Arts - Buffalo State College

e further applied to lowercase letters. Utilizing these pictures,
classroom teachers could provide another way to expose children to
letter-sound connection.
Presentation Type and Session: Poster I
Developing Basic Mastery of Mathematics
For Elementary Students
Maria Horanburg, EDU 690: Master’s Curriculum and
Assessment Project
Faculty Mentor: Professor Coralee Smith, Elementary Education
and Reading
The purpose of this elementary education curriculum project
was to create a user-friendly, web-based teaching unit that focused
on mathematical notation and number value for young students and
their teachers. It is important for young learners to feel confident
and successful at the beginning stages of their education in order
to build on prior knowledge and see future success. Mathematics
notation and number value are two of the early concepts taught.
The goal of this project was to create an interactive web site for
elementary teachers so their students can master simple addition
and subtraction problems. Once students are able to master these
basic skills, they are given a much better chance to be successful in
their future math education. This project addressed this question:
What are effective ways of teaching and developing understanding of
math notation and number value in the early elementary classroom?
The web site address is http://elementarymathedu.wordpress.com/
Presentation Type and Session: Poster II
Does Readability Affect Student
Response?
Dawn Weihrich, SCI 690: Assessing Reading in Science
Faculty Mentors: Professor Joseph Zawicki, Earth Sciences and
Science Education and Professor Catherine Lange, Earth Sciences
and Science Education
This presentation will describe a pilot study that investigates how
readability affects student response on tests. To this end, I have given
urban students in the 9th grade different reading passages that have
different grade level readabilities. The students were given a reading
passage on the immune system with a readability at a high 7th grade
level versus a low 5th grade level and asked them six questions based
on the passage. To my surprise I found that they actually did better
on the higher-level readability passage. These students, however,
were made up of a high percentage of English language learners
and have low reading levels. There was not a significant difference in
the responses to make an accurate conclusion. So I decided to make
two more versions of the immune system passage; one was a low 4th
grade level and one was a low 4th grade level, but included a variety
of visuals in the reading. These were then given to the same students
and then analyzed to see if the responses were significantly different
from the first round of responses. The design of the study and the
initial findings will be shared.
Presentation Type and Session: Oral – Education
Education
Electrified Education
Jodie Bonnas, EDU 690: Master’s Curriculum and Assessment
Project
Faculty Mentor: Professor Coralee Smith, Elementary Education
and Reading
This study was conducted to guide a student in creating a
working circuit and discover items that conduct electricity, via
inquiry-based instruction. The study took place in a public library,
after school, over the course of several days. While at the public
library, electricity lessons were implemented with the goal of
amending the third grade student’s pre-determined misconceptions.
Ansberry and Morgan, E. (2009) advocated that students in grades
kindergarten through second grade should have a good grasp of
what the electricity in a circuit does. Based on pre-assessments the
third grade student did not have a solid conceptual understanding of
electricity. Before exploring electrical concepts at a third grade level,
this student needed to review previously taught electrical curriculum.
The three implemented lessons were based on kindergarten through
second grade electrical curriculum. The reported informational
data was gathered using teacher observations, student interviews,
rubrics, and post-assessments. The components of this study will be
displayed in an interactive technology based presentation. The web
site address is http://electricityunit.wordpress.com/
Presentation Type and Session: Poster III
Emergent Writing
Amanda Norton, EDU 690: Master’s Curriculum and Assessment
Project
Faculty Mentor: Professor Coralee Smith, Elementary Education
and Reading
This multi-media, web-based curriculum project was designed
using a six-week unit plan for Kindergartner students who are
beginning to learn about the identification of the letters, sounds
and written forms of the letters of the alphabet. The interactive
curriculum unit is aligned with the Common Core Learning
Standards. A detailed curriculum map is provided for the elementary
teacher to use. The provided lessons focus on each of the letters
of the alphabet using multi-modalities of learning and teaching.
Each lesson represents a different letter of the alphabet along with
the sound it makes as well as providing each letter with its upper
and lower case for the student to see and write. After the students
complete this web-based curriculum unit, the Kindergarten students’
ability to identify each letter, make the sound of each letter and to
write the letter can be assessed by multiple summative printable
assessments that are included in the curriculum unit. The web site
address is www.nortonsemergentwriting.wordpress.com/.
Presentation Type and Session: Poster III
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