Education Commons^™

Engaging Early Career Teachers In 'Virtual Writing Conferences' With Grade Five Students, Lisa K. Kervin, Jessica Mantei

Jessica Mantei

The changing definition of what it means to be literate is well documented within the literature. The familiarity of many students with screen-based texts and their ability to manipulate computer-based technologies, in particular Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), is well understood. There are examples within the literature of how technology can be used to support the writing process (Turbill & Murray, 2006), provide students with control over the phases of text production (Novinger & Smith, 2003) and the need for teachers to create authentic and engaging experiences (Kervin & Mantei, 2006; Peterson, 2005). Taking such perspectives into consideration, we worked …

Julie's 5 Most Frequently Used Notebook Strategies, Julie Patterson

Articles

People always ask, “How do you come up with ideas for writing?” So I analyzed my writer’s notebook and identified my most frequently used strategies for recording, nurturing and thinking about story content.

A Slow Burn: The Impact Of Ials In Australia, Juliette Mendelovits

Juliette Mendelovits

Australia Australia has put its hand up to participate in all the international literacy surveys on offer: IALS in the second wave (1996), the ALL Survey in the second wave (2006), and PIAAC in 2011-12 – in the field right now. Nevertheless, until very recently Australia’s general response to the surveys can best be described as inert: more in the vein of our habitual “she’ll be right” than the “clever country” that our prime minister of the 1980s urged us to become. For most of the period since the IALS results were published in 1997, Australia paid little attention to …

Our Mouths On Paper: A Critical Look At The Educational Value, Social Importance, And Self- Exploration Stemming From Slam Poetry, Candace R. Mcduffie

Critical and Creative Thinking Capstones Collection

Upon entering the Critical and Creative Thinking Program, I was unsure of my strengths as an educator. I have always been interested in working with younger children, and found a career in education quite rewarding. Still, merging my personal interests with my professional ones seemed like a task that was not important for my growth as a teacher. Soon into my endeavors as a CCT student, I realized that intertwining both worlds is what keeps me motivated as a teacher and my students interested as learners. This synthesis allows me to explore the arena of Slam poetry beyond a superficial …

Implicit Beliefs About Writing: A Task-Specific Study Of Implicit Beliefs, Kyle R. Perry

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This study investigated students’ implicit beliefs about a writing task. Implicit beliefs are defined as the unconscious cognitive constructs that influence motivation, behavior, and affect (Bruning, Dempsey, Kauffman, & Zumbrunn, 2011). Studies regarding implicit beliefs are applied to many constructs, ranging in specificity from domain-general beliefs such as epistemological beliefs (Schommer, 1990) to domain-specific beliefs such as reading (Schraw & Bruning, 1999). In the present study, implicit beliefs about a specific writing task are compared to implicit beliefs about intelligence, demographic information, and participants’ educational background experiences. Research is reviewed pertaining to a variety of studies of implicit beliefs. One …

Exploring Peer Revision In Writing Through Online Collaboration In A Middle Grades Classroom, Sarah Hunt-Barron

All Dissertations

Using the method of a formative experiment, this investigation examined how the use of peer revision and collaboration in an online environment could be implemented in a seventh-grade classroom to increase revision of writing over multiple drafts and improve the quality of student expository writing. Thirty-six students in two sections of a seventh-grade English language arts class participated in the study. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected prior to the intervention to establish baseline data and determine progress toward the pedagogical goal. Qualitative data were also gathered and analyzed throughout the intervention to assess progress toward the goal. Quantitative data …

Towards The Creation Of Story Sharing Network Of Research Supervisors, Ibraheem Dooba

Academic Leadership: The Online Journal

The function of the supervisor is therefore significant in the entire research endeavour; and it has been argued that a major cause of failure to complete postgraduate degree is due to inadequate supervision (Welford, 2008). Recent investigations conducted in the USA by the Council of Graduate Schools revealed that mentoring/advising is the second highest (65%) factor contributing to respondents’ PhD completion; second only to financial support (80%) (Kirby, Sowell, Bell, & Naftel, 2009). The central role that supervisors play in students’ postgraduate expertise makes it necessary for supervisors to use their ability, knowledge, and the experiences of their colleagues to …

English Language Learners’ Connection To School And English Through The Digital Storytelling Process, Megan J. Mcelfresh

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Thanks to the developing technology of digital storytelling, English Language Learner teachers at Maple Elementary may have a potential answer to help 2nd grade students with their growth in English and connection to school. The questions that guided this inquiry into digital storytelling in the ELL classroom were the following: Are there particular benefits to ELLs in digital storytelling? Do ELL students see connections through the digital storytelling process to their growth as a writer and role in the school community? Research has previously shown the success of ELL students is strongly linked to the instruction they receive and sense …

Crabb, Alfred Leland, 1884-1979 (Mss 367), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid and bibliography (click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Collection 367. Correspondence, book and article manuscripts, and research material of Alfred Leland Crabb, a native of Warren County, Kentucky and later professor at George Peabody College for Teachers in Nashville, Tennessee. The topics of the manuscripts include historical fiction related to Nashville and Bowling Green, biographies of prominent Nashvillians, and articles on all levels of education. Much of the unpublished material is fiction but draws from Crabb's Plum Springs school days and his student experiences at Western Kentucky University.

Developing Students’ First Language Through A Second Language Writing Intervention: A Simultaneous Approach, Hannah Marie Dostal

Doctoral Dissertations

Deaf and hard of hearing (d/hh) children often acquire an L1 after age 3, thus are arguably more diverse than that of the general bilingual population. A unique problem therefore exists among d/hh late language learners—they often do not have an L1 to later develop an L2. This study investigated the impact of an English writing intervention (Strategic and Interactive Writing Instruction, SIWI) that incorporates support for the development of American Sign Language in an effort to illustrate the necessity of explicitly addressing the proposed interdependence of language learning.

The research involved providing 23 upper elementary and middle school d/hh …

The Open Source Composition Space, Carly Finseth

All Theses

This paper integrates composition theory with pedagogical practice in order to redefine what is traditionally viewed as the `writing classroom.' Specifically, it explores a new way of considering composition as both a term and a cultural ideology that encompasses many forms of creative expression: traditional alphabetic texts, digital alphabetic texts, multimodal texts such as videos and podcasts, and programming code. The work explores a pedagogical model that can be used to teach composition in its various forms. It also examines what it means to instruct in a classroom in today's digital age by incorporating ideas from traditional classroom teaching, online …

A Case Study On Perspectives, Whitney Tallarico

Senior Honors Projects

The Rhode Island Training School becomes a home to juvenile offenders of the law. Home, in so far as it is a place that they sleep, eat, and spend a lot of time in, as well as the atmosphere in which learning and growth occur during the adolescent phase of their lives. There is a very high rate of released inmates who return to the facility for things like running away from group homes, not checking in with their parole officers, or other misdemeanors. It is my belief that this is, at least in part, due to the fact that …

Evaluation Of The Ardoch Western Lincs Project, Michele Lonsdale, Jenny Wilkinson, Elizabeth Kleinhenz

Jenny Wilkinson (retired)

In Australia and other Western countries, there is growing recognition among governments, business and community groups that schools cannot deal with the complex demands of the twenty-first century on their own. There is an emerging body of evidence to show that school-community partnerships can make a positive difference to the outcomes of students in disadvantaged areas. There are still gaps in the evidence base however. More evidence of successful collaboration is needed and the impact these partnerships have on student outcomes. The WLinCS project is one such example of a highly effective school-community partnership. The western suburbs of Melbourne are …

Evaluation Of The Ardoch Western Lincs Project, Michele Lonsdale, Jenny Wilkinson, Elizabeth Kleinhenz

Dr Elizabeth Kleinhenz (retired)

In Australia and other Western countries, there is growing recognition among governments, business and community groups that schools cannot deal with the complex demands of the twenty-first century on their own. There is an emerging body of evidence to show that school-community partnerships can make a positive difference to the outcomes of students in disadvantaged areas. There are still gaps in the evidence base however. More evidence of successful collaboration is needed and the impact these partnerships have on student outcomes. The WLinCS project is one such example of a highly effective school-community partnership. The western suburbs of Melbourne are …

Straight Talk From Recent Grads: Grant Writing Tips For New Investigators, Joelle Powers, Danielle Swick

Academic Leadership: The Online Journal

There is an increasing demand and critical importance for those in academic positions to be conducting high quality research in addition to teaching well and successfully obtaining grants is often necessary to fund such scientific inquiry (Shaw, 2002). Faculty members in academic or research positions are likely to be among those spending the most time on such efforts as successful grant writing to support both research and scholarly productivity is compulsory for flourishing in these jobs (Hasche, Perron & Proctor, 2009). In fact, most job announcements in the Chronicle of Higher Education list the ability to acquire external funding as …

The Hbcu Versus The Pwi Write On Site: Considering Faculty Outcomes, Dannielle Davis, Lawanda Edwards

Academic Leadership: The Online Journal

The phrase “publish or perish” has become a mantra in research oriented academic settings, reflecting a form of academic Darwinism for tenure and promotion decisions heavily influenced by publication records. This is compounded by the fact that some new academics view the three primary components of faculty work: teaching, research and service, singularly and in isolation as opposed to integrated tasks (Boice, 2000). Writing groups may offer a strategy for faculty developers and other administrators interested in ameliorating these potential challenges via programs geared toward increasing faculty writing productivity. The following reviews literature related to faculty writing groups and describes …

Professional Writing In The English Classroom: Beyond Language: The Grammar Of Document Design, Jonathan Bush, Leah A. Zuidema

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

The article offers guidelines in teaching professional writing in an English classroom. It highlights the elements in deciding for a good document design which include layout, fonts and color. It outlines the CRAP acronym (Contrast, Repetition, Alignment, Proximity) formulated by Saul Greenberg which summarizes the essential techniques in grammar design.

International Schools' Assessment Program

International Developments

Designed and developed Schools’ Assessment Designed and developed by the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER), the International Schools' Assessment Program (ISA) is currently administered in 260 international schools worldwide with over 49000 students participating, and allows these schools to benchmark themselves against other international schools in the core skill areas of mathematical literacy, reading and writing. The ISA is a culturally inclusive test that provides meaningful and valuable information for education providers and the parents of students.

Rhetorical Outcomes: A Genre Analysis Of Student Service-Learning Writing, Thomas Brady Trimble

Wayne State University Dissertations

Service-learning continues to be a popular pedagogical approach within composition studies. Despite a number of studies that document a range of positive impacts on students, faculty, institutions, and community members, the relationship between service-learning and student writing outcomes is not well understood. This study presents the results of a genre analysis of student-authored ethnographies composed in four distinct sections of a service-learning--based intermediate writing course at a Midwestern urban research university. Results of the analysis are then used to develop a contextualized writing assessment framework to evaluate student writing outcomes and to consider the implications of using contemporary genre theory …

Supporting Academic Writing Through The Lens Of Critical Thinking, Roisin Donnelly, Marian Fitzmaurice

Other resources

Academic writing in the context of producing quality research articles is something which all academics engage in and there is evidence of increased attention to supporting the development of the writing and subsequent output of academics and research students. However, while scholarly writing is learnt in complex ways, critical thinking is an intrinsic part of such writing. In practice the teaching of critical thinking is difficult and there is a lack of discussion about what it means within the context of the writing process. This study describes a pedagogic intervention with a group of academic staff to support he participants …

Addressing The Decline Of Academic Performance Among First-Year Composition Students: A Usability Analysis Of Two Important Online Resources, Kate Zephyrhawke

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

An increasing number of students entering college lack the academic skills necessary to perform well at the college level, forcing professors and academic institutions to lower standards. Students approach higher education as a commodity, and as consumers they assert their desire for easier course work by giving poor evaluations to instructors whose courses they find too demanding or difficult. Eliminating student evaluations is one necessary change that will help reverse declining standards in higher education and increase performance; providing effective venues for supplemental instruction is another. Teaching basic writing skills in freshman composition courses would waste valuable instruction time that …

Crucial Connections: An Exploration Of Critical Thinking And Scholarly Writing, Roisin Donnelly, Marian Fitzmaurice

Other resources

Academic writing in the context of producing quality research articles is something which all academics engage in and there is evidence of increased attention to supporting the development of the writing and subsequent outputs of academics and research students. However, while scholarly writing is learnt in complex ways, critical thinking is an intrinsic part of such writing. In practice the teaching of critical thinking is difficult and there is a lack of discussion about what it means within the context of the writing process. Critical thinking can only be acquired with practice and this study describes a pedagogic intervention with …

An Evaluation Of Writing Samples By English Learners In Special Education, Brett Patrick Frayseth

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

The purpose of this study was to investigate if there was any pattern in the types or frequencies of errors made within writing samples produced by English Learners (ELs) in special education and whether those patterns differentiated them from ELs not in special education or whether there was commonality between the types or frequencies of errors made by ELs in special education and native-English speakers in special education. The intent is that once a pattern is recognized that the written work of ELs can help aid in determining placement in special education. The quantitative method was applied in this study. …

Response In Real Time : Bringing Context To A Semester's Responses To Student Writing, Scott James O'Callaghan

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Within the field of Composition, research into responding to student writing has most frequently studied individual responses outside the material contexts in which those responses were produced. Advice given to teachers of writing on how best to respond to large amounts of writing--perennially a feature within the reality of the work writing teachers do--has tended to be similarly acontextual. However, further research into response must take into account writing teachers' material conditions and situatedness.