Language and Literacy Education Commons^™

The Critical Need For Mental Health Education To Be Mandated In New Mexico's Public Schools, Bonnie L. Murphy

Shared Knowledge Conference

Based on a review of research and best practices in mental health awareness and skills, this inquiry project argues for state legislative policies that would require mental health awareness and skills in the K-12 curriculum. Mental health affects individual accomplishments in every stage of people’s lives beginning in early childhood and throughout the life cycle. Prevention and treatment of mental illness plays a key role in the ability of an individual to cope with loss and develop resiliency and perseverance in challenging times and to make better decisions that improve the individual’s life and the lives of those around them. …

Experiences Of Undocumented Students In Schools And At University, Gloria Cortez, John M. Winslade

Journal of Critical Issues in Educational Practice

The aim of this article is to document the experiences of undocumented students. Regardless of where a person stands on the immigration issue, he or she still needs to listen to these voices in order to treat people with the dignity they deserve as human beings. This article was inspired by two things. One was a speech given by a former undocumented student at a social justice summit. The other was a literature review by the first author in a paper for her Masters degree in counseling. This literature review formed much of the basis for this article. It captured …

Graphic Mathematical Mediated Structure: The Link For Hispanic/Latino And English Learners' Mathematical Success, Sylvia Casteloes

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

This project’s goal is to promote and improve the mathematical literacy of fourth-grade Hispanic/Latino and English learners through the use of a graphic mathematical mediated structure. Current California Common Core data finds fourth-grade Hispanic/Latino and English learners significantly behind White and Asian students in mathematics, especially in understanding written word problems.

Research supports the assumption that as a tool, a graphic mathematical mediated structure could: 1) foster conceptual understanding; 2) build content terminology; 3) allow students opportunities to justify their solutions; 4) integrate writing in math; and 5) provide a platform for discourse. This innovative pedagogical project specifically focused on …

Best Practices For The Development Of English Language In Rural Elementary Schools In Prevention Of Long Term English Learners, Heather Christine Gomez

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to describe the best practices of English language development programs in rural South San Joaquin Valley elementary schools in the targeted areas of reading, writing, listening and speaking and best practices in teacher professional development to prevent Long Term English Learners from the perspective of principals. An additional purpose was to identify and describe obstacles to the implementation of best practices of English language development in rural South San Joaquin Valley elementary schools from the perspective of principals.

Methodology: Through data analysis, rural elementary schools in South San Joaquin Valley were identified …

Self–Assessment In Efl Grammar Classroom: A Study Of Efl Learners At The Centre For Languages And Translation, Ibb University, Marwan Saeed Saif Moqbel

International Journal for Research in Education

The present study investigated the implementation of self-assessment in EFL grammar classroom to identify the attitudes of EFL learners at the Centre for Languages and Translation, Ibb University towards self-assessment, their perceptions of the advantages of self-assessment, and the problems or difficulties that EFL learners may face while carrying out self-assessment activities. To collect data, the researcher used three instruments: a questionnaire, a structured interview, and a focus group discussion. The questionnaire was administered to (85) EFL learners. Using the stratified sampling technique, the researcher selected randomly (14) learners for the interviews and (21) learners to participate in the focus …

Leading With Compassion: Support For Ld Students' Identity, Academic Success, And Social Integration, Kristin E. Capezio, Katy A. Angelone

Lesley University Community of Scholars Day

This workshop is intended for K-12 Teachers and Leaders. The topic is on Compassionate Leadership and Integrating the LD Student. The workshop's content is predicated on the research and study of Richard Lavoie's work with linguistically & phonologically challenged students, and their difficulty developing social identities among the general population within public schools. In particular, this workshop will present Lavoie's findings in his two authored works "FAT CITY: Frustration, Anxiety, and Tension in the LD Student" and "Last One Picked, First One Picked On" with support from the work of Lavoie's colleague, Charlie Applestein, MSW, and his recently published book, …

Markers Of An “Inclusive” Reading Classroom: Peers Facilitating Inclusion At The Margins Of A Fourth Grade Reading Workshop, Mary R. Coakley-Fields

Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts

What are indicators, or markers, of ‘inclusive’ reading classrooms? As elementary school teachers across the United States are increasingly required to teach reading to diverse, heterogenous groups of students within the same classroom space, practitioners and researchers seek to identify what constitutes 'inclusion' in reading instruction. This study explores how two fourth grade friends – one labeled ‘struggling’ and one labeled ‘average’ by normative reading assessments – transgress classroom expectations around quiet, leveled reading behaviors while also facilitating each other’s inclusion in the classroom reading community. Combining ethnographic methods and D/discourse analysis, this study explores the dominant cultural Discourses that …

The Purpose Of Education: What Should An American 21st Century Education Value?, Krista Shilvock

Empowering Research for Educators

A survey taken by 511 respondents dealt with such issues as past and current educational practice preparation, educational purposes in America, core class subjects, and soft skill teachings. Its results revealed a public opinion believing the primary goal of education as teaching students to adapt to any situation they find themselves in. Other results include a lack of preparation in current practices for life beyond education, although workforce preparation is adequate. Also, soft skills ought to see a curriculum of their own and taught explicitly to students in education instead of implicitly enforced, hoping parents alone taught these skills previously. …

From The Ground Up: Providing Support To Emergent Bilinguals To Distinguish Language Difference From Disability, Andrea Golloher, David Whitenack, Lisa Simpson, Donna Sacco

Faculty Publications

National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) data reveal that students with disabilities who are emergent bilinguals (English language learners) have the lowest levels of profficiency in reading and mathematics among all student groups. We consider issues related to the instruction of emergent bilinguals, including those identified as having specific learning disabilities, using a Response to Intervention (RTI)/Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) model. In so doing, we argue that instructional practices consistent with a robust Tier 1 framework are beneficial to emergent bilinguals with and without learning disabilities while differentiating Tier 2 and 3 interventions may improve outcomes for emergent bilingual …

The Effect Of Project-Based Poetry Writing Intervention On Writing Attitudes Among Students With Severe Learning Disabilities, John M. Bonanni

The Graduate Review

Writing attitudes of three learners with severe disabilities were surveyed in a substantially separate special education classroom within a public school in Massachusetts in order to determine the effect on learners’ writing attitudes after a project-based creative writing intervention in poetry. Writing skills were measured using teacher-created rubrics and attitudes were measured using pre and post survey data. Primary diagnoses of students involved included Intellectual Impairment, Autism, and Traumatic Brain Injury. Findings indicated that the intervention was most successful for the student with autism, moderately successful for the student with Traumatic Brain Injury, and not successful for the student with …

Effect Of X-Word Grammar And Traditional Grammar Instruction On Grammatical Accuracy, Sue Livingston, Andi Toce, Cyndi Casey, Fernando Montoya, Bonny R. Hart, Carmela O'Flaherty

Publications and Research

This study first briefly describes an instructional approach to teaching grammar known as X-Word Grammar and then compares its effectiveness in assisting students in achieving grammatical accuracy with traditionally taught grammar. Two groups of L2 pre-college students were taught using curricula and practice procedures in two different grammar texts over a three-month period of time for 20% of their class time. Essays written at three different times were analyzed for the correct and incorrect use of sentence patterns and verb constructs. Results demonstrated that improvement (writing with less error) was larger in both categories for the X-Word Grammar group and …

Parent Perspectives On Inclusive Bookclubs, Amy Bucciferro

Graduate Research Papers

An inclusive book club was created to examine the effectiveness of incorporating literacy enhancing techniques and art to aid comprehension. This study focused on the parent perspective of their child participating in the book club and how it affected their child’s life at home. Two parents were interviewed after their child participated in a 3-month book club. The significance of this study is to show educators and families the benefits of having their children participate in inclusive environments. The study also explored how inclusive book clubs can benefit students with different comprehension levels and how families viewed the outcome of …