Elementary Education and Teaching Commons^™

Cultivating Knowledge In The School Garden: New Ways Of Teaching Literacy To Esl Students, Michele Durivage

MA TESOL Collection

My thesis project includes a combination of materials development and classroom-based research. In my paper, I explore existing garden-related curricula, and create original garden-based lesson plans to teach literacy to fourth grade ESL students. This curriculum development project contributes to the field of ESL in its innovative garden-based pedagogy. The field study took place during the spring semester of 2009 at Increase Miller Elementary School in Westchester County, New York. Using nature as inspiration for writing descriptive essays and poetry, the ESL students at Increase Miller produced imaginative writing pieces, using their own voices to express their thoughts. The students’ …

Framework And Rationale For Developing A Single Language Exploratory Program For Students In Grades 1 – 3, Amy Bentley

MA TESOL Collection

This materials development project provides middle and high school language teachers, in a public school setting, the rationale and curriculum for implementing an introductory language program to elementary aged children in their school. This paper explores the author’s school community and the interest in providing an introductory language program for elementary aged students in the school district. The author, a second language teacher in the school, is also an advocate for introducing this type of programming, with the hopes that it will create enthusiasm and motivation for further language study in the students’ middle and high school years. The project …

Why Writing Workshop?, Indiana Partnership For Young Writers

Articles

We believe writing workshop is the instructional framework that best supports all students. Through rigorous teaching, students learn to write with clear vision and skillful intention, positioning them well for lifelong academic and workplace success.

Blazing The Real: Writing By Indiana Children, Susan C. Adamson, Julie Patterson

Anthologies

I got my first camera when I was in third grade—a Brownie Hawkeye flash model with a snazzy little camera case. The instruction manual provided six simple steps for taking successful pictures.

Hold the camera steady, supporting it underneath. Then, with the sun behind your back or over your shoulder, locate the subject in the finder. At the instant of exposure, hold your breath and press the shutter release with a gentle squeezing action (Brownie Hawkeye Instruction Manual).

The camera came with two rolls of film, each with16 frames. I eagerly used them up and sent the exposed film off …

Cultural Enrichment: Connecting African American Elementary Children To Academic Achievement, Deborah L. Winston

Wayne State University Dissertations

A large, growing number of mis-educated American citizens are being produced by America's public schools. Many of these students are being funneled into the penal system shortly after dropping out of high school. This phenomenon is especially prevalent among African American male students, many of whom have withdrawn academically years prior to permanently dropping out of school. Additionally, to further underscore the importance of successfully educating African American students are the debilitating effects brought about after incarceration. About 4 million people in the United States, including 1.4 million Black men (13 percent of the adult male Black population) have currently …

Depictions And Gaps: Portrayal Of U.S. Poverty In Realistic Fiction Children’S Picture Books, Jane E. Kelley, Janine J. Darragh

Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts

Researchers conducted a critical multicultural analysis of 58 realistic fiction children’s picture books that portray people living in poverty and compared these depictions to recent statistics from the United States Census Bureau. The picture books were examined for the following qualities: main character, geographic locale and time era, focal poor character (gender, age, and race), who demonstrated action, and the type of action (individual, community, systemic) demonstrated. Results of the analysis showed that while in some areas the books accurately reflect the reality in the United States today, there are other areas in which poverty is misrepresented. For example, while …

Five Strategies To Support All Teachers: Suggestions To Get Off The Slippery Slope Of "Cookbook" Science Teaching, Paula A. Magee, Ryan Flessner

Scholarship and Professional Work – Education

Many teachers shudder at the thought of implementing an inquiry curriculum. Perhaps they envision a rowdy classroom with little learning. Maybe they wonder, "How will this connect to all the standards?" Fortunately, these legitimate concerns can be addressed, and all students can engage in thoughtfully constructed inquiry science experiences. In this article, we outline five strategies that we have used with elementary school teachers as they moved from a "cookbook" approach in science to an approach that is inquiry-based. Having presented these five strategies in a linear format, we know that on the surface this may seem close to the …

Transforming Classroom Discourse And Pedagogy In Rural Zimbabwe Classrooms: The Place Of Local Culture And Mother Tongue Use, Jacob Marriote Ngwaru

Institute for Educational Development, East Africa

Rural African classrooms are still practicing discourses and pedagogies that contribute towards students' continued underachievement and marginalization. The use of behaviourist-based pedagogical approaches and the exclusion of learners' socio-cultural experiences including their mother tongue (MT) still characterize most classroom practices. The use of classroom discourse that severely constrains opportunities for pupil participation and the development of higher order thinking skills has also been noted. This paper describes an intervention based on the principles of transformative and constructive developmental pedagogy designed to improve approaches to teaching and learning in a primary school in rural Zimbabwe. Examples of prevailing classroom practices organized …

The Personal Values Of School Leaders In Pakistan: A Contextual Model Of Regulation And Influence, Sharifullah Baig

Professional Development Centre, Gilgit

This paper illuminates the sources of personal values and their influence on the leadership practices of two school head teachers in the particular context of Pakistan. A comparative case study method has been followed within the qualitative research paradigm where semistructured interviews, observations, and document analyses were used as the main data collection tools. This study finds that the types of personal values and the motivational bases for the acquisition of such values are very much contextually-centered. The data for both principals, despite the exceedingly different characteristics of their childhood communities, reveals that the inherent religious and communal values of …

Direct Inference Instruction: The Effects On Fourth Grade Students' Reading Comprehension And Motivation, Kalee Bengtson

Masters Theses

This research investigated student motivation and comprehension when an inference strategy was explicitly taught to fourth-grade students. Students in the experimental group (n=18) received instruction in an inference strategy developed for the purpose of this study that was based upon the five-step inference strategy created by Fritschmann, Deshler, and Schumaker (2007). Scaffolding instruction, the teacher modeled questioning the text and answering questions using a graphic organizer. After the teacher modeled the process, students worked in groups to read the text, question the text, make inferences, and answer questions at the end of the text. Finally, students completed the process independently …

Stories Of God's Love (Kindergarten), Shauna M. Adams, Lisa Grabiel, Debra Ciambro Grisso

Teacher Education Faculty Publications

This kindergarten program offers a leaflet-style format that proclaims Bible stories as well as contemporary stories that relate to the life of a kindergarten child. Seasonal lessons deepen the child’s understanding of holy days, holidays and liturgical seasons.

Stories of God’s Love is the first new program following the Guidelines for Materials developed by the Subcommittee on the Catechism of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Incredible Years Dina Dinosaur Program Evaluation, Amanda Holzapfel

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

The purpose of this program evaluation was to determine the effectiveness of the Incredible Years (IY) Dina Dinosaur Child Training Program in the Early Childhood Special Education Classroom (ECSE) at the GFW Elementary School, a small town school. The Dina Dinosaur Program is designed to promote children’s social, emotional, behavior and academic skills through social skills and problem solving curriculum. This program has been found to be appropriate for children with ADHD, language and/or developmental delays and mild autism spectrum disorders, which were all present in the ECSE classroom at GFW Elementary. All of the ECSE teachers and paraprofessionals had …

Managing Small Group Instruction Through The Implementation Of Literacy Work Stations, Carrie Kracl

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This case study explored the journey of four first grade teachers in their pursuit to improve the quality of their small group instruction time through increased engagement of students away from the small groups, thus allowing for quality instruction taking place in the small group.  The teachers participated in professional development on literacy work stations that included video and an accompanying text.  Based on the qualitative data from observations and interviews, all four teachers believed that the quality of their small group instruction improved with the implementation of literacy work stations through increased student engagement and motivation and the subsequent …

The Influence Of Co-Taught Inclusion On The Academic Achievement Of Third Grade Non-Disabled Students In Mathematics, Michael Trabucco

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

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Solo But Not Separate: Preparing 21st-Century School Library Professionals Who Can "Go It Alone", Becky Pasco

Teacher Education Faculty Publications

Preparing school librarians for a diverse array of 21st-century educational environments is a daunting task. Faculty in school library preparation programs send candidates out into sparsely populated rural areas, dense urban settings, and everything in between. Some candidates will provide services and resources in updated, modern facilities, while others will operate in tiny, tattered little corners. Some new professionals will ply their trade in technically rich arenas, while others will work in technically starved settings. Regardless of place and space, resources and services must be developed and delivered in a proactive and productive manner for the P—12 community. School library …

Highly Qualified Public School Teacher: Its Status, Distribution, Determinants, And Relationship With Job Commitment And Job Satisfaction, Samuel Striker

Dissertations

Highly qualified teacher (HQT) has been promoted as a policy instrument to improve our public education. In this study, I investigated the quality of public school teachers by examining the distribution pattern of highly qualified teachers across school level, urbanicity, minority student population, and core academic fields. I also investigated what teacher characteristics (age, gender, ethnicity, total years of teaching, certification, bachelor's degree in mathematics and sciences vs. in other areas, teaching level) predict highly qualified teacher status after controlling for school characteristics (% of minority students, % of free and reduced-price lunch, school size, and school location). Finally, I …

A Reflective Exploration Of A Multiyear Elementary School Learning Community Experience, Susan Jean Ganley

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study reports a reflection upon the experience of a multiyear elementary school learning community designed for improved teaching and learning. The exploration uses interview data to describe the perceptions and reflections of the principal and teachers directly engaged in this project of educational reform. The goal of this process is to gain a deeper understanding of the experience and to determine to what factors the participants attribute the outcomes of this project.

Through an auto-ethnographic reflective critical practice inquiry and extended interviews, this study describes the context and environment of this learning community and how the participants reflect on …

A Qualitative Study Of Instructional Strategies Used By Elementary General Education Teachers In Inclusive Classrooms, Kristen Peterson

Dissertations

It has become evident in recent years that it is not the placement in the general education classroom that makes the difference for the education of students with disabilities, but it is the instructional strategies used by general education teachers (King- Sears, 1997; Vaughn & Schumm, 1995; Zigmond, 2003; Zigmond & Baker, 1995). In the last two decades, considerable progress has been made in designing, implementing, and evaluating effective interventions for students with learning disabilities. Although the research on effective instruction is abundant, studies continue to reveal general education teachers minimally change their instruction when students with learning disabilities are …

Parent Involvement In Children's Schooling: An Investigation Of Measurement Equivalence Across Ethnic Groups, Heather Marie Scott

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Epstein et al.'s Theory of Overlapping Spheres of Influence focuses on the interaction and communication, or partnerships, among families, schools, and the community to bring the three closer together. The theory works in conjunction with Epstein's typology of parental involvement, which focuses on six types of involvement that are instrumental to a child's development and his/her school and educational success. These serve as the framework for the study and support the construct of parent's involvement in children's schooling.

The purpose of the current study was to conduct further validation analyses of an inventory designed to measure the construct of parent …

Elementary Principals Decision-Making Process During Crisis Situations In One Northern New Jersey District, Marilyn Torley

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate how school administrator,respond during a crisis. Relevant research pertaining to crisis decision-making will be presented, focusing on the three steps of crisis decision theory (a) assessing the severity ofthe negative event (b) deterrnining response options, and (c) evaluating response options (Sweeny, 2008) during crisis situations. This is the first time crisis decision theory will be used to explore how schoolleaders respond to a crisis. CriticaI Incident Technique (CIT) (Flanagan, 1954) was used as the investigative framework with the improved credibility checks established by Butterfield et al. (2005). Following the guidelines set …