Education Commons^™

Ballot Readability And Plain Language, Roger Poole

Master of Arts in Professional Writing Capstones

The goal of this study was to examine the effect that readability and plain language had on voters' responses to Georgia's five legislatively-referred constitutional amendments (LRCA) in the November 2018 election. This study sought to answer the following questions regarding ballot readability and plain language:

1. Do voters distinguish the difference between traditionally composed ballots and plain language ballots?
2. Do voters have a preference between conventional worded ballots and reworded ballot language that improved readability?

Given that partisan lawyers and lobbyists write many state ballot questions, there may be tendencies to compose legislatively-referred constitutional amendments in confusing and unclear language designed …

This Is Me: Anxiety And Depression Awareness Event, Stephanie Cotrone

Honors Projects

College and life are stressful, but they don't have to be. We've all been in that place where it feels like life is caving in and there's nowhere else to turn, but it does get better. This event brings awareness to mental illnesses common on college campuses and in the community. There will be engaging and interactive activities to learn about anxiety & depression, and healthy ways to cope through music, art, theatre, amusement parks, learning, reading, and more. Performances by the Humanities Troupe and testimonies by current students who have had experience dealing with mental illness before or who …

Hermeneutics: A Literary Interpretive Art, David A. Reitman

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis examines the historical traditions of hermeneutics and its potential to enhance the process of literary interpretation and understanding. The discussion draws from the historical emplotment of hermeneutics as literary theory and method presented in the Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism with further elaboration from several other texts. The central aim of the thesis is to illuminate the challenges inherent in the literary interpretive arts by investigating select philosophical and linguistic approaches to the study and practice of literary theory and criticism embodied within the canonical works of the Anthology. The narrative begins in ancient Greece, traverses …

Teaching English Language Arts: Implementing A Project-Based Learning Approach, Nashwa Elkoshairi

Master of Arts in English Plan II Graduate Projects

Teaching English Language Arts: Implementing a Project-Based Learning Approach

Abstract

This portfolio includes four projects that are woven together to explore topics in teaching literature and composition using a project-based learning pedagogy. The first project, “Literature & Social Cognition: Why Read Fiction?” sets the groundwork for the importance of literature in academia through a brief analysis of Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. The second project, “Grappling with Consumerism by Tapping into Freud’s Uncanny: Using Coraline for a PBL Approach” explores Coraline through the critical lenses of the uncanny and Marxism to guide students through a variety of texts including …

Barriers To Bilingual: How Students Participate In Spanish And English Classes, Bailey Strahan

Masters of Education in Teaching and Learning

While participation has been linked to achievement in the classroom, various external factors can change students’ willingness to participate. In this study the researcher sought to discover what participation looks like in regards to one of these factors, language. Additionally the researcher wanted to discover what students and teachers in a bilingual program thought of their own participation in regards to language. Through the use of surveys, interviews, and observations over the course of several weeks, the researcher was able to determine that many factors including student motivation, preferences, resources available, and misunderstanding all contribute to their willingness to participate …

More Than Just A Myth: How Shapeshifter Rhetoric Relates To Esl Students 2019, Amber Kent

Master's Theses

The academic analysis surrounding the shapeshifter, or shapeshifter mythologies has, so far, been related to modern issues of violence, militarization, feminism, gender studies, or studies simply focusing on the compilation of shapeshifter myths themselves. This essay will map out the current discussion surrounding shapeshifter mythology to illustrate that it has often fallen into two forms of analysis: that of an anthropological or sociological analysis, where shapeshifter myths were analyzed as a method for understanding different cultures and their development, and that of a poststructural analysis, where shapeshifter myths are analyzed as a means of deconstructing binaries such as good/bad and …

The Impact Of A Teacher’S Implementation Of The Readworks Digital Reading Program On Second Graders’ Reading Fluency And Comprehension Test Scores, Cynthia Molina

Teaching & Learning Theses & Dissertations

Since elementary school student performance on the end-of-year summative Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) Standards of Learning (SOL) reading test is vital in impacting school accreditation, computer-assisted instruction has become popular. Online reading programs have existed in many elementary schools in Norfolk Public School district since 1996, such as Breakthrough to Literacy (McGraw-Hill Companies, 2002), Istation in 2014 (Mathes, Torgesen, & Herron, 2015), and the i-Ready program from 2015 to 2017 (Curriculum Associates, 2014). The problem is that there is insufficient empirical research supporting the use of the ReadWorks program at several Norfolk, Virginia’s elementary schools.

The purpose of this …

Propuesta Para La Animación A La Lectura Dirigida A Niños Y Niñas Que Conviven Junto Con Sus Madres En Contextos De Reclusión, Andrea Carolina Pedraza Pinilla, Adriana Del Pilar Cubillos Cubillos

Sistemas de Información, Bibliotecología y Archivística

La presente propuesta de investigación es creada con el fin de dar a conocer cómo, a partir de la bibliotecología se puede llevar a cabo una propuesta de animación a la lectura con niños y niñas que conviven con sus madres en contexto de reclusión, teniendo en cuenta principalmente a Colombia y basándonos en diferentes conceptos y manejos que tienen algunas cárceles de Latinoamérica como (Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Perú), contribuyendo a un proceso de resocialización y de reinserción en la vida social de esta comunidad infantil que están tras las rejas con sus madres. Por consiguiente, esta investigación es desarrollada …

The Relationship Of English Language Scores On International Students' Academic Success, Rebekah Shbeeb

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

International graduate students at the University of Central Florida (UCF) are not completing graduate programs at the same rate as domestic graduate students. One of the main differences in the admissions process for international graduate students compared to domestic students is the English language test requirement. The purpose of this study was twofold: to test if the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) or the (International English Language Testing System) IELTS scores have any statistically significant linear relationships to international graduate students' academic success as defined by their cumulative grade point average (CGPA). Secondly, this study sought to …

Phenomenological Study Of Urban Elementary Teachers With Proficient English Language Learners, Tracy Webley

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative, phenomenological study was to explore the lived experiences of fourth grade teachers working in a large urban school district, where the achievement gap between English Language Learners (ELLs) and non-ELLs was smaller when compared to other schools within the district. The problem originated from the need to consider factors beyond teacher training that potentially influenced academic achievement. The research question guiding this study asked: What are the lived experiences of 4th grade teachers who have taught at identified elementary schools, where ELL students have demonstrated proficiency on the ELA portion of the state standards assessment? …

Implementing Reading Strategies With Ell Elementary Students, Nelofar Khamisani

Masters Theses

This study shows the challenges the English Language Learners face in learning reading at the Elementary level; implementing reading strategies for them; and choosing effective strategies for the students to learn reading more easily. The findings of the study show that teachers use different strategies according to the language proficiency level of the students. ELL students face challenges in communication, pronunciation, sound recognition, and vocabulary. As a strategy to overcome these challenges, the teachers emphasize learning phonics and vocabulary. Observations of three teachers in three mainstream classrooms show that teachers implement nearly similar strategies for teaching phonics and vocabulary. The …

Reading Perceptions Of Hispanic English Language Learner Families In New York City, Ligoria Berkeley-Cummins

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Historically, Hispanic English language learners (ELLs) in the United States have had low reading achievement and low high school graduation and college entry rates, which has limited their employment opportunities. Although research indicates parental involvement is important to reading success, little is known about Hispanic ELL parents' perspectives on their children's reading development. The purpose of this basic qualitative study was to understand how parental involvement in 3rd grade Hispanic ELLs' reading development, as perceived by their families, may contribute to these students' reading proficiency. The framework for this study was Hedegaard's model of children's learning and development. The participants …

Instructional Reading Practices For Third Grade African American Males, Kimberly Dawn Whaley

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

African American males often struggle to read on grade level. However, 3 East Texas Title I schools demonstrated exceptionally high levels of reading proficiency with this population. This study addressed the knowledge gap of understanding the instructional practices linked to high reading achievement of third grade African American males in Title I schools in East Texas. Guided by Ladson-Billings's theory of culturally relevant pedagogy, which builds upon academic success, cultural competence, and development of critical consciousness, and supported by Vygotsky's theory of social and cognitive constructivism, the reading instructional practices of the 3 schools were investigated. Research questions focused on …

Promoting English Fluency Through Peer Feedback And Dialogue Journals In An Esl College Classroom, Sarah L. Stone

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

This study investigated research methodologies which were proven to be successful in promoting English fluency among ESL students in the college level classroom. The history of second language learning was tied to popular teaching practices, such as journal writing, dialogue journals, peer feedback, and teacher feedback. Due to a lack of cohesion between the above methods and a rising gap in related literature, an experiment was formed to determine whether dialogue journals could be combined with peer feedback to facilitate an accelerated comprehension of English as an L2 language. Over a three-month period, 19 ESL students at Gavilan College were …

Towards A Critical Game Based Pedagogy, Justin K. Egan

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

This thesis outlines and examines core concepts of game-based learning as identified by James Paul Gee, and Kurt Squire, among other scholars. These findings are then connected to the contemporary, transformative threshold concepts of composition—as explored in Naming What We Know. This connection seeks to argue game-based pedagogy may be an invaluable tool for introducing critical perspectives to composition students in order to better equip them with critical thinking strategies and cultural critiques, while improving their writing skills. A theoretical framework is presented in the form of four “Pillars” of a Critical Game-Based Pedagogy: Literacy, Identity, Social Learning, and Multimodality—all …