Language and Literacy Education Commons^™

Click, Jayne Marek

The Utah English Journal

"It didn't feel like anything special," Perry said. A fine winter night outside, meaning the frost had sharpened the stars. It was colder in Urbana than it had been in Madison when Sis had left that morning. "But all of a sudden I was flat on the library floor. Face hurt like hell."

"Yeah, well, no surprise, with that face," Sis said.

"Shut up."

"So are seizures hereditary?" Sis asked.

"Nah, it's stress. Studying your ass off. As if you would know."

Getting Students Off To A Good Start, Debbie Davis

The Utah English Journal

I wouldn't want to trade places with a secondary student the first days of school, would you? Can you imagine coping with new schedules and new routines - and higher academic demands? On top of that, don't forget tracking all the information we teachers and administrators deluge them with. I wonder how students can remember expectations, rules, and assignments announced by seven or eight teachers, when all they really want to know is "Will I be accepted by my peers?" and "Can I survive this grade level?" I want my students to feel positively about the answers to both questions, …

From "Freshman Friday" To Interior Design: Inside The First Week Of A Ninth Grade English Class, Robert Petrone

The Utah English Journal

As I prepared for my third year of teaching ninth-grade English, I focused my attention on what I would do with the students during the first week of the year. At that point in my career, I felt, for the first time, comfortable with the content-a short story unit, the personal narrative, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Odyssey, and Romeo and Juliet-and so felt at ease to put more energy into some other aspects of my teaching. As I brainstormed ideas of how to go about the first week of the year, an image from my student teaching experience flashed …

Lord Hamlet's Lesson, Harlan Underhill

The Utah English Journal

No abstract provided.

It's Not So Elementary, Stacy Miller

The Utah English Journal

No abstract provided.

A Tribute To A Fallen Hero, Stacy Miller

The Utah English Journal

No abstract provided.

Odysseus, Harlan Underhill

The Utah English Journal

No abstract provided.

The Utah English Journal, Volume 32, 2004: Full Issue

The Utah English Journal

No abstract provided.

"The Person That No One Understood" Addressing Homosexuality In The Classroom, Amy Wilson

The Utah English Journal

As a concerned educator, therefore, I began to explore how the classroom can be a safe and welcoming place for all people, regardless of their differences and especially regardless of their sexual orientation. I wanted to discover two things: how to make the educational environment a positive place for gay youths and how to promote psychological and emotional well-being for students who belong to this minority. Furthermore, I wanted to learn how to accomplish these goals in a predominantly conservative community. Although I have by no means found "the answer" to those complex questions, this paper reflects an inquiry and …

If Aristotle Ran The Writing Center: Classical Rhetoric And Writing Center Administration, Melissa Ianetta

The Writing Center Journal

No abstract provided.

Abc Books: Connecting With Literature, Constructing Personal Learning, Deborah Dean

The Utah English Journal

"When do we get to make ABC books?"

"Yeah. I've seen those before, and I know the kids made them in your class."

It was the first day of school, but already the students were asking about an assignment that my ninth grade classes were well known for doing. The whole thing began early in my teaching career as I pondered some questions all teachers ask themselves from time to time: How do I help my students make learning personal? How do I help them own a novel, rather than simply parroting back my comments or what "Cliff' might have …

Utah Writing Project Summer Workshops, Debbie Davis

The Utah English Journal

"It was the best workshop I've ever attended. I will never teach writing the same way again!" Linda Simpson, President of the Utah Council of Teachers of English and Language Arts, told me at the UCTE/LA 2002 Conference. Her assessment of the Utah Writing Project's one-week writing workshop made me want that experience for myself. Last summer I attended the one-week workshop, and this summer I attended the four-week. Linda was right- I will never teach writing the same way again!

Engaging Reluctant Readers: Let's Try Nonfiction, Kathryn Fitzgerald

The Utah English Journal

"If it's not fiction, it's not reading." Starkly put, that was my concept of worthwhile literature until recently with, I think, good reason. Not only do we English teachers love reading good fiction, but we know that valuable lessons are taught through literature: students learn about themselves and their own life choices through reading about recognizable fictional characters; they experience cultures and times other than their own by reading diverse current and classical fiction; they learn to think critically about the beliefs and values they are exposed to through fiction (and to reflect on their own beliefs); they learn empathy …

My Students And English Literature, Ellen Mccaffrey

The Utah English Journal

It took me nearly thirty years to be assigned to teach English literature. Although my undergraduate and graduate training in English focused heavily on literature from Britain, my teaching assignments usually involved grammar and composition and literature from the United States. In my district, English literature is a twelfth grade elective course, and those who teach it usually teach it for as long as they can. My opportunity came when the usual English literature teacher became ill and had to retire. To my amazement no one else in the department wanted to teach the course. I willingly, happily, and enthusiastically …

Bringing The Story To Your School, Sherry Meidell

The Utah English Journal

During the first day of the fifth grade, my teacher smiled and gave us graham crackers. The next day she put on a grim face which remained for most of the year. I do remember one day that I saw her smile again. The teacher announced that we were going to have a special visitor from a publishing company. She handed each of us a piece of manila paper and told us to do a drawing from one of the publisher's books. I drew the South Going Zak, which was a character created by Dr. Suess.

Simple Ways To Include Jane Austen In High School, Elena Wilson

The Utah English Journal

While teaching composition courses on the Utah State University campus and completing my master's degree, I learned, through conversations with colleagues and students, that only a few of my associates were familiar with Jane Austen or the titles of her novels. Restless with my findings, I conducted a study through Utah State University on high school teachers' rationales and pedagogy for teaching Jane Austen's novels. I telephoned local English teachers, and I sent online inquiries to over 2000 English educators. Most of my results came from Utah teachers. These research results implied that the four most common rationales for including …

Book Review: Book Blurbs

The Utah English Journal

Resources for Teachers including:

- When Kids Can't Read, What Teachers Can Do: A Guide for Teachers 6-12 by Kylene Beers,

- Tools for Thought: Helping All Students Read, Write, Speak, and Think by Jim Burke,

- Investigating Texts: Analyzing Fiction and Nonfiction in High School by Bronwyn Mellor and Annette Patterson,

- The Drowning of Stephan Jones by Bette Green,

- Why America's Children Can't Think: Creating Independent Minds for the 21st Century by Peter Kline,

and

- Aloft by Chang-rae Lee.

Letters Of Metacognition: Four Key Questions To Ask Of Student Writing By Student Writers, Robert H. Rempe

The Utah English Journal

The Essentials of the Writing Assignment Whenever I have students do any writing assignment, be it essay, research report or literary analysis, I require in addition to the assignment itself a separate essay which I refer to as the Letter of Metacognition. In this Letter of Metacognition each student must answer the following four essential questions:

1. What works in the PROCESS of my paper?

2. What does not work in the PROCESS of my paper?

3. What works in the PRODUCT of my paper?

4. What does not work in the PRODUCT of my paper?

Slam! Poetry As A Genre For Social Activism, Stacy Miller

The Utah English Journal

The roots of SLAM poetry are historically situated in traditional poetry, the poetry of the Beats, and in Hip-Hop music. SLAM taps into the rhyme scheme and versification of traditional poetry but also creates its own hybrid of convention and form that is based in modem poetry. SLAM reaches back into the poetry of the Beats and revives an unconventional use of rhyme scheme, syntax, and grammar. Hip-Hop, which arrived at the tail end of Disco in the late 70's, broke the musical and rhythmic beats in Disco music and birthed the notion of Hip-Hop as a subgenre of music. …

Using Young Adult Literature : A Classic Way To Teach English, Matt B. Pries

Graduate Research Papers

Students are reading less, and enjoying reading less. Sticking to the same curriculum year after year in the hope that student attitude will suddenly change, that there will be an awakening in the classroom, and students will read the classics with enthusiasm cannot be done. It is a false hope. But there can be an awakening.

Using young adult literature in the high school English classroom is the solution. It will give new hope to teachers that as students come to enjoy reading, they will be more apt to, not only read more, but eventually come to read the classics. …

The Attitude Of Secondary School Students To The Use Of Pop Songs In The Esl Class, Fuziah Mustakim

Student Works (2000-2009)

This research is carried out to examine the case for the usage of pop songs as a methodological option in teaching English language in secondary school in Malaysian context. It aims to show that teenagers prefer using pop songs in language learning. It explains the place of English in Malaysians schools and its curriculum. It also discusses rationale, research questions and limitations of the study. Theories in language learning are discussed in detail and attempt to show how pop songs play a role in these theories as a material to learn English as a second language. The researcher explains the …

Bilingual Translation System (Bts), Abdul Razak Razlin Dawina

Student Works (2000-2009)

Educational tools have evolved tremendously over the past few years. Educational tools used to be restricted to anything involving pen and paper, it is not so now. With the introduction of computers, the way things are handled and conducted in society has changed. The educational field is not excluded. Parents and educators are aware of the impact of computers on our lives and the lives of their children. Computer usage have been integrated with learning. Therefore more and more educational programs are being developed each day. The Bilingual Translation System (BTS) is a stand-alone system. It is a translation system …

An Error Analysis Of English Prepositions In The Written Work Of Upper Secondary Malay Students, Chek Kim Loi

Student Works (2000-2009)

The primary aims of this study are to identify the common prepositional errors in the written texts of Form 4 Malay ESL students who have studied English in school for ten years, to measure the relative intensities of these errors and to find out the causes for the occurrence of these errors. Nine concepts of prepositions which pose the most difficulty for students are examined. They are prepositions of place, prepositions of direction, prepositions of time, prepositions of manner-agent, prepositions of causepurpose, prepositions of similarity, prepositions of association, prepositions of verbprep, and prepositions of adj-prep. The subjects selected for this …

The Composing Processes Of Pre-Intermediate Esl Students In Their First Language And The English Language, Mee Leng Yeong

Student Works (2000-2009)

This study attempts to trace the composing processes of pre-intermediate ESL students in their first language and the English language. It is also to test the hypothesis that pre-­intermediate ESL students use L1 as the dominant language to think when writing in their first language and the English Language. This is a qualitative research project using a case-study approach obtaining data through multiple data collection method. Sources of data were think-aloud protocol, semi-structured questionnaire, retrospective interview and analysis of students' written products. Five Malaysian Chinese students from a private college were asked to write two descriptive essays using one topic, …

Cultural Factors Affecting English Proficiency In Rural Areas, Chop Ler Ee

Student Works (2000-2009)

The purpose of this study is to investigate the rural 'cultural' problems and to determine their effect on the learning of English. Twenty students from different ethnic backgrounds and English language proficiency in six rural schools were interviewed. In addition, ten teachers also from different rural schools and ethnic backgrounds responded to a questionnaire. The problems discussed by both the teacher and student respondents arose due to the rural cultural setting. The findings of this study show that i) five major problem areas exist, namely peer pressure and motivation, attitudes towards English, teaching methodology, school culture, influence of Islamic teaching …

Conversational Implicature In Child Language : A Malaysian Case Study, Sharon Lan Fong Yap

Student Works (2000-2009)

Conversational lmplicature (CI) is a form of pragmatic indirectness in language use that is widely considered to be an adult discourse phenomenon. However, detection of its use in children's discourse has led the researcher to embark on a study to document evidence of this phenomenon by investigating IO subjects aged 3 to 7 years. The participant observation method was adopted for this study and the data collected was presented as noted verbatim. The 'as is' nature of the data presented in Chapter Four served to document the children's ability to both extricate and generate applied meaning. Furthermore, by applying adult …

Learner-Teacher Perceptions Of Classroom Processes In An English Proficiency Class, Cordelia Mason

Student Works (2000-2009)

The main goals of this study are firstly to find out how the perceptions of students and teachers regarding classroom processes differ or coincide, and secondly to identify affective factors evidenced in an English proficiency class. These goals are supported by the need to find out learners' perceptions of classroom processes so that we better understand the learners and hopefully become more learner centered. The method used to conduct the study is the diary study method where the diary entries made by students and teacher are analysed using the procedures developed by Progoff (Mcdonough & Mcdonough, 1997). Seventeen subjects were …

Cal (Computer Assisted) Learning For English Idioms, Yee Loon Tan

Student Works (2000-2009)

CAL for English Idioms is a multimedia educational courses are designed for beginning English learners. It covers a large collection of English idioms and will let the users learn the meaning of English Idioms, and know how to use them. It is interactive and it uses multimedia elements to encourage learning through interaction between the computer and the user. CAL for English Idioms includes three major functional modules:Learning, Interactive and Quiz and Test.The Learning Module integrated text, graphics, animation and video to aid learning,whereas the Interactive module compliments the Leaming by providing interactive games to enhance the user's memory about …

Buku-Buku Sastera Terbitan Dbp Sarawak 1988-1998 : Penerimaan Dan Kedudukannya Di Sarawak, Hazami Jahari

Student Works (2000-2009)

The community's interest towards literature is seen to be on the decline. Neither do they seem to understand nor appreciate the significance of literature in molding the ways of thoughts of the people. This is due to the ever increasing cost of living, wide range of entertainment media and the government policy. The role and significance of literature no longer becomes predominant. Thus this study aims at reassessing the status of literature in the daily life of the community, especially the students and teachers of secondary schools in Sarawak. The methods being applied are through questionnaires focusing on the statistics …

A Study Of The Teaching And Learning Of Literature In Two Form 1 Classes, Zamrudah Ahmad Rashidi

Student Works (2000-2009)

This study explored the process of the recent implementation of the Literature in English component in the Form 1 English Language Syllabus in an attempt to examine the teaching and learning of literature in actual classroom situations. It sought to examine the nature of input by teachers and the uptake by students of typical Literature in English lessons in two Form 1 classes, to obtain feedback on the hands-on implementation of the component so as to inform future effective practice. To be more specific, this study sought to identify the approaches used to teach the selected literary texts as well …