Digital Commons Network^™

Literacy Backpacks For Emergent Readers, Lori J. Logan

Graduate Research Papers

Schools and families are continually searching for ways to bridge learning between home and school. Partnerships that encourage literacy learning at home are especially important for young children. Literacy backpacks were designed to encourage parents and children to engage in meaningful literacy experiences in their homes. The literacy backpacks include a collection of literature, activities, and supplies that enable families to enjoy literacy learning in an informal setting. Literacy backpacks provide emergent readers and writers opportunities to see adults model literacy behaviors, to engage in meaningful interactions with adults and text at home, and to actively construct literacy knowledge independently.

Integrating Technology Into Literature Circles, Carrie A. Lutkenhaus

Graduate Research Papers

The purpose of this project is to develop a series of in-services that train middle school literature teachers in the integration of technology into literature circles. A staff development workshop was created to coincide with the Fort Dodge Community School District reading improvement goal. The audience for this staff development workshop will include eight fifth and sixth grade teachers from Fair Oaks Middle School. A review of the literature concerning literature circles and the integration of technology confirmed that the integration of technology into literature circles would have a positive effect on the literature classroom. Literature circles and the integration …

Shared Reading For Teaching English As A Foreign Language To Young Learners In Russia, Inna V. Kuznetsova

Graduate Research Papers

Shared Reading has proven to be very effective in developing language and literacy skills of children in the West. This project introduces Shared Reading as a curriculum component of English as a foreign language for young children in Russia. Review of the literature regarding the effectiveness of Shared Reading is described. The project includes two units of four lessons each that illustrate implementation of Shared Reading, oral language and other literacy activities. The project concludes with specific recommendations for dissemination of this work.

If Aristotle Ran The Writing Center: Classical Rhetoric And Writing Center Administration, Melissa Ianetta

The Writing Center Journal

No abstract provided.

Using Young Adult Literature : A Classic Way To Teach English, Matt B. Pries

Graduate Research Papers

Students are reading less, and enjoying reading less. Sticking to the same curriculum year after year in the hope that student attitude will suddenly change, that there will be an awakening in the classroom, and students will read the classics with enthusiasm cannot be done. It is a false hope. But there can be an awakening.

Using young adult literature in the high school English classroom is the solution. It will give new hope to teachers that as students come to enjoy reading, they will be more apt to, not only read more, but eventually come to read the classics. …

Educational Change Process: A Case Study Of A Rural School District's Reading Reform, Barbara M. Havel Bohach

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Beginning reading instruction is the subject of much debate in educational fields as well as in the political arena. The product of such debates is often a push to reform reading programs and teachers are targeted as the ones to carry out these reforms. If reading educators have been actively involved in a reading change process, what are their concerns about change and the influence of mandated legislation?

The purpose of this qualitative research study was to examine how teachers and administrators initiated and implemented a balanced reading innovation. It also investigated how the Concerns-Based Adoption Model identified teachers' concerns …

Espace Francophone Et Politiques Linguistiques : Glottophagie Ou Diversité Culturelle?, Zacharie Petnkeu Nzepa

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

This paper is illustrative of the conflict of languages in a sociolinguistic landscape. It asserts that in French-speaking world, notably Black Africa and the West Indies, politics in collusion with French language policies work for the imperceptible, but gradual disappearance of vernaculars on behalf of the prestige of French language. The International Organization of "Francophonie" is depicted as being instrumental in the ongoing strategy. The article ends up suggesting criteria for a harmonious cohabitation of languages in the above-mentioned ommunities.

The Transnational Classroom: Connecting People, Languages, And Cultures, Lourdes Sánchez-López, Jessica Ramos-Harthun

Dimensions

With the aid of computer technology and students’ firsthand experiences, the Transnational Classroom (TC), a pilot innovative project created and developed at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), was implemented in the summer of 2002 for a duration of three and a half weeks. The participants were two groups of students from the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures: a study-abroad group in Costa Rica and a Spanish class on the U.S. campus. The main objective of the project was to give the U.S. campus students the opportunity to participate in the foreign culture through their peers’ experiences and …

Stepping Out Of The Classroom To Increase Spanish Language Skills And Cultural Awareness, Betina Kaplan, Teresa Pérez-Gamboa

Dimensions

This article describes the experience of our college-level Spanish students who stepped out of their campus classrooms and into elementary school libraries, corridors, and classrooms to develop an exchange program. Chase Street Elementary School, like many other elementary schools in Athens, Georgia, has a large Hispanic student population composed mostly of recent immigrants with limited English proficiency. This experience served not only the Hispanic community of Athens, but our college students as well. Our students contribute to the reduction of the language barrier that separates teachers from students and their families, and, at the same time, they have the unique …

Merging Foreign Language Theory And Practice In Designing Technology-Based Tasks, Lara Lomicka, Gillian Lord, Melanie Manzer

Dimensions

While educators are aware of the benefits of technology in language instruction, one challenge they face is how to implement effective interactive technology-based tasks. Technology offers numerous advantages, yet it is not without some drawbacks. Terry (1998) notes that the purpose of using technology should be clear and pedagogical; it should not be used “to fill (or kill) time” (p. 282). The goal of this article is to integrate the theory of technology instruction with the creation of well-designed tasks. To that end, we examine recent research in computer-assisted language learning (CALL) as well as online learning. We offer ideas …

Intasc Model Foreign Language Standards For Beginning Teacher Licensing And Development, Carmen Chaves Tesser, Marty Abbott

Dimensions

The Interstate New Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium (INTASC) is a nonprofit organization representing 57 chief education officers who, through the Council of Chief State School Officers, are responsible for setting state education policy. INTASC standards address what beginning teachers should know, how they should behave, and what they should be able to do. At the present time, 33 states and territories are members of INTASC. In May 2002, a committee of 18 practicing teachers and teacher educators with expertise in a variety of languages and nominated by their professional organizations completed the drafting of the INTASC Foreign Language Standards …

Alternative Teacher Preparation Programs In Foreign Languages, Anja Bernardy, Elaine Mcallister

Dimensions

For the past 20 years educators have debated whether alternative teacher certification, or preparation, is a valid solution to the critical shortage now facing the profession. In foreign language education, Kennesaw State University (KSU) has developed an alternative preparation program designed to give candidates the same knowledge, skills, and dispositions imparted in traditional undergraduate preparation and to hold these individuals to the same standards required of undergraduates in foreign language education. This article describes the program, discusses the disadvantages and rewards of the assessment plan, and offers observations on the future of nontraditional preparation of teachers.

Creating A Language Learning Community Within And Beyond The Classroom, Denise M. Overfield

Dimensions

This article describes an interdisciplinary project that joins a popular curricular model, the learning community, with an increasingly popular pedagogical technique, community-based learning. The combination of the two gives students the opportunity to use language as both an object of and tool for learning, thus situating language at the heart of the learning experience. The development of a learning community creates a curricular space in which faculty and students work together as novices and experts in a specific situation to resolve linguistic and sociocultural issues. This article presents the field experience of 1st-year nursing students who were enrolled in a …

Supporting Reading Instruction Of High School Students With Learning Disabilities By Using Wynn Software, Linda Kilgore

All Graduate Projects

The purpose of this project was to create a student/teacher handbook, which contained information for the successful integration of the WYNN computer software into the general and special education classroom. Students with learning disabilities struggle with the general education curriculum and new technology provides an individualized approach to the accommodation of their needs. Research concerning learning disabilities and how the use of computers can support these students in the classroom was included.

Comprehension And Vocabulary Strategies Using Related Tradebooks With Social Studies For Bilingual And Bicultural Middle School Students, Jennifer Suzanne Tindall

All Graduate Projects

In many schools, students from ethnic minority groups are immersed in secondlanguage reading curricula with minimal attention to their native language literacy (Droop & Verhoeven, 2003). These children face the challenge ofleaming to read in languages that they have not mastered orally. As a result, these second-language students can then experience considerable gaps in their understanding ofreading because reading instruction in any language strongly builds on oral language proficiency. For these reasons, second-language literacy learning is an enormous issue in our schools today (Goodman, Goodman, & Flores, 1984). This is why the author chose to research effective reading instruction for …

Using Literature Circles To Teach Comprehension Strategies To Low-Achieving Middle School Readers, Rachel Grace Gossett

All Graduate Projects

Discussion is an integral part of our society and a natural way for students to learn. When discussion is brought into the classroom, students are able to use their background knowledge to create their own meaning and take their thinking to a higher level. Because of these attributes, discussion of reading material in the classroom leads to a greater comprehension of what was read and opens more doors for learning more strategies to increase reading ability. The teacher's role changes from being the one with all of the answers to a member of the group looking for the meaning. Teachers …

Identity Formation And Collaboration Inquiry In The Zone Of Proximal Development: Eighth Grade Esl Students Doing Research - A Teacher Research Study, Carol Irene Bearse

Educational Studies Dissertations

This study is an ethnographic investigation of a Grade Eight ESL IV class conducting research with topics of their own choosing from October, 2001 through May, 2002. This investigation is conceived as a qualitative teacher-research study: an ethnographic examination of collaborative inquiry in the ESL classroom setting where the majority of the students are Brazilian.

Home Environment Factors Influencing Literacy Development: A Group Of Brazilian Immigrant Head Start Children, Sharon C. Switzer

Educational Studies Dissertations

This dissertation examines the literacy practices embedded in the home environment of a group of 5 Brazilian Head Start children. It elucidates the difficulties and challenges of immigration that influenced their home environments and describes the literacy practices embedded within these home environments.

Best Practices In Balanced Early Literacy Instruction, Suzanne Yoder

Graduate Research Papers

In order to provide the best literacy instruction for the nation's earliest learners, it is crucial that best practice principles, as defined by Steven Zemelman, Harvey Daniels, and Arthur Hyde, be adhered to. These principles include all aspects of what have been found to be the teaching methods and strategies most conducive to successful early literacy acquisition. The purpose of this paper is to examine the historical and current trends in literacy education, discuss and explain the best practice principles, and to relate these principles to a current balanced literacy approach. Further, activities and lessons are presented which could be …

Think Aloud Protocols: Teaching Reading Processes To Young Bilingual Students, Magaly Lavadenz Ph.D.

Practitioner Journal Articles

This digest describes the use of think-aloud protocols with young bilingual children. Qualitative findings from a small study with 12 first through third grade students in dual language programs demonstrated that think-alouds were used effectively with elementary school emergent bilingual learners. The evidence from this study suggests that instruction in reading strategies should be given to young bilingual students and that more research needs to be done in this area.

Combining Science And Reading Materials To Teach Comprehension Strategies, Melena Haskovec

Graduate Research Papers

This paper describes a curriculum development project in which science and reading were combined to teach reading comprehension strategies to kindergarten and first grade children. Nonfiction science texts were purchased. The teachers collaboratively created and implemented lesson plans for three science units and one social studies unit. The combined classes met once every six days from January to May.

The children were paired across grade levels to read the texts, participate in the strategy instruction and complete the guided practice activities. Pre and post project measures of first graders' growth in reading comprehension showed that all the first grade students …

Reading Between The "Signs", Sarah Durchenwald/Williamson

Graduate Research Papers

Teaching reading to hearing students, with the supplemental support of American Sign • Language, is a relatively new concept. Many components associated with sign language reinforce basic concepts of English. It teaches individual letter sounds, and names, and many of the signs for words emphasize beginning sounds, as well as meaning. Another important component of sign language is its bodily kinesthetic form of learning. Many students in public schools today are not learning through traditional teaching strategies. Incorporating sign language provides a multi-sensory approach to literal hands-on learning.

The following research outlines the principles behind teaching effectively using sign language …

Critical Thinking In High School Literature Classes, Simona Sarbu

Graduate Research Papers

This study presents a review of literature regarding critical thinking. Several definitions of critical thinking are compared and contrasted. Critical thinking is presented as a subset of higher-order thinking and affinities between critical thinking and other forms of higher-order thinking are examined. Questioning as a means of promoting critical thinking in high school literature classes is discussed from the perspective of reader-response theories.

Several questioning strategies that have the potential to promote critical thinking in high school literature classes are identified. These strategies are Questioning Circles, Questioning the Author, Design Conversations, Hierarchical Models of Questioning, Socratic Seminars, and Literature Circles. …

Comparison Of A Basal Reading Program To A Basal Reading Program With Supplemental Phonics Using Incremental Development And Continuous Distributed Review, Michelle C. Barry

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study was conducted to determine whether students taught using the McGraw-Hill Reading program (non-supplemental group) and students taught using McGraw-Hill Reading supplemented with Saxon Phonics (supplemental group) demonstrated performance differences as measured by classroom-administered reading and spelling tests from the McGraw-Hill Reading Series. Overall, the results of this study revealed a limited number of differences between the supplemental and non-supplemental group. The supplemental group performed significantly better than the non-supplemental group on Unit 6 decoding. Higher-level readers in the supplemental group performed significantly better than higher-level readers in the non-supplemental group on Unit 4 spelling. The supplemental group performed …

Matching Effective Methods Of Teaching To Modes Of Learning: A Presentation For Educators Of American Indian Students, Lynn Marie Gellerson

All Graduate Projects

Reading is a skill necessary for social, academic, and economic achievement in our society. Research shows that minority children, such as American Indians, often struggle to become successful readers. It is necessary to understand causes that may contribute to the difficulties that American Indians have with effective acquisition of literacy skills. This presentation for educators of American Indian students will present information that will increase educators' knowledge of American Indian culture, and the culture of the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation. In addition, the effect culture has on an individual, the classroom, and reading instruction will be …

Closing The Gap Between Research And Practice: Foundations For The Acquisition Of Literacy, Molly De Lemos

Literacy and numeracy

Over the years two main approaches have emerged in the teaching and learning of reading and writing. One is the 'whole language' approach; the other concentrates more on instruction in phonics. This paper focuses on the theoretical assumptions underlying these two approaches to the teaching of literacy, and the studies which have been undertaken, in the international arena, to find out how children progress, from their earliest educational years, in attaining both initial reading skills and lifelong literacy.

A Phonemic Awareness Activity Book For Parents Of Pre-School Age Children, Lori Eileen Cottle

All Graduate Projects

This project examined the role of poetry and rhyme to assist in the development of phonemic awareness in the pre-school years. The review of current research found that phonemic awareness along with parental involvement is vital for children's academic success. Included is a phonemic awareness activity book focusing on the letters of the alphabet. It was written for parents of pre-school age children. Activities included in the book, support basic phonemic awareness skills, are age appropriate, and encourage parents to become involved in their child's playing and learning.

A Handbook Of Activities For Inclusion Of At Risk Middle School Language Arts Students, Deana M. York

All Graduate Projects

A handbook oflanguage arts activities for at risk middle school students was developed for preservice and experienced teachers to utilize in general education classrooms. A review of current educational research and literature addresses the need for inclusive instructional practices to meet academic needs of students who are at risk for drop out and failure. The literature review supports evidence that educators provide necessary accommodations for a culturally diverse adolescent student population by adapting classroom curriculum and pedagogy.

First Grade Literacy Portfolios: A Road Map To Success, Jennifer Lynn Simmons

Graduate Student Projects

The purpose of this project was to design an assessment portfolio process for first grade students. Through the portfolio process children will set goals, self-evaluate, self-reflect, review their peers, and hold a student-led conference. Current research and best practices on portfolios, goal-setting, self-evaluation, self-reflection, peer review, and student-led conferences were reviewed. Literacy portfolios were defined. Portfolios and how they were introduced into education were discussed. Purposes and benefits as well as concerns and challenges of using portfolios in the classroom were discussed and compared. Mini-lessons and black-line masters were also included for each content area.

Learning As We G(R)O(W): Strategizing The Lessons Of A Fledgling Rhetoric And Writing Studies Department, Jane Hindman

Publications and Research

Published in one of the first collections to focus on independent writing programs, A Field of Dreams. The volume offers a complex picture of the experience of the stand-alone. Included here are narratives of individual programs from a wide range of institutions, exploring such issues as what institutional issues led to their independence, how independence solved or created administrative problems, how it changed the culture of the writing program and faculty sense of purpose, success, or failure.