English Language and Literature Commons^™

Speech From The Utah English Teacher Of The Year, Krissy Beecher

The Utah English Journal

A few weeks ago, I was sitting at my desk after school feeling really discouraged. I was upset about the current state of education funding. I knew I was losing my prep days for next year, my pay was going down, and my class sizes were going up significantly. I was also discouraged because I had just seen the tentative plan for what classes I would be teaching next year. I wondered, “Why am I a teacher?”

Mad Hot Classroom: Test Prep And Literacy Instruction As Imaginative Dance Partners, Sirpa Grierson, Heather Hansen Wing

The Utah English Journal

“Slang. Dialect. Ethnic terms. Stream of Consciousness. . .” With state testing only a few months away, Heather felt pressured to cover another eight remaining literary terms she had not yet covered from the eleventh grade state language arts core (USOE, 1996, 31). The unfinished task buzzed at the edge of her consciousness. She wanted her students to succeed. But how could she teach them these remaining state core requirements in a way that would foster, not squash, their clever inventiveness? Her biggest fear was that a classroom usually sizzling with creativity and moxie would fall asleep when her eleventh …

Stories From A Service Learning Project In An Assisted Living Home, Debbie Davis

The Utah English Journal

Maddy, 10th grade, took notes as 89-year-old Cordelia, comfortably settled in her wheelchair, recalled life as a teenager during the Great Depression. Periodically the two paused, reflecting on the story just told. Then Maddy leaned forward with another question, and Cordelia’s animated storytelling would resume. Zack, 9th grade, wrote furiously as Louis, 87, with hands punctuating the air, talked of World War II. Louis served in the Army unit responsible for the invasion of Japan, a mission in which unit casualties were projected at 80 – 90 %. The invasion was called off when Japan surrendered. These stories were among …

Metamorphosis, Kim Irvine

The Utah English Journal

No abstract provided.

An Exploratory Analysis Of The Use Of Multi-Word Units In National Secondary School Efl Textbooks In Egypt, Ahmed Abd-Allah Sallam

Archived Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Montclair State University’S Secondary English Education Program : Perceptions And Expectations Of Pre-Service And Beginning Teachers Of Writing, David B. Malter

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

No abstract provided.

Using Creative Writing Instruction In The Urban High School English Classroom To Promote Writing Skills In Remedial Level Students, Maureen Harrison

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

The purpose of this research is to investigate the value of creative writing instruction for increasing the literacy of remedial students in urban High School English classes. Students who are placed in remedial level classes often have preconceived negative feelings concerning their ability to produce academic writing. As I later discuss through the research of Debra Holmes Matthews, John A. Daly and Michael D. Miller, these preconceived notions impact the motivation and educational experience of remedial level students. In my research I will examine the ability of creative writing to motivate struggling student writers and help to improve specific writing …

The Effects Of Background Music On The Reading Performance Of Taiwanese Esl Students, Peter Chou

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to see what kinds of effects classical music and hip hop music have on the performance of a second language reading comprehension test in Taiwanese college students. According to Kahneman' s ( 1973) capacity model for attention, one may fail to perfonn an activity because the supply of attention needed for multiple tasks does not meet the demand needed to perfom1 each of the tasks. This explains why students perform better or worse on different cognitive tasks with certain types of background media. An experiment involving 123 participants from a medium size college in …

Class Indifference - A Divided Nation : Finding Common Ground Through American Pragmatism And Democratic Principles In The Composition Classroom, Stacey L. Morrison

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Social class plays a significant but often silent part in American politics, lives, and education. As the events of Hurricane Katrina clearly illustrate, the poor and working class often suffer discrimination that leaves them completely powerless. Their position in life shapes not only how they are seen and treated, but also how they see their world. Their cultures differ markedly from middle and upper class cultures, further alienating them from possible greater personal achievement in a system that champions middle-class values. Education, being a microcosm of our society, mirrors our class conflicts, often failing to teach working-class students in an …

Language Use And The Oral Tradition In Aaya (African American Young Adult) Literature, Kaavonia Hinton-Johnson

Teaching & Learning Faculty Publications

(First paragraph) In elementary school my favorite teachers taught me that the language used in my home was incorrect, incoherent, and inappropriate. My second grade teacher Ms. Hull, a tall, thin, dark-skinned woman, stands out among the others. I can still see her hovering over us. “Was!” Ms. Hull shouted, “not wuz. Your tongue is lazy.” “You be what?” she’d ask in disgust with one hand on her hip. When this happened, I was sure to get yelled at and lectured. To avoid such humiliation, I quickly learned to, as we said in my neighborhood, “talk proper.” Shame nagged at …

Attitudes Of Mexican Nationals Toward The Use Of Code Switching In The Rio Grande Valley, Jennifer M. Vojtko

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

The purpose of this study is to establish the beliefs and attitudes of Mexican Nationals living in the Rio Grande Valley toward the use of code switching, or the use of two or more languages during a speech act. Because of the high influence of the Spanish language in the Rio Grande Valley, code switching is more commonly referred to as Spanglish. Researchers have been studying code switching since the early fifties; however, limited research has been conducted on attitudes toward code switching. The goal of this study is to offer a comprehensive look at the attitudes demonstrated by Mexican …

The Aesthetic Mask: Cinematic And Musical Icons In Ellison's Invisible Man, Gary Lemco

The Utah English Journal

Critics of Invisible Man seem to have been blind to the fact that Ralph Waldo Ellison was both music major and filmgoer. While struggling to create a seminal novel of Afro-American identity, Ellison was the cultural inheritor of a vast system of sounds and visual icons making up the national and - I daresay - the international tradition of aesthetic values. If the narrator of Juneteenth comes to claim a movie actress as his mother, so too does the unnamed narrator of Invisible Man seize upon music and film as possible sources of his being, as stable representatives of our …

Doing It For The Love Of It: Weaving Lives In A Community Of Learners, Maryann Felps

The Utah English Journal

Robert Frost said that "what is done is done for the love of it - or not really done at all." This past school year at the non-public school where I work something was done for "the love of it" and served to create a community of learners whose lives became successfully interwoven. What follows is a description of this community, how it was originally developed, how it progressed, and what resulted at the conclusion of its ten-month existence.

"What Do I Do With This One?": Teaching Esl Writers Who Have Been Mainstreamed, Todd Heyden

The Utah English Journal

With the addition of non-native speakers in their courses, teachers may find that their job description also includes the teaching of ESL writing. "What do I do with this one?" is a question I commonly hear from concerned colleagues. Understandably, they want to know how to best meet the needs of the ESL writers who have been mainstreamed into their Pope John XXIII courses. At the top of the list of their concerns is error correction. An ESL writer's essay can contain a myriad of errors, even in just a single sentence. Where does one begin to address so many …

Imagine Lunch, Susan Grandfield

The Utah English Journal

The high school where I teach houses many vending machines. A vending machine resides in every comer of the school known to me, and I think there are some machines in areas that I don't frequent. It's a big school, after all. Kids can buy candy, hot and spicy chips that tum their tongues red, Pop-Tarts, Pepsi (not Coke, though) and a variety of other so-called foods, none of which have nutritional value. Kids without much money have discovered a machine with a large pastry called a "Big Texas" (as in "I got me my Big Texas") for 65 cents. …

Bullies, Brenda Mcneill

The Utah English Journal

Bob blusters into my room. He's a large boy - square in the way football players often are - stocky legs and broad across the shoulders. He is from all accounts a very talented athlete. English though confuses him; the nuances of language and thought frustrate him and he deals with his frustration through anger. Though he may be agile in his body, he is not agile in his mind - and he is angry about it and uses his size to intimidate other students and short female English teachers. However, he needs English in order to graduate from high …

Socrates Does Shakespeare, Victor Moeller

The Utah English Journal

Robert Benchley once remarked that "There are two kinds of people, those who classify things and those who don't." Since I belong to the first group, I tend to classify teachers according to those who still employ the little-red-school-house model of learning (lecture) and those who daily engage their students in active learning. I do so not only because most of my former teachers assumed that they were the most important part of the learning process but also because the lecture method continues to dominate in too many classrooms even today. In contrast, the genuine Socratic teacher knows that the …

Click, Jayne Marek

The Utah English Journal

"It didn't feel like anything special," Perry said. A fine winter night outside, meaning the frost had sharpened the stars. It was colder in Urbana than it had been in Madison when Sis had left that morning. "But all of a sudden I was flat on the library floor. Face hurt like hell."

"Yeah, well, no surprise, with that face," Sis said.

"Shut up."

"So are seizures hereditary?" Sis asked.

"Nah, it's stress. Studying your ass off. As if you would know."

Getting Students Off To A Good Start, Debbie Davis

The Utah English Journal

I wouldn't want to trade places with a secondary student the first days of school, would you? Can you imagine coping with new schedules and new routines - and higher academic demands? On top of that, don't forget tracking all the information we teachers and administrators deluge them with. I wonder how students can remember expectations, rules, and assignments announced by seven or eight teachers, when all they really want to know is "Will I be accepted by my peers?" and "Can I survive this grade level?" I want my students to feel positively about the answers to both questions, …

From "Freshman Friday" To Interior Design: Inside The First Week Of A Ninth Grade English Class, Robert Petrone

The Utah English Journal

As I prepared for my third year of teaching ninth-grade English, I focused my attention on what I would do with the students during the first week of the year. At that point in my career, I felt, for the first time, comfortable with the content-a short story unit, the personal narrative, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Odyssey, and Romeo and Juliet-and so felt at ease to put more energy into some other aspects of my teaching. As I brainstormed ideas of how to go about the first week of the year, an image from my student teaching experience flashed …

Lord Hamlet's Lesson, Harlan Underhill

The Utah English Journal

No abstract provided.

It's Not So Elementary, Stacy Miller

The Utah English Journal

No abstract provided.

A Tribute To A Fallen Hero, Stacy Miller

The Utah English Journal

No abstract provided.

Odysseus, Harlan Underhill

The Utah English Journal

No abstract provided.

The Utah English Journal, Volume 32, 2004: Full Issue

The Utah English Journal

No abstract provided.

"The Person That No One Understood" Addressing Homosexuality In The Classroom, Amy Wilson

The Utah English Journal

As a concerned educator, therefore, I began to explore how the classroom can be a safe and welcoming place for all people, regardless of their differences and especially regardless of their sexual orientation. I wanted to discover two things: how to make the educational environment a positive place for gay youths and how to promote psychological and emotional well-being for students who belong to this minority. Furthermore, I wanted to learn how to accomplish these goals in a predominantly conservative community. Although I have by no means found "the answer" to those complex questions, this paper reflects an inquiry and …

If Aristotle Ran The Writing Center: Classical Rhetoric And Writing Center Administration, Melissa Ianetta

The Writing Center Journal

No abstract provided.

Abc Books: Connecting With Literature, Constructing Personal Learning, Deborah Dean

The Utah English Journal

"When do we get to make ABC books?"

"Yeah. I've seen those before, and I know the kids made them in your class."

It was the first day of school, but already the students were asking about an assignment that my ninth grade classes were well known for doing. The whole thing began early in my teaching career as I pondered some questions all teachers ask themselves from time to time: How do I help my students make learning personal? How do I help them own a novel, rather than simply parroting back my comments or what "Cliff' might have …

Utah Writing Project Summer Workshops, Debbie Davis

The Utah English Journal

"It was the best workshop I've ever attended. I will never teach writing the same way again!" Linda Simpson, President of the Utah Council of Teachers of English and Language Arts, told me at the UCTE/LA 2002 Conference. Her assessment of the Utah Writing Project's one-week writing workshop made me want that experience for myself. Last summer I attended the one-week workshop, and this summer I attended the four-week. Linda was right- I will never teach writing the same way again!

Engaging Reluctant Readers: Let's Try Nonfiction, Kathryn Fitzgerald

The Utah English Journal

"If it's not fiction, it's not reading." Starkly put, that was my concept of worthwhile literature until recently with, I think, good reason. Not only do we English teachers love reading good fiction, but we know that valuable lessons are taught through literature: students learn about themselves and their own life choices through reading about recognizable fictional characters; they experience cultures and times other than their own by reading diverse current and classical fiction; they learn to think critically about the beliefs and values they are exposed to through fiction (and to reflect on their own beliefs); they learn empathy …