Education Commons^™

Observational Study And Treatment Of Problem Behavior Associated With Transitions Of Two Elementary School Children With Disabilities, Brian K. Hollingshead

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

I examined the effects of an intervention based on an observational study to treat two children’s problem behaviors, which were associated with transitions. Participants were one 7 year old boy with the educational classification of intellectual disability, and a 10 year old girl with the educational classification of multiple disabilities. There were three phases in this project. In phase 1, a preliminary observational study was conducted to identify the antecedent and consequent events that seemed to be affecting the occurrence of problem behavior during transitions from one activity/location to another. Next was Phase 2, in which a preference assessment was …

Starting Early: Perceptions Of Parents And Teachers On 6th To 12th Grade Transition Timeline For Students With High-Incidence Disabilities, Josie M. Nielsen

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Post-secondary educational and employment outcomes for students with high- incidence disabilities continue to lag far behind their nondisabled peers. A carefully designed timeline including evidence-based transition skills and practices may serve as a guideline for teachers and parents as they prepare student /child with high-incidence disabilities for successful transition into adulthood. This project examined the importance and age/grade-appropriateness of skills/activities on a transition timeline, based on ratings by teacher and parent focus groups. Participants included eight secondary teachers with at least10 years experience, and five parents of children with high-incidence disabilities who graduated from both high school and post-secondary school. …

The Modern Language Classroom: Individuality, Technology, And Context, Eric Sims

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

This portfolio is a compilation of the author’s research-supported ideas on what good language teaching looks like. The central component is the teaching philosophy, in which the author explains that respect for individuality, use of technology, and use of culture as context for learning are the three elements seen as most important for successful language learning.
The teaching philosophy is supported by artifacts about peer feedback in language learning, literacy in adult English as a Second Language learners, and autonomy in culture learning. Finally, in three annotations the author branches out from the pillars of the teaching philosophy and examines …

The Incorporation Of Deaf American Culture And History In Secondary Education Classrooms, James B. Smith

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Bilingual-Bicultural Education (Bi-Bi) has a positive impact on language development and social-psychological development of Deaf children (Baker, 2011; Scott, 2010; Humphries & Humphries, 2010). This development is predicated on the child’s access to American Sign Language (ASL); however, the role of Deaf culture and history in Bi-Bi is not well-defined (Ladd, 2003). Children at Bi-Bi schools and programs often acquire cultural aspects through social interactions among their Deaf acquaintances rather than in the classroom. The socialization and cultural sensitivity of Deaf children does not constitute a formal instruction and mastery in all the elements of culture, as often believed in …

Criteria For Transition For Self-Contained Classrooms, Christopher S. Marden

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

This project was an effort to ascertain what skills regular and/or resource teachers require of self-contained students with learning disabilities in order to transition successfully in their classrooms. A twenty-one-question survey was given to regular and resource teachers in four junior high schools. This survey questioned teachers with regards to what the minimal academic, behavioral and procedural criteria should be mastered before students transition into regular classrooms. Once this information is received, self-contained teachers may analyze their curriculum, behavioral and classroom procedures to better mirror the requirements and the realities of the regular and/or resource classrooms.

Teaching Languages Communicatively: The Journey Of Becoming An Effective Teacher, Indira Garrido

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

This portfolio is a compilation of various papers written throughout my studies in the Master of Second Language Teaching (MSLT) program at Utah State University. These papers are the result of research and reflections on the most relevant and important topics I have learned during these two years of study. My journey through the MSLT program has been an experience of growth as I reflected on my own teaching practices and what research demonstrates as the most effective approaches for language teaching.

Teaching Spanish To Second-Language And Heritage-Language Learners, Kathryn R. Wall

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

The following portfolio is an assemblage of work submitted for the Master of Second Language Teaching (MSLT) program at Utah State University. Contained herein is the author’s personal teaching philosophy about teaching beginning level Spanish in college with second and heritage language learners in the classroom. Following the teaching philosophy are artifacts and reflections relating to specific topics of the teaching philosophy. These artifacts represent the author’s understanding of the role that language, culture, and literacy play in the Spanish second and heritage language classroom.

The Effects Of Instruction On Self-Determination On Transition Students' Levels Of Goal-Setting, Goal Expression And Action, Scott Charles Sorensen

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Students with disabilities in transition from school to adulthood often experience problems with self-determination skills, especially goal-related skills (e.g., goal setting, expression, and taking action). Instruction in these skills is needed. This project examined the effect of instructing portions of the self-determination intervention Whose Future is it Anyway? (WFA) dealing with goal-related skills and its effect on goal setting, expressing, and taking action. Participants included five students with disabilities in a transition program ages 18 to 21. Procedures involved a pretest using the ChoiceMaker Assessment and the Arc Scale, followed by the implementation of the WFA intervention, and posttests using …

Interagency Barriers And Facilitators In Transition Planning For Students With Disabilities, Deanna Lynn Taylor

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

This study examined the barriers and facilitators identified by both vocational rehabilitation counselors and special educators in four states (Florida, Maryland, Oregon and Utah) regarding collaboration in transition planning. Two survey questionnaires were disseminated: one to vocational rehabilitation counselors and one to special educators in that requested information on perceptions of the level of knowledge on transition planning and activities, level of satisfaction, and open-ended questions for suggestions on how to improve collaboration between the two groups. The surveys were nearly identical and were designed to explore barriers that the two disciplines experience working with each other as well as …

A Primary Document Analysis-Centered Curriculum In A Residential Treatment Center, Jared Peterson Collette

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

This study examines the challenges and rewards of applying Stanford History Group’s Thinking Like a Historian program in the context of a residential treatment center to better understand the necessary modifications and adjustments that would be needed to successfully apply this program. The researcher used an action research methodology, an analytic autoethnographic journal, as well as student work to investigate student successes and challenges in learning history through the use of primary documents. The findings demonstrate that students did not successfully apply historical thinking even after explicit instruction, extensive modeling, and guided practice. The author argues that low literacy rates, …

The Development And Evaluation Of An In-Service Training For Informing Elementary School Personnel About Culturally Responsive Assessment And Instruction For English Language Learning Students, Mallory Whitney Poole

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

The purpose of this project is to develop and present a training session for elementary school teachers and other Personnel who teach and work with English Language Learners (ELL). The training provides information on evidence based instructional strategies to help teachers improve their teaching methods with students who speak languages other than English. The lack of teacher knowledge in utilizing culturally and linguistically responsive teaching methods may be contributing to the over identification of ELLs in special education. This situation reinforces the need for additional teacher training for those who teach students from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds. This creative …

Early Dynamic Assessment Of Morphological Awareness And Early Literacy Achievement: A Feasibility Study, Katherine Pike

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to the determine the feasibility of studying whether a) a morphological awareness dynamic assessment task was sensitive to assessing emerging knowledge of morphological awareness and revealed a range of performance in typically developing children, and b) performance on a dynamic assessment of morphological awareness is related to other predictors of language and literacy success. Method: Participants for this study included 15 typically developing children attending preschool in the Intermountain West with a mean age of 5 years, 2 months. The Early Dynamic Assessment of Morphological Awareness (EDAMA) was developed and administered, and a …

Instructional Strategies For Implementing Utah's Early Childhood Core Standards, Mark R. Noyce

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Children who are pre-lingually deaf or hard of hearing are often delayed in the acquisition and development of spoken language. Educators of the deaf and hard of hearing, of necessity, adapt and modify curriculum to ameliorate the delays inherent with hearing loss. Teachers utilize specialized strategies and techniques of presentation to adjust to the language and communication learning needs of children with hearing loss.
Curricula are written to identify the developmental sequence of concepts and skills expected of typically developing children. The Utah Early Childhood Core Standards (UECCS) was established to help prepare children to have the pre-requisite skills and …

Communication-Based Teaching For Chinese Language Learners, Hsiao-Mei Tsai

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

This portfolio is founded on the author’s principles of communicative teaching for Chinese language learners, which were cultivated and developed in the Master of Second Language Teaching program. The initial part of the portfolio is the teaching philosophy, which contains the author’s beliefs of teacher and student roles and effective teaching approaches in the Chinese as a foreign language classroom. The teaching philosophy is supported by three artifacts, which further clarify how to associate culture, literacy, and linguistics with language learning. The literacy artifact explains the process of Chinese and English biliteracy acquisition. The culture artifact is a comparison of …

The Effects Of Mnemonics To Increase Accuracy Of Multiplication Facts In Upper-Elementary School Students With Mild To Moderate Disabilities, Logan James Eubanks

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

The intent of this project is to replicate a specific instructional method used in Wood et al.’s study focusing on the use of the pegword mnemonic strategy paired with stories and illustrations for 15 targeted multiplication facts remaining after mastering math facts in the zeros, ones, twos, fives, or nines groups. Three questions will be asked during this project on the effects of mnemonic instruction using pegword strategies on the percentage of multiplication facts answered correctly by third, fourth, and fifth grade students with learning disabilities? 1) Does pegword instruction paired with stories and illustrations result in immediate improvement for …

Technology And The Self-Directed Iep: Improving Meeting Participation For Students With Severe Disabilities, Crystal Ann Stringham

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Students with a Specific Learning Disability (SLD) often experience challenges when transitioning to postsecondary education institutions after high school. A unique challenge involves filling out forms in order to registered for college. One of several components to a successful transition to postsecondary settings requires students to complete application forms. The purpose of this project is to examine the effects of direct instruction (DI) on increased performance of filling out college application forms of students with SLD in a special education classroom. Participants included eight high school students, ages 17 to 18, with a SLD. The intervention in this study involved …

The Effects Of Direct Instruction On Completing College Application Forms Of Students With Learning Disabilities, Allyson White

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Students with a Specific Learning Disability (SLD) often experience challenges when transitioning to postsecondary education institutions after high school. A unique challenge involves filling out forms in order to registered for college. One of several components to a successful transition to postsecondary settings requires students to complete application forms. The purpose of this project is to examine the effects of direct instruction (DI) on increased performance of filling out college application forms of students with SLD in a special education classroom. Participants included eight high school students, ages 17 to 18, with a SLD. The intervention in this study involved …

Does Teaching Narrative Structure To Children With Language Impairments Improve Comprehension Of Expository Text?, Brynne Cook Evans

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Research has shown that knowledge of narrative text structure enhances students’ abilities to comprehend and produce narrative discourse. The current study was designed to determine if training in narrative text structure was associated with improved comprehension for expository passages that adhered to a narrative structure. Six children between the ages of 5:3 and 9:7 with language impairments participated. Children were matched by grade and randomly assigned to the intervention or control group. Participants in the intervention group received instruction 2 times a week for 45-minute sessions for a duration of 12 weeks from a graduate student in speech-language pathology with …

Communicative Language Teaching, Karina C. Mora

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

This portfolio is a compilation of second language teaching research and

ideas put together during the author’s time as a MSLT student. It includes a

personal teaching philosophy supported by three related artifacts. It also contains

an annotated bibliography with an overview of some of the research examined

during her time in the program. Her personal teaching philosophy underscores

how communicative language teaching can help students learn language through

meaningful use. The artifacts suggest ways to implement communicative

language teaching by teaching language in content, using multimedia authentic

texts, and teaching sociolinguistics and pragmatics.