Education Commons^™

Motivating Poetry In The Adult Esl Classroom, Lenore Marin Myers

Master's Projects and Capstones

Current research into motivation in second language acquisition, including Dörnyei (2005, 2009, 2015), offers compelling evidence that adult language learners who develop and habitually strengthen a vision of their future, linguistically capable selves using concrete, sensory imagery are more likely to sustain the necessary motivation to achieve their personal language-learning goals. My thesis proposes that poetry writing can be an effective medium for language learners to build facility in developing concrete, sensory imagery (tactile, visual, kinesthetic, olfactory, and auditory), including creating a motivating vision of their future, linguistically capable selves. Because poetry can directly support and build learner motivation, it …

A Multimodal Literacy Exploration: Lived Experiences Of Haitian Immigrant Adolescent Girls In The Bahamas, Natasha Swann

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

As the geographic landscape of our world increasingly changes, a constant migration is occurring, with people seeking refuge and asylum. Many of those seeking a better way of life are children and adolescents. It is important not only to consider and accommodate how children and adolescents develop and grow, but how they do so in a country that is not their home and with language and literacy practices that are often new to them. Adjusting and acculturating into host countries might compound issues youth experience during child and adolescence development. This study provided a space and a platform for immigrant …

Peer Review And Feedback In The Middle School English Learner Classroom, Alyssa Schuler

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

The development of writing skills is a necessity when it comes to teaching English Language Learners (ELLs). Middle school ELLs should be taught in a different manner compared to their older and younger peers. Research has shown that implementing peer review and feedback in a middle school ELL classroom can improve students’ writing skills. This capstone helps to answer the research question, How can I integrate peer review and feedback activities into instruction in order to improve the writing skills of middle school English language learners? This capstone project provides a curriculum unit that scaffolds lessons and activities in a …

Translanguaging Writing Strategies For The High School Classroom And Low-Level Literacy El Students, Lisa Kebort

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

Translanguaging has been shown to be a successful strategy to support high school EL students in accessing content knowledge, prior knowledge, and preserving a student’s cultural identity. Many emergent bilingual students struggle to access content due to low-level literacy in their first language, and the high content demands of high school. This is especially true when it comes to writing in English. Using translanguaging writing strategies, such as pre-writing in the student’s L1, discussion in L1, and translated texts, allows students to showcase what they know and meet standards. This capstone project resulted in a Canvas Course for high school …

Student Perceptions Of Their Engagement With Online Writing As Influenced By Their Teacher’S Presence At A Virtual High School: A Mixed Methods Study, Adrienne Harvie

Theses and Dissertations

This convergent mixed-methods action study explored the virtual high school student perception of how their engagement on writing assignments is affected by the presence of their English teacher in an online class. Research questions specifically focused on how teacher presence in the virtual classroom affects student engagement in online writing assignments. Another question asked how students perceive teacher presence in the virtual classroom and the third question examined how students perceived their engagement in online writing assignments is affected by teacher presence.

In this study two English teachers at a virtual high school were mentored by the researcher to increase …

Writing Inside And Outside The Rhetoric Of Containment: An Analysis Of Writing Strategies In First Semester Students Transitioning To The First Year College Composition Classroom, Brenda R. Gallardo

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Based on Bowden’s (1993) notion of containment, this study analyzes how containment—as well as other pedagogical restrictions and limitations—was manifested in the high-school-to-college transition of first year student writers. This study addresses the following questions of inquiry: How do participants’ experiences in high school affect them as writers in college?; What practices and strategies do students in the first year composition classroom apply to overcome containment in the college writing classroom?; and, How can instructors use pedagogy to overcome containment? This dissertation applies a qualitative design to gather data via interviews, questionnaires, and classroom observations. Via grounded theory, data gathered …

Assessing Self-Regulation In Grade 1 Writers: An Evaluation Of The Reliability And Validity Of The Interview On Self-Regulation In Early Writing, Ashley A. Bildfell

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Few studies have considered the reliability and validity of the measures used to assess self-regulation in writing. The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the reliability and validity of the Interview on Self-Regulation in Early Writing, a novel task-specific measure designed to assess self-regulation in writing in Grade 1. This eight-item interview was designed to assess the planning, goal setting, strategy, self-statements, self-monitoring, coping, reviewing, and self-reinforcement aspects of self-regulation on separate transcription and composition dimensions. The data from 117 Grade 1 students were used to evaluate inter-rater reliability and the internal consistency of the scale. A principal …

Closing The English Language Proficiency Gap In Post-Secondary Education In Canada, Priscilla Lothian-Hendrix

Dissertations

The proposed research employed a mixed-method approach to investigate why the linguistic standards of the Canadian Language Benchmark (CLB) (levels 5–8) are deemed satisfactory for English as a second language (ESL) learners at the college level. An examination of the Canadian English Language Proficiency Index Program (CELPIP) identified why an ESL learner with a CLB level of 5–8 requires English support services in post-secondary education to achieve academic success in Canada. The CLB levels of six female participants were analyzed using a questionnaire in reading, writing, listening, and speaking to explore their English levels in articulating the language, pronouncing words, …

Transfer And Transitions: Exploring First Year Writing At Holy Cross, Elizabeth Casavant

English Honors Theses

This study explores how first year students transition to college writing, especially in a pandemic with an online format, and how students use transfer, if at all. It focuses on the following research questions: How do students transition to college writing, college norms, and online classes in a pandemic, and how can Holy Cross first-year writing courses support students in this transition? The methods used to investigate these questions included the administration of two surveys sent to first-year students in a first-year writing course, as well as 10 interviews with students. After transcribing, collating, and coding the data, the following …

Writing For An Authentic Audience In The Middle Grades, Emily Huffman

Master of Education Program Theses

This action research study investigated the effects of writing for an authentic audience on the achievement and engagement of students in a school in Southern California. The participants were 79 8th graders, split into an experimental group of 40 that wrote a review with the opportunity to be published in The New York Times, and a control group of 39 students that wrote a review for the teacher to read and grade.

Motivation And The Young Writer: Reimagining John Dewey's Theory Of Experience, Billy Cryer

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Issues of motivation remain a perennial topic among teachers of English Language Arts and first-year college composition courses. While modern evidence-based research in educational psychology has yielded fruitful avenues for harnessing motivation in writing instruction, in recent decades, industrious composition scholars have also turned to history for insights on composition pedagogy. In this study, I also embark on a historical excavation to glean from our composition forebears regarding motivation in writing instruction. In particular, I examine how the educational writings of John Dewey were translated into the English classroom during the Progressive Era. More specifically, I seek to recover how …

Impact Of Schema On Students' Writing, Hali-Ana Harvey

Honors Theses

All too often, students perform poorly on their writing assignments, and it seems that teachers have difficulty understanding where the problem comes from. This study seeks to prove that the issue begins with the students’ lack of background knowledge that students possess about the topics they are being asked to write about. To begin, the author emphasizes the importance of background knowledge in students. The study also describes ways in which teachers can check for background knowledge before assigning writing, and explores how teachers can build background knowledge in students. To improve students’ overall writing, teachers need to first recognize …

Teaching Writing, Dylan Stickler

Master of Arts in English Plan II Graduate Projects

This portfolio fulfills the requirements for my MA in English with a specialization in Teaching. It contains an analytical narrative, two teaching units, an academic proposal, as well as an analysis of technical writing instruction. Each project centers on improving the quality of writing instruction students receive.

Amanda Baldwin's Master's Portfolio, Amanda Baldwin

Master of Arts in English Plan II Graduate Projects

This is the final portfolio for my Master's of Arts in the field of English. It includes an analytical narrative along with four projects that I feel best illustrate my knowledge, skills, and growth. These four pieces are entitled "Putting a Feminist Twist on Classic Literature," "Teaching Antigone in the Modern Classroom," “Feminism and Racial Studies in Sue Monk Kidd’s The Secret Life of Bees,” and “Literacy Narrative Analysis.”

Appreciating Empathy: How Writing Center Collaborations Inform Leadership Development For Student Wellness And Success, Hugo Werstler

M.A. in Higher Education Leadership: Action Research Projects

The purpose of my action research project was to understand the practice of collaboration within the University of San Diego’s Writing Center as an emerging leader in Higher Education. The goal of this study was to explore the benefits of empathy and relationship development as practiced by the Writing Center to develop leadership strategies for other campus organizations that regularly interact with the institution’s student population. Using several research cycles of Appreciative Inquiry, I observed that the Writing Center functions as a stellar example of collaboration, focusing on peer-to-peer writing consultations with an emphasis on student empathy and relationship development. …

20 Things, Reann Parker

Honors Theses

20 Things is a short young adult novel that explores a variety of topics and themes, from mental health, recovery, and self discovery to race, love, and friendship. Beginning with a high school girl named Halle waking up in a hospital after a suicide attempt, the novel is a coming of age story about the help Halle receives and what she goes through in trying to find reasons to keep living. The novel is divided into ten chapters: “Waking Up,” “Going Home,” “Arriving,” “Being Honest,” “Keeping the Faith,” “Soul Searching,” “Willingness,” “Maintaining,” “Checking In,” and “Living.” Each chapter represents the …

Research Based Strategies In Reading And Writing For Content Area Teachers: A Website To Support Growth In Academic Language, Kathryn Schmidbauer

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

The population of English language learners in general education classrooms is growing every year and teachers are finding that they need strategies to support these learners in reading and writing along with helping them adapt to school in another culture. Without classroom support, it becomes more difficult for these students to acquire the academic language needed to be successful and the opportunity gap continues to widen. This website designed for this project focuses on research based reading and writing strategies for content area teachers at the secondary level, specifically grades six through 12. Strategies for skills such as comprehension, vocabulary …

Teaching The Art Of Writing As An Artist, Yarrow Mead

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

and almost never given the skills they need to do so. Research shows this discouragement is often tied in with race and class issues in our schools and society. This capstone project sets out to answer the question: How specifically can we teach high school students interested in the arts important skills such as grant writing, and artist biography and statement writing, and why should we be teaching those skills? The project set out to create an accessible website for both instructors and students to help them teach and learn the skills of grant, artist biography, and artist statement writing. …

The Impact Of Interactive Journaling On Seventh-Grade Students’ Writing Self-Efficacy, Writing Performance, And Attitudes Towards Writing, Nicholle Morgan Arman

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this action research study was to evaluate the impact of interactive journaling on the writing self-efficacy, writing performance, and attitudes towards writing of seventh-grade students. According to the 2011 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Writing Test, only one-fourth of 8th and 12th graders are proficient at writing. This means thousands of people are entering the job market with inadequate writing skills (U.S. Department of Education, 2014). Research suggests that if people feel more confident in their writing abilities, writing performance will improve. This study was guided by several research questions. First, the study aimed to reveal …

Engaging Secondary School Students In The Process Of Writing With Expressivist Pedagogy, Alla Boulos

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

The composition pedagogy of expressivism, which grew out of process theory in the 1960s has been influencing academia’s approach to teaching writing for several decades. The major characteristics of this pedagogy first outlined by its most prominent champion Peter Elbow include the focus on the process rather than the product of writing, the personalization of academic writing with inclusion of personal experiences and pronouns, the lack of textbooks and prescriptive atmosphere, the use of low stakes writing assignments like freewriting and journaling, and the prevalent use of formative assessment techniques such as writing workshops, peer responses, and portfolios. Although expressivism …

Writing As A Vessel For Thinking: Incorporating Self-Regulation, Metacognition, And Formative Assessment In The Middle School Ela Classroom, Alyssha Ginzel

Culminating Experience Projects

Writing is not only a means of demonstrating what one knows, it is a vessel to knowing. Thus, secondary writing curricula should support students’ learning and knowing. Evidence from meta-analyses suggests that an emphasis on self-regulated instruction to teaching writing (Graham, 2018a; Graham, 2020; Graham & Perin, 2007), metacognitive strategies (Hacker, 2018; Madison et al., 2019), and an emphasis on formative assessment and feedback throughout the writing process (Black & Wiliam, 1998; Fleischer, 2013; Madison et al., 2019) are among the practices with the highest effect sizes on students’ thinking and writing. When purposefully integrating these approaches and practices, secondary-level …

The Emerging Science Of Wellness In The College Writing Curriculum, Peggy Suzuki

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation argues that the college writing curriculum – and indeed any educational program---would benefit from an emphasis on human wellness and the arts. Wellness consists of one’s emotional, social, spiritual, physical, intellectual, and vocational well-being. Additionally, students’ environmental circumstances, like home life, finances, diet, exercise, and work obligations play a huge role in balancing personal health, especially in marginalized communities. Since one’s physiological and psychological connection impacts one’s identity and health, improving writing in the classroom requires holistic and creative approaches for rewiring individual thinking. I draw from positive psychology, where concepts like complex optimism and positive emotions nurture …

Neuro-Compostion: Developing The Creative Brain In The Classroom, Tara D. Scarola

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation raises the question of how educators can incorporate research about the human mind to foster and support student growth throughout writing processes. In understanding how our minds process, interpret, and generate writing, valuable insights can be learned about the process of composing. Valuing the varying perspectives students possess and the types of texts with which students engage aid in developing not only what Paul Joy Guilford calls “divergent thinking,” but also a sense of empowerment and ownership over the writing process. In disrupting what Robert Thatcher calls “the phase-lock mode” and guiding students through reworking the writing process …

Building Foundational Writing Skills: Designing A Second Grade Writing Curriculum, Sydney A. Roberts

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

The purpose of my research project was to design a second-grade writing curriculum focused on developing foundational writing skills. Utilizing backwards curriculum design methods (Wiggins & McTighe, 2005) I developed a six-week writing curriculum that integrated the Schaffer paragraph writing method (Roybal, 2012), pre-planning, and peer editing. To construct this curriculum plan I designed my learning goals, assessments, and lessons that would teach the three writing strategies. I employed a pre and post-test style of assessment and analyzed each student’s growth by comparing their two writing artifacts. Growth was measured based off of students’ capitalization, punctuation, and organization. The purpose …