Teacher Education and Professional Development Commons^™

Powerpoint Games In A Secondary Laptop Environment, Michael K. Barbour, Jim Kinsella, Lloyd P. Rieber

Education Faculty Publications

There is no denying the success and popularity of WebQuests among teachers. For those interested in technology integration, this is a significant step in the right direction. Yet, WebQuests are instructivist examples of technology integration – they are web-enhanced forms of direct instruction. We consider constructing homemade PowerPoint games as a constructionist alternative to WebQuests. PowerPoint is nearly ubiquitous software and teachers already use existing games in their classrooms. The authors contend that a better use of class time for learning is to turn over the act of game design to the children themselves. In this project, students in social …

Enumclaw School District Summer Reading Program, Lea Kai Tiger

All Graduate Projects

The aim of this project is to improve the elementary summer school program currently offered by the Enumclaw School District by developing a reading program to be used by the summer school instructors. Instruction outside of the school day, characteristics of successful extracurricular programs, why reading needs to be the focus of the summer school program, and what to teach and how to teach reading were researched. Taking the information found after studying the aforementioned topics, a program to be used for the Enumclaw School District summer school was developed. The program consists of lessons, games, and strategies that can …

Differentiated Instruction In The Work Sample: A Study Of Preservice Teacher Practice, Amy Lynn Dee

Faculty Publications - College of Education

Successfully implementing the practice of inclusion by differentiating instruction is dependent upon both the skills and attitudes of general education teachers. New general education teachers who are entering the field are particularly vulnerable to the demands and stress of the profession, and exemplary preservice teacher education programs must prepare pre service teachers to meet the needs of all students by giving them the skills to make appropriate lesson adaptations, accommodations and modifications. This study investigates the manifestation of differentiation for special education students in work sample lesson plans written by preservice teachers working toward an elementary school credential. The research …

Teacher Retention: Program Evaluation Of A Beginning Teacher And Mentor Program, Janet B. Anthony

Education Dissertations and Projects

This dissertation evaluated a beginning teacher induction and mentor program currently used in a rural, county school system in western North Carolina and its effectiveness in the retention of teachers. The system has 29 schools, around 16,690 students, and employs approximately 1200 certified staff members. Using the CIPP Evaluation Model with a formative approach, information was gathered about the conditions that necessitated the program, procedures and practices used by the system to provide support and assistance to beginning teachers, whether or not established processes were being followed, and the impact of the program on beginning teacher retention. Individual and focus …

Professional Learning Communities: A Case Study Of The Implementation Of Plcs At An Elementary School Based On Huffman And Hipp's Five Dimensions And Critical Attributes, Shannon Long

Education Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this case study was to examine the change in perceptions of instructional staff in regards to five dimensions as it proceeded in establishing a professional learning community. The researcher utilized focused interview sessions, group interview questionnaires, and Huffman and Hipp's Professional Learning Survey to determine how the staff perceived the implementation of professional learning communities. The findings of this study will help the school of study determine the next steps of their journey of implementing professional learning communities.

The Impact Of Teacher Self-Efficacy In Writing On Instruction And Evaluation Of Writing In A School District In Western North Carolina, Deanna Berrier

Education Dissertations and Projects

This dissertation was designed to examine the writing strategies and scoring practices of fourth-grade teachers on the North Carolina Fourth Grade Writing Assessment and local, county-wide writing assessments by collecting data from 13 elementary schools located in rural, western North Carolina.

Both qualitative and quantitative means of data collection were implemented. Inter-rater reliability was used to determine reliability of the fourth-grade teachers' scoring using the North Carolina Fourth Grade Writing Assessment Rubric. Qualitative data was collected through the use of two surveys administered to the fourth-grade teachers in the county. Interviews and a focus group were also used to determine …

A Case Study Of A High School Transition Program Into The Ninth Grade, Jamie Douglas Durant

Education Dissertations and Projects

This dissertation was designed to examine and evaluate the effectiveness of a Ninth-Grade Transition Program at a Rural High School in Central North Carolina. The ninth grade is a pivotal year that determines which students will prevail and which students will fail to finish high school (Hertzog, 2003). It is essential that schools put in place components that ease the transition into high school and provide ongoing support.

Investigation measuring instruments used by the researcher included a two-part student survey and focus groups involving students in the ninth grade and those teachers who teach in the ninth grade. The data …

A Case Study Of The Impact Of A High School Advisory Program On Student Behaviors And Relationships, Matthew W. Stover

Education Dissertations and Projects

This case study dissertation was conducted to determine the perceptions of teachers and students about the school's advisory program. From 2003 to 2008, the high school had 279 student dropouts out of an average student population of 950. As a result of the student dropouts, the school adopted an advisory program. The studied school created the advisory program to change student behaviors and build student and staff relationships.

The research questions that guided the study were: (1) What was the impact of Check and Connect on student and staff relationships; (2) What was the impact of Check and Connect on …

Support For Youth Workers: Slipping On The Social Curve, John K E Tan

Social Space

What are the issues concerning the training of our youth workers? What support exists for them? Are we creating a vacuum where we are grooming an increasing number of youth workers and not providing enough resources to ensure their sustenance? Children-At- Risk Empowerment Association's (CARE Singapore) John K E Tan sheds some light on this matter.

Practice Writing: Responding To The Needs Of The Bench And Bar In First-Year Writing Programs, Amy Vorenberg, Margaret Sova Mccabe

Law Faculty Scholarship

Do first year legal writing programs really prepare law students for the rigors of practice writing? This article begins to answer this question based on attorney and judge survey results, as well as interviews with judges who had also read student work in preparation for their interview. We found that while legal writing programs do provide a good foundation for legal writing skills, improvement can be made. Important changes that we have made at Pierce Law include shorter, more frequent assignments, variation/flexibility in choice of organizational paradigm, understanding the difference between settled and unsettled areas of law, and increased emphasis …

Service Learning In Preservice Teacher Preparation: Building Foundations For Engaged Professionalism In The New Millenium, Amy Strage, Susan Gomez, Kari Knutson-Miller, Ana Garcia-Nevarez

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Building On The Cultural And Linguistic Capital Of English Learner (El) Students, Kathryn Brooks, Katya Karathanos

Scholarship and Professional Work – Education

...While our nation has a long history of competing ideologies and political controversies related to English immersion (in which the primary language of instruction is English) programs versus bilingual education, scholars contend that these two educational approaches need not be conceptualized as dichotomous. Rather, when educators consider what approaches and strategies will provide the best opportunities for particular students to learn in particular contexts, they must bear in mind that for EL students, their native languages and cultures are key resources to draw upon for teaching both content and language (Lucas & Katz, 1994). They must also think about how …

Working Toward A Third Space In The Teaching Of Elementary Mathematics, Ryan Flessner

Scholarship and Professional Work – Education

Building on work in the area of third space theory, this study documents one teacher’s efforts to create third spaces in an elementary mathematics classroom. In an attempt to link the worlds of theory and practice, I examine how the work of other theorists and researchers – inside and outside the field of education – can create new lenses for classroom practitioners. In addition, the article provides evidence that third spaces may be more difficult to realize than others have described. Rather than forcing a third space to emerge, what this study finds more important is creating an environment that …

School, Home, And Community: A Symbiosis For A Literacy Partnership, Karen C. Waters

Education Faculty Publications

With the belief that fertile ground for a literate environment is created through lots of oral language, ancestral anecdotes, and reading a variety of genre in fiction and nonfiction, it is possible to link home and school literacy communities. This chapter describes the connection between district literacy events and functional home activities as the basis for a partnership in developing higher level thinking that transcends the classroom. At monthly get-togethers, families were encouraged to participate in the very activities that were used in the classroom as part of the district's literacy block. In helping families acquire a few basic strategies …

Strategy Instruction And Lessons Learned In Teaching Higher Level Thinking Skills In An Urban Middle School Classroom, Karen C. Waters

Education Faculty Publications

Through a compilation of standards-based lesson plans for small- and whole-group instruction, this chapter offers a humorous and heartbreaking perspective of the author's experiences during a yearlong university partnership “Book Bistro” in a 7th grade classroom with urban adolescent struggling readers. Using a combination of leveled, fictional, nonfictional, and culturally relevant text, the chapter is written as a personal narrative to address higher level thinking through systematic instruction in comprehension, vocabulary, fluency, and structural analysis. A step-by-step implementation procedure for each of the research-based strategies is presented, including concept of definition, discussion web, probable passage, pointed reading, semantic feature analysis, …

Saying Yes To Freestyle Volunteering: Doubting And Believing, Judy Lightfoot

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

My formerly academic interest in Peter Elbow's work developed fresh relevance a few years ago after a member of my family was diagnosed with schizophrenia. To volunteer "outside the box" with individuals who suffer from mental illness or homelessness, I needed a skeptic's doubt as well as an enthusiast :S belief But the first step was believing.

Reflections From A Grateful Guest Edit, Peter Elbow

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

No abstract provided.

Jaepl, Vol. 15, Winter 2009-2010, Kristie S. Fleckenstein, Linda T. Calendrillo

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

Essays

Peter Elbow - Reflections from a Grateful Guest Editor

Sheridan Blau - Believing and Doubting as Hermeneutic Metbod: Reading and Teaching Paradue Lost

Tim Doherty - Lessons from tbe Believing Game

Anne Ellen Geller - The Difficulty of Believing in Writing Across the Curriculum

Shelly Sheats Harkness, Catherine Pullin Lane, Sue Mau, Amber Brass - The Believing Game in Mathematics: Stories in a Discipline of Doubt

Judy Lightfoot - Saying Yes to Freestyle Volunteering: Doubting and Believing

Clyde Moneyhun - Believing, Doubting, Deciding, Acting

Irene Papoulis - A Refiection on Habitual Belief and Habitual Doubt

Stephanie Paterson - Friday …

The Difficulty Of Believing In Writing Across The Curriculum, Anne Ellen Geller

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

What would happen if we tried to consider writing-acrossthe- curriculum work through the lens of Peter Elbows methodological believing? If we were to believe that every faculty person in the university is a writer, thinks about writing, and teaches writing in his or her own way, what virtues would we find that doubting leads us to disqualify?

Cooperative Learning In The Mathematics Classroom, Janine Regnier

Mathematics Graduate Theses

Student interactions are important which provokes the idea that cooperative learning should be incorporated into classrooms. Research states many benefits for incorporating cooperative learning and are included in the literature review. Cooperative groups were introduced and studied by the author, who ultimately concluded that cooperative learning does have a place in Mathematics classrooms and should be used when the lesson lends itself to a cooperative environment. The study results can be found in this paper following the literature review.

To What Degree Will Differentiated Instruction Impact Student Grades In A Middle School Classroom?, Maureen K. Wilke

Mathematics Graduate Theses

The middle school student population encompasses one of the widest ranges of diversity in the educational system. Besides cultural, religious, educational, economical diversity, the middle school student copes with physical and psychological changes as well. It is important to understand that reaching students successfully is not teaching one way, but providing a learning experience based on students’ needs. The five key differentiated strategies in the classroom are: knowing the student, the environment, meaningful lessons, tiered assignments, and assessment. Gather as much information on the students, such as data from past standardize tests, conversation with students, student journals about success and …

Front Matter

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

Editor's Message.

Believing And Doubting As Hermeneutic Method: Reading And Teaching Paradise Lost, Sheridan Blau

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

Using a variation on Peter Elbow's believing game, I help students discover the degree to which Milton in Paradise Lost succeeds in his explicit attempt to justify God's ways to man and in that success also offers us an account of human happiness and misery that is psychologically sophisticated, spiritually illuminating, entirely rational, and supremely wise as a guide to living a humanly satisfying life. Such an approach to Paradise Lost also fosters an experience of the text through which many students undergo a modern version of the spiritual transformation and enlightenment that Milton explicitly aimed to make possible for …

Before Belief: Embodiment And The “Trying Game”, Donna Strickland

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

I use my experience of teaching "Mindful Writing" to reflect on the pre-cognitive act of "trying out" new ideas. It seems that there's an important piece of the believing game that happens before the cognitive act of belief and that involves the body as much as the mind.

Reviews, Julie J. Nichols, Charles Suhor, Edward Sullivan

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

Reviews

Julie J. Nichols - Meaning and The Evolution of Consciousness: A Retrospective on the Writing of Owen Barfield

Charles Suhor - The Great Transfonnation: The Beginnings of Our Religious Traditions

Charles Suhor - The Chalice and the Blade

Edward Sullivan - The Art of Learning: An Inner Journey to Optimal Performance

Believing, Doubting, Deciding, Acting, Clyde Moneyhun

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

I used Peter Elbow's believing and doubting games and cooked up two games of my own, to structure a first-year writing class aimed at teaching students to read and reason critically. The first new game has been hinted at by Elbow himself: the deciding game, in which students used their exercises in believing and doubting to make up their minds about a topic. The second new game, which my students called the living game, asked them to extend their intellectual decisions into the world and take or recommend actions based on them. This was all enacted through a series of …

Friday Writes: An Exercise In The Believing Game, Stephanie Paterson

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

I introduce the basic principles for the practice of proprioceptive writing and describe the experience and outcomes of incorporating this ungraded writing into three undergraduate compostion classes. I offer this as a case study of a writer, teacher, and reflective practitioner emboldened by Peter Elbow's believing game, and I point out some of the intellectual and pedagogical discoveries that emerged in my fourteen-week experiment.

Connecting, Helen Walker, Andrew Statum, Vic Kryston, Jie Li, Dominique Zino, Joonna Smitherman Trapp

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

Connecting - Helen Walker

Andrew Statum - The Question

Vic Kryston -Conflict Resolution

Jie Li - Teaching with Accent

Dominique Zino - Space

Joonna Smitherman Trapp - Composition Class 7:45 AM

Response To Intervention: Reading Project For Intermediate Level Educators, Kevin Wayne Newell

All Graduate Projects

The author's project provides intermediate level reading teachers with a flowchart exemplifying a way to implement a Response to Intervention model. Research indicates that Response to Intervention models have greatly impacted student academic performance. The flowchart provides teachers with a blueprint which may be helpful in identifying and correcting student deficiencies. The flowchart clearly outlines instructional components of service delivery including duration of student sessions, the size of groups involved, length of intervention determined, and methods of assessment The specific detailed responsibilities outlined to staff are designed to improve not only the efficiency of service provided to students, but to …

Sitka School District Kindergarten Literacy Curriculum Handbook, Jacqueline Elizabeth Hedrick

All Graduate Projects

The intent of this handbook is to provide support to a teacher and be used as a resource. This document is intended to guide a Baranof Elementary Kindergarten teacher, through the year, with the use of a theme document. However, the scope and sequence contains the skills and content that must be addressed by the end of the year. The literacy curriculum handbook was developed based on Froebel's kindergarten philosophy and Bruner's educational philosophy that early childhood education should be hands-on and developmentally appropriate. The handbook includes programs available to kindergarten teachers in Sitka, Alaska while continuing to be content-based, …