Education Commons^™

Faculty Learning Community: Advancing Faculty Academic Advising Pedagogy, Linda Jean Raynard

Culminating Experience Projects

Within higher educational institutions faculty may serve in a faculty advising role. The quality of faculty advising conversations can impact student’s sense of mattering and support to campus leadership, community, and beyond. Faculty, however, have competing priorities and a lack of pathological training that has prevented them from investing deeper in advising practices. Students may then miss important opportunities to initially connect with campus leaders about their curricular and co-curricular development. To better operationalize academic advising practices for faculty to use in their everyday student conversations, a faculty learning community is suggested to aid. The Faculty Learning Community: Advancing Faculty …

Study Of The Lack Of Student Ability To Repair Relationships Among School Peers, Brittany M. Parker

Culminating Experience Projects

Social-emotional skills and student relationships have been researched for years, yet there are still school systems who seek to punish students when they have conflict instead of teaching them the way to manage their emotions. To learn in school is to be social, there cannot be one without the other. In order for students to do their best learning, it is important for them to be able to handle conflict in a healthy way and repair peer relationships. This project examines the benefits of teaching social-emotional skills, in addition to implementing a peer mentoring program in an effort to equip …

Investigating The Curricular Practices Of Social Innovation Master’S Programs In The United States, Ty M. Krueger

Culminating Experience Projects

The study of social innovation in higher education has increased as more schools add undergraduate and graduate programs on the broad topic. Discussion on what should be included as part of social innovation education has been occurring for decades, but there is little determination as to what could be considered as standards or even a baseline for curricular practices. This research aims to look at how current graduate programs for social innovation are defining the topic, what courses they include in their curriculum, what teaching methods are used in the delivery of these topics, and how the topics and teaching …

Beyond The Bell: Rebuilding Care, Civic Learning And Creativity Within Youth Spaces, Michelle R. Haapala

Culminating Experience Projects

The purpose of this research is to investigate high school age students’ opportunities within formal classroom settings to engage in care, civic learning, and creativity within a suburban, publicly-funded charter school. This study used thematic analysis and coding methods to organize and find patterns in the qualitative data from surveys distributed to education professionals at Canton Preparatory High School in Canton, Michigan. The goal is to establish a foundation of the perception of care, civic learning, and creativity within school environments and classroom settings. Overall, education professionals rated these categories positively, but with a closer investigation, a disconnect is found. …

The Effect Of Reading Habits On Academic Success, Taylor Hicks

Culminating Experience Projects

The goal of most students is to achieve academic success. In order to be successful, students must form healthy reading habits because there is a positive correlation between academic success and reading habits. The more students read, the greater their chances of performing well academically. By participating in frequent reading, students will, not only perform well in school, they will also expand their vocabulary, improve their writing skills, and sharpen their critical thinking skills. We are in the midst of a literacy crisis, though. Students are choosing other avenues for entertainment instead of reading. This could potentially have detrimental consequences. …

Restructuring A Developmental Esl Course At An Urban Community College: Asking The Right Questions, Deniz Gokcora, Raymond Oenbring

Michigan Reading Journal

This article provides an example of the integration of topics of race and racial awareness and anti-racist pedagogy into an ESL developmental writing course in a community college setting. The study describes how the lead author has redesigned an ESL developmental writing course at the Borough of Manhattan Community College (BMCC) to include an explicit focus on critical racial pedagogy and social justice topics to foster students’ critical thinking and encourage students to be socially responsible individuals in a challenging global world. The manuscript offers insights into how an advanced ESL remedial writing course can be a suitable setting to …

Toward A Theory Of An Integrated Theoretical Approach Of Literacy For Black Boys, Aaron M. Johnson

Michigan Reading Journal

In the education landscape the literacy of Black boys is viewed from deficit framing. Often, educators, politicians, and laypeople point to scores on standardized assessments such as the MSTEP, NAEP, ACT, SAT, and NWEA, these tests only tell a part of the story. The part of the story that those assessments do tell is the abject failure of schools’ ability to engage Black boys in school-based literacy and catapult them into proficient and advanced proficient reading levels. The part of the story that those assessments do not tell is the literate lives that Black boys lead. Furthermore, schools do a …

Implementing Social Emotional Activities Into The English Language Arts Curriculum, Allison M. Sherbel

Masters Theses

Over the last decade social emotional learning has revealed itself to be an important element in students' academic growth. Social emotional learning requires students to learn the skills necessary to effectively communicate with others as well as maintaining a positive classroom environment, where all students feel supported, safe and heard. When students become more connected to their own emotions, they are developing an essential skill that will help them inside and outside of the classroom. Research shows that implementation of social emotional lessons can improve both immediate and long-term social-emotional ability as well as academic growth. Despite this research, teachers …

Celebrating Multilingual Learners With Bilingual Children's Literature, Andrea Starr Karpf, Kathleen Hinman

Michigan Reading Journal

Research on bilingual books suggests that all children in a classroom benefit from the windows and mirrors that bilingual books provide. This article presents relevant research on the placement and use of bilingual books in classroom libraries, and offers an annotated bibliography of many high quality examples.

Engaging Students And Teaching Life Skills Through Community Collaboration, Kim Stein

Language Arts Journal of Michigan

Collaboration with the Youth First Program of Saginaw increased students' engagement in eleventh-grade English. Students bonded with community partners, their teacher, and their peers in new ways which produced an environment of mutual respect and deeper learning. Students engaged in a debate project which garnered recognition from school administrators and community members, who were influenced to enact positive changes for the school community.

Teaching Twelfth Night And Queering The Canon In Michigan English Language Arts Classrooms, Anne D. Lippert

Language Arts Journal of Michigan

Recent legislation across the country has advocated for the complete disregard of queer topics and identities within public school classrooms. Within this essay, I lay out the issues that stem from ignoring marginalized identities in the ELA classroom, specifically queer identities, and offer an example of a text (Shakespeare's Twelfth Night) that can be used to incorporate discussion of queer identity into the curriculum.

Doing The Work -- Collectively Pursuing Anti-Racist And Equitable Teaching: One High School English Department’S Journey, Sharon Murchie, Anthony Andrus, Pat Brennan, Gina Farnelli, Shelby Fletcher, Dawn Reed, Emily Solomon, Benjamin K. Woodcock

Language Arts Journal of Michigan

Our district has long been heralded as a beacon school, one that delivers exceptional education in an exceptional community. Peeling back the layers, however, revealed a district that lurched towards the traditional, even with the hiring of DEI faculty and the step away from an historical indigenous mascot. In a time where teachers are exhausted and afraid of community backlash, our

English department dared to tear off the scabs of old wounds and united to push toward what is best for our changing community and students. Hard conversations, difficult topics, and months of legwork at last successfully provided the impetus …

Wakanda: Opening The High School Classroom To Afrofuturism, Carrie M. Mattern

Language Arts Journal of Michigan

Afrofuturism has a solid place in high school classrooms thanks to the current work of Ryan Coogler, but also to those who have been in this work for decades including the Mother of Afrofuturism herself, Octavia Butler, adrienne maree brown, dream hampton, and a litany of Black poets and artists. This article leaps inside an Afrofuturistic unit curated for high school seniors with feedback and insight from their teachers and also the students who buckled up for a journey through time, space, and place.

Book Review Letting Go Of Literary Whiteness: Antiracist Literature Instruction For White Students, Jeremy Hyler

Michigan Reading Journal

Race, racism, and literary whiteness are at the forefront of many conversations in education today. In Letting Go of Literary Whiteness: Antiracist Literature Instruction for White Students, authors Carlin Borsheim-Black and Sophia Tatiana Sarigianides highlight what should be addressed in our classroom today to address race and racism.

Being The Curriculum, Alyssa Hillary Zisk

Ought: The Journal of Autistic Culture

This article is a work of creative non-fiction. Part of the work is my reflections on one systemically awkward experience of introducing my neurodivergence, autism, to my classmates in my graduate program in neuroscience. Part of the work engages with theory and neuroscientific/cognitive findings that I either shared during the presentation or encountered since but would have been relevant to the experience. The two parts are intertwined, because life isn't neatly separable.

Connecting The Dots Between Academic And Social-Emotional Learning With Literacy, Allison Phillippe

Michigan Reading Journal

This article emphasizes the importance of supporting Social Emotional Learning (SEL) with literacy instruction, which could benefit both the academic and emotional success of students in your classroom. Currently in education there is a growing rate of students who have experienced trauma and could greatly benefit from SEL (Price & Ellis, 2018). The ability to incorporate SEL into current literacy instruction can help ensure we are meeting the individual needs of each student. This article will begin by defining SEL and explain its growing importance in education today. Then, it will discuss how social-emotional and academic learning are connected. Finally, …

A Call For Something Better: Classrooms As Foundations Of Respectful Argument For Civic Engagement, Mark Dziedzic, Bryn Orum, Linda Denstaedt

Michigan Reading Journal

“Building Something Better: Civically Engaged Conversation with Contested Issues ” promotes essential elements teachers used to design text sets and student experiences supportive of inclusive classrooms that recognize diversity of perspectives as a strength. The National Writing Project’s College, Career, and Community Writers Program served as a framework for looking closely at the role of teaching practice to develop classroom conversations focused on contested social issues and text sets that disrupt prior thinking and open the door to multiple perspectives, stakeholders, and voices. The ideas presented in this article emerged in collaboration with teachers using C3WP to rethink their curriculum …

“In The Midst Of Experience:” Civic Education Through Narrative Creation, Jeff Spanke

Language Arts Journal of Michigan

Through employing a narrative, reflective approach, I discuss how the experience of working with international students during a summer institute informed the developed and implementation of a civically minded project in a college Young Adult Literature seminar. The project sought to frame "America" as an actual teenager, relative to other, more "adult" countries in the world, and asked students to construct a conventional YA narrative featuring America as the primary character. Through this narrative, I explain the various successes of the project and ultimately argue that students' stories and original compositions offer a viable mechanism for progressive, democratic citizenship education …

No More Teaching Without Positive Relationships, Annie P. Spear

Michigan Reading Journal

No abstract provided.

Process Drama: A Creative Way To Assess Ela Understanding, Nicole Rausch

Language Arts Journal of Michigan

With increasing demands and decreasing amounts of instructional time, teachers are constantly looking for creative ways to integrate, assess, and target instruction to meet the needs of each student. This article takes a look at how one teacher employed the use of a highly engaging process drama to teach and assess multiple subject area content standards. A process drama is remarkably creative, social, and applicable so can be easily adapted to meet the needs of any grade level. The low floor, high ceiling project allows students multiple avenues to demonstrate understanding of skills and concepts.

Exploring Privilege With Young Adult Literature, Stefani Boutelier

Language Arts Journal of Michigan

It is imperative to utilize Young Adult (YA) literature themes to transfer deeper ideologies. This article layers I am Alfonso Jones, a YA graphic novel, by Tony Medina to frame the exploration of privilege during a literature unit in a secondary ELA classroom. Teachers can facilitate understanding of such an often overused, yet misunderstood phrase, through multiple means (e.g., conversation protocols, performance assessment). The topics examined in this article supports a praxis model of moving critical pedagogy and equity literacy theories to the forefront of one’s teaching by including student voice, incorporating relationship building, and building important conversation skills to …

College, Career, And Community Writer’S Program (C3wp) Data-Driven Reports Of Literacy Growth, Kathy J. Kurtze

Language Arts Journal of Michigan

Through the implementation of mini-units in from the C3WP, a teacher demonstrates that routine argument writing leads to great gains in argument writing literacy.

Scholastic Liberation: Schools' Impact On African American Academic Achievement, Aaron M. Johnson

Language Arts Journal of Michigan

This article addresses some of the factors that contribute to low achievement observed in African American students. It is common that either schools or school districts are unable to fix the problem or they are unaware about how the beliefs and attitudes about African American students can contribute to their low performance in school. Furthermore, this article encourages school institutions to examine themselves and change school environments to align to the identities of African American students. African American students must be liberated from negative assumptions about them and to do that, individuals and the institution of school as a whole, …

A Wood Comes Toward Dunsinane: The Synthesis Of Traditional And Constructivist Methodologies, Randall L. Kaplan

Language Arts Journal of Michigan

Education professionals now favor Constructivist and project-based strategies for learning over Traditional methods, which include such frowned upon practices as rote memorization and recitation. The Constructivist approach is being taken to its natural apex by educators like Larry Rosenstock who have created Constructivist utopias such as High Tech High in San Diego, the school put under the microscope in the 2015 documentary film Most Likely to Succeed. Project-based, experiential units of study are effective, exciting, and edifying for both students and teachers. They promise to prepare students for the type of world they will inhabit, a world whose economy …

Of Lizards And Language, Bernadette Gongora

Language Arts Journal of Michigan

No abstract provided.

Using Visible Thinking Routines To Teach About The Impact Of Colonialism On Race Within The Language Arts Classroom, Carol Kelly

Language Arts Journal of Michigan

Particularly within Language Arts, the curriculum has historically been based around the classics of Literature, which are heavily dominated by wealthy white men. Finding suitable materials to teach from, whilst still providing the background knowledge of the traditional canon, is a challenge to effective teaching about diversity. I am aware that I come from a culture of whiteness, and this makes me wary of my own biases when teaching about cultural diversity. When approaching this topic I have drawn upon a variety of resources, and this paper will use a mixture of academic research, teaching materials, and self study to …