Language and Literacy Education Commons^™

Principal And Teacher Perception Of The Understanding And Facilitation Of The Implementation Of Cognitive Instructional Strategies To Improve Reading, Gwendolyn Battle Lavert

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate middle and high school principals' perception of their understanding and facilitation of the implementation of cognitive instructional strategies in the classroom to improve reading. The study also investigated the English/language arts chair or language arts teacher's perception of their principals' understanding and facilitation of the implementation of cognitive instructional strategies to improve the reading. The population for the research was public high school principals and teachers grades 9-12, and middle school principals and teachers grades 6-8. A total of 121 surveys were returned providing a 38% return rate. The data were analyzed …

The Effects Of Background Music On The Reading Performance Of Taiwanese Esl Students, Peter Chou

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to see what kinds of effects classical music and hip hop music have on the performance of a second language reading comprehension test in Taiwanese college students. According to Kahneman' s ( 1973) capacity model for attention, one may fail to perfonn an activity because the supply of attention needed for multiple tasks does not meet the demand needed to perfom1 each of the tasks. This explains why students perform better or worse on different cognitive tasks with certain types of background media. An experiment involving 123 participants from a medium size college in …

Literacy Education In School : Research Perspectives From The Past, For The Future, Peter Freebody

Australian Education Review

AER 52 aims to expand our understanding of the nature of literacy at a time when public and private lives have become increasingly literacy-dependent, and literacy demands more complex and sophisticated. This review of the research literature is guided by the view that what passes for effective literacy education will differ depending on language, culture, history and the technologies of communication and knowledge production. Section 1 describes the large body of research relating to the teaching and learning of literacy that emerges from a wide range of discipline bases. It details the complexities associated with defining literacy, and it outlines …

Advocating For Languages - Lessons Learned, Anne O. Fountain

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Towards Student Involvement In Essay Assessment, Aynur Yürekli, Evrim Üstünlüoğlu

Essays in Education

In language teaching, assessment is one of the most formidable challenges for both the students and the teachers. Especially, when the assessment of productive skills which are subjective by their nature are concerned, the "challenge" could very well turn into a "nightmare" for both parties. In order to avoid this undesired possibility, the attitude of the grader and the students towards the evaluation rubric is as vital as the rubric itself.

This study describes the standardization process of the writing rubric for the assessment of essays, which is accepted both by the graders and the learners who are subject to …

Handwriting: Should Formal Instruction In Handwriting Be Taught To Elementary Students?, Cathleen Rutter

Education 589 Projects

Having taught students Language Arts from 2nd grade through sophomore year of high school, I have encountered numerous samples of handwriting, with great variance in their legibility. It has caused me frustration as a beginning teacher trying to decipher what has actually been written and just what the student was trying to convey to myself, as their teacher. In some cases I have graded a spelling test, marked words incorrect because I could not read the letters in the word. But then, because I felt that the student has mastered the spelling of a given word, I had the student …

A Retelling Of An Ancient Indian Epic: The Ramayana, Supriya Himatsingka

Graduate Student Independent Studies

The goal of this thesis is to address the dearth of sub-continental Indian literature in mainstream North American materials for children. The work includes a retelling of sections of The Ramayana, with historical and cultural background, as well as current research on the significance of learning through stories. Transcription and discussion of responses from 4th grade students in a New York City public school are also included.

When Mom Or Dad Has A Mental Illness: General Information And Memories Of A Girl Whose Father Has Bi-Polar Disorder, Lisa RenéE Levesque

Graduate Student Independent Studies

This original material answers common questions that children in middle childhood (8-12 years) may have about parental mental illness. When Mom or Dad has a mental illness: General information and memories of a girl whose father has Bi-polar Disorder defines mental illness, addresses symptoms, causes and treatments, provides definitions of related terms, and shares personal stories about having a parent with mental illness. A review of current literature shows the lack of similar work, and the developmental theories of Piaget, Kohlberg, Gilligan, Erikson, and Vygotsky confirm the importance and validity of the project. The motivation behind this work is to …

Web-Based Language Portfolios And The Five C'S: Implementation In Intermediate- And Advanced-Level Foreign Language College Classrooms, Jane Blyth Warren

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Web-based portfolios serve as authentic assessment in the foreign language curriculum when organized around the National Standards for Foreign Language Learning. Portfolios align curriculum and assessment with the standards, ensuring that student learning and progress follow these standards. Web-based portfolios enhance student learning by integrating the learning of culture with the learning of the target language. In web-based language portfolios, students create individual web pages for each of the standards. These standards were developed as guidelines for the teaching of foreign language and culture in the United States. Questions for this study included whether students perceived that web-based language portfolios …

Class Indifference - A Divided Nation : Finding Common Ground Through American Pragmatism And Democratic Principles In The Composition Classroom, Stacey L. Morrison

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Social class plays a significant but often silent part in American politics, lives, and education. As the events of Hurricane Katrina clearly illustrate, the poor and working class often suffer discrimination that leaves them completely powerless. Their position in life shapes not only how they are seen and treated, but also how they see their world. Their cultures differ markedly from middle and upper class cultures, further alienating them from possible greater personal achievement in a system that champions middle-class values. Education, being a microcosm of our society, mirrors our class conflicts, often failing to teach working-class students in an …

Ncssfl’S Linguafolio Project, Jacque Bott Van Houten

Dimensions

On a Goethe-Institut-sponsored trip to Germany in 2001, world language consultants (a term that has now replaced that of supervisor) of several state departments of education were so inspired by the potential for improving and recording student learning they saw in using the European Language Portfolio that they immediately set about to create a similar tool for American students. This effort resulted in the self-assessment, reflective-learning tool, LinguaFolio. Five states—Kentucky, Virginia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Georgia— are now collaborating to orient teachers to LinguaFolio and guide them in its use. The first part of this article describes the five-state …

From Practice To Profession

Dimensions

SCOLT Dimensions Volume 42

Misperceptions Of Attitudes Toward Language Study, Carolyn Gascoigne

Dimensions

This study provides a glimpse into the attitudes of current incoming college freshmen toward foreign language study and language requirements, as well as practicing teachers’ beliefs about their students’ opinions of and reasons for foreign language study. The results demonstrate that language educators tend to misdiagnose students’ attitudes and beliefs and that educators place an undue emphasis on instrumental types of motivation for foreign language study.

Germany’S Multiracial And Multicultural Issues, Catherine T. Johnson

Dimensions

This article presents suggestions for teaching high school and college-level students in the United States the challenges Germany faces as it attempts to adapt to its increasingly diverse population– racially, ethnically, and culturally. The article shows how the instructor can draw on American students’ experiences with and views on immigrants and minorities in their own country, allowing them to more clearly understand and relate to the similar issues Germany faces as it deals with its immigrant and minority population. Historical, legal, statistical, literary, and factual information concerning immigration and minorities in both Germany and the U.S. are presented, as well …

Representation Of Latino Culture In Introductory High School Textbooks, Patricia Thomas

Dimensions

As Latinos continue to be the fastest growing racial minority group in the U.S., the many dimensions of Latino culture have become increasingly important as elements of the Spanish language curriculum. This study focuses on textbooks as a major resource in cultural instruction, examining how Latinos and Latino culture are represented in Spanish textbooks at the introductory level. In general, the Latino presence in the U.S. is presented as an important part of the Spanishspeaking world. Historical context regarding how specific Latino communities were established is sometimes limited, as is discussion of certain current economic, political, and identity issues. A …

Maya And Nahuatl In The Teaching Of Spanish: Expanding The Professional Perspective, Anne Fountain, Catherine Fountain

Dimensions

Indigenous languages of the Americas are spoken by millions of people 500 years after the initial period of European conquest. The people who speak these languages and the customs they continue to practice form a rich cultural texture in many parts of Spanish America and can be important components of an instructor’s Standards-based teaching. This article discusses the influence of Maya and Nahuatl languages and cultures on the language, literature, and history of Mexico and Central America. Examples of this influence range from lexical and phonological traits of Mexican Spanish to the indigenous cultures and worldviews conveyed in texts as …

Integrating Stories With Multimedia Into The French Language Classroom, Marat Sanatullov, Elvira Sanatullova-Allison

Dimensions

Standards, proficiency, theory and research, and instructional approaches can guide teachers in integrating stories with multimedia in a foreign language classroom, as the authors demonstrate through the adaptation of a Haitian folk story for novice and intermediate learners of French. The article also gives practical recommendations for foreign language teachers to help them effectively integrate stories with multimedia in their classrooms and introduces the PEPPrepare, Explore, and Practice–model, which defines the essential steps of the use of stories with multimedia.

Student Perspectives On Foundation Issues In Articulation, Nike Arnold

Dimensions

Articulation has been an important issue for our profession since the 1960s. In order to improve the transition from high school to college, administrators and practitioners have often focused on coordinating instructional content. Such an approach, however, might neglect the underlying causes of articulation problems. This article addresses the foundational issue of instructional approaches. Interviews with several students enrolled in a transition class at a large state university showed that their high school classes were often fundamentally different in terms of homework, vocabulary and grammar learning, use of the target language, the degree of independent learning, in-class activities, classroom participation, …

A 21st Century Approach To Integrating Culture And Communication, Rosalie M. Cheatham

Dimensions

This article presents an approach to revising classroom instruction in order to integrate the second language standards of culture and communication throughout the second language program. It is designed to assure that today’s students are able not only to survive linguistically in the target culture but also to develop cultural awareness and to appreciate its importance for them as world citizens. Guided by some of the principles of the theoretical framework of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) Integrated Performance Assessment (Glisan, Adair-Hauck, Koda, Sandrock, &Swender, 2003), this approach enables students to acquire culturally relevant knowledge …

Fay B. Kaigler Children's Book Festival, Karen Rowell, The University Of Southern Mississippi, The University Of Southern Mississippi's School Of Library And Information Science

Fay B. Kaigler Children's Book Festival Programs

The program for the fortieth annual Fay B. Kaigler Children's Book Festival held on the campus of The University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg, Mississippi in 2007.

A Reflective Look At The Writing Process For Both Children And Adults: A Memoir Study, Jessica Block

Graduate Student Independent Studies

In order to teach the writing process, one must be a writer. This independent study explores the writing process from the inside out. It investigates the writing process from an adult perspective while also examines the writing process that developed for individual student writers within a second grade classroom. Over the course of three months, the students in my second grade classroom and I developed personal memoirs about a "small moment" from our lives. This study includes a comprehensive breakdown of lessons which scaffolded the memoir writing process.

It also includes a strong reflective component which reveals how we all …

Using High Interest Reading Material To Motivate Struggling And Reluctant Readers, Nicoles C. Hoover

Graduate Research Papers

One of my great challenges as a second grade teacher is getting students who struggle with reading to become engaged, motivated, and enthusiastic about reading. This paper will look at different literature findings about using strategies that involve high interest reading materials to motivate readers. It will seek to determine the values of these practices for all students, but especially those who struggle as readers. It will also look at different types of high interest materials that could potentially motivate readers. This paper will provide resources to others looking to use high interest materials to motivate readers.

A Literature Review Of The Think-Aloud Reading Comprehension Strategy For Teacher Use In The Classroom, Cindy Kathryn Kauder

Graduate Research Papers

This literature review focuses on the classroom use of a research based comprehension strategy called Think-Aloud. This is a strategy that readers of all abilities and ages can incorporate into their daily reading habits in order to more fully engage in text of all types. This is a fairly new strategy that has come to awareness and more widespread use within the last few years. Teachers need to provide direct instruction and model this strategy so that students correctly practice and use it alone and with partners. The final goal of the Think-Aloud strategy is that readers will become more …

Communication Between Classroom Teachers And Reading Recovery Teachers : A Study Of Teacher Perceptions, Erika Northey Lentz

Graduate Research Papers

This research project investigates teacher communication between first grade teachers and Reading Recovery teachers who are jointly responsible for providing literacy education to students. This study compared the effects of regularly scheduled meetings between Reading Recovery (RR) teachers and classroom teachers relative to achievement.

Additional issues examined included classroom teacher and RR teacher perceptions of student performance at the beginning, middle, and end of the scheduled RR program.This paper also describes recommendations for further research on teacher communication between classroom teachers and Reading Recovery teachers.

Think-Alouds : Thinking Beyond The Text To Increase Reading Comprehension, Jennifer Marie Lee

Graduate Research Papers

This literature review focuses on how the Think-Aloud strategy can be implemented in order to help readers comprehend text. This strategy is one that will allow all readers to visualize and verbalize what is taking place during the decoding of the text. Teachers need to provide direct instruction in forms of modeling and scaffolding when implementing the Think-Aloud strategy. This helps to aid in the students' ability to effectively gain a full understanding of what the strategy looks like. In the end, it is expected that the students will begin to utilize the Think-Aloud strategy automatically when comprehending any type …

Stimulating Reading Excitement In Secondary Level English Language Learners, Rachael J. Schweigert

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

The purpose of this paper is to examine how ESL teachers can stimulate reading excitement in secondary level English language learners. The current research about factor which affect reading enjoyment in secondary level English language learners will also be discussed. These factors include element in reading instruction, attitudes toward reading, readability of text, interest level in literature, and availability of meaningful literature. Current research regarding applications that can be used in classrooms will also be reviewed, such as reading models and reading strategies. Based on the results of this research, suggestions will be presented regarding literature that can be used …

Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (Siop) : A Model For English Language Learners, Edith L. Bakley

Graduate Research Papers

With so many second language learners entering our public schools, it is imperative that educators prepare themselves with training and strategies to best meet the needs of these students. The Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol, or SIOP Model, has been developed for the purpose of instructing English Language Learners (ELL) in mainstream classrooms and bestow effective methods for teaching all content areas, while promoting fluency of the English language. In this literature review, the components involved in the SIOP Model will be examined as well as the effects it has on second language learners and their ability with language fluency.

Developing Children's Interest In Reading, Suzanne Marie Stauffer

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Home And School Literacy Partnerships : Building Stronger Tomorrows Hand In Hand, Tera Bockenstedt

Graduate Research Papers

This project aims to bring quality literacy interactions into homes of young children. These literacy interactions are important because research has shown that quality literacy experiences during the early childhood years impact a child's emergent literacy learning. Because children are not yet in formal schooling, many of these interactions can take place in home so family involvement is critical. The project is threefold: (a) to increase the quantity and quality of literacy interactions in the home, (b) to help parents become more informed contributors of their children's emergent literacy development, and (c) to promote more family involvement and two-way communication …

Motivation For Leisure Reading : A Model Camp Adventure Curriculum, Nicole Beth Geopfert

Graduate Research Papers

Much research has consistently revealed that the percentage of young children choosing to engage in leisure reading is declining. Instead, potential young readers are consumed many other forms of leisure activity such as video games, Internet, computer games, movies, and more. To become lifelong learners, children ought to be motivated to read. The questions explored in this paper are: what are the obstacles to developing avid independent readers and how can we help young children become engaged, recreational readers? This paper presents a review of the literature on reading motivation, reading attitude, and the gender gap in reading.

The information …