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"I Am An Island To Myself": How One Veteran English Teacher's Beliefs, Experiences, And Philosophy Translate Into Classroom Practice, Tara Jenkins Bruhn

Middle-Secondary Education and Instructional Technology Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate the beliefs, philosophy, and experience of a veteran English teacher and how each of these constructs informed her classroom practice. This research, conducted in a metropolitan high school in the South, provides insight into the way a veteran teacher believes, practices in her classroom, and relates to her greater teaching milieu. The study is theoretically framed in Greene's (1971) notion of "doing philosophy" in which a teacher makes meaning from her reflected, lived-through experience, and Applebee's (1996) notion of curriculum as conversation for the teaching of language arts discourse. Research indicates …

Nineteen Eighty-Four And The Poetics Of "Orthodoxy-Sniffing", Mark R. Myers

Student Work

Despite his reputation as a political writer, George Orwell exhibited an earnest appreciation for the aesthetic aspect of his craft while explicitly advocating creative independence for artists living in a hyper-politicized world. This paper explores Orwell's literary credo insofar as it matters amid an increasingly urgent flight of artists and critics into the nest of political orthodoxy. Sacrificing objective and query to “orthodoxy-sniffing” critics of his time dismissed writers and works of art whose politics clash with their own. Creative writers, too, sacrificed their artistic vision to the constrictive demands of party ideology. In this atmosphere, or well fashioned a …

Courting Disaster : Women, Romance, And Novels In Eighteenth And Nineteenth Century Britain, Beth J. Massie

Honors Theses

Society always fears that something is corrupting its youth and therefore dooming the future. In the late eighteenth century, British High Society believed that the sentimental and overly dramatic courtship novel was adversely affecting the actions of marriageable young women. In response to these fears, women writers of the early nineteenth century produced literature designed to guide young women safely and happily through the steps of courtship and marriage. The impact of British society's changing views on courtship and marriage combined with the fears raised by the courtship novel in the minds of older society transformed the courtship novel of …

Rumor, Gender, And Authority In English Renaissance Drama, Keith M. Botelho

Doctoral Dissertations

The dramatic works of Christopher Marlowe, William Shakespeare, and Ben Jonson register a certain type of male character who is capable of discerning listening, an action that becomes an agent of specific masculine authority and identity. However, rumor's inherent ambiguity and indeterminacy poses the greatest threat to discerning listening. The paradox that emerges is that while the drama posits men as superior authors of information, it is men---and not women---who are responsible for the circulation of unauthorized information and rumor on the stage. Early modern literary and cultural discourses repeatedly pointed to the dangers of loose tongues and transgressive speech, …

A Gold-Colored Background (English With Czech Accent), Mandy Alyse Kalish

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

As part of the degree requirement for an MFA in Creative Writing I am submitting an unpublished, original novel as my thesis. The novel is a first-person narrative of a woman from the Czech Republic. As the story develops, Data, the main character, comes to Las Vegas with her husband. The two eventually win a large jackpot, at which point the husband dies of heart failure and Zlata inherits all of the winnings. She stays in Las Vegas and eventually teams up with a tiny busboy to design and open her own hotel/casino on the strip. This novel is meant …

The Effects Of Computer-Assisted Language Learning On English Language Learners With And Without Disabilities In An Elementary School Setting, Christine Kay Beaird

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of the study was to investigate the effects of the English Language Learners Instructional System (ELLIS) on oral language, written language, and reading achievement among students who are English language learners with and without disabilities. Additionally, levels of teacher satisfaction with computer-assisted language learning (CALL) and the use of ELLIS were assessed. Participants were 78 third, fourth, and fifth grade students with and without disabilities enrolled in a public elementary school. All participants were of Hispanic descent and were identified as being Non- or Limited-English Proficient based on the Language Assessment Scales (LAS) (CTB Macmillan/McGraw-Hill, 1994). Twelve of …

The Impact Of Computer-Based Interventions With And Without Primary Language Support On Reading Skills Of English Language Learners, Catherine M Draper Rodriguez

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

Reading is the most important skill that English Language (EL) learners acquire in school (Slavin & Cheung, 2005). Success in reading has been shown to impact many areas of student social and economic opportunities (Peregoy & Boyle, 2005). Students who come to school with limited English proficiency have greater difficulty learning to read in English (Freeman & Freeman, 2004). With the rise in the number of EL learning students in schools, school districts are compelled to find ways to teach English literacy skills to students with primary languages other than English; This study had two purposes. The first purpose was …

Courting Disaster : Women, Romance, And Novels In Eighteenth And Nineteenth Century Britain, Beth J. Massie

Honors Theses

Society always fears that something is corrupting its youth and therefore dooming the future. In the late eighteenth century, British High Society believed that the sentimental and overly dramatic courtship novel was adversely affecting the actions of marriageable young women. In response to these fears, women writers of the early nineteenth century produced literature designed to guide young women safely and happily through the steps of courtship and marriage. The impact of British society's changing views on courtship and marriage combined with the fears raised by the courtship novel in the minds of older society transformed the courtship novel of …

A Case Study Of Public School Secondary Teachers Of English, Supervisors Of English, And School Administrators Awareness And Implementation Of Issues Of Moral Education Within The Canon Of Literature Presented In The Classroom Setting, Dennis M. Flynn

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

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Freshman Year English And Other Moments Of Discovery, Cassandra L. Boland

Theses

The following collection of personal memoirs takes place over a timeframe of fifteen years. Each essay is a narrative account of actual life events. Some stories are the typical coming of age accounts, but end with a twist. Al the conclusion of each essay, there is a short summary of how each experience influenced my personal growth. All essays share the common theme of ''self-discovery."

In order to show how these experiences contributed to this theme, the pieces have been arranged chronologically. This way, as you read you can see bow each event affects the next. For example, the story …