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Full-Text Articles in Secondary Education and Teaching

Developing Alternative Grading Strategies, Brian M. Sackett Aug 2024

Developing Alternative Grading Strategies, Brian M. Sackett

Culminating Experience Projects

Traditional grading strategies may not accurately reflect student knowledge. Educators are beginning to develop more accurate and efficient methods for grading students. These alternative methods include; standards based grading, content based grading, portfolio assessment, narrative feedback, and minimum grading. These grading strategies focus more heavily on content mastery, rather than non-academic variables such as student behavior. This project will provide a thorough training session to teachers to give them the confidence to implement the new alternative grading strategies. The goal of this project is to have a lasting impact on students’ academic success as well as their motivation and engagement. …


Impacts Of Cellphone Usage On Adolescent Social And Emotional Development, Chelsea N. Hammer Jul 2024

Impacts Of Cellphone Usage On Adolescent Social And Emotional Development, Chelsea N. Hammer

Culminating Experience Projects

Adolescent cellphone use has a negative impact on the school environment. This project explores how cellphones effect youth social and emotional development. The literature is reviewed as it relates to cellphone usage and emotional well-being, mental health, intrapersonal skill development and interpersonal growth. Cellphone addiction amongst teenagers is discussed as well protective factors to mitigate the damage cellphone use inflicts on student social and emotional development. This project advocates for making school stakeholders aware of these harmful effects so as to consider a re-examination of school cellphone policy. Incorporating periods of unplugging during the school day as well as using …


How Do We Get These Kids Reading? Supporting Readerly Identity In Secondary English Classrooms, Jenelle Williams, Jay Haffner May 2024

How Do We Get These Kids Reading? Supporting Readerly Identity In Secondary English Classrooms, Jenelle Williams, Jay Haffner

Michigan Reading Journal

In this article, we aim to clarify the specialized purposes for reading in secondary English language arts (ELA) classes. We will suggest ways ELA teachers can help build (or repair) students’ readerly identities while also ensuring they graduate with the necessary skill sets to transfer their knowledge into further studies, careers, and lifelong pleasure reading.


Literacy Across The Disciplines: A Way To Re-Engage Secondary Students, Jenelle Williams Jan 2024

Literacy Across The Disciplines: A Way To Re-Engage Secondary Students, Jenelle Williams

Michigan Reading Journal

In this article, the author describes the opportunities present with leveraging disciplinary literacy approaches, in terms of re-engaging teens with learning. The author also provides several cautions for literacy leaders to keep in mind.


Centering Community In Disciplinary Literacy Implementation: One District’S Story, Jenelle Williams, Stacie Angel, Jennifer Wilcox, Angela Church Mar 2023

Centering Community In Disciplinary Literacy Implementation: One District’S Story, Jenelle Williams, Stacie Angel, Jennifer Wilcox, Angela Church

Michigan Reading Journal

In this article, the authors describe the various ways they have centered community while implementing disciplinary literacy in their district. They outline how the work began, the role of professional learning, and the systemic approaches that are effectively moving the work forward. This story offers an alternate approach to implementation--one that honors educators' expertise, differentiates approaches, and develops collective efficacy.


Exploring Using Game-Based Learning And Gamification In A Secondary Classroom To Increase Engagement, Mandee Lynn Thiell Dec 2022

Exploring Using Game-Based Learning And Gamification In A Secondary Classroom To Increase Engagement, Mandee Lynn Thiell

Culminating Experience Projects

Research has connected the importance of student engagement and student experience within the classroom but continue to use teacher directed traditional teaching methods. This project explores the use of gamification and game-based learning and how it promotes student engagement. The use of games and game-elements provide a relevant approach that focuses on student autonomy and experience, and ultimately use fun engaging ways to motivate students to learn. This project provides an entry level learning in-service opportunity for secondary educators to discover and create their own lessons that implement gamification and game-based learning in their classrooms in hopes to increase student …


A Spark Of Light In The Darkness: A Framework Of Habits And Routines That Grow Literacy Identities, Andy Schoenborn Jul 2022

A Spark Of Light In The Darkness: A Framework Of Habits And Routines That Grow Literacy Identities, Andy Schoenborn

Michigan Reading Journal

Using familiar and flexible classroom routines, authentic literacy habits, and encouragement, his students moved from "I hate reading and writing" to self-identifying as readers and writers in a matter of eighteen weeks.


Taking Up The Work: Snapshots Of Disciplinary Literacy Instruction, Part I, Laura Gabrion, Jenelle Williams Jul 2022

Taking Up The Work: Snapshots Of Disciplinary Literacy Instruction, Part I, Laura Gabrion, Jenelle Williams

Michigan Reading Journal

This article is part of a series devoted to unpacking disciplinary literacy instructional practices for educators at all levels. Here, we explore the role of disciplinary literacy instruction at all levels, in light of recent changes to Michigan's teacher certification grade bands. This article provides suggestions for getting started with addressing disciplinary literacy in instruction, as well as practical examples of what this might look like within English Language Arts classrooms.


Teacher Of Literature And Literacy: Rethinking Secondary English Language Arts, Jenelle Williams, Laura Gabrion May 2022

Teacher Of Literature And Literacy: Rethinking Secondary English Language Arts, Jenelle Williams, Laura Gabrion

Michigan Reading Journal

This article aims to explore the complexity of instruction in secondary English Language Arts (ELA) classes, addressing the role of teacher identity, educator preparation programs, equity and access, and the role of the Essential Instructional Practices for Disciplinary Literacy in the Secondary Classroom. We suggest that there is a possibility to attend to both teaching literature and literacy within middle- and high-school ELA classrooms and provide a vision for working toward this balance.


Grey Clouds And Silver Linings: Professional Learning For Secondary Educators During Covid-19, Jenelle Williams Jul 2021

Grey Clouds And Silver Linings: Professional Learning For Secondary Educators During Covid-19, Jenelle Williams

Michigan Reading Journal

No abstract provided.


Big Kids Need Books Too: Lessons Learned From Building Classroom Libraries At The Secondary Level, Jenelle Williams, Megan Kortlandt Mar 2021

Big Kids Need Books Too: Lessons Learned From Building Classroom Libraries At The Secondary Level, Jenelle Williams, Megan Kortlandt

Michigan Reading Journal

This article is intended to describe the rationale and process of creating and effectively using classroom libraries in middle- and high-school English Language Arts classrooms. The authors connect theory to practice, using research to guide decisions about book selection and teacher professional development that takes into account the unique affordances and constraints of using classroom libraries at the secondary level. Additionally, the authors include considerations for the current reality of remote, virtual, and blended learning scenarios.


Enhancing Cultural And Linguistic Responsiveness In Argument Writing Pedagogy Through Effective Adaptations For English Learners: Insights From C3wp Resource Analysis And Three Experienced Teachers’ Practices, Katelyn Walsh, Katey Robinson, Rachel Deacon, Zuzana Tomaš Feb 2021

Enhancing Cultural And Linguistic Responsiveness In Argument Writing Pedagogy Through Effective Adaptations For English Learners: Insights From C3wp Resource Analysis And Three Experienced Teachers’ Practices, Katelyn Walsh, Katey Robinson, Rachel Deacon, Zuzana Tomaš

Language Arts Journal of Michigan

This article examines recommended adaptations for English Learners (ELs) in the nationally-recognized C3WP argument writing program through the lens of effective EL literacy practices and culturally and linguistically responsive pedagogy. We present an analysis of C3WP EL tips and EL notices and argue that when evaluated from the second language literacy and linguistically and culturally responsive pedagogy perspectives, the C3WP program could be enhanced by adding guidance for 1) specific instructional supports designed to increase ELs’ access to the resources and 2) helping teachers leverage these learners’ multicultural and multilinguistic capital. To help imagine how such effective additional guidance could …


Course Redesign To New Paradigms: Exploring Humanizing Racial Literacies With Pre-Service Teachers, Becky Beucher, Tisha Ortega, Grant Souder, Kimberly Martin-Boyd, Katy Killian Jan 2021

Course Redesign To New Paradigms: Exploring Humanizing Racial Literacies With Pre-Service Teachers, Becky Beucher, Tisha Ortega, Grant Souder, Kimberly Martin-Boyd, Katy Killian

Language Arts Journal of Michigan

Spring 2021, undergraduate students across the country were entering their second year of obligatory online learning. This moment in time correlated with an increased attention to the Black Lives Matter movement by white youth and the mainstream public. This study, guided by a team of teacher educators committed to realizing racial justice in Secondary literacy education, designed and examined the impact of humanizing racial literacies curriculum taught through forced on learning on undergraduate pre-service teacher’s perspectives about anti-racist curriculum design. This study builds upon a growing body of research on realizing humanizing racial literacies in teacher education pedagogy. The curriculum …


Writing On Demand In College, Career, And Community Writing: Preparing Students To Participate In The Pop-Up Parlor, Kelly J. Sassi, Hannah Stevens Apr 2019

Writing On Demand In College, Career, And Community Writing: Preparing Students To Participate In The Pop-Up Parlor, Kelly J. Sassi, Hannah Stevens

Language Arts Journal of Michigan

The Writing on Demand Unit is an important part of the College, Career, and Community Writers Program. In this article, we review the literature on C3WP; contextualize the writing on demand unit in relation to the other instructional resources in C3WP; explore five big ideas about writing on demand; and describe an approach to teaching this unit that includes some preliminary results of teaching this unit in a rural, Native American high school. The five big ideas that inform its use are the following: 1) emotions matter, 2) everyone does it, so provide reasons for writing on demand, 3) time …


Teaching Peer Feedback As Ethical Practice, Derek Miller, Troy Hicks, Susan Golab May 2018

Teaching Peer Feedback As Ethical Practice, Derek Miller, Troy Hicks, Susan Golab

Language Arts Journal of Michigan

Even with weeks of building a classroom community and deliberate instructional scaffolding, students may not engage in thoughtful peer review. One teacher discovers how he must place a deep, intentional value on the feedback itself—and the writers who provided it to one another.


The International Baccalaureate Learner Profile: A Social Justice Framework In The English Language Arts Classroom, Kristin Sovis, Sarah Pancost May 2017

The International Baccalaureate Learner Profile: A Social Justice Framework In The English Language Arts Classroom, Kristin Sovis, Sarah Pancost

Language Arts Journal of Michigan

“The International Baccalaureate Learner Profile: A Social Justice Framework in the English Language Arts Classroom," highlights the story of an expert secondary ELA teacher as she navigates the political climate in the wake of the 2016 presidential election. Through narrative, classroom anecdote, and pedagogical reflection, this story offers readers an authentic portrait of the complex decisions that face teachers as we navigate tenuous political terrain in our classrooms. Central to this story is the International Baccalaureate (IB) Learner Profile (LP), which is the framework from which this teacher operates: the IB LP serves as both the anchor and guide for …