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Full-Text Articles in Education

Using Theater To Promote The Development Of Literacy And Reading Comprehension, Alexandra B. Harrington Dec 2018

Using Theater To Promote The Development Of Literacy And Reading Comprehension, Alexandra B. Harrington

Graduate Student Independent Studies

This paper explores using theater to develop literacy and deepen the comprehension of literature for elementary aged students. Using Louise Rosenblatt’s (1994) framework for aesthetic reading, it discusses the ways in which theater facilitates the reader’s selection, interpretations, and analysis of plots, settings, and characters. This transactional relationship between the reader and text is explored with particular focus on the multi-sensory experiences in theater which support students’ perspective taking. In particular, it explores the visual and kinesthetic opportunities that theater offers to differentiate instruction for diverse learners. In addition, when children engage with theater as participants, they practice expression, building …


Critical Pedagogy In Practice: Reflections Of A K-5 Educator, Kelly Gresalfi Sep 2018

Critical Pedagogy In Practice: Reflections Of A K-5 Educator, Kelly Gresalfi

Graduate Student Independent Studies

The author illuminates major theoretical concepts integral to critical pedagogy as they apply to grades k-5 through a selective review of the literature and reflection on how these principles intersect with her personal and teaching experiences. A candid analysis of the author's ongoing journey to put these ideas into practice, including ways in which she has felt successful and areas she continues to find challenging, is offered. Suggestions for ways in which elementary school educators can approach their teaching practices and classroom structures through the lens of critical pedagogy are included. Reactions to the thesis from several of the …


Life After The Civil War: A Fifth-Sixth Grade Curriculum To Address Post-Emancipation Discrimination As A Way To Provide Background For Lingering Inequality, Debbie Nehmad Jul 2018

Life After The Civil War: A Fifth-Sixth Grade Curriculum To Address Post-Emancipation Discrimination As A Way To Provide Background For Lingering Inequality, Debbie Nehmad

Graduate Student Independent Studies

As part of the coursework required for EDUC 517, I decided to address an extensive gap in my own knowledge of U.S. history: the aftermath of the Civil War and Emancipation for newly freed slaves. This work felt imperative to me because of the uptick in visible racism and violence against the black community coupled with feelings that I could not respond intelligently to racist and judgmental comments I would hear from members of my community. This project includes a researched analysis of the problematic mentalities I observed and aims to address them proactively by helping middle school students develop …


Teens In Queens: Engaging Teens Living In Queens, New York Through Museum Partnerships, Emily Gross May 2018

Teens In Queens: Engaging Teens Living In Queens, New York Through Museum Partnerships, Emily Gross

Graduate Student Independent Studies

The teen program presented in this document was inspired by my own experiences living and attending school in Queens, New York. This program is designed as a museum partnership between the New York Hall of Science, the Queens Museum, and the Queens County Farm Museum, for the benefit of middle school adolescents living or attending school in Queens, New York. This year long program exposes teens to local museums, connecting three different content areas (STEM, art, and agriculture) in museum settings. During the program, teens will engage with their community on a deeper level, learn through skill based activities, explore …


Facilitating A Block Program In Kindergarten And First Grade: A Manual For Kindergarten And First Grade Teachers, Hannah Rau May 2018

Facilitating A Block Program In Kindergarten And First Grade: A Manual For Kindergarten And First Grade Teachers, Hannah Rau

Graduate Student Independent Studies

Many preschool classroom have unit blocks. Unfortunately, not as many early primary classrooms incorporate blocks into their programs. This paper discusses the power of using unit blocks in a Kindergarten and first grade. The first three sections of the thesis focus on the importance of a unit block curriculum in early primary classrooms by discussing the developmentally-appropriate ways blocks invite problem solving and mathematical and scientific thinking. The final section is a teacher’s manual designed as a guidebook to support teachers who are starting a block program in their Kindergarten and first grade classroom. In this manual, critical components of …


Writing History: A Teacher’S Guide To The History Of Language Technology And Museum Practice, Sonya Ochshorn May 2018

Writing History: A Teacher’S Guide To The History Of Language Technology And Museum Practice, Sonya Ochshorn

Graduate Student Independent Studies

The following document contains a guide for classroom teachers to use when bringing a class of 6th graders to a museum with ancient writing techniques, illuminated manuscripts, and books printed with movable type in their collection. The guide shows teachers how to guide students through the journey of tackling the essential question, “How have technological evolutions in language affected society?” This guide also helps teachers understand the difference in teaching in a museum setting and why this kind of learning is important for student development.


Teaching Juan Rodriguez: Enacting Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy In Elementary Social Studies, Natalie Kuhl May 2018

Teaching Juan Rodriguez: Enacting Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy In Elementary Social Studies, Natalie Kuhl

Graduate Student Independent Studies

A fourth grade social studies curriculum and corresponding rationale are presented on the topic of Dominican historical figure Juan Rodriguez, his appearance in the Hudson harbor in 1613, and his legacy as captured by the CUNY Dominican Studies Institute in upper Manhattan. Curricularized racism in education and the responsibility of teachers to correct entrenched curricularized racism is addressed in undertaking the writing of an original curriculum centered on the known scholarship of Juan Rodriguez. As a relatively unknown historical actor and a free man of color from colonial La Española (modern-day Dominican Republic), his story is leveraged to help Dominican …


Cowboy City: An Original Children’S Book, Erica Lynch May 2018

Cowboy City: An Original Children’S Book, Erica Lynch

Graduate Student Independent Studies

Cowboy City is an original children’s book written for eight to ten year olds that touches on themes of race and representation. Too often the stories of Black cowboys go untold. The book was created to provide children with an accurate portrayal of who the cowboys of the Wild West were, as well as who they are now, while also providing teachers with a tool to introduce the concepts of racial representation throughout history. Told through the voice of nine-year-old Jayden, an African American boy living in the city, Cowboy City follows Jayden’s normal school day, interrupted by an extraordinary …


Integrating A Farm Study Into A Mixed Age Classroom, Rachel Kanegis Apr 2018

Integrating A Farm Study Into A Mixed Age Classroom, Rachel Kanegis

Graduate Student Independent Studies

This paper, Integrating A Farm Study Into A Mixed Age Classroom, explores the impact and benefits of integrating a farm study into a classroom. It reports on the course and the results of how students responded to the farm study over one full school year. In addition, it shows how the integrated farm study could be incorporated into the core academic topics such as reading, writing, math, social studies, and science. In fact, this paper proves how students become more motivated and engaged to learn in the core academic topics through their focus on the farm study. The class that …


From Page To Place: Wordless Picture Books And Field Trips For A 21st Century Curriculum, Margaret Stein Apr 2018

From Page To Place: Wordless Picture Books And Field Trips For A 21st Century Curriculum, Margaret Stein

Graduate Student Independent Studies

With the purpose of education being to produce successful world citizens, the educational system must grow with the changing economic and social climate. Operating in a creative and knowledge-based economy, students educated in the 21st Century must be in an environment that fosters creativity, critical thinking, and recognition of complex patterns in order to thrive in the new economic structures. Proposing a curricular sequence using wordless picture books and field trips to develop and strengthen these skills, this paper focuses on the growth of literacy in all forms as the strongest foundation for creating curious and life-long learners. Utilizing the …


The Meal Gap: A Food Activist Curriculum, Kameshia L. Shepherd Apr 2018

The Meal Gap: A Food Activist Curriculum, Kameshia L. Shepherd

Graduate Student Independent Studies

The Meal Gap: A Food Activist Curriculum is a series of fifty-four lessons for fourth grade students that introduces them to the topic of food insecurity. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations initiated the World Food Summit in 1996 to discuss and call attention to the “widespread undernutrition and growing concern about the capacity of agriculture to meet future food needs” (Food and Agriculture Organization, n.d.). The June 2006 Policy Brief of the FAO reaffirmed the 1996 definition of food security, which states that “Food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical and …


A Case For The Inclusion Of Graphic Novels In The Classroom, Brittany Rosenberg Apr 2018

A Case For The Inclusion Of Graphic Novels In The Classroom, Brittany Rosenberg

Graduate Student Independent Studies

This paper will explore the use of graphic novels in the context of the classroom, ultimately arguing that graphic novels not only deserve a place in elementary through high school classrooms, but are an effective and successful learning tool. The paper is divided into four central arguments utilizing a review of relevant literature to support each section’s argument. It will begin with an examination of the motivation for the paper’s creation, detailing the circumstance unto which the author of this paper decided to write it. The paper will then move into the four central parts. Part one will examine research …