EDUCATION > RESEARCH
Student Research & Scholarship
Pamela Byrd Jordan , ‘06
Major: Elementary Education
Hometown: Waterloo , IA
The Road between an Urban School District and a Midwest Teacher Preparation College
Faculty Sponsor: Dr. Kathy Book, Assistant Professor of EducationThe Collaboration for the Advancement of College Teaching and Learning: Diversity Here and Now Conference A collaborative program jointly undertaken by Wartburg College and the Waterloo Community School District , the Walter Cunningham Memorial Teachers' Project helps nontraditional minority students attain a teaching degree in order to increase the percentage of minority teachers in the Waterloo School District . This presentation explained the details of this unique program between an urban school district and a private liberal arts college as the student and professor shared how two cultures have been bridged in order to place minority teachers in this urban school district.
Valerie Husbyn, ‘07
Major: Elementary Education
Hometown: Cannon Falls , MN
Erin Sponheim, ‘06
Major: Elementary Education
Hometown: Nora Springs , IA
Getting on Board with Adolescent Readers
Faculty Sponsor: Dr. Kathy Book, Assistant Professor of Education
32nd Plains International Reading Association Regional Conference
While the needs of early readers have garnered much attention, many of those readers are now enrolled in middle school. Approximately 75 percent of those students who experience reading problems in third grade still have problems reading as they leave middle school. In order to address those problems teachers need to identify the needs of struggling students. The focus of the presentation centered around four identified areas needed in order to build reading proficiency for struggling adolescent readers: motivation to read, the ability to decode print, comprehend language, and the ability to transact with text.
