Language and Literacy Education Commons^™

Video Composition, Creative Discourse, And Facilitated Freedom: A Teacher's Journey To Reveal Student Potential, Michael A. Brinkmeyer

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

This research project was conducted in response to students’ lack of engagement in traditional modes of instruction and composition in a high school English Language Arts course. In order to better understand students as creative composers of knowledge, this research project asked students to engage in the video production process in collaborative groups. The research was conducted over the course of eight class periods in three different sections of Junior-level English Language Arts courses. Analysis of the data from this study reveals three important findings: 1) students respond well to creative and relevant performance assessments; 2) students’ collaborative conversations, or …

Enhancing Literacy Instruction Through Technology, Kaylin M. Haugen

Senior Honors Theses

Technology has altered how children experience language. As technology has taken root in society, literacy skills have expanded beyond simply reading and writing print texts to include interacting with digital texts and media. To prepare students to operate in this digital environment, teachers should integrate technology into language arts instruction; however, many teachers feel unprepared to do so effectively. Additionally, some teachers hesitate to implement technology into language arts instruction as a tool because of its supposed negative effects on literacy. Despite beliefs about technology inhibiting reading and writing, teachers can utilize technology to enhance literacy instruction. The digital age …

The Role Of Discourse And Its Effects On Reading Comprehension In The Ela Classroom, Laurie Coville

Certificate of Advanced Studies (CAS) in Literacy

Researchers have consistently found a link between quality classroom discourse and the increase in student reading comprehension. Classroom discussions help students make sense of fiction and nonfiction texts while deepening their understanding. Incorporating the principles of Vygotsky’s social constructivism as the theoretical framework, the aim of this study was to examine the relationship between the use of accountable talk sentence stems and the quality of discussion using the fishbowl discussion strategy as a means of increasing student comprehension of a text. Observation of the effects of student discourse of 18 students over the duration of six weeks yielded measurable differences …

Fluency: What Does It Really Mean?, Jacquelyn E. Depierro

Certificate of Advanced Studies (CAS) in Literacy

Shared and repeated readings are assumed to reflect influence on increasing oral reading fluency abilities through accuracy, rate, expression, and phrasing. The purpose of the study was to examine how repeated reading increased students’ oral reading scores across the six-dimensions of fluency transferring phonics instruction to oral reading. Specifically, we tested the repeated reading process that focused on improving early fluency skills on 6-7-year-old students in a first grade classroom who were reading at or below grade level expectations and received a score of 2 or below in terms of their oral reading fluency as measured by the Fountas and …

Meaningful Vocabulary Instruction: Bridging The Way To Comprehension, Joanne Riback

Certificate of Advanced Studies (CAS) in Literacy

Beginning with Hart and Risley’s study that brought to the forefront a significant gap in word knowledge in students from a lower socioeconomic status, the importance of vocabulary instruction has been emphasized. Extensive research has long acknowledged that vocabulary knowledge plays a crucial role in reading comprehension. With the rigorous expectations of the CCSS, vocabulary has become an essential component of instruction. Consequently, this study, utilizing social constructivism as the theoretical framework, focused on determining the most effective strategies to enhance vocabulary instruction in order to bridge the gap between students who struggle with vocabulary learning and those who do …

Employing Engagement To Enhance Literacy Learning, Kerry Zrenda

Certificate of Advanced Studies (CAS) in Literacy

Numerous studies have identified a symbiotic relationship between student engagement and academic achievement. However, over the last three years, nearly half of Connecticut’s students have failed to meet the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts. Social constructivism and metacognitive theories frame this study, which aimed to examine instructional techniques that positively impacted student engagement. Specifically, we used engagement inventories to record student behaviors before, during, and after a six-week instructional period, throughout which we implemented several different engagement techniques. We coded student behaviors in order to analyze the effects that heightened student choice, structured peer discourse tools, and …

Vocabulary Acquisition For Els, Sarah Johnson

Certificate of Advanced Studies (CAS) in Literacy

Researchers have shown a gap in the vocabulary development of children based on socioeconomic status, as well as an increase in the number of students in American public schools that qualify as English Learners (ELs). Based on previous studies showing that vocabulary acquisition is related to increased reading comprehension and academic success, the aim of the present study was to determine for the most effective strategies for vocabulary acquisition using an interactive read aloud routine. Using Vygotsky’s social constructivism as the theoretical framework, we examined the effectiveness of these strategies in an action research project with seven second grade ELs, …

Engaging The Disengaged: Using Every Trick In The Book, Brooke Prusaczyk

Certificate of Advanced Studies (CAS) in Literacy

Researchers have affirmed a connection between students’ engagement in reading to their academic achievement. Struggling readers in particular are generally not engaged or motivated to read. While the construct of reading engagement is difficult to measure, a student’s motivation seems to be the driving force behind reading development. Additionally, today’s students are involved in and more motivated by the many different activities outside of school, which poses challenges for both teachers and parents. The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of instructional techniques on student engagement in reading. To measure the academic progress of 21 fifth grade …

Abc: It’S As Easy As 1, 2, 3 – The Importance Of A Multisensory Approach In Phonological Awareness Instruction, Chelsey Marsh

Certificate of Advanced Studies (CAS) in Literacy

Currently, more than 20% of kindergarten and first grade students struggle with an aspect of phonological awareness. Further, 80% of struggling readers exhibit weaknesses in phonological processing, which is the basis for grappling with unfamiliar words. Students whose reading achievement is not at grade level by third grade are at risk for not catching up to their more-capable peers. Using social constructivism as the theoretical framework in this action research study, we examined the effect of a multisensory, explicit, and systematic approach in phonological awareness for students in the primary grades. From the larger school population, this study focused on …

Reading Strategies In Content Area Math, Jennifer Bachman O’Brien

Certificate of Advanced Studies (CAS) in Literacy

Since the introduction of the CCSS, expectations in math have placed greater responsibility for problem-solving on students. No longer is computation the primary focus of elementary math instruction; instead the goal has shifted to student understanding of the mathematical contexts. The aim of this action research study, guided by Vygotsky’s theory of social constructivism, was to determine the effectiveness of integrating reading and content area math, while deepening students’ skills in vocabulary, journaling, and visualizing. Nine fifth-grade students receiving Tier 2 math intervention were selected to participate in the study. Data collection consisted of pre and post measures including criterion-referenced …

The Mania Of Morphemic Analysis: Multisyllabic, Meaningful, Magical, Jennifer Fritz

Certificate of Advanced Studies (CAS) in Literacy

As academic expectations have increased in recent years due to the rigors of the Common Core State Standards, students are encountering a greater rate of multisyllabic words earlier in their schooling. Proficiency in reading has not paralleled this upward trend. Students are not receiving sufficient instruction to enable them to successfully decode and derive meaning from the multisyllabic words in their texts. To ascertain the effects of multisyllabic instruction on student performance in upper elementary students, we formulated an instructional model to teach syllabication and word morphology to determine if explicit instruction in syllabication and structural analysis had an effect …

Discourse In The Elementary Classroom, Kathryn Hardy

Certificate of Advanced Studies (CAS) in Literacy

As literacy standards across the country grow more rigorous, literacy practices need to follow suit. With the implementation of the Common Core Speaking and Listening Standards in 2010, classroom instruction in the facilitation of student discourse has become not only beneficial, but required. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of an instructional framework for student discourse called Statement Stem Discourse/Accountable Talk (SSD/AT). This instructional frame included discussion stems, teacher prompts, and guidelines for student responses. This study observed the impacts of discourse on 19 students over the course of six weeks. With a focus on questions …

The Social Factors Of Fossilization, Ashley Brigham

MA TESOL Collection

The notion of fossilization has been one of the most controversial, yet enduring topics in second language acquisition (SLA) theory since its first appearance in Selinker’s 1972 seminal article “Interlanguage.” In the past, work regarding fossilization sought to either support or challenge its existence, to determine the putative causes and to predict what linguistic items were prone to becoming fossilized. Initially, the possible causes which enjoyed the most attention were first language interference and the learner’s age and length of residency in the target language community. Now, however, with the current climate of SLA acknowledging that both learning and non-learning …

Incorporating Academic Blogging Into A Fifth Grade Classroom: Integrating Technology And Science Into Literacy Instruction, Cassidy Tallman

Showcase of Undergraduate Research and Creative Endeavors (SOURCE)

There is a growing need to better prepare students for twenty-first-century literacy demands. Integrating technology into education improves student achievement and increases students’ technological literacy. Classroom blogging is one way to provide students authentic experiences with technology while integrating literacy. The goal of this project was to examine fifth graders’ interactions with text, fifth graders’ perceptions of academic blogging, and science content integration in literacy instruction. Over the course of seven weeks, students participated in shared reading lessons and blogging sessions. Data were collected on students’ acquisition of science content knowledge, students’ interactions with text, and students’ perceptions of technology …

How Cultural Responsiveness Informs The Development Of And Decision-Making About K-12 Ela Curricula: A Mixed Methods Approach, Christa Tamanas Wade

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this mixed methods study was to explore how cultural responsiveness informed the development of and decision-making about K-12 English Language Arts curricula in New Jersey. Through the use of a survey and interviews, twelve curriculum supervisors offered an array of insight regarding their professional agency, curriculum processes, and factors that influence the areas associated with the program of study. Findings revealed that although supervisors do not have autonomy in the curriculum development process, they do have greater agency when it comes to selecting supplemental instructional resources and classroom supports. Another key theme was how a district's demographics …

Impact Of Literacy On Student Readiness In Math And Science Classroom, Mackenzie Alexandra Rittner

Honors Projects

Lack of literacy, specifically disciplinary literacy, is an epidemic in education today. Here, I will illustrate how this problem presents itself in our student’s reading every day in every class. Within a literature review, many accounts are detailed about the impact literacy has on a student’s educational career. From the outset, literacy is a key factor in a student’s success in school. A research study was conducted that asked students to give varied definitions of the word ‘volume’ based on prior experience. These results showed that direct instruction in how a word can change based on its context had an …

The Impact Of Rigorous Curriculum In Transitional Kindergarten And Kindergarten, Lauren Clough

Scholarly and Creative Works Conference (2015 - 2021)

Educators across the world are being asked to teach increasingly younger students academic skills. The purpose of this action research project was to examine the impact that using rigorous curriculum has on transitional kindergarten and kindergarten educators as well as how rigorous curriculum affects students self esteem as a student. A shortcoming in the literature is the lack of research discussing rigorous curriculum used in early elementary classrooms that contain mostly English language learners and how that affects the teachers and students. This project used a mixed methods approach in order to attain qualitative data from detailed interviews using open-ended …

Visual Literacy In Central Appalachian Community College Classrooms: A Guide To Image First Learning For Individualized Learning And Improved Outcomes, Natasha B. Watts

Morehead State Theses and Dissertations

A capstone submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Education in the College of Education at Morehead State University by Natasha B. Watts on April 19, 2018

A Blend Of Absurdism And Humanism: Defending Kurt Vonnegut’S Place In The Secondary Setting, Krisandra R. Johnson

Butler Journal of Undergraduate Research

This essay argues that Kurt Vonnegut blends a unique humanist stance into his absurdist plots and characters, ultimately urging readers to confront the absurd with a kindness and human decency his protagonists often find rare. As a result of this absurd and humanist synthesis, I defend and promote Vonnegut’s place in the secondary English curriculum, despite his rank on many banned books lists, since his characters’ journeys correlate thematically with the growth and process of postmodern adolescents and encourage moral responsibility without sentimental manipulation.

Focusing on Cat’s Cradle, God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater, and Slaughterhouse-Five as primary sources, specifically …

Allegorical Reference To Oxford University Through Classical Myth In The Early Poetry Of Dorothy L. Sayers: A Reading Of “Alma Mater” From Op.I.., Barbara L. Prescott

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

Dorothy L. Sayers is rarely considered to be an author of mythopoeic literature or one whose own writings contain the metaphors or allegories of myth and legend. Yet, as a young adult at Oxford University, Sayers produced a variety of poems that, centering upon Oxford and her experiences as a student, explored mythic themes as they related to the university. Her early poems, written while an undergraduate at Oxford and directly afterward, were built upon three motifs: classical mythology, mediaeval legend, and Christian romanticism. These Oxford-centered poems were included in Dorothy L. Sayers’s first book titled, OP. I., published …

Effects Of Upper Elementary Grade Reading Buddies On Literacy Skill Concepts Development In At Risk Preschool Students, Brianna Cleland

Celebration of Research

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of peer reading buddies on early literacy skill acquisition in preschool students. Data was collected over an eight-week period. Following a four-week period of general classroom instruction, a reading buddy partnership was developed with a fifth-grade class. Peers from fifth grade read with preschool students twice a week over a four-week period for a total of eight sessions. Following the treatment period, quantitative data was collected and analyzed. Analysis suggests that peer reading buddies enhances literacy skills in preschool students—especially in the areas involving the use and appreciation of books.

Teachers’ Professional Identity Construction: A Narrative Inquiry Of Non-Native English Speaking Teachers In Saudi Arabia, Mustafa Abdo Hersi

Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies ETDs

This qualitative study examineshow five in-service male non-native English speaking teachers (NNESTs) constructed and negotiated their professional identity as teachers to make meaning of their lived experiences in an EFL milieu, a Saudi Arabian university. The study also explores the challenges related to NNESTs’ teaching lives and how they negotiated them as they constructed their professional identities. I approached the studied phenomena by employing a narrative inquiry method. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and an autobiography. The study draws on Clandinin and Connelly’s framework of three-dimensional space (temporality, sociality, and place), Bourdieu’s theory of forms of capital,and Gee’s …

Examining Dosage: Comparisons Of A High-Quality Program's Impact On Vocabulary And Social-Emotional Characteristics Between One- And Two-Year Cohorts., J. Joshua Byrd

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This study investigated the effects of high-quality early childhood program dosage by measuring its associations with low-income children’s vocabulary and social-emotional characteristics. The current study also examined the different patterns of annual change between monolingual English-speaking children and Spanish-speaking English Language Learners (ELLs) in two dimensions of language development. The purpose of this study was to explore program impact at two levels of dosage per measure, Group 1 (single year of program) and Group 2 (two or more years of program). Results revealed significant increases in fall-to-spring PPVT-IV scores for English-speaking children in Group 2, significant decreases in Spanish PLS-5 …

Historical Traditions And Critical Perspectives: An Exploration Of The Textual And Pedagogical Choices Of Four Language Arts Teachers In An Urban, Diverse Secondary School, Annmarie L. Sheahan

Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies ETDs

Even as current critical research in the teaching of English calls for a widening of traditional secondary texts and curricula choices, the presence of certain district, local, and state policies continue to permeate classrooms in extensive and oppressive ways that have limited the literature, the instructional strategies, and the autonomy that teachers bring into educational spaces. This qualitative study examines the pedagogical choices of four secondary language arts teachers within the framework of both historical and critical perspectives on the teaching of literature and within the realities of a high-stakes, evaluative teaching environment. Utilizing participatory action research (PAR) and collaborative …

Citizen Co-Learners: A Transgressive March Toward Emancipatory Learning, Christina M. Luiggi, Dylan M. Colvin

Ray Browne Conference on Cultural and Critical Studies (2015-2021)

Spanning continents and cultural borders, the writings of Paolo Freire, bell hooks, and Henry Giroux encompass post/decolonial and standpoint epistemologies focused on student-centered approaches. We seek to model peer learning and knowledge production bell hooks commands in Teaching to Transgress: “I have been most inspired by those teachers who have had the courage to transgress those boundaries that would confine each pupil to a rote, assembly-line approach to learning” (13).With these words in mind, we participate in a content analysis of literature and storytelling, creating sites of resistance at educational boundaries in order to increase accessibility to knowledge and scaffold …

Pizza Bagel Sundays, Kate D'Auria

Graduate Student Independent Studies

Kate D’Auria worked on an independent study where she created her own children’s book. The book is called Pizza Bagel Sundays and was illustrated by Yan Gabriella Peropat. Pizza Bagel Sundays is a memoir about her childhood and how she grew up in a single parent household. Though single parenting is one of the focuses of the book, it does have other themes such as family, love and how we spend time together. Research was done to see what other types of children’s literature is out there and see where the book fit in. Look at the literature that was …

Positive Language Teaching: Culturally Responsive, Strengths-Based And Empathetic, Lauren Anderson, Alyssa Hanken, Tessa Noes Horn

Research in the Capitol

The three studies in this presentation examine the use of positive psychology (the study of what goes right in life) to benefit language learners. The first study examines the implementation of culturally responsive teaching by interviewing adult Chinese students and professors in the English for Academic Purposes program and in mainstream college classes. The interviews explored culturally responsive teaching and determined how students perceived and reacted to the lessons. The second study investigates the implementation of a personal strengths intervention to mitigate learners’ foreign language anxiety and improve classroom performance. This study provided students with the opportunity to self-reflect and …

Practicing Abstraction Argument And Explanation: The Little Goat And The High Priest, David Marshall

Open Educational Resources

A one page handout to illustrate and practice concepts of abstraction argument and explanation. There are suggested activities using the handout and for generating other similar assignments.

Yorba Times: Standing Up, Speaking Out, Noah Asher Golden, Caroline Jenner, Lisbet Wences, Leslie Tehuastle-Zamora, Veronica Aguilar, Ryan Guzman, Aida Calderon, Cassandra Gomez, Aileen Arriaga, Toni Guesnon, Dana Canning, Zoe Bonfield, Emmery Llewellyn, Sylvia Tavetian, Emily Hernandez, Areli Vazquez, Leslie Arriaga, Kaitlyn Zeigler, Karly Bokosky, Kristi Kayoda, Abby Galletti, Arianna Gama, Ashley Diaz, Alyssa Kaplan, Jodi Payne, Sammy Hurst, Montana Mcintyre, Ansley Wong, Kiaya Estes, Chloe Kardasopoulos

Yorba-Chapman Writing Partnership Anthology of Journalistic Writing

During the Spring 2018 semester, Dr. Noah Asher Golden's Teaching of Writing K-12 students partnered with the Journalism class at Yorba Academy for the Arts. Through collaboration over a four-month period, Chapman's future teachers and Yorba's junior high journalists engaged a deep writing process to write a series of features, editorials, and news articles related to a number of global issues. Thank you to Ms. Andrea Lopez, Ms. Kori Shelton, Mr. Nick Sepulveda, Ms. Tracy Knibb, and the Lloyd E. and Elisabeth H. Klein Family Foundation for supporting this project.

Acquisition Of Word Spellings And Meanings During Reading In Nonnative Chinese Speakers, Yang Liu

Dissertations

This dissertation explored the acquisition of word spellings (orthographic learning) and word meanings (incidental word learning) during reading in adult nonnative Chinese speakers. Two studies were designed for this dissertation. In Study One, 45 Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) learners at intermediate and advanced proficiency levels participated and completed a character learning experiment in a self-teaching paradigm. Results indicate that CFL learners were able to use the phonetic regularity and semantic transparency of radicals to learn the spellings and pronunciations of new characters after limited exposures to the characters in a story context. In Study Two, 72 CFL learners …