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Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities

Read Fest: Academic Library Programming For Pre-Kindergarten Students, Laura Wright, Michael Holt Oct 2012

Read Fest: Academic Library Programming For Pre-Kindergarten Students, Laura Wright, Michael Holt

The Southeastern Librarian

Three factors influence an academic library’s decision to interact with the community; a need expressed from the community, the mission of the library, and a response to a specific problem (Schneider 2003). Odum Library at Valdosta State University (VSU) developed Read Fest in response to a perceived need in the community and in support of the library’s mission. Historically, South Georgia has had a high illiteracy rate; according to the National Center for Education Statistics most recent (2003) estimates, an average 22% of residents in Lowndes County and its neighbors lack basic literacy skills. Read Fest is an opportunity for …


Linguistic Discrimination In Writing Assessment: How Raters React To African American “Errors,” Esl Errors, And Standard English Errors On A State-Mandated Writing Exam, David M. Johnson, Lewis Vanbrackle Jan 2012

Linguistic Discrimination In Writing Assessment: How Raters React To African American “Errors,” Esl Errors, And Standard English Errors On A State-Mandated Writing Exam, David M. Johnson, Lewis Vanbrackle

Faculty Articles

Raters of Georgia''s (USA) state-mandated college-level writing exam, which is intended to ensure a minimal university-level writing competency, are trained to grade holistically when assessing these exams. A guiding principle in holistic grading is to not focus exclusively on any one aspect of writing but rather to give equal weight to style, vocabulary, mechanics, content, and development. This study details how raters react to “errors” typical of African American English writers, of ESL writers, and of standard American English writers. Using a log-linear model to generate odds ratios for comparison of essays with these error types, results indicate linguistic discrimination …