Digital Commons Network^™

“You Can’T Know Until Someone Tells You Or You Experience Something”: Talking Back To Deficit Discourse With Digital Photo Stories And The Not-Ice Teacher Discussion Protocol, Jennifer K. Allen

Perspectives In Learning

This practitioner research study explored the use of student-created digital photo stories combined with focused teacher conversations guided by the NOT-ICE protocol (Author, 2016) to provide insight into why Latin@ students’ talents may be overlooked by classroom teachers. Digital photo stories, created by emergent bilingual elementary Latin@ learners, were used to elicit the primary data from the study. Teacher co-researchers participated in small-group, collaborative discussion sessions to investigate and understand how schooling labels carry potential biases that obscure students’ gifts and talents. Findings indicate that digital photo stories can act as counter-stories by disrupting teachers’ commonly held (mis)perceptions about emergent …

Using Improvisation To Increase Students' Self-Efficacy, Oral Proficiency, And Learning Satisfaction In Second Language Learning, Margaret Weston Piccoli

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Second Language teachers are challenged to consistently create communicative and meaningful activities while maintaining a low-anxiety classroom for language acquisition. The purpose of this study was to investigate the use of the theatrical technique of improvisation and to understand if the technique improved students’ self-efficacy, oral proficiency, and learning satisfaction. This mixed method study was conducted with an experimental group (n = 10) and a control group (n = 3) at an English language program on a university campus through convenience sampling. Qualitative data were collected through class observations, student interviews, student journals, and video observations and three quantitative pre …

Investigating Efl Classroom Management In Pesantren: A Case Study, Akhmad Habibi, Amirul Mukminin, Johni Najwan, Septu Haswindy, Lenny Marzulina, Muhammad Sirozi, Kasinyo Harto, Muhammad Sofwan

The Qualitative Report

Classroom management (CM) is one of the most important issues in education and this research was aimed at understanding the classroom management problems and the coping strategies of Indonesian Islamic Boarding schools’ [hereinafter-termed pesantren] with the uniqueness of their system from the perspectives of the English teachers. Specifically, the purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore English as a foreign language (EFL) classroom management (CM) problems and the coping strategies of Indonesian Islamic boarding schools’ teachers. The data were collected through semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions (FGD), and observation with eight English teachers working in the three pesantren. …

Critical Pedagogy In Practice: Reflections Of A K-5 Educator, Kelly Gresalfi

Graduate Student Independent Studies

The author illuminates major theoretical concepts integral to critical pedagogy as they apply to grades k-5 through a selective review of the literature and reflection on how these principles intersect with her personal and teaching experiences. A candid analysis of the author's ongoing journey to put these ideas into practice, including ways in which she has felt successful and areas she continues to find challenging, is offered. Suggestions for ways in which elementary school educators can approach their teaching practices and classroom structures through the lens of critical pedagogy are included. Reactions to the thesis from several of the …

Graphic Mathematical Mediated Structure: The Link For Hispanic/Latino And English Learners' Mathematical Success, Sylvia Casteloes

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

This project’s goal is to promote and improve the mathematical literacy of fourth-grade Hispanic/Latino and English learners through the use of a graphic mathematical mediated structure. Current California Common Core data finds fourth-grade Hispanic/Latino and English learners significantly behind White and Asian students in mathematics, especially in understanding written word problems.

Research supports the assumption that as a tool, a graphic mathematical mediated structure could: 1) foster conceptual understanding; 2) build content terminology; 3) allow students opportunities to justify their solutions; 4) integrate writing in math; and 5) provide a platform for discourse. This innovative pedagogical project specifically focused on …

The Writer's Workbook Intervention: Promoting Writing Achievement, Cassandra O'Sullivan Sachar

Journal of Research Initiatives

Research demonstrates that American high school students are not writing with proficiency, and teachers are not providing adequate writing instruction. This study examined the effectiveness of a writing intervention on achievement using pre- and post-intervention data. The instructional intervention combined self-regulated strategy development, peer and teacher feedback, reflection, and flexible writing practice to strengthen persuasive and argumentative writing in high school students. 95 ninth- and tenth-grade Delaware public school students in higher and lower-level classes participated in the instructional intervention, and twenty-five students’ writings were scored before and after the intervention to assess growth. Pre/post mean ratings of writing quality …

Reading Comprehension Instruction For Young Students With High Functioning Autism: Forming Contextual Connections, Karen S. Engel

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Central coherence is the ability to perceive and connect salient information in a context such as a narrative text. Weak central coherence theory describes a detail-focused cognitive style of processing information that overlooks connections. This style of processing is a shortcoming of individuals with autism compared to typically developing individuals (Frith, 2003). A six-session instructional intervention to foster coherence processing and reinforce thinking strategies was administered to first and second graders while a control group received an irrelevant treatment. There were 10 students with high functioning autism in each condition, mean age 7.06 years, 18 males and 2 females. It …

The Power Of Pictures: Drawing On Visual Sign-Systems To Teach Inference In Gerstein’S The Man Between Two Towers, Shannon Howrey

The Journal of Balanced Literacy Research and Instruction

The ability to infer while reading is a critical part of meaning-making. Readers who infer go beyond the literal words on the page by adding information to the text and making implicit connections between the text and their prior knowledge (Barr, Blacowicz, Bates, Katz, & Kaufman, 2013). This skill allows them to establish causal relationships between story events, connect the events to their personal experiences, and determine relationships, motivations, and emotions within and between characters. Drawing on dual coding theory and visual literacy principles, the author demonstrates how the lines in the illustrations of The Man Between Two Towers assist …

The Relationship Between English Language Proficiency And Academic Achievement For English Language Learners, Laura Grisso

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this quantitative correlational research study was to test the threshold hypothesis as it applied to the performance of English language learner students on the Oklahoma Core Curriculum Test (OCCT) in third grade reading and the Assessing Comprehension and Communication in English State to State for English language learners assessment, also known as the ACCESS for ELLs. The OCCT assesses student performance on third grade reading content and the ACCESS for ELLs assesses the English language proficiency levels in speaking, listening, reading, and writing. This study specifically proposed to analyze the relationship between the ACCESS for ELLs reading …

Testing And Ideology: Policy Debates About Literacy Assessments For Colorado’S Bilingual Students, Luis E. Poza, Kara Mitchell Viesca

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

The Colorado Reading to Ensure Academic Development Act requires grade-level attainment in literacy in English for students in grades K-3. Its practical outcome, however, has been to pressure schools with bilingual programs to shift their instructional language allocations towards more English in the early grades. Proposed rule revisions debated by the state Board of Education sought to facilitate testing in students’ language of instruction for those in bilingual programs. Analysis of written and verbal opposition to the proposed rule revisions demonstrates the persistence of insidious ethnoculturalist discourses opposing bilingual education as well as the cooptation of liberal multiculturalist discourses that, …

Breaking Traditions: Teaching Efl In The Dominican Republic, Farlin Paulino

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

This portfolio is a compilation of the author’s beliefs in regard to effectively teaching English as a Foreign Language and Spanish as a Second language. This work was completed for the Master of Second Language Teaching (MSLT) program at Utah State University. All the work compiled in this portfolio centers on the teaching philosophy statement, which contains what the author believes to be the most important aspects of teaching a second language. In the first section of the portfolio, the author presents the experiences that made him pursue the profession of teaching languages, his personal philosophy of teaching shaped by …

Pre-Kindergarten And Kindergarten Teachers' Perceptions Of The Student Growth Portfolio Model In Tennessee, Amanda Pickens

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The focus of this quantitative study was to discover perceptions of pre-K and kindergarten teachers within public schools in Tennessee regarding the appropriateness of the student growth portfolio model. This study explored teachers’ perceptions of the appropriateness of the math standards, English language arts standards, and the scoring guide included within the SGPM. A quantitative survey was used to understand pre-K and kindergarten teachers’ perceptions of the appropriateness of the 2017-2018 student growth portfolio model. There were 16 pre-K teachers and 51 kindergarten teachers who participated in the survey. Single sample t-tests were used to analyze responses. Research indicated that …

Pengaruh Model Project Based Learning Terhadap Kemampuan Membaca Artikel Penelitian Mahasiswa Biologi, Dian Tauhidah, Herawati Susilo, Hadi Suwono

Jurnal Pendidikan: Teori, Penelitian, dan Pengembangan

This study aims to determine there is a difference in the ability to read student research articles through the application of project based learning model. This research is a quasi experimental research with nonequivalent study of pretest-posttest control group design. The population used is all biology students of Malang State University. The samples used were 85 students divided into three classes: negative control, positive control, and experiment. The research instrument used in the form of a description test developed from Lacum’s (2004) rethorical moves: motives, objective, novelty, main conclusion, support, counterargument, refutation, and implication. The results were analyzed using ANACOVA …

Learning Moo-Re About The Dairy: Publishing A Middle Level Place-Based Informational Text, Stephanie M. Lemley

MLET: The Journal of Middle Level Education in Texas

This manuscript describes the creation of an middle level informational text about the local university dairy. The place-based assignment introduced the elementary education teacher candidates to the everyday workings of the university dairy. The preservice teachers engaged in the writing process throughout the creation of the informational text.

Science Inquiry In Informal Settings, Michelle Elizabeth Gomez Ms.

LSU Master's Theses

This qualitative research study aims to answer the question of whether or not informal learning settings, such as museums and zoos, are beneficial to students’ understanding of new science concepts and the nature of science. The researcher uses the term, “informal educators,” to refer to the participants because they are educators who teach in settings outside of a school setting. This study focuses on four informal educators that are employed at four different informal learning settings in South Louisiana, but specifically how the informal educators’ instruction complements classroom instruction, how informal educators incorporate inquiry within their science instruction, and what …

Beyond Replicative Technology: The Digital Practices Of Students With Literacy-Related Learning Difficulties Engaged In Productive Technologies, Aimee Frier

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation, I present the findings from a qualitative case study of the digital literacy integration of a teacher and the digital literacy practices of three students with literacy-related learning difficulties within her classroom. As a researcher, I was interested in the ways students with literacy- related learning difficulties navigated digital tools in a technology-infused environment created by a teacher who has experience using digital tools for instructional and student-learning purposes. My research was guided by the following questions: (1) What was the context, content, and structure of the teacher’s technology instruction? (2) In what ways did the students …

Witnessing The Event Of Deconstruction: Cultural Encounter Between Louisiana And Japan And Its Implications For Education, Kaori Shimizu

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Cultural diversity is widely understood as needed, and the importance of learning about other cultures has been emphasized. However, if other cultures are located and explained within the framework where the culture of the Self invisibly maintains the fixed normative status, it would result in “a creation of cultural diversity and a containment of cultural difference” (Bhabha, 1990c, p. 208).

Addressing this issue, this dissertation study considers the curriculum that appreciates cultural differences in recognizing the alterity of the culture of the other, emerged from the engagement in the tension existing between two cultures, of the Self and of the …

Action Items, Wku Graduate Council

Graduate School

Overview of action items handled by the Graduate Council.

Creating A New Normal: Language Education For All, Aleidine Kramer Moeller, Martha G. Abbott

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

How close are we to the reality of all students having the opportunity to learn another language and gaining support for these efforts from the general public? The answer has a long history, which we point out by referencing articles that span the 50‐year history of Foreign Language Annals. From the 1979 President’s Commission on Foreign Language and International Studies report under President Jimmy Carter to the recent article by Kroll and Dussias (2017) on the benefits of multilingualism, this article tracks ACTFL’s advocacy efforts over the years. Most recently, the 2017 launch of the Lead with Languages public awareness …

Review Of Think Big With Think Alouds: A Three-Step Planning Process That Develops Strategic Readers, Susan J. Chambre

The Language and Literacy Spectrum

In Think Big with Think Alouds: A Three-step Planning Process That Develops Strategic Readers (2017), Molly K. Ness provides classroom teachers with a detailed three-step process for developing think aloud procedures during classroom literacy instruction. The book assists teachers in identifying stopping points in narrative and expository text. Ness also includes multiple scripted think alouds with comprehensive explanations for both narrative and expository text. Additionally, practical tips for promoting student adoption of higher order thinking skills are provided in the form of sentence starters and strategy symbols. The procedures outline in Think Big with Think Alouds will empower classroom teachers …

Supporting Primary Students’ Story Writing By Including Retellings, Talk, And Drama With Strategy Instruction, Zoi A. Traga Philippakos, Sarah Munsell, Logan B. Robinson

The Language and Literacy Spectrum

Story writing and story grammar have been studied extensively in an effort to improve students’ reading comprehension. Instruction on story structure and on elements of stories can improve the writing quality of students’ papers. This paper explains a process of supporting primary-grade students’ story writing. The approach is based on strategy instruction and incorporates talk and dramatic play as ways to support the development of characters, descriptions of characters and events, and dialogue between characters. Guidelines are provided and step-by-step directions for teachers to use this work with their students.

Experiential Knowledge And Project-Based Learning In Bilingual Classrooms, Adriana Alvarez

Occasional Paper Series

Culturally and linguistically diverse children deserve sophisticated and dynamic biliterate learning opportunities that integrate the children’s life experiences and keen intellects. Dynamic learning in early childhood classrooms, including progressivist pedagogical approaches like project-based learning, has been shown to facilitate academic achievement as well as high-level learning capabilities including critical thinking, agency, problem solving, and negotiation (Adair, 2014; Bell, 2010; Hyson, 2008; Katz & Chard, 2000). Too often, culturally and linguistically diverse children are offered learning opportunities that fall short of helping students achieve their potential or of validating their life experiences (González, Moll, & Amanti, 2005; Nieto & Bode, 2008; …

Administrators’ Roles In Offering Dynamic Early Learning Experiences To Children Of Latinx Immigrants, Alejandra Barraza, Pedro Martinez

Occasional Paper Series

Principals and school administrators play a critical role in creating learning environments that are sensitive to the needs of students from immigrant families. School administrators, particularly principals, are tasked with making decisions that directly and indirectly impact what happens in a classroom. They act as instructional and visionary leaders as well as resource managers and so they determine both the culture and pedagogy of the school. They determine whether the main focus of the early learning classrooms will be academic skill development (literacy, numeracy), cognitive skill development (social competence, behavioral self-regulation, problem-solving, and decision-making), socio-emotional processing (helping others, empathy, sharing), …

No Room For Silence: The Impact Of The 2016 Presidential Race On A Second-Grade Dual-Language (Spanish-English) Classroom, Sandra L. Osorio

Occasional Paper Series

“¡Quiere sacar a todos los suramericanos! Quiere quedarse con solo los blancos,¹ shouted second grader Salvador² to his classmate Victor. They were supposed to be reading Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type by Doreen Cronin, but somehow the conversation had turned to the then presidential candidate for the Republican Party, Donald Trump. That was how Trump and his rhetoric entered our dual language classroom.

Far too often, the voices of students of color, their experiences, and their lives are not validated in the classroom. When Salvador and Victor’s conversation about Trump erupted, the teacher and I—the teacher …

Intersectionality And Possibility In The Lives Of Latina/O/X Children Of Immigrants: Imagining Pedagogies Beyond The Politics Of Hate, Ramon Antonio Martinez

Occasional Paper Series

I first met Alma¹ when she was five years old and a kindergarten student in a multi-age Spanish-English dual language classroom in southern California. Alma is the child of immigrants from the Mexican state of Oaxaca. Somewhat shy and soft spoken, she nonetheless had many friends and seemed eager to engage with her peers in class. In interviews with me over the first few years of a longitudinal study that I was conducting at her school, she spent a great deal of time sharing the details of her rich literate life. Among other things, Alma loved poetry. In addition …

Introduction: A Vision For Transforming Early Childhood Research And Practice For Young Children Of Immigrants And Their Families, Fabienne Doucet, Jennifer Adair

Occasional Paper Series

This special issue of the Occasional Paper Series describes practices and policies that can positively impact the early schooling of children of immigrants in the United States. We consider the intersectionality of young children’s lives and what needs to change in order to ensure that race, class, immigration status, gender, and dis/ability can effectively contribute to children’s experiences at school and in other instructional contexts, rather than prevent them from getting the learning experiences they need and deserve.

Affective Reflexivity: Endeavors To Push Methodological And Representational Boundaries Of Curriculum, Eunkyoung Chung

Curriculum Studies Summer Collaborative (2011-2025)

Presenter will provide.

The Impact Of The Use Of Science Notebooks In Conjunction With A Learning Progression-Based Science Unit In An Urban Middle School, Reagan Williams

Dissertations

Learning progressions are the latest tool to understand the ways science learning occurs and they underlie the structure and framework of the Next Generation Science Standards.Prior research indicated a variety of ways to develop and validate learning progressions and learning progression’s general positive impact on students’ science learning. However, no study has explicitly employed science notebooks as the cornerstone to the development and/or validation processes. Therefore, the research question is: what is the impact on students’ science learning outcomes when a middle school science learning progression is developed and validated using science notebooks as part of an inquiry-based instructional …

Bilingual Teachers' Experiences: Being English Learners, Becoming Teachers, And Bilingual Education, Carrie Susan Larson

Dissertations and Theses

Bilingual students are the fastest growing demographic group in U.S. P-12 public schools and offer promise and hope to our increasingly global workforce. However, many bilingual students are lagging behind in school, too many do not complete high school, and their schooling experiences are overshadowed by racial and linguistic segregation, low-academic tracking, and subtractive educational experiences. There is a growing body of literature that recognizes the importance of bilingual and bicultural teachers and leaders who can include students' linguistic, cultural, and community assets in school. This qualitative research study explores the experiences of a specialized group of elementary bilingual and …

Black Exceptionality In Academia: A Cultural-Historical Re-Conceptualization Of Black Male Students Identified With Learning Disabilities In Higher Education, Larry Love, Dosun Ko, Aydin Bal

Journal of Research Initiatives

The under-representation of Black male students identified with learning disabilities (LD) in higher education is a symptom of a larger social injustice, the racialization of educational opportunities and outcomes in the United States. We provided a critical review of literature to examine the structural and social barriers facing Black college students identified with LD in terms of access to adequate support services, refusal of funds of knowledge that Black students bring to higher education, and hegemonic organization of higher education. Following themes are explored: a) historical legacy of racial inequity in academia; b) systemic contradictions in institutional practices; c) absence …