Timeline
February 2022 – Present
Focus
The creation of leveled reading materials that integrate purposeful positive psychology topics with target reading skills in order to enhance students' well-being and academic success.
Methodology
Similar to the lessons developed for listening/speaking classes, these reading lessons focused on PERMA, character strengths, and mindfulness. Six template reading passages were leveled, revised, and piloted in an intermediate-mid level class during the summer of 2022. Then, guidelines and instructions were created so that additional materials could be added by others in the positive psychology team to determine uniformity of materials before publication.
Results
The reading materials will be added as part of the curriculum at the ELC and used in conjunction with the listening/speaking lessons already in place. A publication in EdTech books will be made available at the completion of this project for public use and contribution.
Importance
Research indicates many negative effects from the stress of learning environments and situations that students encounter. Positive psychology has shown many benefits for learners to have greater success. In addition, students need large amounts of text to read on interesting and relevant topics. This project not only allows students to read appropriate materials at their given levels, but gives them tools to succeed in their environment while doing so.