Digital Commons Network^™

Literacy By Subscription: Writing Instruction In Turn-Of-The-Century American Periodicals., Alicia Brazeau

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines popular periodicals in the late 19th- and early 20th-century America as pivotal artifacts in the history of literacy education. It first reviews current histories of literacy, writing instruction, and magazines at the turn of the century, and then concentrates on the formation, circulation, and function of agricultural journals and of two women's periodicals, Harper's Bazar and The Ladies' Home Journal, between 1880 and 1910. In analyzing this collection of periodicals, this dissertation outlines both how magazines provided audiences with explicit instruction in reading and writing practices, and how editors and readers constructed unique, contextually-specific, definitions of advanced …

Exploring Second Language Learning: Communicative Competence, Pragmatics, And Second Language Literacy, Timothy M. Mecham

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

This portfolio is a compilation of the author’s teaching philosophy and three artifacts that explore elements of second language teaching. The teaching philosophy contains the author’s strategies of second language teaching including instructional practice, communicative language teaching theory, and application. This portfolio also contains artifacts of second language teaching that explore communicative competence, formal address pragmatics, and second language literacy. An annotated bibliography of books and articles that have impacted the author’s teaching beliefs and practices is also included.

Preparing Australian Students For The Digital World : Results From The Pisa 2009 Digital Reading Literacy Assessment, Sue Thomson, Lisa De Bortoli

OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) Australia

In PISA 2009, the assessment of digital reading literacy was offered as an international option for the first time. The digital reading literacy assessment assessed 15-year-old students’ ability to read, understand and apply digital texts. Australia and eighteen other countries or economies participated in this assessment. This report presents the results of the PISA digital reading literacy assessment for Australia. It presents the results for Australia as a whole, and where relevant makes comparisons to the other participants in the study. Results are also reported for the Australian states and territories and for different social groups within Australia. Overall, Australian …

Community University Project For Literacy (Cupl), Carol Chandler-Rourke

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

The Community-University Project for Literacy (CUPL) provides an academic structure for undergraduates to work as tutors in community-based learning centers. Students who enroll in CUPL commit to tutoring four hours each week at a community learning program while attending a credit-bearing academic seminar at UMass/Boston offered each semester. That is the Language, Literacy and Community in the Fall semester and ESL Tutor Training Seminar in the Spring semester.

Importance Of Early Reading Intervention, Sana Shafiuddin

ESSAI

No abstract provided.

More Than Just Nonsense Verse?: The Language Of Dr. Seuss And Children's Literacy, Nicole Hewes

Senior Scholar Papers

In this Senior Scholars project I wanted to demonstrate that Dr. Seuss books are much more than just nonsense verse. For the first part of my project, I familiarized myself with all of his texts and scrutinized his use of language in a textual analysis. By scrutinizing Geisel’s use of language and wordplay, I hoped to isolate some characteristics that make a Seuss book different from other types of stories and texts. The second part of my project was an empirical study that tested what influence reading a real Seuss text versus a fake Seuss text has on students’ performance …

Assessing The Presence And Use Of Nonverbal Communication In Primary Reading Instruction, Amelia C. Ferrell

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

This research examined the presence and types of nonverbal communication presented in primary reading instruction. Primary instructors were surveyed about their use and types of nonverbal communication employed during reading instruction. Nonverbal communication variables studied were determined from relevant literature regarding nonverbal immediacy, primary education, and reading instruction. Findings revealed that almost all nonverbal communication variables studied were employed frequently and most respondents had no prior training. Findings suggest how future studies can better evaluate the role of nonverbal communication in reading instruction and provide education for primary teachers in hopes of improving literacy education.

Basic Reading Skills : A Case Study Of An Adult With Treacher Collins Syndrome / Lilly S. Kulanthai., Lilly S. Kulanthai

Student Works (2010-2019)

Everyone regardless of age and gender should be given an opportunity to learn, especially to read. Literacy improves lives of people in tremendous ways. However, for individuals with cognitive and memory impairment, learning to read has been a great challenge. In response to this challenge, this single subject case study examined the reading ability of an adult with cognitive and memory impairments, using a combination of five reading strategies. These strategies are: improving word recognition, building fluency, improving reading comprehension, using special remedial methods and using computers to teach reading. The five reading strategies were adapted from the teaching strategies …

Australian Core Skills Framework (Acsf), Philippa Mclean, Kate Perkins, David Tout, Kath Brewer, Linda Wyse

Vocational, adult and professional education research

The Australian Core Skills Framework (ACSF) provides a rich, detailed picture of real life performance in the five core skills of: Learning, Reading, Writing, Oral Communication and Numeracy.

These skills are essential for individuals to participate effectively in our society. They are inextricably interwoven into all parts of our lives, being directly or indirectly linked to the physical, social and economic wellbeing of individuals, workplace productivity and safety, community interaction and capacity, and ultimately to Australia’s economic and community wellbeing. The ACSF reflects contemporary use of English in Australia.

The ACSF has been developed to facilitate a consistent national approach …

Reading For Deep Understanding : Knowledge Building And Conceptual Artifacts In Secondary English, Marc Nachowitz

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

The purpose of this design-based experiment is two-fold: to see if classroom pedagogies can be developed to improve student achievement in English literature as well as prepare them for 21st Century literacies. Applying Bereiter and Scardamalia's theory of Knowledge Building to English curricula, this experiment tracked the progress of a sixth grade Language Arts class as they engaged in creating theories of literary interpretation supported by Knowledge Forum, a computer-supported, on-line learning environment. The study revealed several key findings concerning how knowledge-building can support student's attainment of "high literacy" in the reading of literature, including maintaining idea diversity, the importance …

Integration Of New Literacies And Common Core Students, Megan Boege

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

Dialogic Conversations In An Embedded Literacy Assessment Field Experience, Lucy Spence, Amy Donnally, Amy Johnson Lachuk, Marcie Ellerbe

Faculty Publications

Preservice teachers often come into teacher education programs with a positivist view of assessment, which may have developed during their own schooling experiences. For this reason, purposefully constructed course work and field experiences must be offered to enable them reframe their conceptions of literacy assessment and to complicate the assessment practices that have become most familiar to them. This paper examines a course in which, the aim is to intentionally counter the positivist testing culture and invest in helping preservice teachers understand assessment as a multi-faceted, dynamic process of inquiry.

Narratives Of Possibility: Adolescent Girls Constructing And Negotiating Front And Back Stage Identities Through Blogs, Kattie Marie Hogan

Wayne State University Dissertations

For young woman, the issue of self-expression is important to consider because there are many contexts where their voices and experiences are discounted, silenced, and suppressed. Venues for self-expression can provide a way for those voices and experiences that have been ignored in classrooms and other social outlets to be recognized. This research study explored the ways four girls between the ages of 16-19 used blogging to construct meaning of their experiences and negotiate their identities through a wide range of literary practices including nonfiction and fiction writing, photographs, self-created drawings, and other materials. Writing in these blogs girls moved …

The Effects Of Modeled Writing On Early Literacy Development In Preschool Children, Bethany M. Froehlich Collins

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The purpose of this thesis was to investigate the impacts on early literacy development in preschool children by engaging them in writing activities that were intentionally modeled within their typical classroom setting. Twenty-five typically developing children 3 to 5 years of age participated in the study. The "Picture Story/Word Story,” a preschool writing strategy described by Paulson, et al. (2001), was used to model the developmental levels of writing for the subjects two times a week for 10 weeks. The experimental group engaged in writing activities, which included intentional modeling of the stages of writing development that were just above …

Using Blogs To Promote Literary Response During Professional Development, Jaime Colwell, Amy Hutchison, David Reinking

Teaching & Learning Faculty Publications

(First paragraph) The blogging has, I don’t want to say forced, but kind of made me read books that I haven’t necessarily read before, and I don’t think I would have. I’ve read lots of children’s books just through student teaching and everything, but it makes me look outside the box and maybe at other genres that I wouldn’t look at necessarily. (Sam, a pre-service teacher, blogging in a children’s literature course)

The Impact Of Literacy Through Movement In A 3rd Grade Hispanic Classroom, Daniel Peregrino

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This case study examines the effects of a kinesthetic literacy-training program on the complexity of narrative production and performance on the Garfield Motivation to Read Survey in a group of four 3rd grade elementary students. The 3rd grade teacher attended a Literacy Through Movement workshop to learn a range of movement-based literacy activities and methods for the classroom. The LITMO program was then implemented as part of a language arts poetry module for 3 weeks in her classroom. Changes in four students' performance on the Garfield Survey and narrative samples were measured before and after the LITMO intervention. Results suggest …

Culturally Responsive Teaching: An Investigation Of Effective Practices For African American Learners, Antonia L. Hill

Dissertations

Diversity increasingly characterizes the population of the United States. As the number of African Americans, Latina/os, and Asian populations increase, there will be drastic implications for teaching and learning in classrooms where students of color dominate. The purpose of this mixed methodological study was to examine the characteristics, practices and frequency of use of fifty -two strategies employed by two teachers in a predominately African American urban public school to determine their impact on student learning and engagement. The fifty-two effective and culturally responsive strategies used in this study were created by Dr. Johnnie McKinley, Professor in Educational Psychology at …

Impact Of National Board Certification, Advanced Degree, And Socio-Economic Status On The Literacy Achievement Rate Of 11th Grade Students In Arkansas, Merlina T. Mccullough

Student Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Are You Textually Active?, Kandace Dyson

Student Theses and Dissertations

Given the frequency of text messaging, there has been some concern about whether or not the use of text language among young people has a negative impact on the written form and comprehension of Standard English. Some believe that text language positively influences literacy skills; whereas, others believe that literacy skills are negatively influenced by its use. This study was designed to explore the knowledge of text language among college students enrolled in different levels of English courses and the relationship between text language knowledge and translation of a message written in text language to SE. Participants were asked to …

An Investigation Of Reading Instruction In Northeast Tennessee., Karen Pierson Reach

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine specific prekindergarten- through 8th-grade reading programs, instructional best practices, academic interventions, and educational activities that are perceived as successful practices in four high achieving schools within the parameters of Northeast Tennessee. This study was accomplished through a protocol of open-ended interviews with 15 participants comprised of 4 school principals, 4 primary reading teachers, 4 intermediate reading teachers, 2 Title I reading specialists, and 1 district language arts coordinator. Additionally, school-specific documentation and basal reading programs were reviewed to triangulate the findings of this investigation.

The findings from this study suggested that …

Assessing The Impact Of Reading First Programs On Student Achievement In K-3 Classrooms In Selected Mississippi Schools, Angel Lakease Day-Meeks

Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated the implementation and impact of Reading First programs in 8 elementary schools across the state of Mississippi. The study assessed how principals, literacy coaches, and kindergarten through third grade teachers perceived the implementation of the Reading First program at their respective schools. Data from these three groups of research participants were analyzed to determine if there were differences in perceptions regarding program implementation. This study also examined if there was a relationship between participants’ judgment about implementation and second and third grade students reading scores on the Mississippi Curriculum Test (MCT). This study employed descriptive, survey, causal-comparative, …

The Role Of Music Perception In Predicting Phonological Awareness In Five- And Six-Year-Old Children, Linda M. Lathroum

Open Access Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the role of music perception in predicting phonological awareness in five- and six-year-old children. This study was based on the hypothesis that music perception and phonological awareness appear to have parallel auditory perceptual mechanisms. Previous research investigating the relationship between these constructs—music perception and phonological awareness—has been promising, but inconclusive. Phonological awareness is an important component of early literacy which many children struggle to acquire. If the constructs are shown to be related, music-based interventions may then be developed to promote phonological awareness, thus enhancing early literacy. Music perception, phonological awareness, and …

Shifting Malaysian Primary Science Teachers' Assessment Literacy For A World Class Education, R.V. Sathasivam, E.G.S. Daniel

Research Publications (2011 to 2015)

One of the challenges for science teachers in the 21st Century is to ensure high standards in the process of student assessment. Assessment literacy is important because teachers spend up to 50% (Plake, 1993) of time in their profession assessing students. Assessment literacy does not only cover the technical aspects of testing but has moved on to encompass almost all interactions that teachers have with their students, school authorities and parents. This paper will describe part of bigger study conducted to ascertain the assessment literacy of selected Malaysian primary science teachers. Using qualitative data collection techniques such as teacher journals …

An Analysis Of Literacy Instruction In Tennessee Reading First Schools With High Levels Of Proficiency In Reading/Language Arts Scores, James Herman

Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Reading proficiency has been declining in the US schools. The Reading First (RF) program was designed to combat this trend. The purpose of this study was to investigate the reasons why some RF programs were successful and some were not. The study brings a Tennessee perceptive to the research of the relationship between literacy instruction implementation factors and school performance. In this study, reading proficiency assessment data were used to assign the included Tennessee RF schools to one of three categories: highly successful, moderately successful, and Unsuccessful. It was somewhat troubling to see that in some schools as many as …

Investigating Writing Performance And Institutional Supports Among Teacher Candidates Who Transferred From Community Colleges, Katharine Pace Miles, Leslie Craigo, Selenid Gonzalez-Frey

Higher Learning Research Communications

To provide a snapshot of the skills of community college students as compared to senior college students, this study investigated writing performance and college experience of initial two-year enrolled (community college transfer students, n = 17) versus initial four-year enrolled students (n = 12) in a teacher preparation program. Results of independent samples t-tests on in-class writing, research paper, and final score were non-significant (p =.28, p = .54, p = .15, respectively) indicating that two-year and four-year start teacher candidates did not differ in their performance on these assignments nor overall in the course. Qualitative data indicated that while …

Relocating Basic Writing., Bruce Horner

Faculty and Staff Scholarship

I frame the continuing value of basic writing as part of a long tradition in composition studies challenging dominant beliefs about literacy and language abilities, and I link basic writing to emerging--e.g."translingual"--approaches to language. I identify basic writing as vital to the field of composition in its rejection of simplistic notions of English, language, and literacy; its insistence on searching out the different in what might appear to be the same and the familiar; and its commitment to work with students consigned by dominant ideologies to the social periphery as in fact central, leading edge. These positions enable basic writing …

Delayed Beginnings, Jump Start? The Combined Effects On Early Literacy Of Age At Entry Into Kindergarten With Experiences Prior To Entry, Kathryn A. Wilson

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Theses and Other Student Research

As the first compulsory grade in the elementary school program, kindergarten is designed to prepare students for the numbered grades. Students are eligible for entrance into kindergarten if they turn five before a state-determined cut-off date. These dates range from the June before the start of school until the January after. Because some states do not require that children attend kindergarten until 6, 7, or even 8 years old, some parents are delaying their child’s entry into the program on the assumption that their child will benefit from an extra year to grow cognitively, physically, and emotionally. The result is …

Multiple Literacies, Fragmented Identities: Arab Students At American Universities, Gamil Mohammed Al-Amrani

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is a combination of ethnography and case study which describes the Social and cultural context of literacy acquisition among Arab students at the University of Arkansas. I examine the power relations that define this minority group in the larger Social context and describe how these relations shape, transform, and sometimes threaten their cultural identities in the classroom. The dissertation investigates the different Social and cultural factors that facilitate or obstruct their learning process, factors such as age, gender, religion, and marital status. It explains how the students' acquisition of literacy exists within a larger dynamic process of Social …

Composing @Play, Jonathan Lashley

All Theses

Modern college students traverse the boundaries of traditional literacy daily. Maturing alongside Web 2.0 and multimodal social networking, these young people tweet, blog, email, film, photograph, illustrate, hyperlink, and compose their lives regardless of formal instruction. Therefore rhetorically analyzing a student's recreational play with image, video, audio, and oral mediums often proves helpful for writing instructors who wish to better mentor and engage the communicative capacities of those born in the late 20th century and after. Yet few educators have actively pursued this line of inquiry over the last couple of decades. Many continue to favor traditional pairing of academic …

Teachers' And Principals' Perspectives Of Literacy Coaching In An Elementary School., Barbara Jane Anderson Hull

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative study was to discover the literacy coach's tasks and qualities teachers valued the most and which qualities they valued the least. Knowing those precepts might help one to become a more efficient and valuable resource for both classroom teachers and principals. School visits, focus group interviews, individual interviews, interviews with each principal, and documents from the 3 southwest Virginia schools in 2 districts provided the data for analysis. Teachers' and principals' perspectives of literacy coaching explained both the desirable and undesirable practices and techniques.

The 3 schools had been swept into a change process when …