Language and Literacy Education Commons^™

Conferring In The Café: One-To-One Reading Conferences In Two First Grade Classrooms, Bethanie Pletcher, Rosalynn Christensen

Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts

The purpose of this qualitative descriptive case study was to explore the teacher/student reading conferences in two first grade teachers’ classrooms in one primary school. Sixteen one-to-one reading conferences were recorded and transcribed over a two-month period and coded for content as related to the CAFÉ (Boushey & Moser, 2009) model of reading instruction, which the teachers used daily. We found that the two teachers placed heavy emphasis on students’ reading accuracy (the “A” in CAFÉ) and did not spend as much time working on comprehension, fluency, or expanding vocabulary (the C, F, and E in CAFÉ). We suggest teachers …

Written Language Performance Following Embedded Grammar Instruction, Ginger Collins, Jan Norris

Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts

This study explored whether presenting grammar instruction within the context of reading and writing would improve writing skills. The participating schools were using a traditional grammar instruction in which grammar lessons were predominately taught using worksheets and were presented separately from other reading and writing activities. This was termed Discrete Grammar Instruction (DGI). The researchers introduced a contextualized grammar instruction approach, termed Embedded Grammar Instruction (EGI), which taught grammar within authentic contexts of reading and writing. Students in grades three through eight were assigned to either the EGI group (N = 164) or the DGI group (N = 156). Two …

“This I Believe” About The Teaching Of Writing: Secondary Teachers’ Digital Essays About Their Pedagogical Understandings, Denise N. Morgan, Natasha H. Chenowith

Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts

This case study (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016) examines the final projects of two secondary teachers in a graduate course about writing pedagogy. Teachers created digital essays along the lines of the National Public Radio’s “This I Believe” essays, which articulated their beliefs about the teaching of writing. We posed two research questions: a) What pedagogical understandings do teachers identify as their beliefs about writing and how do they represent those ideas in a digital composition? b) What did teachers learn from participating in the process of composing a digital essay? We found that teachers “reimagined” the teaching of writing, were …

Literacy Teaching & Learning In A Nicaraguan Primary School, Kristin Arnold

Undergraduate Review

Nicaragua, the second poorest country in Latin America, has a population of approximately 5.8 million people that includes nearly 1.7 million school-age children and youth. According to UNESCO, Nicaragua has the highest dropout rate in Latin America with 52% of children leaving school without completing their primary education. As a result, 22% of Nicaragua’s population is illiterate. To gain a better understanding of the primary educational system in Nicaragua, I traveled to the fifth-largest city in Nicaragua with two other researchers and two mentors to observe primary school education in the country, concentrating on the nature of literacy instruction in …

Middle Grades Literacy Engagement And The Read-Aloud Strategy, Kirsten Elise Taylor

Theses and Graduate Projects

This paper examines the issue of a lack of student engagement in reading during the middle school years. It examines the role of external factors in reading disengagement, including the transition from childhood, social needs, self-esteem, lack of teacher interaction, and identity formation, both socially and academically. It addresses a variety of student needs that, if met, can lead to a connection with school as well as curriculum. It then presents the read-aloud strategy as a possible solution to the lack of middle school engagement, as instructional techniques are within the control of educators and can lead to increased engagement. …

An Examination Of Concepts Of School Readiness Among Parents And Educators In Ireland, Maire Mhic Mhathuna, Emer Ring, Noirin Hayes, Patsy Stafford, Siobhan Keegan, Cathy Kelleher, Martina Ozonyia, Mary Moloney, Deirdre Breathnach, Des Carswell, Des Mccafferty, Anne O'Keefe, Aisling Leavy, Ruth Madden

Reports

The Department of Children and Youth Affairs commissioned research through the Irish Research Council (IRC) to examine concepts of school readiness as they are understood by early years educators and managers, primary school principals, junior infant teachers and parents of children participating in the first Free Preschool Year in Ireland. A mixed-methods approach was adopted, involving interviews, an online survey and “draw and tell” sessions with children. Representative samples of FPSY settings and primary schools were selected and an online survey based on the findings of the qualitative phase was sent to 500 pre-primary settings and 500 primary schools. In …

Third Grade Science Teachers' Perspectives On Implementing Sentence Frames And Word Banks During Science Lectures To Increase The Writing Levels Of English Language Learners, Mary-Margaret M. Shimada

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Each year, there is an increase of English Language Learners (ELLS) entering today's classrooms. A third grade teacher can be faced with having multiple ELLs in the classroom and still be required to teach them alongside native English speakers. Furthermore, third grade science teachers are also responsible for preparing all students in the classroom to comprehend and utilize scientific academic language based upon the Florida State Standards. Additionally, students are required on the FSA Florida Assessment to write about science content. Therefore, scaffolded instruction for ELLs, which will prepare them to write about science content is critical. This research study …

Cultural Studies In The Mandarin-English Dual Immersion Classroom: A Case Study, Vivian Zhang

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis uses a Mandarin-English dual immersion program at a Southern California public elementary school as a case study to examine how culture is taught and learned in the dual immersion setting. Based on classroom observations and interviews with students, staff, and parents, this thesis argues that concepts of “China” and “Chinese culture” are conveyed, constructed, and negotiated by students as well as teachers, both implicitly and explicitly.

Applying Encoding And Retrieval Techniques To Chinese Rhyme Reading In Advanced Placement Chinese Instruction, Nan Wang

The Nebraska Educator: A Student-Led Journal

Learning Chinese as a foreign language is increasingly prevalent in public school districts in the U.S. As ACTFL (2011) reported, an increasing number of enrollments of Advanced Placement Chinese courses indicate a growing demand for Chinese language courses in U.S. public school districts (ACTFL, 2011; ACTFL, 2017). AP foreign language exams indicate that students from the mainstream culture in the U.S. do not perform as well as racial minority test takers (Brown & Thompson, 2016). Therefore, implementing appropriate teaching strategies in a student-centered foreign language environment is a desperate need. This is a pragmatic instructional design proposal, which emphasizes the …

Lost & Found: Order In The Court -- The Party Game, Owen Gottlieb, Ian Schreiber

Presentations and other scholarship

Lost & Found is a strategy card-to-mobile game series that teaches medieval religious legal systems with attention to period accuracy and cultural and historical context.

The Lost & Found games project seeks to expand the discourse around religious legal systems, to enrich public conversations in a variety of communities, and to promote greater understanding of the religious traditions that build the fabric of the United States. Comparative religious literacy can build bridges between and within communities and prepare learners to be responsible citizens in our pluralist democracy.

The second game in the series, Lost & Found: Order in the Court …

A Case Study Of An English Teacher Learning Community In Thailand, Hasakamon Duangmani

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

One of the current approaches to improving instructional quality is to form a Teacher Learning Community (TLC), in which teachers collaborate and support each other's development. In this study, the learning and instructional practices of five English teachers working in public schools in Sisaket were examined over the period of three months while they were collaborating in one TLC that the group established on their own free will. Data from the observations, journals, and lesson plans were then analyzed using the coding method.
The findings revealed benefits of TLC on teacher learning and instructional practices. The English teachers in this …

Using Blended Learning To Improve Undergraduate Introduction To Literature Courses: A Mixed Methods Approach, Julie Leigh Klein

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Blended learning is being used more and more in higher education. However, for humanities and other loosely content structured areas, blended learning can be challenging. It has generally been reserved for subject areas such as computer programing, mathematics, business, science, and statistics--courses where competence is commonly assessed by administering work on which performance is either right or wrong. Furthermore, agreement has not yet been reached on how to best incorporate the face-to-face and online teaching resources. This study examines one approach of implementing web-based instruction to improve undergraduate Introduction to Literature courses at a midsized Midwestern university.

This study was …

Epistemology Shock: English Professors Confront Science, Ian Barnard, Jan Osborn

English Faculty Articles and Research

This article raises questions and concerns regarding students from the sciences working with faculty in the humanities in interdisciplinary settings. It explores the experience of two English professors facing the privileging of "facts" and a science-based understanding of the world in their own classrooms. It poses both questions and pedagogical possibilities for addressing conflicts around epistemologies, scholarship, and teaching and learning.

Historical Representation Of Jackie Robinson Within Primary And Intermediate Level Children's Literature, Amy Minor

Masters Theses

Educators today meet national and state initiatives by spending approximately half their time on non-fiction literature. Starting as early as primary grades students are to analyze multiple texts on the same historical topic. Student's reading levels vary; consequently, trade books can be used to reach each individual child. Due to this, trade book usage has increased. Research indicates trade books can contain possible historical misrepresentations. Few studies have been completed, therefore more research is necessary. My research examined the historical representation of Jackie Robinson within trade books for primary and intermediate grades. After determining events in reading the historical research …

Sonic Borderland Literacies: A Re/Mix Of Culturally Relevant Education, Cecilia A. Valenzuela

Journal of Pedagogy, Pluralism, and Practice

This paper describes the importance of everyday sounds and silences, and it explores how we might use critical listening practices within educational realms. It considers an arts-based approach that introduces a remix of methods grounded in borderland feminisms, cultural sound studies, and visceral literacies. I call this critical dissonance and I illustrate this methodology through dissonant borderland soundtracks that represent multidimensional, multitemporal and embodied ways of knowing. I also introduce conceptual tools and practices that feel and listen to and for marginalized narratives. When thinking about educational contexts, we must recognize that our lived experiences also include sonic and viscerally …

An Examination Of Educators' Perceptions Of Host Country Cultural Dynamics In International Schools Abroad, Sharlene M. Fedorowicz

Educational Studies Dissertations

This research examines dynamics and challenges of relationships between international schools (IS) and host country cultures as perceived by educators. Cultural impacts that influence the capacity of educators to manage, lead, and navigate IS are investigated. A sample of 133 educators (administrators and teachers) employed in IS responded to the survey and 13 of those participants were interviewed using a Mixed Method Sequential Explanatory Design (Creswell, 2009). IS promote international-mindedness where adverse contact zones are minimized by providing opportunities for students of different races, genders, and nationalities to integrate and work together. Although IS provide a strong basis for cultural …

Introduction, Samantha Godbey, Susan Wainscott, Xan Goodman

Library Faculty Research

No abstract provided.

The Role Of Mobile Learning In Promoting Literacy And Human Rights For Women And Girls, Judith Dunkerly-Bean, Helen Crompton

Teaching & Learning Faculty Publications

In this chapter the authors review the fairly recent advances in combating illiteracy around the globe through the use of e-readers and mobile phones most recently in the Worldreader program and the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) mobile phone reading initiatives. Situated in human rights and utilizing the lens of transnational feminist discourse which addresses globalization and the hegemonic, monolithic portrayals of “third world” women as passive and in need of the global North’s intervention, the authors explore the ways in which the use of digital media provides increased access to books, and other texts and applications …

Fostering Literacy Learning With Three Middle School Special-Education Students Using Therapy Dogs As Reading Partners, Donna E. Lamkin

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This case study explored dog-assisted reading with three middle-school special education students in a self-contained alternative school. Data collection conducted over a 15-month period included observations, interviews, and artifacts. In this study, reading with therapy dogs and their handlers, helped three adolescent readers with their reading motivation, engagement, and literacy processes/behaviors. The students’ engagement with the dog, the role of the dog handler, and the role of the context all impacted students in different and multiple ways.

Effects Of The Helping Early Literacy With Practice Strategies (Helps) On Reading Fluency With Secondary Level Students Attending An Alternative Education Program, Holly Breault

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of the HELPS Program on the reading fluency skills of secondary level students attending an alternative education program using single case design methodology. Participants in this study included one 8th grade student and two 9th grade students attending an alternative education program in northern New York State, each of whom had documented difficulties with reading fluency. Students were identified for participation through a review of available records indicating below average reading fluency skills and/or teacher recommendations based on reading fluency performance in the classroom. Results suggested that one of the …