Language and Literacy Education Commons^™

Increasing Student Engagement, Decreasing Teacher Workload: Student Self-Assessment As A Writing Approach, David B. Lee

The Utah English Journal

I was recently introduced to a first-year English teacher and was asked what advice I would give this teacher about to embark on the journey of teaching. I half-jokingly said, “Be careful: Grading papers can take over your life.” We all kind of chuckled, but I knew that this new teacher was soon to find out that this statement is very real; every time I thumb through a mound of ungraded essays sitting on my desk, I am reminded of this reality.

The Common Core Standards (2010) suggest that students participate in several short and long-term writing projects. I agree, …

Assigner Or Inspirer? My Journey Away From The Book Project, Christine Cluff Thompson

The Utah English Journal

Pleased with both students’ presentations described above, their teacher awards them high marks for following the rubric: eye contact was made, props provided interest and evidence of the book’s plot and character development, opinions were shared and supported, the audience was engaged, and aside from Britney forgetting to show the book cover, both students did the required work to score an A grade. The only problem with the two projects? Neither student read the book they presented.

Close Encounters Of The Best Kind, Shannon Butler

The Utah English Journal

Usually I slip into a student teacher’s class and pull my forms of checklist behaviors from my bag unnoticed. If I am introduced, students give an indifferent glance, then turn their attention back where it belongs. But this morning was different.

The Power Of Using Standards-Based Grading To Assess Student Writing, Whitney Weaver, Angela Hartley

The Utah English Journal

Each year, like many language arts teachers across the state of Utah, we set out to effectively teach our students how to be good writers. Each time we discover exciting and engaging ways to teach writing in our classrooms. However, we have also found that even the best writing practices fall short in the absence of effective writing assessment. Standards-based grading has been, for us, the most successful tool for such assessments.

Standards-based grading is when a teacher creates specific and measurable learning goals to guide the curriculum, conducts frequent formative assessments of the students’ proficiency on these goals, and …

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The Utah English Journal

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The Processes Of Change On Learning Literacy And Numeracy In South Australian Primary Schools, I Gusti Ngurah Darmawan, Carol Aldous

Shannon Research Press

Success in science and mathematics is predicated on successful literacy and numeracy learning. Yet schools and communities across the country struggle to negotiate factors that both impede and facilitate such learning - particularly factors over which they have some control. Working with data more comprehensive than that used previously and applying statistical methods only recently developed, researchers from the South Australian hub of the centre for Science, Information and Communication Technology and Mathematics Education for Rural and Regional Australia (SiMERR-SA) seek answers to three basic questions. What factors influence performance in Literacy and Numeracy? Does living in a rural and …

English Language Learners: The Impact Of Language And Socio-Cultural Factors On Learning, Lori Navarrete, Silvana M. R. Watson

Counseling & Human Services Faculty Publications

[Introduction] Our daily educational experiences can be enriched by learning in culturally and linguistically diverse classrooms because we learn from others whose experiences and beliefs are different than ours. We learn to communicate effectively and respectfully with individuals of varied backgroundsand then may then think twice about stereotypes, prejudices, and discriminatory behaviors because we grow as individuals, as stewards of knowledge, and as change agents. We become good citizens in a pluralistic society.

A Comparative Analysis Of Present And Past Participial Adjectives And Their Collocations In The Corpus Of Contemporary American English (Coca), Natalia Reilly

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

ESL grammar books have lists of present and past participial adjectives based on author intuition rather than actual word frequency. In these textbooks, the –ing and –ed participial adjectives derived from transitive verbs of state and emotion are presented in pairs such as interesting/interested, boring/bored, or surprising/surprised. This present study used the Corpus of Contemporary American English http://corpus.byu.edu/coca/ (COCA) to investigate the overall frequency of participial adjectives in use as well as their frequency within certain varieties of contexts. The results have shown that among most frequently used participial adjectives there are not only the participial adjectives derived from transitive …

Effects Of Direct Instruction And Corrective Feedback On Second Language Acquisition, Don Jones, Helen Ramirez

Walden Faculty and Staff Publications

ABSTRACT

This study compared the effectiveness of differing instructional approaches used within two units of study in Spanish classes at a suburban middle school. The purpose of this quantitative, pre-experimental study was to determine if direct instruction in grammar and vocabulary combined with a variety of corrective feedback types would facilitate higher levels of second language acquisition than an instructional approach that concentrated on student activity and task performance. The theoretical base of the present study focused on associative-cognitive second language theories and hypotheses that explained how second language learning occurs. The purposive convenience sample was comprised of 86 students …

Book Review: Temple Grandin: How The Girl Who Loved Cows Embraced Autism And Changed The World, Rose Cherie Reissman

The Utah English Journal

Suitable for grades 5 and beyond, this groundbreaking multi-modal science, humane education, and autism focused biography uses direct quotes from Temple, equipment designs, photos, and animal/ autism fact-driven data sheets to offer readers an up-close and personal experience. Given its incorporation of specific chapters on animal thinking, bullying, autism spectrum data, Grandin’s advice for dealing with being different, humane treatment of animal issues, and actual diagrams for squeeze shuttle/cruelty-free facilities, this book can support teachers in addressing the Common Core standards of information/literary texts, text-based answers, academic vocabulary, and building content knowledge. It’s an excellent tool for ELA, Science, and …

Teaching In, Out, And Through Creative Nonfiction, Thomas Henry

The Utah English Journal

Paraphrasing the “Most Interesting Man in the World,” a marketing icon portrayed as a genius, adventurer, and connoisseur of the “finer things” in life who advertises those silly but comical beer commercials: I don’t always teach creative nonfiction, but when I do…. I tend to consider many different facets of the art, the genre, and the practice of “nonfiction.” Creative nonfiction (CNF), is more or less the pinnacle of what “good writing” is and should be in an even broader creative and rhetorical sense. This genre engages, teaches, and shares bits of knowledge in an accessible and distinctive way; furthermore, …

Book Review: Crafting Digital Writing: Composing Texts Across Media And Genres, Joseph Wiederhold

The Utah English Journal

We tend to teach the way we were taught, and many practicing teachers—myself included—were taught to write through analog tools. After reading this book, I realized my practice was still largely rooted in analog thinking. Even though I would consider my classroom plugged in to the digital world, reading Hicks’ book helped me realize that I often integrate technology by using it merely as a tool to publish or create a product. If that digital inclusion helps improve or bring efficacy to the writing process, we often consider the effort as a step toward digital literacy. This thinking is flawed, …

There Can Be No End Save Learning: Using Seminal U.S. Documents To Teach Fundamental Reading Skills, Michael Handy

The Utah English Journal

The skill-based Common Core, as well as its Utah adaptation, raises the level of rigor required of students. The core focuses on skills that apply to literature and nonfiction of all kinds. A few standards name specific authors (Shakespeare’s name appears several times, for example), but the standards in general impose no prescribed list of works on teachers.

Yet Standard 9 of the Reading Standards for Informational Text curiously lists not only authors worthy of study, but specific works: “Analyze seminal U.S. documents of historical and literary significance (e.g., Washington’s Farewell Address, the Gettysburg Address, Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms speech, King’s …

Literature Circles And Technology : A Study Of Students' Attitudes, Laura Ann Edwards

Graduate Research Papers

Technology and collaboration are important to students in the reading classroom. This paper investigates students' reading attitudes after participating in a literature circle with technology. This study compared students' reading attitudes prior to participating in the literature circle with technology unit and after participating in the unit using a survey and interview of selected students. The selected students were to represent four categories: introverted, unmotivated, high achieving, and low achieving. The results suggest that students have positive reading experiences when using technology. Additionally, the results suggest that students' reading attitudes are more positive when they are able to collaborate with …

A Need For Motivation : Increasing Engagement To Bolster Success, Libbie M. Willert

Graduate Research Papers

Educators want to create a sustained, life-long reader in their students. This overview of the literature will share with educators valuable insight into how increasing motivation and student engagement will help create more involved readers. Key themes in the literature include: increasing literacy motivation, increasing literacy engagement, and applying thoughtful literacy practices. This review will also highlight several helpful strategies on how educators in today's classrooms can help increase student motivation and engagement related to literacy.

Effective Comprehension Strategies In The Elementary Classroom, Melissa Ann Determan

Graduate Research Papers

This paper focuses on key fiction and nonfiction comprehension strategies and different methods for teaching these strategies in the elementary classroom. It is essential to use effective comprehension instruction within the classroom to unlock meaning and to build student success. These strategies include activating background knowledge, questioning, summarizing, and text structures.

Books, Blogging, And Boredom : The Impact Of One-To-One Computing On Student Engagement And Literacy, Amanda M. Hudson

Graduate Research Papers

As one-to-one computing infiltrates education across the United States, stakeholders question the impact this technology will have on all involved. Teachers are realizing the effect that one-to-one computing has on the school, classroom, and curriculum as districts jump on the bandwagon and purchase laptops for every student. Research shows that classrooms, including language arts classrooms, incur many positive changes. One such change is the inclusion of new literacies into the curriculum. These new literacies will change how students read and write. Course management systems have also become common in many classrooms; and teachers, students, and parents are learning to negotiate …

How Educators And Parents Can Collaborate To Improve Student Reading Fluency, Jackie M. Mcdermott

Graduate Research Papers

In this project, fluency practices are defined and explored in relation to an elementary school setting that is partnering with parents on how to promote fluency practices in the home. The Literature Review describes the importance of fluency instruction, how fluency instruction supports literacy instruction, and finally how educators and parents can begin partnering to provide literacy practices in the home. Following the literature review, there is a professional development plan that lays out the key components of collaborating with parents to implement fluency practices in the home.

Effects Of Online Instructional Conversation On English As A Foreign Language Learners' Webquest Writing Performance : A Mixed Methods Study, Haesong Lee

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

WebQuests, or inquiry-oriented activities in which learners interact with Web-based information (Dodge, 1995, 1996, 2007), have recently been gaining popularity in education in general and in language education in particular. While it has the advantage of fostering higher-level thinking through authentic assignments, a WebQuest can be challenging to second or foreign language learners. In light of this challenge, Instructional Conversation (IC), or discussion-oriented form of teacher-led talk about text (Saunders & Goldenberg, 2007), may provide a solution to foreign/second language learners' difficulties with comprehension of Web-based information, thereby facilitating their WebQuest task performance. The purpose of this mixed methods study …

Mediational Effects Of Desktop-Videoconferencing Telecollaborative Exchanges On The Intercultural Communicative Competence Of Students Of French As A Foreign Language, Veronique Marie Martin

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Since the early 2000s, foreign language practitioners and researchers have shown an increasing interest in exploring the affordances of multimodal telecollaborative environments for the linguistic and intercultural development of their students. Due in part to their inherent complexity, one-on-one desktop-videoconferencing contexts have not been widely explored. To this end, this study investigates if and how American students of French engaged in a telecollaborative exchange with a class of French students are able to develop their Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC) through online interaction and the completion of a collaborative task. Adopting a case study approach, the video-recorded sessions of three dyads …