Language and Literacy Education Commons^™

Book Review: Pregnant Pause, Tanei Henry

The Utah English Journal

Before Pregnant Pause, I’d never read a book by Han Nolan; and after Pregnant Pause, I can’t wait to read another. While many other YA novels deal with teen pregnancy and parent/teen communication issues, none of the others have Eleanor Crowe dealing with them. Eleanor Crowe is a strong female protagonist, not the kind who deals with bows or elves or vampires, but the kind who deals with real issues that real teenagers are dealing with right now. Though fictional, Han Nolan has created completely believable characters that have to make decisions that many teenagers might also have to make …

Book Review: Learning To Write For Readers: Using Brain-Based Strategies, Joseph Wiederhold

The Utah English Journal

Steak and potatoes packaged as a light dinner salad. Learning to Write for Readers succeeds where other brain-based learning books fail, remaining accessible without sacrificing substance. When other brain-based education books become muddled with scientific jargon mired in convoluted explanations that do not have direct transfer to the classroom, Crow’s work remains pragmatic, rooted in what will benefit student learning today, and after they leave our classrooms.

Why I Teach, Jennifer Dunn

The Utah English Journal

No abstract provided.

What You Should Know (And Probably Don’T) About Teaching Ells, Nicole Sanchez

The Utah English Journal

As an intern teacher at a middle school in Payson, I struggled on a daily basis to juggle all the balls a teacher keeps in the air: trying to come up with engaging lesson plans, differentiated instruction, classroom management, connecting with parents, and so on. In January, just as I was finally getting to a point where I felt somewhat confident, Ana arrived. She had just moved to Utah from Mexico and was a brand new English Language Learner (ELL). Her vocabulary consisted entirely of “hi” and “good.” I was baffled as to what I could do. How could I …

Writing Program Design For Esl Writers, Kacie M. Kiser

English Theses & Dissertations

Research and scholarship in the field of second-language writing have suggested that English as second language students (ESLs) require different modes of instruction than their native English speaking peers within the composition classroom (Matsuda, 1996; Silva, 1994). Yet ESL students are commonly marginalized in institutions' writing programs due to several commonplace beliefs shared by administrators that ESL students can be taught according to the same standards as mainstream students. Therefore, writing program administrators and instructors often do not have specific knowledge of ESL writing issues and, thus, do not know how to pedagogically accommodate these students or design a program …

Recuerda Que Yo Estoy Aqui Tambien : A Bilingual Picture Book, Liliana Ivette Funes

Graduate Student Independent Studies

My independent study for my Integrative Masters consists of a bilingual (Spanish/English) picture book that is based on personal experience, and endeavors to describe the emotional distress and anxiety children can experience as second language learners entering a monolingual classroom for the first time. The book addresses not only the emotional and academic struggles of the child, but also the ways in which peers and teachers can intervene to ease the child's transition into English. Thus the book can serve as a resource to support monolingual classrooms. The study also includes a personal reflection of the process and journey, I …

Representations Of Self In Reflection Essays Of Philippine University Students, Isabel Pefianco Martin

English Faculty Publications

In the Philippines, there are few, if any, studies of student compositions that investigate the use of language as an effective, efficient, and creative means of expressing the self. This study is an attempt to contribute to knowledge about student writing in the Philippines. In particular, the study aims to describe the various ways freshman students from a private university in Manila represent themselves in their reflection essays, a writing task required in the core humanities courses of the university. Two sets of compositions, one written in the English language and another in the Filipino language, are analyzed for ways …

Why Are We Doing This? Teaching Literacy Outside Of The English Classroom, Emily Robinson

The Utah English Journal

In assigning class work that involves the written word, I often find myself being presented with the ever-pressing question of middle school students: “Why do we have to do this? This isn’t English class!” And so I must ask myself the same question. Why bother with something that isn’t explicitly stated in the core curriculum for my subject area? As a student at Brigham Young University, more than one professor taught me that every teacher is a literacy teacher. I am now a social studies teacher who loves literacy.

On A Roll: Enticing English Language Learners To Absorb Vocabulary, Eileen Hennessy

The Utah English Journal

It’s true what they say: Teaching is full of surprises. It’s never boring and no day is ever like the previous or the next. Many times in my career I have been astounded by the knowledge that those little second grade brains bring to my Room 25. And, every once in a while, I am astounded for the opposite reason. That was case on this particular day when I was introducing a lesson on multiplemeaning words to my English language learners. Naturally, I wanted them to determine on their own what multiple-meaning words were.

If The Ninja Explores The Cave, Go To Page 8, Rebecca Stasney

The Utah English Journal

In the lowest level of developmental writing at my community college, students really do learn skills from the ground up. Our objectives include covering basic grammatical concepts such as parts of speech, plurals, and subject-verb agreement. We also discuss different elements of writing such as main idea, supporting details, and transition words. Many college students feel resentful for being placed in a class that teaches them skills that are so elementary, and as a result, they are often resistant to class activities and assignments. In my experience, the choose-your-own adventure writing project is a great way to incorporate these learning …

Grammar With Santiagos, Noel Sloboda

The Utah English Journal

No abstract provided.

The Marine, My Students, And Me, Kim Irvine

The Utah English Journal

My philosophy of education and learning is simple. I believe that all students can learn. I believe that student learning is incumbent upon me, the teacher. I believe that the future of the quality of life for each of my students is directly related to whether or not they learn what I have to teach them. I believe that authentic learning can only occur in an informed, stimulating, and safe environment, and I believe that the creation of that environment is my responsibility.

Stop The Coughin': Immersing Ell Students Into The Reading Culture, Mariya Ogden

The Utah English Journal

For me, moving to California from St. Petersburg, Russia, was an exciting thrill beyond belief. Everything looked just like in the American movies I watched growing up: the quiet suburbs, pizza delivery, and the smiling public. The schools were colorful, the playgrounds weren’t broken, and the teachers called you by your first name, not your last. Yet, there were certain cultural aspects that clashed with this new American society that I was in. I made friends on the playground, but always felt outside of the loop. For some reason, my clever Russian jokes sounded idiotic and weird when translated to …

A Bloody Lesson, Debbie Davis

The Utah English Journal

I stood at the front of the room as my 9th graders began reading the next segment of Great Expectations aloud. With about 30 minutes left in the period, I had divided the character and narrator roles between students. Students sat huddled over the text; the mood in the classroom was calm and focused—an ideal educational environment. Thank you, Dickens, I thought as I enjoyed this brief period of civilized, even sophisticated, behavior from this high-energy group. “Soon forgotten,” read one student as Miss Havisham. “Moaned Miss Havisham,” read the student serving as narrator. “Times soon forgotten!” read the student …

Cinderella Can Be A Guy!, Kathleen Thompson

The Utah English Journal

In the spring, when a seventh grader’s thoughts turn to summer vacation, my classes embark on a thought-provoking journey into our most engaging term as we study the universality of the folk tale. Students have been prepared since the beginning of the year as I preview this last and favorite study of theirs, variations of Cinderella and mine. “Sometimes Cinderella is a guy with magic boots,” I explain as they giggle. “You’ll see.”

United In Literacy: Narrative Accounts Of Encounters With Young Adult Literature, Mary Rice

The Utah English Journal

The purpose of this paper is to describe the experiences I have had reading, learning, and growing in that apprenticeship with my students and the young adult literature they read. After providing some background on social literacy practices as a basis for the idea that such enriching experiences can occur between teachers and students and that they can be unifying, I will share my stories and the understandings I have developed. Although I have stories of reading young adult literature with many students, I have selected specific narratives featuring boys to preserve the continuity of experience and because the notion …

Black Sheep, Ann Taylor

The Utah English Journal

No abstract provided.

Anomaly, Sharon Nauta Steele

The Utah English Journal

No abstract provided.

The Construction Of Reading Identity In Struggling Middle School Readers, Anna Marie Anatriello Bonafide

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Middle school students bring various identities into the classroom including their reading identities, their self concepts concerning their views of themselves as readers. Using identity and psycho-social and socio-cultural theoretical constructs as a foundation, I conducted phenomenological case studies that focused on middle school remedial readers and the means by which their reading identities are constructed within and outside the institution of school. The study investigated in- school factors which impact student reading identities, including interactions with remedial and classroom teachers, as well as out- of- school factors such as family literacy.

Taking Note, Sadie Rawlinson

The Utah English Journal

“Modeling” is another way of saying “Be a good example”—only you do it with purpose. One of the earliest forms of modeling in my classroom was when I was desperately trying to get my ninth-graders to read during their Teacher Advisory (TA) class on Fridays when we had DEAR (Drop Everything And Read) time. I tried everything from threats to bribes to apathy.

Full Issue

The Utah English Journal

No abstract provided.

Sensible Sequencing: Traditional And Popular Texts Sharing Space In The Ela Classroom, Luke Rodseiler

The Utah English Journal

The place for texts from popular culture— viewed here as “everyday culture” (Hagood, Alvermann, & Heron-Hruby, 2010, p. 9)—in the English language arts (ELA) classroom continues to be defined as literacy and English education scholars extol the benefits of incorporating such texts to support student learning (e.g., Beach & O’Brien, 2008; Dyson, 2003; Morrell, 2004, 2009; Morrell & Duncan-Andrade, 2004, Sánchez, 2010). Despite the potential benefits that the classroom use of texts from popular culture has to offer, such as promoting culturally relevant pedagogy (Gay, 2000), providing greater motivation for students (Morrell, 2004), and tapping into students’ everyday funds of …

The Impact Of Computer-Assisted Sight Word Instruction On The Reading Skills Of Students With Significant Intellectual Disabilities, Colleen Frances Wood-Fields

Communication Disorders & Special Education Theses & Dissertations

There is a paucity of research identifying instructional methods that promote the reading development of students with significant intellectual disabilities (ID). This research study employed a single subject, multiple baseline design to evaluate the effects of computer-assisted sight word instruction employing constant time delay (CTD) procedures with incidental phonics and comprehension stimuli on the reading skill development of six elementary students with moderate ID and expressive language impairments. Study results suggest that the seven week PowerPoint slide show sight word intervention had very small to moderate intervention effects on receptive sight word identification. However, students learned some incidental letter-sound correspondences …

Using A Wiki To Teach College Level Academic Writing, Dawn Moore

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Teaching writing by employing the tools made available by Web 2.0 technology allows students to meet the changing educational requirements for writing with technology. This paper argues that the wiki is a facile tool for teaching academic writing at the college level. It theoretically and pedagogically situates the wiki in a threedimensional rhetorical context. This paper also demonstrates how and why the wiki functions as a collaborative writing tool adhering to a socially constructed view of knowledge. As a constructive hypertext, wikis can be used to teach, clarify, reinforce, and deepen many fundamental writing skills. This paper reviews the body …

Pembelajaran Model Circuit Training Untuk Meningkatkan Kompetensi Gramatikal-Leksikal Mahasiswa Bahasa Jerman, Rosyidah Rosyidah

Bahasa dan Seni: Jurnal Bahasa, Sastra, Seni, dan Pengajarannya

This article reports on a research aimed at improving the students’ grammatical-lexical competence using learning model circuit training. The subjects were the students of the German Department who took part in the lecture Struktur und Wortschatz 1 Off AA in 2009. The results show that the process consists of four main phases: motivation, going around, training, and presenting; and the actions had the effects: all students were totally active and75 % of the students could present the learning materials correctly, the average point at the end of the second cycle (70,58) can be regarded as successful.

Preparing Low-Income Middle And Secondary Students To Participate Effectively In Academic Discourse Through Writing, Franc Lacinski

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Students from low-income families often perform poorly on formal assessments in language arts. Examining data using the 2008-2009 State of New Jersey Department of Education School Report Cards, a comparison was made between low-income districts and affluent districts in three areas: High School Proficiency Assessment Language Arts Literacy Scores, SAT Verbal Scores and SAT Essay Scores. Students from low-income districts performed significantly lower in these areas than students from the higher income districts and from the average performance rates for the State of New Jersey. This lag in performance affects students’ choices for higher education, for job opportunities, as well …

The Effects Of Coauthoring On Student Writing, Stacey E. Spector

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Teaching student writing can be a very frustrating yet rewarding experience. Because there are so many ways to approach writing instruction and the writing process, there is often a disconnect between teachers’ expectations and students’ performances. A plethora of research has been done on teaching the writing process: peer editing, revising, and other areas of writing instruction. However, not much has been explored in terms of how writing can improve if we ask students to write together.

The goal of having students write together, or coauthor, is to allow them the chance to learn from each other and explore the …

Does Introductory Writing Instruction Help Students To Succeed At Montclair State University?, Sean Molloy

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

This study examines whether Montclair State University (MSU) students who were placed into an introductory writing course between 2005 and 2009 later succeeded as measured by retention rates, academic advancement and available grade data. While available data was limited, retention rates and grade data suggest that most of these students have succeeded so far at MSU. The study also submitted an online survey to former introductory writing course students which asked whether they believe that their experience in that course was an actual contributing cause to their academic success. Survey responses of 68 students confirm that most believe the course …

Missing Our Own Audience: The Perceptions Of Audience In The Composition Classroom, Chelsea R. Swick

English Theses & Dissertations

Although considered a critical part of the writing process by scholars such as Lisa Ede and Andrea Lunsford, the concept of audience is elusive when actually looking for its presence in composition classrooms. Many instructors believe that they provide a framework for understanding and valuing audience awareness in writing but then do not understand when student writing does not show these connections. This raises the question of how audience is being taught in the classroom. The purpose of this study is to determine how audience is being addressed as a pedagogical framework in first year composition classrooms by instructors as …

The Use Of Past Tense In French By Arab Students : An Error Analysis., Rasha B. Y. Hamarsha

Student Works (2010-2019)

The objectives of this study are: (a) to analyse and categorise the errors made by Arab students of French when using four French past tenses: the imparfait, passé composé, plus-que-parfait, and passé simple; (b) to compare the French past tenses with Arabic past tenses; and (c) to suggest some pedagogical strategies. The subjects of this study are Arab undergraduates from the Bachelor of Arts programme, majoring in French language and literature at An-najah National University in Nablus, Palestine. The instrument used is a test consisting of four passages. The respondents have to use the correct past tense of the 108 …