Creative Writing Pedagogy: Building Curriculum For High School Students, Elizabeth Lengel

Department of English: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This thesis serves as a rationale for the creative writing pedagogy I use and how it serves my high school creative writing class. As my school district made the decision to overhaul our English curriculum, the English department decided to add Creative Writing as an English class elective.

The work for planning these new classes was spread around the English Department, and I was assigned to design the curriculum for the new Creative Writing class. Designing an entire class from scratch leaves a lot of room for creativity and innovation. However, as excited for this new course as I was, …

Defining And Transferring Digital Literacies: What Does This Mean For High School And College Educators?, Jocelyn Spoor

Department of English: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This thesis aims to create a digital literacies transfer framework through a discussion regarding current conversations on transfer and digital literacies in the English field, including synthesizing the two ideas to think about the transfer of digital literacies as a concept. This digital literacies framework is made up of five components: the functional skills, critical skills, and rhetorical skills found in digital literacies scholarship and the genre awareness and meta-cognitive ideas found in transfer literature. This digital literacies transfer framework is then used to analyze information gleaned from four college and five high school English educators. The key findings from …

Multilingual Zambia - Language Issues In Primary/Secondary Schools Of The Eastern/Southern Provinces, Kenzie Steiner

NUTR/GLST 498b: Global Research Experiences in Nutrition and Health

Introduction: Zambia is a multilingual country that uses 8 different languages for instruction including English and 7 other indigenous languages.

Methods: Survey research conducted between May-June 2022 on 6-7th graders within 9 Zambian schools. Classroom observations made and teachers interviewed.

Results: In Eastern and Southern Provinces, Zambian teachers speak an average of 5 languages while students speak an average of 2. Both teachers and students say English remains the most important language followed by first languages.

Conclusion: Continued research on language-in-education policies and impacts on student performance must be conducted if “One Zambia, One Nation” is meant to promote all …

Educational Policies For Spanish Speakers In The United States, Allenby Lyson Iii

Modern Languages, Philosophy and Classics Theses

Schools across the United States implemented educational policies to help students succeed. These policies are often implemented at the state level allowing differences between each state. Considering the increasing presence of Spanish speakers in the United States, many of these policies are put in place to help Spanish speaking students as well as other native speaking children. These policies, and by extent programs, have changed over time, both helping and in some cases harming students. Analyzing these policies improves our understanding of what is most beneficial for students.

Bilingualism: Bringing World Language To The Youth, Kyle Villella

Modern Languages, Philosophy and Classics Theses

This research thesis focuses on world language education in the United States, more specifically, in the state of Rhode Island. In a changing world, learning a second language is key to creating more culturally competent citizens of the world. This thesis pushes for world language education in elementary schools, particularly in first grade. The first section of the thesis focuses on the reasoning behind beginning this education and how a child’s brain is more capable of second language learning This thesis then looks into how this style of education can be successful and the best pedagogical approaches. It analyzes how …

Improving The Reading Skills Of Struggling Secondary Students In A Real-World Setting: Issues Of Implementation And Sustainability, Susan Main, Susan Hill, Annamaria Paolino

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Reading difficulties have been associated with limited academic success and related social-emotional outcomes including anxiety and low motivation. Recent research on the educational impact of the COVID-19 pandemic indicates that children with poor reading skills were disproportionally disadvantaged. This growing number of students experiencing reading difficulties will require effective implementation of strategies to prevent long-term disadvantage, including in the challenging context of secondary schools where teachers are unfamiliar with reading instruction and constrained by timetabling of subjects and teachers. This research examined whether a Direct Instruction programme could be implemented with fidelity in the real world of a secondary school …

Pity The Poor Reader (Pdf), Charles H. Haddad

School of Communication and Journalism Faculty Publications

Pity the Poor Reader” as an un-textbook, an irreverent “Elements of style.” Like Elements, it’s designed to complement textbooks. Pity is concise, memorable and portable. Under 300 pages, Pity serves as an aspiring writer’s keepsake.

Teach A Person To Fish: An Examination Of The Functionalities Of Outdoor Classrooms In Windsor-Essex County, Loretta M. Sbrocca

Education Publications

ABSTRACT

Outdoor classrooms are valuable learning environments that are adaptable in the face of differing terrain, climate, geography, weather and changing educational requirements. They can be used to teach all subjects, engage students in personal development goals and organizational priorities, and promote community involvement. How can educators harness the vast potential of outdoor classrooms as a learning tool? Understanding their functionalities is one means. This research employs an online questionnaire and optional follow-up interviews with various types of educators throughout Windsor-Essex County to help participants understand the functionalities of their own outdoor classrooms. Results showed that educators had different interpretations …

"Read It Again!": Storytelling To Imitate The Great Teacher, Kate Whatley

Senior Honors Theses

The student’s mind is bent on stories, asking mothers around the world to ‘read it again’. These stories preserve information and emotions for centuries. In the classroom, stories enliven motivation and empathy in ways that result in higher academic achievement and social awareness. Learning to use stories as a key instructional strategy will allow for more equitable opportunities in classrooms, encourage mental health and truth telling for the teacher and the student collectively, and allow the academic community to imitate Christ by contributing to the bigger story taking place across time. In application of using stories as teachers, this thesis …

Something American, Carolina S. Souto

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

SOMETHING AMERICAN is a poetry collection written from the perspective of a first-generation American navigating a growing family, a political crisis, and a global pandemic. Influences on this collection include Robert Hass’s THE ESSENTIAL HAIKU and FIELD GUIDE, which attend to nature and the poet-speaker’s immediate surroundings with diligence and precision. Ariel Francisco’s place poems and creative titles in ALL MY HEROES ARE BROKE provide important touchstones for Souto’s commitment to here-and-now writing. And Sylvia Plath’s frank and complex writing about motherhood in ARIEL grants the poet permission to probe these subjects as well.

In SOMETHING AMERICAN, experimental poems sprawl …

Afterschool Club: German For K-5, Justin Solheim

Honors Expanded Learning Clubs

The lessons found in this paper were designed for a group of 20-25 elementary schools students in downtown Lincoln, NE. The students were split into two groups: K-2 and 3-5. Through a variety of activities, the students learned the basics of the German language and culture. Many of the lessons are simple and do not require difficult thinking, as this was a summer club. Instead, they allow students to collaborate, move around, color, and solve puzzles.

Academic Literacy For Deaf Postsecondary Students Through Integrated Reading And Writing Instruction, Sue Livingston

Publications and Research

Based on theoretical findings from the literature on the integration of reading and writing pedagogies used with hearing postsecondary students to advance academic literacy, this article offers a model of instruction for achieving academic literacy in developmental and freshman composition courses composed of deaf students. Academic literacy is viewed as the product of acts of composing in reading and writing which best transpire through reciprocal rather than separate reading and writing activities. Pedagogical practices based on theoretical findings and teacher experience are presented as a model of instruction, exemplified as artifacts in online supplementary materials and juxtaposed with practices used …

Educating For Global Competence: Co-Constructing Outcomes In The Field: An Action Research Project, Kristina A. Van Winkle

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Capacity building for globally competent educators is a 21st Century imperative to address contemporary complex and constantly changing challenges. This action research project is grounded in positive psychology, positive organizational scholarship, relational cultural theory, and relational leadership practices. It sought to identify adaptive challenges educators face as they try to integrate globally competent teaching practices into their curricula, demonstrate learning and growth experienced by the educators in this project, and provide guidance and solutions to the challenges globally competent educators face. Six educators participated in this three-phase project, which included focus groups, reflective journal entries, and an exit interview. Data …

Inequality In Ethnic Representation In Secondary-School Literature Textbooks And National Examination In Vietnam, Anh Nguyen

Honors Projects

This essay studies the dynamic between ethnic minorities and majority in the Vietnamese education system. By examining the appearance and representation of ethnic minorities in national literature curriculum, textbooks, and examinations, the analysis reflects the government's perspectives regarding the “appropriate” portrait of ethnic minorities' heritage and relationship with the majority. The study finds that Vietnamese education framework and content comply with the national construct of a Vietnamese identity across ethnicities. The state determines educational materials and selectively permits only aesthetic, politically benign, and Kinh-like narratives of ethnic minorities’ cultures, many written and/or chosen by Kinh authority rather than the ethnic …

Language Perception And Usage In Haiti: The Impact On Education And Literacy, Olivia Dunn

Antonian Scholars Honors Program

Although the majority of Haitians are monolingual in Haitian Creole, French has remained the dominant language on the island. Historically, French also has been the privileged language in education, which does not match up with most Haitians’ linguistic reality. In this paper, I analyze education reform in Haiti by first developing a framework for understanding linguistic human rights and the relationship between language and power. This section draws upon the theories of Skutnabb-Kangas, Phillipson, and Bourdieu. I then look at how the development of creole languages impacts how they are perceived. Lastly, I examine three previous education reform projects in …

Teaching Language For Proficiency: Learning Descriptions In Spanish 1, Anna Helzer

Honors Theses

For this creative project, I have designed a 15-day unit plan for a Spanish 1 (novice level) language class, teaching the vocabulary and skills needed to understand and produce descriptions of people in students’ second language (L2) of Spanish. Throughout the creation of this unit plan, I have combined my own experience in practicums and student teaching with the most cited research in the fields of language acquisition and pedagogy in order to create lessons which will best facilitate novice language learners’ acquisition of the Spanish language and culture.

The unit plan includes overall content and language objectives as well …

School Librarians As Literacy Educators Within A Complex Role, Margaret K. Merga

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Librarians in schools are expected to play an important role as literacy educators, and have a positive impact on young people’s literacy learning. However in the context of their diverse workload, relatively little is known about how this aspect of their role sits within its competing demands, and the exact scope of the literacy educator requirements. Using a hybrid approach to content analysis, this article analyses 40 recent job description documents to identify the nature and prevalence of different aspects of the role, and to explore the literacy educator aspect of this profession. Findings suggest that while the literacy educator …

Examining Diagnostic Utility Of Celf-5 Sentence Comprehension Test, Dayana Lituma-Solis

NERA Conference Proceedings 2019

In our partnership with urban schools serving large populations of students from lower socioeconomic and culturally diverse backgrounds, we have provided research-based interventions for improving the reading skills of at-risk readers in first and second grade. Our research augments the school’s response-to-intervention (RTI) while simultaneously investigating the efficacy of our assessments and interventions. Because the school we work with tends to have insufficient personnel and resources to serve all who need RTI, it is essential that our screening measures can accurately identify children who may need extra intervention. Last year we were asked to assess kindergarteners and provide an intervention …

Language Nests On The Move: The Case Of Võro Pre-Primary Education In Estonia, Kara D. Brown, Mariko Faster

Faculty Publications

This article considers the circuitous route of knowledge exchange from South (New Zealand)-to North (Finland)-to regional South (Estonia) by examining the development of Võro language nests (keelepesä) in Estonia. Language nests reflect the global nature of educational knowledge exchange as well as the importance of networks of languageresearchers and activists in this policy inspiration. Estonia is a fascinating case for understanding the international spread and local development of the language-nest approach in a post-Socialist context. The authors draw on concepts of policy borrowing and diffusion and the “grammar of schooling” to explore the spread of the language nest approach and …

Development Of Mechanical Ventilator Educational Brochure For Patients/Families, Cathy Palleschi, Wendy Osgood, Mark Parker

Operations Transformation

Patients on mechanical ventilation often have no memory of events while being ventilated. In addition, families during this time, are often overwhelmed and unable to retain information provided to them by caregivers.

In attempt to address these issues, a team of care providers in an tertiary academic hospital established a goal to create a mechanical educational brochure with the goal to reduce associated anxiety and improve overall understanding of information provided.

As part of a clinical transformation project, a root cause analysis was conducted and a number of countermeasures were initiated. Some of these included a survey to capture feedback …

Second Language Identities Of International Teaching Assistants In The U.S. Classroom, Adam Agostinelli

Faculty Publications

Sociolinguistic research has yet to comprehensively address changes in the second language mediated identity, or second language identity (L2I), of English as a second language (ESL) students that take place as a result of traveling abroad and experiencing English in authentic circumstances. First, this study provides an outline of L2I and proposes a framework for evaluating L2I in authentic contexts (i.e. in a country where the target language is the primary means of communication). Second, personal narratives, formal reports, and observed classroom comments of international graduate teaching assistants (ITAs), who were placed in a required English Speaking course as a …

Second Language Identities Of International Teaching Assistants In The U.S. Classroom, Adam Agostinelli

Faculty Publications

Sociolinguistic research has yet to comprehensively address changes in the second language mediated identity, or second language identity (L2I), of English as a second language (ESL) students that take place as a result of traveling abroad and experiencing English in authentic circumstances. First, this study provides an outline of L2I and proposes a framework for evaluating L2I in authentic contexts (i.e. in a country where the target language is the primary means of communication). Second, personal narratives, formal reports, and observed classroom comments of international graduate teaching assistants (ITAs), who were placed in a required English Speaking course as a …

Sr. Luke: Religious Missionary, Martha Tomesen

Ask a Sister: Interview Wisdom from Catholic Women Religious

In this paper, I will reflect upon my interview with Sr. Luke. In our interview, she spoke of her life as a religious missionary, the meaning of humility and what she learned from serving in some of the world’s most poor countries.

Crafting Communities Of Writers: Advice From Teens, Ann D. David, Annamary Consalvo, Amy Vetter

Education Faculty Publications and Presentations

The authors interviewed teens in five states to catalog their ideas about how teachers can build communities of writers.

Smuggling In Creativity: My Process Of Creating Spaces In The Hierarchical School System Of The Republic Of Korea To Stash The Seeds Of Creative Thinking, Ray Symonds

Critical and Creative Thinking Capstones Collection

I began the CCT program several years into a teaching career in South Korea. My goal at the time was to better understand creativity so as to better support my own students’ creative development. This synthesis discusses some of the challenges I faced in bring CCT into my own classroom and some of the ways I tried to implement what I learned through the program in my own classes. My role as a Guest English Teacher is explored in how it enabled me to use my classroom as a testing ground for CCT concepts. The application of these CCT concepts …

Enhancing Literacy Instruction Through Technology, Kaylin M. Haugen

Senior Honors Theses

Technology has altered how children experience language. As technology has taken root in society, literacy skills have expanded beyond simply reading and writing print texts to include interacting with digital texts and media. To prepare students to operate in this digital environment, teachers should integrate technology into language arts instruction; however, many teachers feel unprepared to do so effectively. Additionally, some teachers hesitate to implement technology into language arts instruction as a tool because of its supposed negative effects on literacy. Despite beliefs about technology inhibiting reading and writing, teachers can utilize technology to enhance literacy instruction. The digital age …

Four Years Vs. One Semester: Music Information Literacy Delivered In Different Time Frames, Taylor Greene

Library Presentations, Posters, and Audiovisual Materials

How much does the time elapsed between instruction sessions affect retention of music information literacy concepts? This poster will demonstrate the two methods of delivering the Music Information Literacy course at Chapman University and discuss the benefits and pitfalls of each model. Starting in 2014, music students have been required to take four courses in Music Information Literacy which were delivered in 90-minute sessions over the course of four academic years. The Performing Arts Librarian, who has taught the course since its inception, noticed a lack of retention from some students and hypothesized that the timespan of delivery was a …

Developing Students' Grammar Skills, Andrew P. Johnson

Elementary and Literacy Education Department Publications

Learning about grammar doesn't have to be boring and meaningless. This paper starts by dispelling some myths, other wise known as silly grammar ideas. It ends by describing seven activities that can be used to develop students' ability to use conventional grammar.

Mathematical Abilities In Children With Developmental Language Disorder, Alexandra M. Cross, Lisa M.D. Archibald, Marc F. Joanisse

Health and Rehabilitation Sciences Publications

Purpose. The present paper provides a scoping review of the literature on mathematical abilities in developmental language disorder (DLD). Children with DLD typically struggle with learning in school, however the mechanism by which DLD impacts academic success is unclear. Mathematics involves demands in the multiple domains, and therefore holds potential for examining the relationship between language and academic performance on tasks mediated by verbal and non-verbal demands.

Methods. A scoping review was performed via computerized database searching to examine literature on mathematics and DLD. The 21 papers meeting inclusion criteria compared children with typical development or DLD on various tasks …

From Awareness To Action: Teacher Attitude And Implementation Of Lgbt-Inclusive Curriculum In The English Language Arts Classroom, Michelle L. Page

Education Publications

This survey research describes English language arts teachers’ comfort levels in integrating literature with lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT) themes or characters into their curricula and classroom practices. Significant relationships were found between teachers’ age, comfort, awareness of resources, and implementation levels. Although younger teachers had higher comfort levels with LGBT texts, they displayed lower resource awareness levels and static implementation rates. In addition, comfort, awareness, and implementation of LGBT curriculum materials were also correlated with teacher location and with strength of religious belief, with rural teachers and strongly religious teachers displaying lower comfort and implementation levels. Availability of …