Digital Commons Network^™

Achievement Gap With Latino Males, Matthew S. Caruso

All Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This literature review reviews the literature of 30 studies completed in the last twenty years that examine barriers for latinx youth, their parents, and their learning communities (student, parent, teacher, etc). The achievement gap for Latino males is growing in the U.S. while simultaneously the population of the Latinx community grows. Researchers are finding unique responses in the Latinx community in terms of perceived barriers by all learning communities (White, black, other…). Their uniqueness is they trend to higher and lower than the rest of sample data, or Latino males will have different responses than latina females, where non-Latino responses …

Effective Differentiation Strategies For The Secondary Social Studies Classroom, Emily C. Devroy

All Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 sought to improve academic achievement for every child in the United States, regardless of ethnicity, socioeconomic status, or background. Since NCLB, educators and researchers have given differentiation greater attention with the hope that it will provide effective strategies for ensuring that every child reaches their full potential. Differentiation, however, requires significant resources; many teachers report feeling overwhelmed when creating a differentiated classroom without proper administrative support and collaboration. This literature review seeks to answer the question of which differentiation strategies are most likely to increase student achievement by examining the research regarding …

Increasing English Language Learner And Immigrant Parent Involvement In The School To Improve Student Success, Rachel Joleen Droubie

All Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This literature review with application emphasis analyzes the components of parent involvement and its positive relationship to student success, with respect to the barriers that all parents experience and the supplemental barriers for immigrant parents or English Language Learner (ELL) parents. Further review examines strategies utilized by school staff to increase immigrant or ELL parent involvement and areas for further development of strategies. The suggestions and application material include rationale and explanation of a community resource reference sheet for parents, a Quick Facts information sheet and a Professional Development (PD) slideshow for teachers, and concepts for administrator considerations.

Teaching English To Adolescent Language Learners, Carmen L. Gunderson

All Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Teaching English to multilingual adolescent learners has its challenges. Pedagogy for English language learners is based on outdated language learning research. Curriculum available for the English language teacher (ELT) has relied on research related to monolinguals acquiring first language (L1). For the practitioner, these resources were not proving themselves to be effective in the classroom. The practitioner came to the literature review with these questions: What does the current brain research tell us about the language learning process for adolescents 10-24 years of age? What influence does L1 literacy skills have on the second language (L2) learning experience? What are …

Federal Regulation On The Inclusion Of Students With Disabilities By The Use Of Accommodations And Modifications, Benjamin C. Isham

All Electronic Theses and Dissertations

When the federal government enacted No Child Left Behind (NCLB) in 2001, it set the stage to provide inclusion to all students regardless of their academic or physical abilities in the classroom. However, there is often confusion between the federal and state governments, administrators, and teachers regarding what it entails and what accommodations are being recommended, and which ones work in the classroom. An examination of these levels is done to see where these confusions and interpretations arise when it comes to applying these in the field. The challenge is the federal government’s legal authority and applying it in a …

Deficit Discourse And Its Effects On English Learners, Amber Leigh Lewis

All Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Discourse has a profound effect on all students; it affects their sense of self, their beliefs, and their actions. Specifically, teachers who employ a deficit discourse in regard to English Learners (ELs) view ELs as less capable and more delinquent than their mainstream peers. In this paper, I seek to answer three questions: Why does deficit discourse exist in schools? How does it affect ELs? And, what can be done about it? Research suggests that deficit discourse is largely rooted in power dynamics between teachers and students, and its effects on ELs can be damaging. To change deficit discourse, teachers …

Annual Report Of Research And Creative Productions By Faculty And Staff, January To December, 2020, Office Of Research And Sponsored Programs. Morehead State University.

Office of Research and Sponsored Programs Reports and Publications

Annual Report of Research and Creative Productions by Faculty and Staff, January to December, 2020.

Flexible Teaching At Boise State: A Guide For Faculty, Leslie Madsen

Rebuilding the Launchpad: Serving Students During Covid Resource Library

Dynamic teaching requires creative and flexible thinking about how instructors can support students in achieving essential core course learning objectives. This guide offers suggestions for instructors at Boise State looking to continue offering a student-centered learning experience through a variety of teaching formats including, online, hybrid, and remote environments.

While the process may feel unfamiliar and at times frustrating, try as much as possible to be patient. In times of disruption or change, everyone expects some pedagogical and technological hiccups. Be willing to switch tactics if something isn’t working.

Focus on maintaining a growth mindset for both yourself and your …

Teaching Tolerance Through English Language Arts, Samantha Casarella

Master of Arts in English Plan II Graduate Projects

This portfolio examines the ways in which tolerance can be taught and reinforced through English Language Arts. Substantive research is presented justifying the urgency of teaching tolerance at the high school level and the role that English Language Arts teachers play in the process. Methods of practical application are presented through three separate unit plans, each focused on elevating students’ social consciousness.

Investing In The Birth-To-Three Workforce: A New Vision To Strengthen The Foundation For All Learning, Emily Sharrock, Courtney Parkerson

Bank Street Education Center

This report asserts that every child—regardless of race, income, or opportunity—should have consistent access to high-quality learning experiences from birth and provides a roadmap toward change at scale, including the development of residency programs and improved compensation for the infant/toddler workforce.

Attending To Conditions That Facilitate Intercultural Competence: A Reciprocal Service-Learning Approach, Rachel M. B. Collopy, Sharon Tjaden-Glass, Novea A. Mcintosh

Teacher Education Faculty Publications

Although service-learning can support the development of intercultural competence, it has also maintained power differentials, reinforced privileged perspectives, and strengthened deficit thinking. Recent research has investigated the conditions within service-learning associated with positive change in diversity-related attitudes. We extend that work, conceptualizing a reciprocal service-learning (RSL) approach that integrates conditions posited by contact theory and the process model of intercultural competence into service-learning’s core features of reflection and reciprocity. In an RSL approach, transformational reciprocity at the participant level supports cultural awareness, interdependence, and parity between participant groups. We created an RSL experience and measured change in three attitudes fundamental …

Heritage Language Maintenance: Research Review And Reflection Of One Family Case, Josiah Chan

ECTESOL Review

Heritage Language maintenance provides learner tangible benefits in academic achievement, language acquisition, and career opportunity. Intangibly, it enhances the learner’s self-esteem and cultural identity. The case here reflects the Mandarin Chinese learning experience of three children who were born in the United States of a migrant family from Hong Kong where the Cantonese Chinese dialect language is more predominant. The learning effort was complicated by the parents’ native Cantonese Chinese dialect. The parents and children strived to balance the learning dynamics between Mandarin and Cantonese. The results of the study indicate that successful heritage language maintenance can be achieved with …

Syntactic Accidents In The Spontaneous Speech Of English And Armenian Speakers, Karen Velyan

ECTESOL Review

Fragmented syntax or a break of the flow of surface syntax is well known to be an indispensable part of spontaneous spoken language. Interruptions in the flow of speech may be triggered by pragmatic reasons, changes in syntactic planning and performance errors, which results in syntactic fragments. Syntactic accidents may take different forms in the actual flow of speech. This study presents a cross-linguistic comparative analysis of the cases of syntax in the speech of low socioeconomic status speakers of English and Armenian. Based on data from informal interviews with native speakers, the analysis presents a variety of syntactic accidents, …

The Reflective Approach To Teaching Culture Within The Efl Classroom, Lucia Schiopu

ECTESOL Review

This article examines the reflective approach in the teaching of culture in the EFL classroom, which is not just a mere gathering of information, but is the creation and construction of discourses that break or maintain cultural stereotypes. This is also an approach where meaning is constructed that is shaped by the quality and depth of cultural sensitivity and awareness. Teaching and learning a culture reflectively does not necessarily mean that the learner is taught to behave in accordance with specific social norms but to introduce an acceptable and appropriate conduct for the use of language in terms of intelligibility, …

From The Editor, Laureen Fregeau

ECTESOL Review

No abstract provided.

Prism Intro Student's Book With Online Workbook Listening And Speaking, And Reading And Writing, Robert Leier, Laureen Fregeau

ECTESOL Review

Prism Intro books use American English along with international and American topics to teach reading, writing, listening and speaking in English. Videos and American college life sections keep student interest.

Student-Directed Esol Family Literacy Program Design, Laureen Fregeau, Robert D. Leier

ECTESOL Review

ESOL Family Literacy programs for Hispanic immigrants have proliferated over past decades to serve the increasing population of ELs needing services. Several factors can disrupt or prevent participation in ESOL Family Literacy programs designed to enhance the academic success of Latin American adult and child immigrants. This qualitative case study set in the Deep South examined a student-directed design process to gain understanding of what would constitute an ideal program for the participating ELs, their families and their community. Emergent categories identified areas of design importance including site locations, time and frequency of class scheduling, curricular design, instructional materials, instructor …

The Benefits Of Implementing Cognitively-Demanding And Context-Embedded Language Translation In The El Classroom, Timothy Rodriquez

ECTESOL Review

The role of the first language in English Learner (EL) programs has been a historically controversial one. In addition, how the first language should be used is not without controversy. This article examines the role of translation in the EL classroom and how teachers should employ it. One approach, concurrent translation, may be considered to be cognitively-undemanding and context-reduced. The author argues that purposeful translation should be cognitively-demanding and context-embedded.

Photographs In My Mind, Through Darkness And In Light: An Auto-Criticism Of A University Teacher, Melanie Renee Witt

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is an auto-criticism, a new qualitative inquiry founded in educational criticism and arts-based research, which describes and analyzes my lived experience as a female university teacher. The purpose of this study is to describe, interpret, evaluate and thematize my experiences with professional stress, pregnancy loss, and self-care. Secondly, it illuminates auto-criticism as a methodology with potential contributions to qualitative research and higher education.

Personal documents, internal artifacts, and external artifacts generated during a challenging period of my life as a university teacher are used as data. Language and photography combine to story my lived experiences and findings.

This …

Dyslexia And Georgia Senate Bill 48, Nora W. Schlesinger

Georgia Journal of Literacy

The interest in and understanding of dyslexia has become increasingly important in educational fields and the legislative process in the United States. This article provides information on what dyslexia is, the history of research on dyslexia, dyslexia laws across the US, and Georgia’s Dyslexia Law: Senate Bill 48 and its impact on educational entities.

Models Of Resistance: Novice Teachers Negotiating Barriers To Best Practice, Andrew P. Huddleston, Kathryn Ohle, Amy Mullins, Hannah Lowry, Denae Shake, Jordyn Arendse

Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts

The purpose of this study was to examine how graduates from three teacher education programs made decisions regarding literacy instruction and assessment as well as the extent to which they were able to implement practices learned in their education programs. Participants were interviewed and observed multiple times, and a variety of documents, such as lesson plans, assessments, and journal prompts, were collected. Data were analyzed using the constant comparative method and Bourdieu’s concepts of field, capital, and habitus. Although the participants initially accepted the existing practices of their schools, they later implemented concepts learned in their education programs. The ways …

Comic Book Conversations As Pedagogies Of Possibilities In Urban Spaces, Ewa Mcgrail, Gertrude M. Tinker Sachs, Megan Lewis

Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts

The researchers in this qualitative case study explored the dialogic experiences of elementary school students during Comic Book Club meetings held in their local community resource center. The researchers wanted to know what experiences of dialogism were manifested in children’s conversations about reading, writing, and comic creation and what concepts of dialogism were evident in those experiences. The interview and observation data and artifacts suggest that co-construction of meaning and intertextuality played important roles in the dialogic experiences of the participants. Children’s co-construction of meaning and intertextuality also demonstrated engaged embodiment due to children’s spontaneous enactment of dance and dramatization …

Digital Storytelling With English Language Learning Families, Stephanie Wessels, Guy Trainin

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

In this chapter, we examine the design process and outcomes of a digital storytelling with elementary-aged English Language Learning Families. The program was iterated through a multi-step design process to integrate the use of digital storytelling on mobile devices with family literacy. In this chapter, we explain why adults and children needed worktime separately before they collaborate and that a focus on funds of language, culture and relevance foster willingness to engage with digital literacy. In working with English Language Learning Families, we found the following themes: when it comes to schooling, everything is in English; confidence in learning about …

Deschooling Deficit Perspectives: An Exploration Of Culture And Place For Educators, Madison Dorschutz

West Chester University Master’s Theses

The purpose of this critical action research is to increase awareness of deficit perspectives that damages the academic outcomes of diverse students while offering approaches to address them. Theories of decolonialism, culturally responsive pedagogy, and place-based education will be discussed as they are able to pull back the raciallyinformed curtain of bias development. These theories come together in a 4-day series of workshops that seeks to inform educators of their damaging thinking in an effort to negate it before they enter their classrooms. Through reflection, cultural-perspective taking, and relationship building, educators can gain skills to acknowledge systems of oppression that …

Countering Deficit Thinking About Neurodiversity Among General Education Teacher Candidates: A Case Discussion Approach, Grinell Smith, Colette Rabin

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

We have observed that many of the multiple-subjects teacher credential candidates in our program often reveal deficit views of autistic children. This report provides an example of how we help credential candidates learn to reframe deficit thinking about neurodiversity via the examination, discussion, and dramatization of a collection of dilemma-based case stories designed to help our students unearth preconceptions and engage in shared inquiry. One strength of this approach is that it asks candidates to develop specific and realistic plans of action, to adopt a care ethic requiring them to think and act from the perspective of the child, to …

Teachers Are: Analyzing The Metaphors Of Pre-Service Educators, Matt Ridenour

Northwest Journal of Teacher Education

Metaphors are often used by in-service educators to describe themselves and their work in the classroom. These metaphors can articulate in-service teachers’ fundamental dispositions and provide the vehicle for conceptualizing teaching practices. Pre-service educators (those engaged in preparation to enter the teaching vocation), however, are a different population for whom metaphors represent relatively untested assumptions about the classroom and the practices that pervade it. These metaphors should be considered an asset which, if effectively utilized, can aid in the work of teacher preparation. To that end, this study employed the Conceptual Metaphor Theory of Lakoff & Johnson (1980) within the …

“There Is Subjectivity, There Is Bias”: Teacher Candidates’ Perceptions Of Equity In Data Literacy For Teaching, Heather Whitesides, Jori S. Beck

Teaching & Learning Faculty Publications

Research on equity in data literacy for teaching has lagged yet is of critical importance to ensuring new teachers are prepared to serve diverse students. Our multiple case study conveyed four elementary teacher candidates’ understandings of this construct and their reaction to instruction in this domain. Data collection included interviews, item analysis, and concept maps. Our participants developed a broader view of data by the end of the course, but often did not recognize inequitable data practices like tracking which conveys a misalignment between beliefs and practices. We explored implications for policy and practice based on our findings.

The Effects Of A Site-Based Teacher Professional Development Program On Student Learning, Abha Gupta, Guang-Lea Lee

Teaching & Learning Faculty Publications

A mixed methods study is used to investigate the effectiveness of a professional development program intended to enhance teacher knowledge and student learning so as to systematically improve student achievement in elementary literacy. In this study, a large urban school district partnered with a local university to provide intervention in a Title 1, low-performing elementary school. Measures included teacher knowledge and practices based on surveys, classroom observation, and student achievement data. Teachers self-reported their perspectives on schoolbased teacher training in terms of its significance, requirements, challenges, and possible solutions to teacher training. Schools were selected based on their Adequate Yearly …

"We Need To Be In The Classroom More”: Veteran Teachers’ Views On Teacher Preparation And Retention, Jori S. Beck, Christina Lunsmann, Tiberio Garza

Teaching & Learning Faculty Publications

Annual teacher attrition hovers around 8% and causes of teacher attrition have been studied widely. However, more needs to be known about specific aspects of teacher preparation that can foster retention. The goal of this study was to understand the perspectives of veteran teachers regarding retention. This investigation employed semi-structured interviews with teachers who graduated from a south western university and who have persisted in their teaching careers in a large, urban school district. Our analyses conveyed that rich field experiences and particular characteristics of mentor teachers can foster retention; however, these persisters also persevered through inauthentic teacher preparation experiences.

Curricular Change In Institutional Context: A Profile Of The Summit-P Institutions, Mary D.R. Beisiegel, Suzanne I. Dorée

Journal of Mathematics and Science: Collaborative Explorations

There is a national call to improve the mathematics curricula in the first two undergraduate years to improve student success and engagement. But curricular change happens in an institutional context: Who are the students, and what do they need to succeed? What is the climate for change? Does the department regularly revise its courses and curriculum? Is it common for different departments to collaborate on curricular change? What supports or obstacles does the department, college, or university have for changing the curriculum? Who are the institutional stakeholders, and what practices build their buy-in? In the SUMMIT-P project, nine different institutions …