Date of Conferral

2017

Degree

Doctor of Education (Ed.D.)

School

Education

Advisor

Alen Badal

Abstract

The students at 2 middle schools in County SD, NHMS and WMS are not scoring on or above grade level on the information text portion of the English Language Arts (ELA) standardized SC Palmetto Assessment of State Standards (SCPASS) test given annually in South Carolina. The teachers developed and implemented art-based anchor charts to help close the achievement gap among the 6th, 7th, and 8th grade students. There has been no formal exploration of the teachers' experiences regarding the use of anchor charts. Using the elements of problem-based learning as the theoretical framework, the purpose of this project study was to explore the teachers' experiences of art-based anchor charts on increasing students' comprehension on informational text. The research questions guiding this study examined the teachers' experiences and perceptions with using art-based anchor charts and the teachers' perceptions of which strategies are helpful in increasing comprehension on informational text. Using a single case study research design and purposeful sampling, 5 middle school teachers who used art-based anchor charts were interviewed. Open and axial coding were employed through transcribe interviews with iterative categorization to collapse the codes into themes then findings. The findings revealed that the anchor charts allowed for use of visuals, prior knowledge, art-based activities, and cooperative learning to create understanding and relevance to informational text comprehension were effective for engaging and encouraging high-level performance for students. The findings from this study may be used to assist the teachers when developing and implementing art-based anchor charts and with helping students increase their reading comprehension on informational text.

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