Digital Commons Network^™

Supporting English Language Learners In California K-12 Classrooms, Emma Borrelli

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

English Language Learners face struggles in the classroom that students who only speak English do not encounter. First I will highlight the problems and difficulties English Language students encounter in all aspects of their learning environment, using Ajay Srikanth’s essays on the equity of funding for English Learners. Then, I will propose solutions and strategies to help them based on thorough research and studies by Roselle Chartock in “Strategies and Lessons for Culturally Responsive Teaching : a Primer for k-12.” Chartock also talks about culturally responsive teaching in “Strategies and Lessons for Culturally Responsive Teaching : a Primer for k-12” …

Creating A Classroom Of Access: Learner Identity And Intercultural Communicative Competence, Kallen Brunson

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

This portfolio represents the coursework, readings, writings, classroom observations, teaching experiences, and reflections during my time in the Utah State University Masters in Second Language Teaching program. It is composed of three main components: my teaching philosophy, reflections on a selection of classroom observations of other instructors, and a position paper on World Englishes and pragmatics. Additionally, this portfolio gives background on the professional environment of the author and looks forward to the future.

The main paper consists of a position paper regarding World Englishes and cultivating identity and intercultural communicative competence, supplemented by a paper on incorporating pragmatics into …

In Search Of Effective Second Language Arabic Vocabulary Teaching Strategies: Theory And Implementation, Asmaa Yazidi Alaoui

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

This portfolio is the outcome of the author’s studies in the Masters of Second Language Teaching (MSLT) program at Utah State University (USU) as well as her experience as a graduate instructor of Arabic at the same university.

This work has two main parts. The first comprises the three major components that present the author’s perspectives as a teacher, such as professional environment, teaching philosophy statement and the teaching observation.

The second part demonstrated the author’s research interest that aligned with her teaching perspective as an Arabic teacher. It was a position paper that called for Arabic vocabulary teaching strategies …

Stories In Motion: Integrating Creative Dance In A Language Arts Classroom, Amira Akam

Departmental Honors & Graduate Capstone Projects

As learning gaps have widened in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been an increased need for research-based strategies to improve student academic achievement and engagement. This study explored the integration of creative dance as a form of storytelling in a kindergarten language arts classroom. Students were introduced to an element of dance and used it to create short dance phrases in a unit on retelling. Both qualitative and quantitative data was collected using pre/post tests and student interviews measuring students’ engagement and enjoyment. Students involved in this study showed significant growth in their ability to orally retell …

Narrowing The Achievement Gap By Increasing Student Opportunities In An Outdoor Project-Based Learning Environment, Britney Christensen

Masters Projects

The nation’s lack of student achievement on standardized tests is a result of the insufficient number of opportunities a student has to interact with their environment. Research indicates racial and economic disparities limit the number of chances these groups have to build the wide range of background knowledge needed to support the academic demands in the classroom. As a result, their performances show a widening of the achievement gap. Therefore, this project speaks to perspectives centered around constructivism as a way to explain how students acquire knowledge over time. The author contends that reading diverse texts, writing for different purposes, …

Writing And Reading Connections: Giving Value To Both Sides Of The Same Literacy Coin, Zoi A. Traga Philippakos, Penelope Wiese, Adalea Davis

The Language and Literacy Spectrum

The purpose of this article is to comment on ways that writing-reading connections can take place enhancing reading comprehension and composition. Drawing from a genre-based instructional approach, examples are provided to explain such connections in the process of (a) a rhetorical analysis conducted on writing prompts and prior to reading, (b) examination of writing purposes and genres for writing and reading, (c) read alouds for retelling and monitoring meaning making, and (d) of critical reading for reviewing purposes and determination of clarity of written ideas. The article concludes with guidelines for classroom teachers and recommendations for the implementation of the …

Explicit Instruction In A Second Grade Picturebook Author Study, Ted Kesler

The Language and Literacy Spectrum

Using the Learning by Design multiliteracies framework, writing workshop was transformed into composing workshop. The researcher worked with a team of four second grade teachers in an urban public elementary school to redesign their Kevin Henkes author study to equally value art and design, guiding their students in creating their own narrative picturebooks. The researcher addresses the following two research questions: 1. What explicit instructional practices did the teachers enact? 2. What influence did these explicit instructional practices have on the second graders’ composing work? The researcher applied cross-case analysis, first to create an inventory of explicit instructional practices, and …

More Than Words: Using Children's Literature To Promote Self-Awareness In The Primary Grades, Vicki L. Luther

The Language and Literacy Spectrum

Children at the beginning of their formal educational experiences are developing cognitively, socially, and emotionally. However, due to the ramifications of the COVID-19 pandemic, many children are behind in these developmental areas. Self-awareness is a foundation of students’ understandings of themselves and the world around them. Without a greater perception of self-awareness, children learning to read in the primary grades might struggle in self-efficacy and motivation, and a lack of self-awareness can even affect students’ understandings of texts in later grades. This article focuses on how teachers can use children’s literature to discuss socioemotional components and to help students recognize …

Critical Online Information Evaluation (Coie): A Comprehensive Model For Curriculum And Assessment Design, Lauren Weisberg, Xiaoman Wang, Christine Wusylko, Angela Kohnen

Journal of Media Literacy Education

The recent evolution of technology and the Internet has transformed how individuals find and share information. Research shows that citizens of all ages and backgrounds struggle with critical online information evaluation (COIE), which could result in serious societal consequences. Although it is crucial to develop student proficiency within this key information literacy construct beginning in middle school, there is currently no interdisciplinary framework for designing COIE instruction or assessments. To address this gap, we have developed a comprehensive COIE model for curriculum developers, assessment creators, and practitioners to implement at the secondary and post-secondary level. In this paper, we provide …

The Reality Of Teaching English Virtually: Esl Teachers' Perspectives And Experiences During The Covid-19 National Pandemic, Natalia Guerrero

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This study examined the dilemma ESL teachers experienced as the educational system shifted from the usual modus operandi of in-person lessons to the uncharted virtual learning environment (VLE). ESL teachers, in one of the largest urban districts in Louisiana, accumulated additional roles and responsibilities that were unique to the teachers of the English learner (EL) population enrolled at their schools.

Data collected to answer the research questions were the product of single and focus group’s interviews with five ESL elementary and middle school teachers in Freedom District. State and district emergency response to COVID-19 guidelines, along with instructional artifacts, were …

Deictic Pointing And Demonstrative Usage In American Sign Language, Paul Twitchell

Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies ETDs

American Sign Language (ASL), like many different signed languages, has a systematic way of using pointing signs for multiple types of nominal reference. Possibly the most basic function of pointing is to indicate, direct and modulate reference to physical objects located in proximal and distal areas called exophoric demonstratives.

This study aims to investigate ASL exophoric demonstratives and how ASL fits within the different typological systems of demonstratives that have been documented (Diessel & Coventry, 2020). Several research questions focus on how signers direct attention to proximal and distal referents in ASL using an elicitation task. The two studies (adult …

The Importance Of Implementing Literacy Strategies In A Mathematics Classroom, Lauren Tecca, Joanna Weaver, John Chen

Honors Projects

The purpose of this ACTION research study is to explore the influence of literacy on mathematical proficiency levels. The correlation will use the data to formulate some strategies for the classroom in order to increase confidence in both subject areas.

Supporting Preservice Teacher Development Of Culturally Responsive Reading Instruction Through A Cross-Course Assignment, Brittany Adams, Annemarie Bazzo Kaczmarczyk

Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts

This article describes design-based research undertaken by two teacher educators to support elementary preservice teachers (PSTs) in integrating culturally responsive teaching practices with reading methods. The study described was motivated by calls for teacher preparation programs to be more intentional about supporting PSTs in synthesizing their learning across courses, especially when it comes to culturally responsive reading pedagogies. This article focuses on an activity that tasked PSTs to select culturally authentic children’s texts and design interactive read-alouds that engage elementary students in conversations around social justice topics while simultaneously meeting English language arts standards. Analysis of the lesson plans revealed …

The Self And Individualism: An Analysis On The Current Regulations Of Academic Writing, Bonnibel S. H. Walker

WRIT: Journal of First-Year Writing

Individualism, the focus or emphasis on the self, is a highly discussed and debated topic in writing. This is mostly regarding how the self should be addressed and utilized in writing. Although it there is also debate about what the self truly is, and how one can represent it in their work, veering into more abstract thought and theorizing.

The amount of individualism, or the “self” that one is able to, or should imprint onto one’s writing varies widely across numerous genres of academic writing, or even writing in general. For example, in much of scientific writing there’s a broad …

“How Come There’S No Spelling?”: What Spontaneous Comments Teach Us About Student Thinking During Vocabulary Learning Tasks, Susan J. Chambrè

Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts

Vocabulary development remains an active and robust research area, yet little is known about what students, particularly young students, think during vocabulary learning. A commonly held assumption is that young learners employ few, if any, cognitive and metacognitive strategies when engaged in literacy tasks. Conversely, decades of research confirms that older learners with active metacognitive tools are better equipped to make meaning from text, of which vocabulary is a crucial component. To better understand the strategies and metacognitive actions young students make when learning vocabulary, student comments (N = 35) spontaneously produced during two experimental vocabulary learning tasks were reviewed …

Why Word Problems Are Hard For High School Math Students: Problem Formulation And Disciplinary Literacy, Emily Charlotte Elliott

Senior Theses

This thesis is an extensive literature review designed to better understand the obstacles high school math students encounter when solving word problems (WPs). While many high school students find math difficult in general, students especially struggle with WPs. Often they are unable to provide correct solutions to WPs even when they are successful in solving computational problems using the same mathematical concepts (Cummins, 1988). Data from the 2007 National Survey of Algebra Teachers suggests that solving WPs is one of the skills that students are most unprepared for when entering Algebra 1 (Hoffer et al.). Additionally, many students try to …

The Beam In Our Own Eyes: Antiracism And Ya Literature Through A Catholic Lens, Katie Sutton, Abigail D. Grafmeyer, Dan Reynolds

Journal of Catholic Education

As Catholic schools serve an increasingly racially diverse population of students, they must grapple with the critical requirement to address these students’ unique needs while heeding the call from modern Catholic Church leaders to engage in explicit antiracist action. Using the Historically Responsive Literacy Framework (HRL), this article equips Catholic high school English language arts (ELA) teachers with practical and powerful ways to create antiracist curriculum. To do this effectively, we place antiracist Young Adult (YA) literature (both fiction and nonfiction) in conversation with Catholic canonical texts and modern voices from Catholic clergy members. By connecting with students’ complex identities …

What Before Means: Teaching About The Communicative Contribution Of The English Pluperfect, Max Miller

Publications and Research

This paper presents a text-based analysis of the communicative functions of the simple past and pluperfect tenses of English, and offers a pedagogical approach to assist learners in acquiring them. Following a functional, usage-based linguistics perspective, the analysis holds that the simple past expresses Time PAST, while the pluperfect expresses Time PAST, BEFORE. Thus only the latter tense signals a speaker's subjective creation of a linkage in time. The understanding of these meanings can enhance an English language teacher's effectiveness in the classroom (as in selecting texts and activities) and a language user's effectiveness in communication. A classroom-based pedagogical application …

Explicit Instruction In A Second Grade Picturebook Author Study, Ted Kesler

Publications and Research

sing the Learning by Design multiliteracies framework, writing workshop was transformed into composing workshop. The researcher worked with a team of four second grade teachers in an urban public elementary school to redesign their Kevin Henkes author study to equally value art and design, guiding their students in creating their own narrative picturebooks. The researcher addresses the following two research questions: 1. What explicit instructional practices did the teachers enact? 2. What influence did these explicit instructional practices have on the second graders’ composing work? The researcher applied cross-case analysis, first to create an inventory of explicit instructional practices, and …

A Conceptual Analysis And Variable Identification Study Of First-Language Attrition, Neil Edward Cantrall

Doctor of Education (EdD)

Children who grow up hearing and speaking one language and then begin learning another often experience first-language (L1) attrition. Existing research presents different theories regarding the process and the contributing factors of L1 attrition. However, the theories and factors are often dispersed throughout the literature with little coherent presentation. This makes it difficult for researchers and some practitioners to model L1 attrition with other variables properly. This study merged conceptual and content analysis through literature reviews to identify the relevant and essential variables that play a role in L1 attrition. I reviewed 54 textual sources which presented information or studies …

Understanding Rural Communities: Crafting Local Inquiries As Praxis For Pre-Service Ela Students In Teaching Composition, Cathie English

The Rural Educator

This study focused upon a sequence of three inquiry assignments with pre-service teachers (PSTs) in English language arts in an advanced composition and theory methods course. Place conscious and critical literacy scholars argue for a deeper understanding of rural lifeways and note the deficit or lesser than assumptions associated with rural communities and the need to develop a critical rural literacy to address the specific needs of rural educators as well as address the long-standing stereotypes. This study’s purpose was to determine if these inquiry tools can be used to teach PSTs a critical literacy that can be applied in …

Community College Students’ Awareness Of Their Reading And Writing Proficiency, Martha Paulina Campusano Rojas

Dissertations

Student’s low reading and writing proficiency in higher education has been the subject of a large body of research (e.g., Bahr, 2011; Bailey, 2010; Carlino, 2005, 2010, 2012; Flink, 2017; Jaggars, 2014 Pacello, 2014; Perin, 2011; Perin et al., 2013).The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore how students in a first-year developmental Spanish course at the Dominican community college think of the connection between their reading and writing abilities and their performance in both their current and future undergraduate courses. The study also explored how these students view the importance of the developmental course and how they understand …

A Research-Based Approach For Teaching Written Apologies To English For Academic Purposes Learners, Lisa Leopold

MITESOL Journal: An Online Publication of MITESOL

This article describes a research-based approach for teaching written personal, corporate, and public apologies to advanced English language learners. Following an explicit-inductive approach, the proposed lessons incorporate authentic input, metapragmatic explanation, noticing activities, corpus-based exercises, and empirically based research findings, all of which have been shown to enhance learners’ sociopragmatic and pragmalinguistic competence. Learners apply research findings to analyze authentic apologies, revise them for greater sincerity, and use a corpus to expand the range of expressions for apologizing. The pedagogical activities expand the scope of written pragmatics instruction which has been relatively under-represented in the field of pragmatics.

The Impact Of Supplemental Phonemic Awareness Lessons On Phonological Awareness And Spelling Development Among Kindergarten And First Graders, Crystal Olinger

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Capstones

Reading is a developmental process that builds on complex cognitive processes and starts long before children enter school. This present study investigated the impact of supplemental phonemic awareness lessons on phonological awareness and spelling development among kindergarten and first graders. The Comprehensive Test of Phonological Processing (CTOPP-2) measured phonological awareness. The Kindergarten Inventory of Developmental Spelling (KIDS) measured spelling development in kindergarten students. The Developmental Spelling Analysis (DSA) measured spelling development in first grade. Participants in the treatment group received 16 weeks of weekly word study instruction and 10-15 minute daily phonemic awareness instruction. A mixed design full factorial ANOVA …

“I Think Writing Is…” A Multi-State Study Of Teacher Candidates’ Changing Beliefs About Writing, Jenn Raskauskas, Sonia M. Kline, Amanda Wall, Grace Y. Kang, Chinwe H. Ikpeze, Joy Myers, Roya Q. Scales, Linda D. Smetana, Kelly Tracy

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

While writing scholarship framed by sociocultural theory illuminates the complexity of writing, writing in schools is frequently presented in simplistic ways. For this to change, teacher educators must support future teachers to develop complex understandings of writing. The purpose of this multi-state study was to investigate teacher candidates’ changing beliefs about writing and to consider the implications for teacher preparation. Data sources were written responses from 113 teacher candidates to questions about good writing and the purposes of writing that were collected at the beginning and end of semester-long literacy courses in six institutions across the United States. The responses …

Understanding The Relationships Between Social-Emotional Competency, Reading Fluency, Reading Comprehension, And Reading Achievement In Adolescent Students, David Phillips

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Capstones

The improvement of social-emotional factors is thought to help increase students’ achievement by 11% (Durlak et al., 2011). This current study is a descriptive study set in a rural setting, and it included 101 seventh and eighth-grade students. The study explored the relationship between social-emotional competency, reading ability, and reading achievement in adolescent students. Correlation results showed statistically positive relationships between reading measures and social-emotional measures except for social awareness and grit. Regression results revealed that social-emotional competencies explained from 7% to 36% of the variance in adolescent reading. Social-emotional competencies and reading ability measures together explained 51% to 53% …

Connecting Dots: Using Learner Self-Narratives To Address The Disconnect Between The Texts And English Learners' Prior Experience, Rui Niu-Cooper

Michigan Reading Journal

With the rapid increase of ELs in Michigan and around the United States, scholars have been exploring ways to narrow or close the achievement gap. This pursuit is significant, but hard to achieve due to various challenges that ELs experiencing in their schooling. This situation worsened in relation to ELs from refugee backgrounds due to the traumatic experience that occurred before they were resettled in the U.S. More critically, EL teachers and paraprofessionals are often marginalized from other teachers. The purpose of this article is to introduce and advocates for a Learner Self-Narrative-based (LSN-based) approach to better support EL students. …

Why Not Sign? Classrooms As Sites Of D/Deaf And Multilingual Literacy Development, Dawnavyn James, Brianne R. Pitts

Michigan Reading Journal

While often, “bilingual” literacy instruction has overlooked the potential of incorporating ASL in classrooms (U.S.DPE, 2021), this article engages discussions of practice from a Missouri Kindergarten classroom to argue that teachers can improve student literacy outcomes by leveraging d/Deaf and hard of hearing multilingual learning (DML) strategies as a way of (re)imagining students’ multimodal literacy development. By engaging with a variety of strategies learned from DML students, readers may conceptualize DML inclusive classroom practices. Following a review of the literature and discussion, games, instructional strategies, and text recommendations for educators seeking DML inclusive literacy environments are provided.

Envisioning Online English Teaching In Indonesia: A Digital Autoethnographic Account, Muhalim Muhalim

The Qualitative Report

The onset of the global pandemic has become a radical turn of brick-and-mortar schooling to online distance learning. In this respect, continuous dialogue, and evaluation around the issue of online learning should be nurtured, particularly from actual pedagogical practices. Drawing on a digital autoethnographic account of the author, this article explores everyday online English teaching in tertiary education. I collected data using textual, visual, and aural experiences, corroborated by Zoom auto-recorded chats and screenshots as the artefacts of my online learning and teaching activities. The data were analyzed using the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework that focused on social, cognitive, …

Word Analysis: Contemplating The Word La Madre To Develop An Approach For The Instruction Of Cultural Perspectives, Gregory De La Piedra

Dimensions

Word Analysis is an approach to teach second language (L2) students about cultural perspectives which are understood collectively as the ideas, values, beliefs, and experiences many native speakers have regarding cultural domains within their own cultures. Word Analysis is anchored on the relationships between language and communication, and language and culture. The present study researches the history behind the dual value of the term “la madre” [mother] in Mexican Spanish to deliver a practical method that language instructors easily could easily incorporate within their materials to teach L2 culture, or that publishers could integrate within their textbooks. The primary purpose …