Other Education Commons^™

Reading Through The Eyes Of Faith: Introducing A Catholic Literary Lens To The English Language Arts Classroom, Julia French, Michael Macaluso

Journal of Catholic Education

Despite the proliferation and use of literary lenses in English Language Arts classrooms, one lens still seems to be missing from theorization, formulation, and thus practical implementation: religion. This absence is well-noted in the field, as positive depictions of Christian themes in books are rare and religion is rarely discussed as an identity marker that fosters growth and development. This article attempts to address that absence in two ways: first by conceptualizing and developing a Catholic literary lens that could be used in middle and secondary classrooms and second by offering practical suggestions for using this Catholic lens in ELA …

The Assessment Of The Program Theory And Processes Of Books For Keeps’ Literacy Mentoring Program, Allison Shaw

Graduate Research Showcase

The significance of reading proficiency is frequently emphasized by the time a student reaches the third grade. Third-grade reading proficiency serves as a crucial indicator of a student's potential success in high school and beyond, including college. Research indicates that a failure to attain grade-level reading proficiency by the third grade correlates with increased challenges in comprehending educational requirements and meeting the demands necessary for graduation.

This study focuses on the Books for Keeps Literacy Mentoring Program in Athens, Georgia, which is designed to cultivate supportive relationships between mentors and students, fostering enthusiasm for reading. The examination of the program …

Girls Don’T Go To School: Uncovering The Schooling Experiences Of A Tejana Growing Up On The Westside Of San Antonio, Melissa Garza

Masters Theses (Archived)

No abstract provided.

Curriculum As Theology: A Framework For Analyzing Curriculum As Theological Text, Russell Miller

The Journal of Faith, Education, and Community

This article seeks to establish a framework that contemplates curriculum as theological text by exploring the works of Neil Postman, W.F. Pinar, and C.S. Lewis in relation to past and present research and commentary. The paper investigates a range of concepts related to theology and curriculum including culture and religion, ethics, and morality. The author argues that curriculum is intrinsically a theological endeavor due to the nature of humanity and the interaction between learning and spiritual development.

Imagination To Innovation: Design Thinking For Young Learners, Lindsey Herlehy, Cassandra Armstrong

Publications & Research

Design thinking is the intersection of engineering design and social-emotional learning. Today’s learners must be empathetic problem solvers capable of defining problems and designing appropriate solutions to meet the needs of the user. In this session, participants will experience design thinking through literature-based scenarios appropriate for early learners. They will analyze and compare their own models to those of others and compose a lesson that will engage students in the design thinking process.

The Effects Of An Intervention Using Pokemon Trading Card Game On The Decoding Abilities Of Children, Derek Emmett

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The present study focuses on illustrating the relationship between word decoding instruction and word decoding abilities within the context of a trading card game. Additionally, an argument for reading motivation and improvement of literacy skills is made. Three participants between the ages of 9 and 13 were recruited for participation in this study. Several decoding strategies such as phonemic awareness and morphological awareness strategies were implemented and trained over the course of several trading card games. Performance in decoding of several lists of compiled nonwords following treatment phases were systematically measured by the researcher. Two of the three participants demonstrated …

Current Literacy Interventions For Aac Users, Payton Proud

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

Purpose: Literacy provides individuals who use augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) with an avenue to share their original thoughts through generative communication. There is limited research regarding literacy intervention for AAC users, particularly in high school. This study sought to (a) identify literacy interventions used with high school AAC users, (b) determine the importance placed on literacy by SLPs for high school AAC users, and (c) compare the importance of literacy intervention in high school to other ages of AAC users and other areas of intervention.

Method: Ninety-two Nebraska school-based speech-language pathologists (SLPs) completed an online survey to answer the …

“The Hidden Door That Leads To Several Moments More”: Finding Context For The Literacy Narrative In First Year Writing, Denise Goldman

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

The literacy narrative has emerged as a useful genre in composition pedagogy because of the perceived bridge it provides between personal narrative and academic literacy. Although there remains disagreement among practitioners with regard to its purpose and efficacy, it continues to be a staple in the writing classroom because it has the potential to help students learn analytical skills while fostering investment through the features of a personal narrative. Recent efforts in the field, especially with regard to questions of transfer of writing, have focused on the benefits of genre and community discourse analysis as a means to help students …

Reproducing The Status Quo In The Middle School English Classroom: A Critical Examination Of Literacy Learning Via Personalized Learning Technology, Michele Mcconnell

Dissertations

Personalized learning technology (PL Tech) is a growing educational reform movement supported by federal grant dollars. As a bourgeoning educational movement, no research has been conducted to explore the potential effects of such structures in supporting student literacy learning. Additionally, current education reform research often lacks the perspective of the students experiencing the reform. Therefore, this study sought to examine the lived experiences of middle school students using PL Tech to understand what structural and cultural arrangements influenced students’ literacy learning.

Portraiture, a qualitative methodology, was employed to conduct the study at a charter school in Fresno, California implementing PL …

Enhancing Classroom Instruction With Online News, Michael D. Ekstrand, Katherine Landau Wright, Maria Soledad Pera

Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Purpose

Investigate how school teachers look for informational texts for their classrooms. Access to current, varied, and authentic informational texts improves learning outcomes for K-12 students, but many teachers lack resources to expand and update readings. The Web offers freely-available resources, but finding suitable ones is time-consuming. This research lays the groundwork for building tools to ease that burden.

Methodology

This paper reports qualitative findings from a study in two stages: (1) a set of semi-structured interviews, based on the Critical Incident Technique, eliciting teachers’ information-seeking practices and challenges; and (2) observations of teachers using a prototype teaching-oriented news search …

Media Literacy As An Internal And External Process. A Response To “Red States, Blue States, And Media Literacy: Political Context And Media Literacy”, Jolie C. Matthews

Democracy & Education

Curry and Cherner’s article, “Red States, Blue States, and Media Literacy: Political Context and Media Literacy,” discusses preservice teachers’ perspectives of teaching media literacy skills in politically opposite “Red” and “Blue” States. In this response, I argue the inclusion of additional demographic information about participants might open up new avenues for which to analyze the data. I also address how the article theoretically takes up media literacy as well what other definitions exist, with suggestions for how the term might be expanded to include internal (self-reflective) and external (outside sources) processes for students and educators to consider.

Incarcerated Fathers’ Experiences In The Read To Your Child/Grandchild Program: Supporting Children’S Literacy, Learning, And Education, Esther Prins, Tabitha Stickel, Anna Kaiper-Marquez

Journal of Prison Education and Reentry (2014-2023)

In response to rising parental incarceration, some correctional facilities and outside organizations offer family literacy programs for parents in prison. However, research on these correctional education initiatives is scant. This paper uses qualitative data to analyze how 11 fathers in a rural Pennsylvania prison were involved in their children’s literacy, learning, and education before and during incarceration and through the Read to Your Child/Grandchild (RYCG) program. Before RYCG, most fathers had taken steps such as reading to children, teaching reading and math, attending parent-teacher conferences, helping with homework, and singing and rhyming—and then sought to continue supporting their children’s learning …

Mediacy: A Way To Enrich Media Literacy, Eva Berger, Robert K. Logan, Anat Ringel, Andrey Miroshnichenko

Journal of Media Literacy Education

We propose that the discipline or practice of media literacy defined as the ability to access, analyze, evaluate and create media in a variety of forms can be enriched and made more effective by incorporating two of Marshall McLuhan’s insights into the nature of media. The first insight is that the effects of media that are independent of their content and intended function are subliminal and they are important because they “shape and control the scale and form of human association and action.” The second insight is that the notion of media includes not just communication media but also all …

Systems Thinking In A Second Grade Curriculum: Students Engaged To Address A Statewide Drought, Margaret Sauceda Curwen, Amy Ardell, Laurie Macgillivray, Rachel Lambert

Education Faculty Articles and Research

Faced with issues, such as drought and climate change, educators around the world acknowledge the need for developing students’ ability to solve problems within and across contexts. A systems thinking pedagogy, which recognizes interdependence and interconnected relationships among concrete elements and abstract concepts (Meadows, 2008; Senge et al., 2012), has potential to transform the classroom into a space of observing, theorizing, discovering, and analyzing, thus linking academic learning to the real world. In a qualitative case study in one school located in a major metropolitan area in California, USA teachers and their 7- and 8-year-old students used systems thinking in …

The Effect Of Digital Tablets' Applications On Reading Achievement Of First Graders In Two Private Schools, Sean Corcoran

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The focus of this research study was to determine the impact of integrating tablets into reading instruction in four first-grade classrooms in two private elementary schools in the southeastern United States. This is important because many schools are utilizing tablets in the instructional process and this seeks to determine if there is an academic value to their use in the classroom. The study was based on the cognitive theory of multimedia learning by Richard Mayer. The researcher sought to identify any possible differences in standardized test scores of students who used tablet applications during reading instruction versus students who did …

Poverty, Literacy, And Social Transformation: An Interdisciplinary Exploration Of The Digital Divide, Amy J. Bach, Todd Wolfson, Jessica K. Crowell

Journal of Media Literacy Education

Harnessing scholarship focused on literacy and poverty, in this article we aim to complicate the common understanding of the digital divide. First, we argue that the dominant literature on the digital divide misses broader connections between technological exclusion and broader forms of economic and social exclusion. Accordingly, and following recent qualitative research on the digital divide, we believe future scholarship must examine the complicated relationships between poverty, inequality, and the digital divide and we look to poverty scholarship to understand the complicated and shifting nature of poverty. Finally, we make the case that scholars and practitioners focused on digital literacy …

Radio Waves And Curriculum Pathways: Jamaican “At Risk” Learners Construct Media, Paulette J. Feraria

Journal of Media Literacy Education

This paper explores radio play as an alternative space for learning language and literacy for Jamaican students labelled as ‘at-risk’ learners. Through the creation of a make-believe radio station in the classroom, students developed oral language skills as a necessary precursor for social literacy. They connected reading and writing activities and the simulated classroom radio station promoted the development of learners’ self-efficacy. The students’ use of the learning space as newscasters, hosts, writers and reporters revealed that those who took risks in learning language and literacy in these spaces subverted the label of ‘at-risk-learners’ and repositioned themselves as risk-takers in …

Perceptions And Experiences Of Teachers And Literacy Coaches' Literacy Instruction, April Jessup Giddens

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The literacy rate in Louisiana remains lower than the national average. This is especially true at Rosewood Elementary School (pseudonym), a D-rated school on a scale of A-F. The problem is that teachers are unsuccessful in trying to improve students' literacy test scores, despite several targeted efforts to give them tools to make these improvements. The purpose of this study is to explore the literacy practices, beliefs, and professional development of teachers at Rosewood Elementary. The conceptual framework of this study included Clark and Peterson's cognitive process teacher model, which focuses on teachers' thought processes and their behaviors in the …

Digital Media Production To Support Literacy For Secondary Students With Diverse Learning Abilities, April Marie Leach

Journal of Media Literacy Education

Producing digital media is a hands-on, inquiry-based mindful process that naturally embeds Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles into literacy instruction, providing options for learning and assessment for a wide array of students with diverse learning abilities. Video production learning experiences acknowledge the cognitive talents of some students labeled “disabled.” For some, the discovery of personal abilities activated when learning through the production process may motivate deeper learning. Although challenges of access, quality of teacher preparation and assessment strategies represent significant challenges, digital media production learning experiences offer diverse learners a rich, socially interactive environment that models open communication and …

Teacher Experiences In Elementary Word Study Instruction: A Phenomenological Study, Gregory Mihalik

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to describe the experience of integrating word study spelling programs for second grade teachers across six elementary schools in Northern Virginia. Word study is a developmental spelling approach that can be used by teachers to differentiate instruction and meet student needs. Despite the growing popularity of the program and increased classroom application, many schools nationwide continue to use memory-based traditional methods. Based on a review of the word study literature, the study sought to describe the experience of second grade teachers implementing word study spelling instruction in their classrooms. This study explored the …

Impact Of Integrated Science And English Language Arts Literacy Supplemental Instructional Intervention On Science Academic Achievement Of Elementary Students, Jamar Marks

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this quasi-experimental, nonequivalent pretest-posttest control group design study was to determine if any differences existed in upper elementary school students’ science academic achievement when instructed using an 8-week integrated science and English language arts literacy supplemental instructional intervention in conjunction with traditional science classroom instruction as compared to when instructed using solely traditional science classroom instruction. The targeted sample population consisted of fourth-grade students enrolled in a public elementary school located in the southeastern region of the United States. The convenience sample size consisted of 115 fourth-grade students enrolled in science classes. The pretest and posttest academic …

Translanguaging Supports Reading With Deaf Adult Bilinguals: A Qualitative Approach, Dan Hoffman, Ju-Lee Wolsey, Jean Andrews, Diane Clark

The Qualitative Report

Translanguaging is a pedagogical theory and an approach to teaching language. It conceptualizes the dynamic ways in which bilinguals use their linguistic repertoire and language practices in both languages for learning, meaning-making, reading, and writing. This study reports on the results of a qualitative study using Grounded Theory. The research question posed was, “what insights do bilingual Deaf readers provide regarding their metalinguistic processes and reading strategies used during translanguaging? To answer this question, responses were gathered from Deaf adults who were interviewed on their language and literacy histories. Further, they were queried about their reading comprehension practices using translanguaging. …

Grade Point Level, Reading Fluency, And Perceived Digital Reading Ability Of Video Game Players And Nonplayers, Soonhwa Seok, Boaventura Dacosta

Journal of Educational Technology Development and Exchange (JETDE)

This study compared grade point level, silent contextual reading fluency, and perceived digital reading ability of 1,206 South Korean video game players and nonplayers in grades 9 through 12. The findings strengthen results reported in the literature while also contributing new information. Nonplayers had better grades, a finding that supports previous research showing that gameplay can negatively influence academic performance. Nonplayers were better readers, a finding in disagreement with studies showing that Internet use, to include video game play, can help with reading performance. While players held higher views of themselves regarding their digital reading ability, these perceptions were not …

The Case For A Socio-Cultural Approach To Literacy And Student Support Services, Marina Palomino-Bach, Julia Fisher

Journal of Catholic Education

Many urban Catholic high schools pride themselves as developing our students in a holistic way. In these schools, educators are able to develop and support their students in both a moral and an academic sense. This belief in educating the whole child is appealing to many families, especially those in our most underserved urban contexts. Families in these urban contexts look toward Catholic high schools as offering the necessary holistic support and guidance needed to achieve academic, collegiate, and moral success and stability. As co-developers of a newly launched Academic Resource Center within one urban Catholic high school setting, however, …

Using The News To Enhance Critical Thinking And Engagement In Middle And High School Students, Jessica Walters

Journal of Catholic Education

This article describes the author’s adaptation of Gallagher’s (2009) Article of the Week approach to teaching students literacy skills using current events. The use of this unique instructional routine within the context of a Catholic middle school language arts classroom has proven successful for supporting students in developing critical literacy and an understanding of moral leadership by examining world events from a Catholic worldview.

Kindergarten Literacy Readiness Before And After Highscope Implementation, Chandra Kathleen Youngblood

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Students who attended preschool in an urban Michigan district are not entering kindergarten with the necessary skills. The preschool implemented the HighScope curriculum and the effect of this curriculum on kindergarten readiness was unknown. The purpose of this causal-comparative study was to investigate the difference in kindergarten readiness scores of students who attended a preschool before and after the High Scope curriculum was implemented. The pedagogical practices of preschool and the HighScope curriculum align with Dewey and Vygotsky's theories on experiential learning which were the foundation that guided this causal comparative study. The research questions examined preschool letter identification and …

Teachers' Knowledge Of Dominie Reading And Writing Assessment Portfolio Word-Level Reading, Maxine Y. Kershaw

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

There is confusion among teachers in a school district in a southeastern state about the instructional use of the state-mandated Dominie assessment for word-level reading and phonemic awareness skills for kindergarten and first-grade students. Recent assessment data indicated that 20% of students tested in kindergarten and first grade needed remediation. The purpose of this qualitative, bounded case study of a primary school was to understand teachers' perceptions about using the Dominie assessment for instruction, and how these perceptions contribute to the decline in reading scores. Using constructivism as a conceptual framework, the research questions focused on the trends in students' …

Content Area Teacher Perspectives On Integrating Literacy Strategies, Lynette Smith Smith

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The Common Core State Standards recommend that all educators prepare students with the literacy skills needed for college and careers. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to examine 7th and 8th grade content area teachers' perspectives towards teaching literacy. The research questions addressed teachers' capabilities in the role of literacy instructor as well as the actual application of literacy. The conceptual framework included Bruner's constructivist, Bandura's self-efficacy, and Knowles's andragogy theories. These theories informed the investigation of adult learners' perspectives regarding the way they learn and gain confidence to provide literacy instruction. Eleven English, math, science, and social …

The Frequency Of Texting On Middle School Students' Writing Achievement, Jennifer French

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this correlational study was to discover the impact of texting on writing achievement for middle school students. The theory guiding this study is Vygotsky’s Social Cognitive Theory (Newman & Holzman, 2013) as it explains that learning is influenced by one’s social environment. The data that will be collected consists of the scores of the writing portion of the 2014-2015 state standardized test (ISTEP), a student survey answering questions about texting practices, and student status information on Free and Reduced Meals. The multiple regression analysis will be used to analyze this data because as inferential statistics it can …

Cultivating Literacy And Relationships With Adolescent Scholars Of Color, Noah Asher Golden, Erica Womack

Education Faculty Articles and Research

The authors explore strength-based learning projects that value the lived realities and literacies of adolescent scholars of color, setting the stage for the powerful relationships through which meaningful learning happens.