Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

"What Color Are Our Hearts?" Challenging Social And Literacy Inequalities In An Elementary School Writing Club, Judith M. Dunkerly-Bean, Tom W. Bean, David Kidd, Elizabeth Johnson

Teaching & Learning Faculty Publications

This longitudinal phenomenological study centers on an after-school writing club at an elementary school started by two high school English teachers and their students. Over the course of a school year, the writing club addressed local and systemic issues of inequality and facilitated the voice, agency and creative expression of the third to fifth grade students who chose to participate. Emerging trends and themes speak to the promise and possibilities of inter-age writing clubs that go far beyond traditional tutorial models. Rather than engaging in a banking method of tutoring, this project facilitates voice, agency and equality, as well as …

How Mobile Learning Initiatives Can Empower Women, Helen Crompton

Teaching & Learning Faculty Publications

The Sustainable Development Goal 5 provides a call to action to promote gender equality and to empower women. This article responds to that call by providing insight into how mobile learning initiatives have been used to support that aim. A critical analysis is conducted of studies in the past decade to review what strategies have been effective in empowering women. The analysis revealed that initiatives were targeted towards three areas: Education, health, and financial empowerment.

Findings show that in certain topics women should play an active role to further the empowerment process. This article also aligns with Objective 4 of …

Advances In Promoting Literacy And Human Rights For Women And Girls Through Mobile Learning, Helen Crompton, Judith Dunkerly-Bean

Teaching & Learning Faculty Publications

This article is taken from a larger review of extant research from a chapter titled “The role of mobile learning in promoting global literacy and human rights for women and girls” from the Handbook of Research on the Societal Impact of Digital Media. In this article we review the fairly recent advances in combating illiteracy around the globe through the use of mobile phones and e-readers most recently in the Worldreader program and the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) mobile phone and reading initiatives. Utilizing key human rights publications and the lens of transnational feminist discourse, which …

Historical Fiction In English And Social Studies Classrooms: Is It A Natural Marriage?, Kaavonia Hinton, Yonghee Suh, Lourdes Colón-Brown, Maria O'Hearn

Teaching & Learning Faculty Publications

(First paragraph) The authors report outcomes of a collaborative, interdisciplinary effort through a study group developed to make connections across content areas (English and history/social studies) and grade levels (middle school, high school, and college).

What's Up Wif Ebonics, Y'All?, Abha Gupta

Teaching & Learning Faculty Publications

This paper examines the controversy surrounding the use of Ebonics among African American students in schools in the United States, with a twofold purpose: (1) to focus on the primary function of language as a tool of communication that varies in its use according to the social context; and (2) to provide suggestions to teachers of ways to support students' acquisition of standard English without devaluing the nonstandard variants they may have learned in their homes and communities. The discussion is highlighted in the paper with classroom stories, anecdotes, and vignettes. The paper contains the following sections: Introduction; The Ebonics …

Role Of Imitation In Language Assessment Tests, Abha Gupta

Teaching & Learning Faculty Publications

A study investigated whether imitation plays a significant role in the acquisition of grammar. Three 6- to 8-year-old hearing-impaired children were administered the Grammatical Analysis of Elicited Language--Simple Sentence Level Test (GAEL), which is designed to evaluate hearing-impaired children's use of grammatical aspects of spoken and/or signed English. Subjects' verbal responses to the "imitated" component (in which subjects were asked to say just what the tester said) of the GAEL were transcribed and analyzed. Results indicated that imitated speech is neither longer nor grammatically more advanced than non-imitated, spontaneous speech. Findings suggest that the children produced "unique" language structures to …

Kidwatching Going Beyond The Language Of The Test, Abha Gupta

Teaching & Learning Faculty Publications

A study examined the linguistic forms in the discourse of speakers during a language test to indicate why they use certain specific forms over others. Ten children were given the Grammatical Analysis of Elicited Language--Simple Sentence Level Test (GAEL), a language proficiency test for hearing-impaired children in the age group of 4 to 8 years. Three students were videotaped during administration of the test, and the other students' final responses (omitting the intermediate discourse) were recorded. Some of the test items on which the maximum number of children deviated from the target response were analyzed for common traits and classified …