Digital Commons Network^™

Student-Teachers' Comments' Type On Children's Writing: Practices And Perceptions Of Their Role As Writing Facilitators, Esther Sayag- Cohen, Merav Asaf, Nurit Nathan

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

Student-Teachers' Comments' Type on Children's Writing: Practices and Perceptions of their Role as Writing Facilitators

Abstract

This study examines how student-teachers in the final stage of their teacher education program, perceive the role of feedback and how they write feedback on children's writing. Towards this end, student-teachers wrote compositions, answered a questionnaire, and wrote feedback on compositions written by 6^th grade students. 10 student-teachers were also interviewed. Findings are that student-teachers perceive writing as a functional and technical process; they mainly edited the texts, they did not relate to the content, and were critical towards the expression of feelings …

Exploring Identity-Based Challenges To English Teachers’ Professional Growth, Heather C. Camp

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

This study explores identity-based challenges that can hinder secondary English teachers enrolled in Master’s degree programs from experiencing professional growth. It illustrates how identity conflicts can prevent teachers from integrating a disciplinary identity into their professional sense-of-self, thereby limiting the benefits they might gain from graduate coursework. In particular, the study suggests that dissonance between discourse norms and values, concerns about community allegiances, and assumptions about language, difficulty, and power can impede teachers from appropriating disciplinary discourse and hinder them from combining it with more familiar discourses that circulate in schools and shape teachers’ identities.

September 10, 2013: Interdisciplinary Work Group In Digital Humanities, Department Of English

Gleanings: Department of English Blog Archive

No abstract provided.

September 9, 2013: Gwst/Women's Caucus Fall Reception, Department Of English

Gleanings: Department of English Blog Archive

No abstract provided.

Notes On Contributors

Transference

Brief biographical notes on contributing translators.

After The War By Arseny Tarkovsky, Philip Metres, Dimitri Psurtsev

Transference

Translated from the Russian by Philip Metres and Dimitri Psurtsev with commentary by Philip Metres.

Transference Vol. 1, Summer 2013

Transference

Transference is published by the Department of World Languages and Literatures at Western Michigan University. Dedicated to the celebration of poetry in translation, the journal publishes translations from Arabic, Chinese, French and Old French, German, Classical Greek and Latin, Japanese, and Russian into English verse. Transference contains translations as well as commentaries on the art and process of translating.

August 30, 2013: Wmu Teaching And Learning Bash, September 13, 2013, Department Of English

Gleanings: Department of English Blog Archive

No abstract provided.

August 27, 2013: 2013-2014 Distinguished Alum, James Griffioen, Department Of English

Gleanings: Department of English Blog Archive

No abstract provided.

Exploring Adolescent Experiences Of Race, Ethnicity, And Socioeconomic Status In Counseling Relationships: A Qualitative Approach, Christina Crans

Dissertations

The ACA Code of Ethics (2005) states the expectation that counselors must understand the diverse backgrounds of their clients. In addition, counselors are called to understand how their personal cultural identity informs and affects the counseling process. Yet there is paucity in the literature regarding the multicultural client experience within a counseling relationship. Of the few multicultural counseling studies that attempt to address multicultural client concerns, the approach has been quantitative or reliant on counselor self-report. In addition, the lived counseling experiences of adolescents and individuals from lower socioeconomic status (SES) is absent in present literature. This qualitative study examined …

July 22, 2013: Cfp: Going Rogue: The Merits And Perils Of Breaking With Professional Conventions, Department Of English

Gleanings: Department of English Blog Archive

No abstract provided.

July 18, 2013: Kvcc To Host Author Noviolet Bulawayo, Department Of English

Gleanings: Department of English Blog Archive

No abstract provided.

July 6, 2013: Changes For Comparative Drama, Department Of English

Gleanings: Department of English Blog Archive

No abstract provided.

Overall Nasalance Versus Trimmed Selection Of Stable Syllable Repetition, Jackson Peebles

Honors Theses

Objective: To evaluate the difference between nasalance measured using overall nasalance for the full set of syllable repetitions in a speech sample contrasted with syllable repetitions selected (trimmed) from the overall sample.

Method: Participants included 24 males and 34 females between 18 and 30 years of age who participated in a normative study of nasalance in Michigan’s lower peninsula. Participants produced 14 syllable stimuli. Each syllable sequence was repeated at least 8 times. Three trials of each repetition were recorded together with other speech stimuli. Overall nasalance was calculated for each syllable repetition sequence (whole) and compared with the mean …

The Big 5: Teacher Knowledge And Skill Acquisition In Early Literacy, Joanne P. Vesay, Karen L. Gischlar

Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts

In this study, the investigators surveyed 215 early childhood educators throughout New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania to determine teacher knowledge and training in early literacy instruction, with a focus on The 5 Big Ideas in Reading as identified by the National Reading Panel: phonological awareness, accuracy and fluency, alphabetic principle, vocabulary, and comprehension (National Reading Panel, 2000; Walpole, McKenna, Uribe-Zarain, & Lamitina, 2010). The survey response totals indicated that of the five literacy domains, early childhood teachers were most likely to have had training in phonological awareness and least likely to have had training in the domain of vocabulary. Across …

Who Educates Teacher Educators About English Language Learners?, Zaline M. Roy-Campbell

Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts

With the increasing numbers of English language learners (ELLs) in schools across the United States, most teachers will have these students in their classrooms in the near future if not already. Due to the wide diversity of ELL students, all classroom teachers must be equipped to work with these students. This study presents the findings of a survey on the preparation of teacher educators in the literacy field for preparing general education English language arts teachers to work with ELL students in their classrooms. Since part of the preparation includes access to academic journals that address the teaching of ELL …

Executive Functions And Social Interactions: Developing Social Scenarios, Mackenzie Waite

Masters Theses

The aim of this study was to develop a series of vignettes to form the basis for an assessment of executive functions (EFs) for 9 – 12 year old children. Although EFs are necessary for effective social communication and positive social interactions, currently, most EF assessments focus on impersonal activities. Little research exists that incorporates real-time processing using ecologically valid social scenarios. The current study aims to develop realistic scenarios that children could encounter in daily life. Ethnographic interviews were conducted with six participants, who worked in a school with 9-12 year old children, to gain their perspective on social …

Explicit Teacher-Implemented Phoneme Awareness Instruction: Preschool Effects, Heather M. Osterhouse

Masters Theses

The purpose of the current study was to investigate the impact of explicit, concentrated, teacher-implemented phonological awareness instruction for ―at risk‖ 4- year-olds. Early childhood educators were trained to implement a 10-week program delivered for 20-minute sessions, four times a week, in their classrooms. The program focused on phonological awareness beginning at the level of letter-sound knowledge and advancing to blending and segmenting constituent phonemes in words. Pre- to post-treatment comparisons of phonological awareness and letter knowledge skills indicated that children in the experimental group made significant gains in comparison to the control group in phoneme blending and letter knowledge. …

A Discursive Analysis Of A Pregnancy Center: How Pregnant Women Are Encouraged To Develop A Sense Of Self-Worth And Emotional Wellbeing Through The Use Of Rhetoric And Imagery, Jessica Postma

Masters Theses

This study presents and alternative approach to how pregnancy is interpreted in western society and how settings such as a pregnancy center both challenges and reinforces these social standards. The promotion of abstinence, the aversion to abortion, notions of truth and morality, religious narratives, and the standard of care are all integral components to this analysis of pregnancy, language, and culture.

Experiences Of Male Saudi Arabian International Students In The United States, Molly Elizabeth Heyn

Dissertations

Despite the increasing presence of Saudi Arabian international college students in American higher education, the literature regarding the experience of Saudi students in the United States is limited. This qualitative study explored and described the lived experiences of 9 male Saudi Arabian international college students studying in the United States. All the participants had studied in the United States for at least 2 years and were regularly admitted international students at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Moustakas’s (1994) phenomenological data analysis approach guided the data collection and analysis. The participants shared their lived experiences and the meaning of those …

The Process Of How Teachers Become Teacher Leaders And How Teacher Leadership Becomes Distributed Within A School: A Grounded Theory Research Study, Steven J. Sanocki

Dissertations

It is undeniable that leadership is necessary for any organization to succeed. However, educational leadership is often compartmentalized and relegated to the hierarchical leadership found in schools such as principals, superintendents, and those with a formal title. The concept of teacher leadership has begun to surface in progressive schools and districts throughout the country, as is evidenced throughout both the professional and scholarly (research) literature. Teacher leadership is occurring in practice, yet it lacks a clear definition and/or a consistent employment in K-12 education. Teachers have historically stepped out of their traditional role as a teacher and into formalized roles …

Faculty Retirement Recognition Dinner 2013, Western Michigan University

Faculty Recognition

Faculty Retirement Recognition Dinner Program

May 29, 2013

Honored Guests:

• Nicholas Andreadis
• Sherrill Busboom
• John Cameron
• David Dickason
• John Gesink
• Leonard Ginsberg
• Barbara Havira
• Richard MacDonald
• Margaret Merrion
• Bruce Naftel
• John Nielsen
• Galen Rike
• Darryl Salisbury
• Paul Wilson

Language, Desire And Identity In Shipwrecked Body, Leticia Espinoza

The Hilltop Review

Cuerpo náufrago (Shipwrecked Body, 2005) is a novel by Ana Clavel, a Mexican female writer. In this work many questions about identity are explored, but gender identity is central.

May 14, 2013: Summer Seminar Series On Digital Research, Department Of English

Gleanings: Department of English Blog Archive

No abstract provided.

May 12, 2013: Dissertation Seminar For Lit Scholars At Newberry (5/15/13 Deadline), Department Of English

Gleanings: Department of English Blog Archive

No abstract provided.

The "L" Word: Nonprofits, Language, And Lobbying, Jocelyn D. Taliaferro, Nicole Ruggiano

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Despite the many benefits associated with policy advocacy, many nonprofit organizations do not lobby. Recently, scholars have called attention to the possibility that the vagueness and ambiguity of the term lobbying may hinder policy advocacy activities, though few studies have systematically explored the relationship between nonprofit professionals' perception of this term and political activity. This study explored the social construction of the term "lobbying" by examining nonprofit leaders' beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors surrounding lobbying activities. Participants reported having a strong aversion to the term "lobbying" and preferred alternative language to describe their political activities. Implications for practice and research are …

April 26, 2013: Postcolonial Environments/Transnational Aesthetics At Notre Dame (5/3/13), Department Of English

Gleanings: Department of English Blog Archive

No abstract provided.

April 23, 2013: Happy Shakespeare's Birthday, Department Of English

Gleanings: Department of English Blog Archive

No abstract provided.

April 22, 2013: Comparative Drama Is Pleased To Announce The Publication Of Our Spring 2013 Issue, Volume 47.1., Department Of English

Gleanings: Department of English Blog Archive

No abstract provided.

April 19, 2013: Nagle Essay On Queer Temporality Published, Department Of English

Gleanings: Department of English Blog Archive

No abstract provided.