Education Commons^™

!Que Aproveche! An American Student's Encounter With The Culture And Language Of Spanish Food, Amanda Mills

Honors Theses

As a language teacher, culture is one of the most challenging things to convey to students. It is relatively straightforward to introduce grammar and vocabulary, but culture is an entirely different topic, one that adds a level of complexity that is difficult to describe and harder to convey. I wish I could give students a living, breathing experience of what it is like to visit or live in a Spanish-speaking country, but school budgets and instructional hours typically do not allow for that. To apply my knowledge of Spanish and make it accessible and meaningful to students, I designed a …

Biracial Identity In Texts Read By Secondary Education Students, Jared Madden

Honors Theses

This thesis sought to examine how biracial identity is portrayed in the literature read by students in secondary education. Unfortunately, the findings indicated that biracialism is not being adequately portrayed in this literature. Students rarely encounter biracial characters, when they do these characters are usually peripheral, and sometimes the biracialism of these characters is presented as an obstacle to be overcome. Furthermore, teachers (at least in this researcher’s local area) seem to be extremely apathetic towards even discussing this issue. The impact which all of this can have on secondary students with a biracial background is discussed. However, there are …

The Effect Of Classroom Environment On Student Learning, Ryan Hannah

Honors Theses

There are three main components that create a classroom. There are the students who are learning, the content that is being taught, and the environment in which all of this is happening. Many people focus on studying how students learn and how to make the curriculum exciting, but many teachers overlook how they can adapt their classroom environment to achieve greater focus and learning from their students. This paper aims to look at the various modifications a teacher can use in their classroom to help students stay engaged and gain higher critical thinking.

When analyzing the environment of a classroom …

Effective Teaching Practices To Strengthen Outcomes For Students With Emotional Behavior Disorders, Brittnae Cole

Honors Theses

Teachers of students with emotional and/or behavior disorders (E/BD) must use a variety of methodologies and interventions to address the varied academic and behavioral needs of their students (Walker & Gresham, 2013). Students identified as needing E/BD services require specific strategies that are researched based and have been proven to be successful in improving student outcomes (Kauffman & Landrum, 2009; Evans, Harden, & Thomas, 2004). After an extensive literature review from the past 10 years this paper presents some of the most frequently discussed research-based themes and subsequent interventions within the theme areas. The three most cited research-based themes presented …

Ancient Egypt And The Middle East Unit, Grade Six, Joshua Kaylor

Honors Theses

This is a unit plan, which is teaching about the physical geography of Egypt and what daily life in Ancient Egypt was like. This unit was created using TCi’s History Alive textbook, which laid out the expectations in the form of I can statements. It also laid out different activities that the students could do to better understand this material. My unit plan is taking the TCi activities and adapting them to what I thought was best for my students. This unit plan also contains a reflection of how teaching chapter 7 went for me, when I taught it during …

Integrating Alternative Energy Production Into The Public School Science Curriculum, Benjamin Overbeek

Honors Theses

In the next few years, many teachers will be challenged in new ways. Student engagement will be at a premium and state standards will be more specific, shifting their focus towards college readiness, integration of curriculum, and developing sound reasoning and critical thinking skills. While the education field is accustomed to adapting and adjusting “on the go”, it may be ill-prepared for this fresh round of changes. Teachers and curriculum directors need resources to help them adapt the classrooms to reflect the more comprehensive design implied by the new standards (Next Generation Science Standards, 2012). This paper promotes a spiral …

Around The World In 180 Days, Laura Rogers

Honors Theses

For years, multicultural curriculum has been accepted as "normal curriculum" sprinkled with various holidays celebrated by non-white cultures and the occasional multicultural book. As a result, many students graduate from high school and college ignorant of the various cultures present in our communities, states, our country, and our world. Myself, and others such as Paulo Friere (educator and author of Pedagogy of the Oppressed) and Susan Piazza (associate professor of literacy studies at Western Michigan University), believe that multicultural curriculum should be much more. For teachers to create a thoughtful, reflective, substantive multicultural curriculum they must intentionally create what Susan …

Cesar Chavez Day Celebration With Delores Huerta, 2009, Julian Ramirez-Torres

Honors Theses

“Big things don’t happen in Kalamazoo and especially not for our people”. These are the words of a young Hispanic student at Kalamazoo Central High School. This KCHS student along with others did not believe that the Hispanic community could bring an important speaker such as Dolores Huerta to Kalamazoo. Dolores Huerta, alongside César Chávez Co-Founded the United Farm Workers (UFW). What that young Hispanic student saw as impossible, I saw it as calling and a dream, but most importantly as a moment when I could change the way those students thought about what is possibly from our Hispanic community. …

Teaching, Writing, Writing Teaching: Reflective Journal Responses From Teaching Engl 1000, Christine Hamman

Honors Theses

A series of reflective journals and responses written to reflect on and improve in the teaching of English. Each journal was written following each class meeting of a Fall 2011 ENGL 1000 course, reflecting on the lesson, activities, and teaching for the day. From these journals, responses were written for 9 of them and lesson plans for those days were revised and added for the purposes of comparison. Using research in best practices in teaching writing, educational training, and personal experience, responses were written to each journal to condense the strengths and weaknesses of my teaching, to chart progress as …

Alternative Ways Of Developing And Assessing Fluency With Basic Facts, Amy Laponsie

Honors Theses

Fluency in mathematics indicates the student has a variety of strategies to use when encountering an unfamiliar or unknown problem. In this study, students were assessed using a one-on-one interview assessment with the researcher. This type of assessment was used to reduce the stress and anxiety students feel during traditional math exams. The students then were grouped based on the correctness of their answers as well as the sophistication of their answers, meaning whether or not they used a strategy or counting to answer the problem. The students participated in thirty minute mini-lessons where they focused on the Making Ten …

D-Day Through Song: Teaching History Through Music And The Theory Of Multiple Intelligences, Lucas Rewa

Honors Theses

Socials studies teachers know that making their lessons engaging for students in of utmost importance. History has a reputation of being one of those subjects that students think is boring. They think that history has no connection to their lives; it has no meaning for them. In order to get the students engaged in the material and to really learn, a teacher has to relate history to the students' lives. They need to foster an emotional attachment between the students and the material. "Emotion is the glue that makes history stick."

Developing A Standardized Checklist Curriculum To Improve Checklist Performance Under Normal Workload Flight Operations, Jared K. Neterer

Honors Theses

Checklists are a fundamental element to a safe and secure flight environment. Checklists are designed to aid pilots while performing crucial tasks during predetermined flight segments. However, checklists are of little use if procedures are not followed. Basic skills on how to properly use a checklist need to be trained to proficiency with novice pilots to ensure continuous and proper use.

Description And Analysis Of Bilingual Programs Implemented In Kalamazoo Public Schools, Jessica Glover

Honors Theses

The purpose of this study is to answer the question "How does Kalamazoo's bilingual education program align with the standards established by Intercultural Development Research Association?" In this study I list and researched the current bilingual programs implemented in Kalamazoo Public Schools, and then I analyze Kalamazoo Public Schools' overall bilingual program using a rubric designed by Montecel, Cortez, Cortez, and Villarreal (2002).

Marginalized Literature In The English Classroom Working With Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel And Dimed, Noelle Carpenter

Honors Theses

Literature in the English classroom should give students the opportunity to explore the voices of a diverse range of people, especially in a school system that is becoming increasingly diverse itself. By exposing students to literature that engages them in important social issues, students become aware of a world beyond their own. Marginalized literature shows students different perspectives that exist in the world in which they live. Ehrenreich's autoethnography Nickel and Dimed is a window into the lives of the working poor based on her own personal experiences and research during a time when the views surrounding those in poverty …

Jet Equivalency Training Course Completion, Garrett R. Heinz

Honors Theses

Describes the student's experiences while participating in the Jet Equivalency Training Course (JET), AVS 4300, at Western Michigan University.

Notes, Notas: A "Trilingual" Education In Words And Pictures, Whitney Dykhouse

Honors Theses

No abstract available.

Change Bell Ringing And Mathematics: A High School Student Excursion Into Graph Theory And Group Theory, Kristi Carlson

Honors Theses

This unit was created as a way to introduce higher level mathematics concepts to advanced high school students. All five of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics Process Standards are found in this unit. For most of the unit, students work within small groups

Fahrenheit 451: A Teacher's Guide, Jaclyn Shurmack

Honors Theses

This website is a resource for teachers to reference in order to help them understand and teach various aspects of Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. First, Fahrenheit 451'is a great book to teach in the classroom. It presents many ideas that will cause students to think about the world around them. Some of these ideas include thinking on one's own and also questioning information that is presented to students. One aspect of Ray Brabury's Fahrenheit 451 looks at the idea of censorship in the world- In this futuristic tale, boob are burned rather than read and the censorship of various …

Teaching Pronunciation In High School Spanish Classes: A Focus On Vowels, Ellen Waisanen

Honors Theses

With the growing use of Spanish in the United States, it is increasingly valuable to have a knowledge of the language. Accurate pronunciation is an integral component of effectively speaking Spanish and attaining native-like mastery of the language, yet it is neglected by many high school teachers. For this reason, I chose to use my honors thesis project to emphasize accurate pronunciation and create a resource for teaching it more thoroughly. With this collection of notes and exercises, I hope to provide a foundation for high school Spanish teachers to highlight pronunciation in their classes. More specifically, I have focused …

Aiding At-Risk Students, Jeremy Baldwin

Honors Theses

Kalamazoo's Loy Norrix High School was the location of a study in conjunction with the institution's school-wide achievement process to aid at-risk students. Characterized by poor attendance, behavioral problems and/or failing two or more subjects, at-risk students are monitored more closely through school-wide efforts. According to the Michigan Department of Education, the effort to hep struggling students implicates the use of supplemental services before or after school to help students in the core subjects: math, science, social studies, and English. Norrix has successfully begun its own efforts to improve the overall academic success of the student body by employing the …

The Honors Portfolio Project: Communicating Value In Honors, Aimee J. Jachym

Honors Theses

The Honors portfolio is presented as a tool that honors students can use to differentiate themselves in the marketplace. An honors portfolio conceptualizes and communicates the value in obtaining a well-founded honors education. It contains documents and evidence that support the student's holistic development through a diverse range of honors experience. The paper begins by discussing the background for the project by describing what the unique qualities of an honors education are, then explores the Haworth College of Business portfolio project and the problem of conceptualizing an honors education in this fashion. Next, the paper details a project completed for …

Reform Mathematics, Melissa Sue Vegter

Honors Theses

Why would the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics want to adopt a set of standards? Normally, groups adopt standards in order to state goals, promote change, and ensure quality. Therefore the NCTM (National Council of Teachers of Mathematics) wanted to state these new goals. Schools, teachers, students, and parents, at that time, had no protection from poor education. In 1989, the Board of Directors and the Commission believed that if students are to be adequately prepared to live in the twenty-first century, new standards should be created in order to achieve this. At this time in history, the economic …

The Effects Of De-Tracking On Students And Teachers, Jacob M. Bultema, Kristen M. Scranton

Honors Theses

School districts use an array of methods to group students for their academic needs. In years past, many schools have tracked their students. This practice involves placing students in different classes according to their ability levels and past academic record. However, in recent years, some schools have decided to do away with this homogenous grouping and instead "detrack" their schools, grouping students heterogeneously. Proponents of tracking argue that homogenous grouping is advantageous to higher-ability learners. Teachers sometimes find it difficult to teach students with the broad range or achievement levels typically found in a heterogeneous environment. It is also argued …

Elementary History Education And Children's Perceptions Of Time, Christine M. Mccreedy

Honors Theses

When I was in upper elementary school, social studies, history in particular, was often nothing more than reading a text to imprint for a short period of time the "facts" of history. I read books through most of the instruction. I read so many wonderful works of historical fiction, the Holocaust and the Civil War being among the most interesting subjects. Through excellent and not-so-good works of historical fiction, I saw history unfolding in the present, not just the past. The characters gave faces, stories, and meaning to the text we used in class. I grew up with a strong …

An Analysis Of The Past, Present, And Future Of Title Ix In Intercollegiate Athletics Through Various Case Studies, Specifically Western Michigan University, Tara L. Becker

Honors Theses

Although collegiate athletics i only a small portion of Title IX, it has been the most widely discussed and controversial part of the law to implement. It seems that colleges and universities have had the most trouble complying with the specifics of the law. However, they have made great strides since the days of the predominantly male world of collegiate sports in the past. This paper examines historical controversies, and takes a closer look at the impact of Title IX at Western Michigan University.

Opening The Doors Of Communication And Guiding Parents Into Classrooms And Schools, Katy Anne Forsyth

Honors Theses

"A good parent is a national treasure and we need to make parents and families partners with their children's teacher and principals in the process of education," (Beyond the Classroom 308). This quote is the heart behind the contents of this book. For the love and concern that we as teachers have for the children in our lives, we owe it to them to help make their educational experience the most well rounded prosperous experience possible. To accomplish this, a partnership needs to be created by opening the doors of communication and guiding parents into classrooms and schools. As teachers, …

The Rest Of The Story: A Reflection On Extracurriculars During Intern Teaching, Barnaby Pung

Honors Theses

I decided to title my thesis The Rest of the Story, because of the radio personality Paul Harvey. His radio show "The Rest of the Story" is a commentary that reflects on many current issues as well as past occurrences and public personalities. In one of his most famous segments he will tell a story about a person's life and not reveal who the individual is until the end This tidbit of little known information is what the rest of the story actually is. It is the inside scoop, that little extra that is often difficult to find. That is …

A Study Of The Effectiveness Of Sex Education Classes On The Hiv/Aids-Related Attitudes And Behaviors Of Adolescent Women, Imelda Reyes-Phetteplace

Honors Theses

Twenty adolescent women using services at the Kalamazoo County Family Planning Clinic were interviewed using a protocol developed by the student investigator. Their responses were analyzed for themes and patterns. The majority of the adolescents were aware of HIV/AIDS and were using condoms on a consistent basis. Using the Health Belief Model (HBM) as the theoretical framework, suggestions were made to help improve area school programs such as practicing role-play during class and offering more classes in greater detail. Many of the adolescents recommended having more classes offered in school that cover the topics of STDs and health education in …

Toward An Authentically Anti-Racist Curriculum, Jeremy D. Dowsett

Honors Theses

Below I will address the failure of racial essentialist multiculturalism's approach toward combating racism, the confining and backward logic upon which identity politics multiculturalism is founded, the excesses of poststructuralist multiculturalism, and finally, in an attempt to show these theories in practice, I will move to the classroom and explore the ramifications of these strands of multiculturalism on the teaching of history and English. Part Two of this essay consists of a curriculum designed to address the shortcomings of the pedagogies mentioned above.

Dweezil's Dimensional Dream: A Computer-Based Multimedia Educational Game Pertaining To Area And Perimeter Developed And Implemented As An Alternative To Traditional Paper/Pencil Exercises For Students At The Secondary Level, Adam James Sterenberg

Honors Theses

Eleven months ago I decided to complete my Honor's College education by conducting a thesis project. Since a one hundred page paper was out of the question, I was forced to be creative. As a future math teacher I desired a type of application relevant to the classroom. Holding a minor in computer science made selecting a computer program for my thesis project an easy choice.