Education Commons^™

Making Space For Student Agency: A Multilayered Exploration Of Agency And Writing In A First‐Grade Classroom, Kara Decoursey

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Early literacy learning is crucial for later success in reading and writing. We have a limited understanding of generative writing (i.e., expressing ideas in writing) in first grade and further research is warranted. The socially situated nature of writing justifies a study of student agency during writing.

In this study, data were collected before, during, and after 10 writing sessions in a first-grade classroom. Students took a pre- and post-survey that revealed their self-perceptions of their agency and confidence as literacy learners. The participating teacher was interviewed three times and the teacher’s talk was recorded during all 45- to 60- …

Examining The Read-To-Write Strategy And Its Effects On Second Grader’S Writing Of Sequential Text, John Neal

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Writing is so important. It is important in school and in our careers; writing is found to be helpful physiologically and psychologically. Experts wonder, with writing so important, why is writing not being adequately taught in the schools. The answer may be that writing is complex and teaching it is even more complex. The Read-to-Write Strategy is a writing model based on the study of exemplary models of text and children are explicitly taught how to write the way an author writes through a process of the teacher modeling how to write this way; the teacher sharing the writing task …

Writing Attitudes And Practices Of Content Area Teachers After Participating In The Central Utah Writing Project Summer Institute, Joseph P. Anson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study of four case studies looks at how secondary math, music, science, and social studies teachers' attitudes and classroom practices were affected by their participation in the Central Utah Writing Project (CUWP) summer institute. Participant interviews, observations, and artifacts were analyzed by looking at themes for effective professional development: a participant's personal interpretation of the experience (phenomenon), construction of one's own learning, active learning/participation in the professional development, the inclusion of authentic tasks, collaborative support community, inclusion of prior knowledge and/or experience, self-efficacy regarding one's own writing and the teaching of writing, motivation as a teacher, motivation as a …

Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition In Middle School: An Examination Of Three Instructional Conditions, David B. Lee

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The importance of vocabulary knowledge gained through incidental learning is well documented. The growth of incidental vocabulary knowledge is especially crucial for middle school students due to the complex words encountered in their studies. However, research on incidental vocabulary acquisition for middle school students is lacking. The purpose of this study was to compare the relative effectiveness of three instructional conditions (reading, writing, and reading and writing) on incidental vocabulary acquisition and retention with middle school students in an English as a first language (L1) environment.

In this within subjects repeated measure study, 263 eighth-grade participants received treatment in three …

An Investigatory Study Of Relationships Among Selected Theoretical Components Of Letter-Writing Fluency, Pamela C. Reutzel

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Research that shows the need for letter-writing fluency as a foundation for being able to attend to higher-level thinking skills in writing calls for more research as to what the components of letter-writing fluency actually are and how they are related to writing efficiency. To study the components of letter-writing fluency, four assessments were used to evaluate 49 kindergarten students’ letter writing abilities. These assessments were made in December of their kindergarten year. The first assessed subskill was letter-naming fluency (LNF), which has previously been shown to be predictive of reading ability. The other two subskills that were assessed focus …

Using Writing To Explore Human-Environment Interactions: An Integrated Approach, Lindsay Prettyman

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

This Honors Thesis includes a literature review on integrated curriculum for a third grade class. It also includes 22 lessons which, along with the literature review, explore the idea of integrating inquiry based social studies with language arts, especially informational narrative writing in the classroom Other subjects are integrated as well, including math and science. The curriculum development was, in part, pilot tested at Edith Bowen Laboratory School. It uses McTighe's Backward Design curriculum model and focuses on the settlement of the pioneers in Cache Valley.

Scaffolding Improvement In Writing Instruction: An Action Research Project, Kristine W. Miller

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

Research has demonstrated students may improve their writing ability when cognitive strategies are demonstrated for them in clear and explicit ways as they observe and participate in writing events directed by knowledgeable writers, particularly when these events are followed by opportunities for independent writing. Carefully crafted scaffolding with abundant amounts of oral interaction such as that in Read’s IMSCI model that includes inquiry, modeling, shared writing, collaboration and independent writing, can give students the needed support to develop skills essential to quality writing. An informational genre unit was developed with seven specific lesson plans focusing on the five elements in …

Parents As Partners In Kindergarten And Second Grade Literacy Instruction: A Qualitative Inquiry Into Student-Authored Traveling Books, Dorothy C. Little

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this research was to study a sociocognitive “student/parent/peer authoring community” called Traveling Books (TBks) in kindergarten and second grade in a public elementary school setting. TBks are teacher-made vehicles for involving parents in peer-based literacy environments. The study was based on Epstein's theory that increasing overlap of students' spheres of influence, home, school, and community, creates a greater likelihood that children will learn what the parents want them to learn. The aim was to locate essential elements that triggered learning processes to occur and to discover research-based fundamentals still missing from TBks.

This qualitative inquiry incorporated the …

The Development And Writing Of A Children's Story To Promote An Awareness Of Deaf Culture And American Sign Language, Blaine J. Taylor

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Many advocates of the deaf fear that a whole generation of deaf children will be lost emotionally, socially, and educationally, this fear stems from the fact that many children who are deaf are not having their linguistic, sociocultural. and communicative needs met at home or at school (King, 1993). Their needs are not met primarily for three reasons. First. the hearing culture is often inaccessible to them because they do not understand most of the spoken language around them. When children lack the communicative abilities to interact with the hearing culture, they can not be expected to be knowledgeable of …