Education Commons^™

Effective Strategies For Foreign Language Teaching: A Focus On Russian, Marina Krutikova

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

This portfolio presents the collection of writings that reflect the author’s beliefs about effective foreign language instruction. Throughout much of the portfolio, focus is made on teaching communicatively, providing instruction on the target language culture, and enhancing students’ motivation to learn foreign languages. The first section of the portfolio is centered around the author’s teaching philosophy that was informed by her experience as a teacher of Russian as a foreign language, observations of other language instructors, and studies in the Master of Second Language Teaching (MSLT) program. The following section consists of the language, literacy, and culture papers in which …

Interview And Focus Groups Analysis Of Decreased Composite Benchmark Scores On Dynamic Indicators Of Basic Early Literacy Skills Dibels From Kindergarten To First Grade Students, Loreen Flanary

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

School districts in the state of Utah are required to use Dynamic Indicators of Basic Literacy Skills (DIBELS) as an assessment of reading ability for students in kindergarten through fifth grade. The Logan City School District (LCSD) kindergarten end of year (EOY) Composite DIBELS data have been strong over the past 5 years with over 90% of students scoring at benchmark. In comparison, in each of those 5 years, first grade beginning of year (BOY) data drops considerably. LCSD is concerned with this trend because it is larger than the state trend of 13-14%, the trend is increasing, and this …

What Does It Take To Learn A Language? Strategies For Teaching Esl And Japanese, Andrew Mikesell

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

ABSTRACT

This portfolio reflects what the author believes to be effective tools and methods for teaching a second or foreign language. The first section includes the author’s teaching philosophy which addresses teacher and student roles, communicative and meaningful tasks, learning environments, and the importance of literacy development. Following the teaching philosophy are three research perspective papers which discuss the use of digital storytelling as a tool for developing language proficiency, how blogs can be used to help students develop writing skills in their second language, and alternative approaches to teaching and learning kanji, which are one of three sets …

The Development Of English Learners As Writers Of Opinion Pieces, Auri Ann Squire

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The population of English learners (ELs) is growing rapidly across the U.S. Concurrently, elementary students throughout the country are being required to produce more sophisticated writing products than ever before as a result of the heavy emphasis on writing instruction in the recently adopted Common Core State Standards. This qualitative study examined how to best support ELs as they develop as writers. It also addressed the strong need to investigate the impact of students discussing ideas with a partner throughout the writing process.

In order to determine how ELs develop as writers, a multiple case study was conducted in a …