Overview

As a graduate student, you have focused and continue to focus on developing a deeper understanding of your work in the classroom. Once you begin the Capstone course, you will spend several months creating a digital Capstone. The Capstone is created in lieu of a Master’s Thesis and is based upon experiences from classroom teaching and graduate coursework. It is a showcase of what you have learned as an educator.

The Capstones featured on this site were carefully selected to highlight the range of experiences and impact that our candidates have in their schools and broader communities. Keep in mind that while each Capstone is unique to a candidate's teaching placement, experiences, teaching philosophies, and overall format and design, each exemplar demonstrates the high academic and teaching standards of our program and the many ways our Candidates embodies transformational teaching and leadership.

How to use this site

Each exemplar was selected by Capstone coaches and program team. Each exemplar reflected the candidate's own design preferences; each exemplar on this site was reformatted for simplicity. All identifable information about candidates, their students, and their teaching placement have been removed to maintain their privacy.

When reviewing each Capstone, pay specific attention to:

Integration and application of coursework
The breadth of artifacts present, particularly student work samples
Alignment to the section's outcomes and requirements
Coherent narrative from start to finish, including analysis and reflections

Keep in mind that each section requires multiple rounds of revisions and feedback to earn a proficient score: The most successful candidates are those who submit a complete and well-developed section draft on time, implement feedback and revise their Capstone throughout the semester, and request "soft looks" (updated feedback) from their Capstone coach.

How to not use this site:

Candidates should not and are not expected to replicate a given exemplar; these are actual candidates' own intellectual work and teaching experiences in action. Each section is just one example of how a specific candidate chose to implement their coursework in their teaching placement and reflect on the work they have done.
However, candidates should expect Capstone coaches to refer to these exemplars as guides for a final, proficient section. For example, a Capstone coach may refer to an exemplar to highlight the effective use of referencing language or how artifacts are organized in relation to main bodies of text.