will entail a Functional Behavioral Assessment (FBA) which is an assessment tool for checking individualized student problem behavior. In this case, the tool will analyze the learning environment and provide a solution to what needs to be done to encourage positive behavior. As such, the tool captures current practices of the student and uses evidence-based techniques to provide interventional strategies that have worked in other student groups and are bound to work in my class. FBA-based interventions can be used to address various problem behaviors, such as disruptive and off-task behaviors, noncompliance, and inappropriate social interactions (Institute of Education Sciences, 2016). The tool will evaluate the students’ grasp of the relevant concepts that will enable them to navigate the various demands of the 21st century both in school and afterwards. The support system is ideal for giving students the necessary support during multiple assessment sessions. The evaluation will provide an insight into the relevant skills that the support system requires that I analyze during various sessions of assessment.Week 3 Project Capstone Essay

Summary-Reflection

Going about my previous lesson plan has accorded me a chance to revise my 21st-century learning and teaching concepts that I should always incorporate in my future and present lesson plans. The first thing that I noticed as I went through the redesign was that most of the concepts and ideas enshrined in the 21st-century teaching and learning fundamentals are often looked over in most lesson plans. Secondly, it enabled me to understand the importance of these fundamentals and concepts in not only the educational context but also in other situations which require the use of some of these skills. One of the areas that the fundamentals are essential even after schooling is in the student’s ability to allow students to plan for their improvement through instructional planning. A student understands their weak points and creates a plan to work on them to improve in them. The instructional planning encompasses more than merely an educational context, and therefore, it will impact the lives of my students even after the completion of the educational curriculum. Thirdly, I realized that creating a lesson plan that is in line with the 21st-century fundamentals and concepts of teaching and learning is not only enjoyable but also easy to do. As such, I will always ensure that my lesson plans to meet the set standards because it is a simple thing to achieve.Week 3 Project Capstone Essay

It was, however, demanding to go about the modification because I had to research scholarly articles on topics of current educational outcomes and requirements for the educator. Studying on the relevant items was not an easy fete, it required a lot of concentration and time to arrive at the right material that would enable me to affect the right changes in the redesign of the lesson plan (Webster, Cumming & Rowland, 2016). Furthermore, 21st-century teaching strategies demand more from educators as they are the elements of transition from the old system to the current one. The implication of this is that educators have to do more than the previous ones would do. An example of this is when I had to go through a mountain of research articles to come up with the right strategies to ensure that my students get the most out of my lesson plans.

Conclusion

To sum up the redesign process of my lesson plan, I realized that it is essential to assess students’ grasp of the pertinent skills that they should have as required by the curriculum. The assessments captured will enable the students to identify their weaknesses and thus, aid me to understand what the areas that I should focus on. The redesign has captured all the relevant tools necessary to accommodate for the changes that are necessary for meeting the current educational fundamentals and concepts. The primary attributes that I focused on in the lesson plan focused on the students’ grasp of PLO 1,2 and 3 to ensure that their diversity is turned into a sharp point.Week 3 Project Capstone Essay