Arts and Humanities Commons^™

“Every Man Must Play A Part”: A Character-Centered Approach To The Merchant Of Venice, Megan Moore

Honors Program Theses and Projects

No abstract provided.

Read This Book!: Defending Multicultural Literature From Recent Censorship, Chloe Devine

Honors Program Theses and Projects

The aim of this research is to highlight the importance of multicultural children’s literature in the field of education as it relates to the call for a more multicultural approach to education, as well as through the consideration of the recent uptick in book censorship across the country. Specifically, I will turn my attention towards children’s literature that features Black characters and experiences, which are often featured within the multicultural realm. Despite the fact that research has consistently shown that multicultural children’s literature has benefits for Black children as well as creating an engaging reading experience for all readers, efforts …

Lgbtq Literature In The High School English Language Arts Classroom: A Rationale For A Unit Plan On Giovanni’S Room By James Baldwin, Jenivieve D'Andrea

Honors Program Theses and Projects

The inclusion of LGBTQ literature in the high school English Language Arts classroom is a necessary step that secondary schools should take to promote culturally responsive teaching that represents the growing number of adolescents identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer in American public schools. According to a study conducted by the Williams Institute School of Law (2020), information from the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance Survey found that about 1,994,000 of adolescents ages thirteen to seventeen identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender. Of this national count, about 39,000 adolescents in Massachusetts identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender. …

The Evolution Of The Child Character With Learning Differences, Mary Viera

Honors Program Theses and Projects

In this paper, I will analyze the various representations of learning disabilities in selected children’s literature from the early twentieth century to recent literature published in the last decade. In the typical American classroom specific learning disabilities account for about 20% of students. It is the largest classified group to receive services in special education, and also the broadest: “Learning disabilities are disorders that affect the ability to understand or use spoken or written language, do mathematical calculations, coordinate movements or direct attention” (NIH, 2022). I will use the term “learning differences” as it encompasses all children who learn differently …

Teaching Accurate And Age-Appropriate History To Elementary Students: Teaching Third Graders About Historic Thanksgiving, Ashley Schepis

Honors Program Theses and Projects

This educational and historical research is based on teaching accurate and age-appropriate history to elementary students. Unfortunately, instead of true history elementary schoolers are often taught myths, to avoid teaching children about the embarrassing and gruesome parts of United States history. When history is not taught truthfully, it can perpetuate stereotypes and leave students confused when they reach secondary and higher education and discover that some of what they know is incorrect. The purpose of this project is to investigate what really happened at the 1621 Harvest Feast and its evolution into the holiday that is celebrated today, assess how …

La Carranga Como Identidad Cultural Local Y Regional Del Departamento De Cundinamarca Y Boyacá– Colombia, Karen L. López

Honors Program Theses and Projects

“Somos hablares, historias copla, canto y poesías, eso es lo que les traemos, eso es la carranguerita, sinfónicamente hablando, un canto hermoso a la vida”. Estas son las palabras con las que inicia algunas de sus presentaciones en público Jorge Velosa, el hombre más influyente y reconocido de la música carranguera. Este ritmo musical es muy importante porque por medio de su letra expresa ideas, valores, y lazos de identidad únicos de la comunidad campesina. También, es un estilo de música colombiana que busca la sonrisa de la gente, muestra cómo convivir en paz con la naturaleza, y es la …

Silver Girls: A Modern Retelling Of Little Women, Jessica A. Rinker

Honors Program Theses and Projects

When one thinks of a “reader” they might picture a person with large wire-rimmed glasses, their nose buried deep into the binding of a thick book, perhaps with a cat curled up next to them and maybe a mug of tea. If one had to guess what such a literary person was reading, one would assume something very old and wise like Tolstoy or Wordsworth or Austin. What about the twelve-year-old hanging upside down on his bean bag chair devouring James Dashner’s Maze Runner or the fifteen-year-old laying across her bed, lost in the plot of Elizabeth Acevedo’s Poet X? …

The Comment, November 7, 2019, Bridgewater State University

The Comment

No abstract provided.

The Comment, October 24, 2019, Bridgewater State University

The Comment

No abstract provided.

The Comment, October 10, 2019, Bridgewater State University

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The Comment, September 30, 2019, Bridgewater State University

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It’S Kind Of A Curious Incident In The Bell Jar: Using Literature And Discussion To Advocate For Mental Health Education In The High School English Classroom, Margaret Keefe

Honors Program Theses and Projects

Literature has served as an outlet for those who have both written and read it, powerfully describing all aspects of the human condition—even the mental disorders we suffer from. Language Arts classrooms provide students with the ability to access and critically analyze this unique outlet for expression and understanding. Given the high rate of mental disorders among young adults and students, this often stigmatized issue cannot be ignored inside or outside the classroom. The purpose of this project is to analyze how texts which discuss mental disorders might be taught in the high school English classroom. This will include not …

An Archival Study Of Grammar Instruction: Looking To The Past For Future Best Practices In Writing Instruction, Hannah Patriquin

Honors Program Theses and Projects

No abstract provided.

Cracking The Code: Redefining Text Complexity, Complicating Reading Pedagogy, Creating Lifelong Readers And Learners, Sarah Bruns

Honors Program Theses and Projects

No abstract provided.

Literature Of The First Encounters: Using Self-Immersion In The Scholarly Study Of First Encounter Texts To Develop A Fifth Grade Text Set, Angela Skrabec

Honors Program Theses and Projects

This interdisciplinary research project integrated training and techniques from two disciplines: English and Elementary Education. The purpose of the project was to immerse myself in the scholarly study of First Encounter (encounter between the natives and English settlers in the New World) texts in order to create a fifth grade text set, a selection of approximately 20-25 quality children’s books that represent a diverse range of reading levels and genres. My research entailed reading a variety of First Encounter literatures and using New Historicism to analyze each as part of my English scholarship. In addition, after reviewing research on literacy …

Designing Social Change: Inquiry-Based Practice & Teaching, Donald Tarallo

Art and Art History Faculty Publications

This paper shares an exploratory and inquiry-based graphic design project and the resultant pedagogic approach that offers arts and design educators ideas on teaching to instigate positive social change. The author summarizes a year-long fellowship project where he worked as a change agent in service to a partnership of six non-profit, after-school arts programs in Providence, Rhode Island who are organized as the Providence Youth Arts Collaborative (PYAC).

The intention of this project was two-fold. The primary effort was to investigate ways graphic design can be strategically used to seed interest and empower youth to make positive choices with how …

Jane Austen And The 21st-Century Classroom, Maureen Jecrois

Honors Program Theses and Projects

Across the United States, educators and administrators have been discussing whether classical literature still has a place within the high school classroom. Included in this discussion are the works of Jane Austen. And while Jane Austen’s texts have much to offer as far as discussion on gender and familial dynamics, economic and political tension, and, of course, societal norms (what our communities expect from us individually and as a whole), the texts present many challenges within the frameworks of today’s classroom. What we have come to know as “our” time is a rapidly changing environment filled with experiences and technologies …

Voices Of Hope: Designing Social Change, Donald Tarallo

Presidential Fellows Program

Proposal Abstract:

If awarded this fellowship, I will devote my time to employ graphic design toward creating positive social change for youth living in the underprivileged neighborhoods of Providence, Rhode Island. The change my project will embody addresses a paradigm shift taking place in the graphic design community as the focus moves from design as a practice that fuels a market to the awareness that graphic design is a social practice and that it can be vehicle for powerful and sustainable social change. This effort will inform my teaching, resulting in a model for art and design education addressing social …

The Icelandic Sagas As A Subject For Undergraduate Study, John P. Sexton

English Faculty Publications

While medieval studies has dramatically expanded its scope and the texts taught as part of its subject over the past few decades, the study of Icelandic saga literature is still a fringe discipline, particularly in North American academe. Rarer still is undergraduate exposure to the sagas, despite their appeal as texts and the rich possibilities they offer to students trained in Anglo-Saxon literature (or at least Beowulf) and familiar with Norse myth and legend through Tolkien or Marvel comics. The insular nature of the culture from which the literature springs is a contributing factor, of course—there is the undeniable …

Guide To The Mary Jo Moriarty Collection, 1915-1998, Caitlin Gette-King, Orson Kingsley

Archives & Special Collections Finding Aids

Brief Biographical Sketch

Mary Jo Moriarty was born in Boston and received her bachelor’s degree in history from Villa Maria College and her master’s and doctoral degrees from the Boston University School of Education. Moriarty worked as a health and physical education teacher at Hyannis State Teachers College from 1937 until the school’s closing in 1944. She moved with the college’s health and physical education program to Bridgewater State Teachers College when the two merged. She taught as a professor in the Physical Education Department, and later served as chairwoman of the Physical Education Major and the Department of Health …

In Praise Of The Saints: Introducing Medieval Hagiography Into The British Literature Survey, John P. Sexton

English Faculty Publications

Despite increased interest in hagiographic writing among scholars of early literature in the last few decades, serious study of saints’ lives in the undergraduate classroom remains rare. To some degree, this is a result of poor representation in the leading anthologies,^[1]but another contributing factor has been the perception of a distinction between hagiographic and other medieval writing it terms of genre or of literary value. Such distinctions, however, are modern inventions, and do not accurately reflect the medieval reader or writer’s view. Nor is the inclusion of the literature alongside the expected “great works” difficult or jarring; a …

The Comment, June 1, 1989, Bridgewater State College

The Comment

No abstract provided.

The Comment, May 11, 1989, Bridgewater State College

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The Comment, May 4, 1989, Bridgewater State College

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The Comment, April 27, 1989, Bridgewater State College

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The Comment, April 20, 1989, Bridgewater State College

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The Comment, April 13, 1989, Bridgewater State College

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The Comment, April 6, 1989, Bridgewater State College

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No abstract provided.

The Comment, March 30, 1989, Bridgewater State College

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No abstract provided.

The Comment, March 9, 1989, Bridgewater State College

The Comment

No abstract provided.