Education Commons^™

Evaluating The Intersection Of Continuous Growth And Assessment In The Field Of English As A Second Language, Madison Johnson

All Graduate Reports and Creative Projects, Fall 2023 to Present

This teaching portfolio contains a compilation of the author’s personal teaching experiences and research interests while in the Master of Second Language Teaching (MSLT) program at Utah State University (USU). The sections of this portfolio highlight collaboration with current USU professors in the field of teaching English as a second language and the author’s personal experiences working in a second-grade elementary school classroom as well as teaching English in a community education setting. Much of the mentioned research focuses on the subfield of second language assessment. This is an area of interest to the author as an area for personal …

Improving Second Language Learning Through Performance-Based Assessment Practices, Maria Granados

Dissertations

From the time of the No Child Left Behind Act (2001) to the present day, standardized testing has become the benchmark measure for student assessment and school accountability in the United States. Multilingual learners are a vulnerable population with more testing and accountability requirements than mainstream students. Not only are they required to learn a second language, but they are also assessed within the same standardized testing paradigms as their peers - native speakers of the English language. This study aimed to examine and evaluate the benefits of instructional practices and assessments that provide multilingual students and teachers prompt and …

“My Work Doesn’T Need To Be Perfect As Long As The Effort Is There”: A Case Study Of Multilingual Student Perceptions Of Labor-Based Grading Contracts In The First-Year Writing Classroom, Allison M. Hosman

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Recent developments in the fields of both TESOL and Composition indicate a need for conceptualizing and developing assessment practices that support the needs of multilingual writers that are in line with the aims of justice-oriented pedagogies. One such specific pedagogical practice, assessment, has been proposed as an area of pedagogy in which to operationalize approaches that maintain and sustain justice in the multilingual composition classroom. Although contract grading, and more specifically labor-based grading contracts, have been at the center of such recent conversations, few investigations have centered multilingual students, asking how they perceive and understand such an assessment method in …

Feedback To Feed Forward: Creating Formative Feedback To Improve Student Writing, Adam R. Huttenga

Culminating Experience Projects

Feedback to students has been highlighted in the literature as an area where improvements are needed. Students need high quality, specific, usable, and timely feedback. They also need guidance and tools to help them engage with, reflect on, and learn from that feedback in order to close the gap between their writing and the expected standards. In order to help students improve their writing, teachers must develop written feedback that is formative and feeds forward into future writing assignments. This project explores how effective formative feedback can be achieved within a social constructivist theoretical approach to learning, in which an …

Evaluating The Effectiveness Of Thompson’S (2105) Survey Of Language Usage And Spanish Of Heritage Learners Placement Program Exam At The High-School Level, Elizabeth Villanueva

Doctoral Dissertations

Language placement test serve with multiple purposes to measure the language abilities and performance of language learners to place them in the most appropriate language course with curriculum that best meets the language needs. There is the need to assess appropriately the Spanish heritage language learners’ (SHLLs) abilities at the high-school level. Therefore, this mixed-method study investigated how Thompson’s (2015) modified Yes or No 10-question Survey of Language Usage (Survey) and the three part Spanish for Heritage Language Learners Placement Program Exam (Placement Test) could be used effectively with three Spanish class levels of HLLs at the high-school level to …

Formative Space: Literacy Practices In 21st Century Curriculum Making, Mary C. Ott

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Partnerships for 21st Century learning support curricular reforms for global, cross-disciplinary competencies that will leverage and benefit education technologies. However, this research partnership with a literacy program developer occasioned an opportunity to study curriculum making in the 21st century that did not make assumptions about technologies and competencies. The integrated thesis based on this project pushes boundaries on how assessment and curriculum making are conceptualized by exploring broader questions of inquiry and participation through literacy and assessment practices in six junior elementary classrooms in Ontario, Canada, over a two-year period. Chapter 1 provides the background and purpose of the study …

Second Language Acquisition And Standardized Assessment Practices, Hal Scott Schmeisser

College of Education Theses and Dissertations

Throughout the history of the United States, tests have been utilized as a means to exclude and marginalize immigrant and minority populations, and in the absence of a national language policy have served as de facto language policy. English Learners (ELs) have been among the fastest-growing student populations in the United States, comprising a heterogeneous group with different cultural and linguistic backgrounds. Research findings concerning the assessment of ELs highlight a significant difference in the academic performance of these students from that of their native English speaking classmates. ELs face a substantial hurdle in learning both English and academic content …

The Role Of Grammar Knowledge For Identifying Language Needs, Anne Toolan Rowley

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

The focus of the study was an interest in discerning the relationship between grammar knowledge and its application for evaluating grammar development at different academic and professional stages. A 3-part questionnaire was completed by first and last semester Communication Sciences and Disorders (CSD) graduate students, and practicing speech-language pathologists (SLPs). The first section gathered data related to educational background, perceptions related to grammar knowledge, and recall of undergraduate instruction on grammar topics. A Grammar Test (GT), which reviewed typically developing grammar elements and sentence structures, and a Language Sample Analysis (LSA) comprised the latter two sections. With this data, the …

Improving Reading Skills, Patricia L. Greene

Honors Theses

This study was undertaken as an aid for improving basic reading skills through the use of the Reading Lab instructed by Mrs. L. Durkee. This was thus a developmental project in reading.

Specifically stated the purposes of this study were: (1) to increase reading rate; (2) to increase the use of words through vocabulary building; and (3) to improve reading comprehension.

The approach here is one of practicality rather than theoretical. The course of study was therefore geared from the particular deficiencies of the student to improve reading skills. This afforded flexibility on the parts of the instructor and the …

The Effects Of Systematic Phonics And Contingency Management On Reading Achievement With Intermediate Special Education Students, Allena Marie Hayes Combelic

All Master's Theses

This paper presents a study of the effects of systematic phonics and contingency management on reading achievement with intermediate special education students. The thirtysix week program was divided into four phases. The four equivalent forms of the Gray Oral Reading Tests were used as measuring devices. No statistically significant results were found by using the Gray Oral Reading Tests as measuring devices. Statistically significant results were found on graph data.

Recommendations included: (1) the use of different reading tests other than the Gray Oral Reading Tests as measuring devices and (2) that the study be conducted longer than thirty-six weeks.