Teacher Education and Professional Development Commons^™

Thinking Outside The Box: Incorporating Critical Thinking Strategies In Esl Reading & Writing Instruction, Johanna Carranza

Master's Projects and Capstones

ABSTRACT

ESL students in the United States avail the resources of community college to achieve their goal of academic excellence. However, many community colleges struggle to prepare their students for mainstream four-year institutions. Aside from reading, writing, and speaking, learning a second language requires the development of critical thinking skills which are not emphasized enough for many ESL students in contemporary American academia.

As such, there are two major problems that this project aims to address. The first is that English as a Second Language (ESL) and English instructors have different expectations for ESL students. ESL instructors do not focus …

Revisiting A Classic: A Book Review Of Understanding Reading: A Psycholinguistic Analysis Of Reading And Learning, Chris Sclafani

Networks: An Online Journal for Teacher Research

Often, the teaching profession spends a great deal of time looking towards the future, or considering what might be the next big trend that will help students. However, it is sometimes important to reflect back upon the texts and ideas that set the tone for the profession. Understanding Reading: A Psycholinguistic Analysis of Reading and Learning by Frank Smith is a classic text that laid the foundation for teachers of literacy to move from an existence of teaching rules and exceptions to becoming an actively involved participant in the process of building and facilitating comprehension in students of all ages. …

Elementary Teachers' Beliefs Of Using Guided Reading Pedagogy And Student Data, Ivonne Miranda

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

In today's classrooms, many teachers meet students' reading needs by providing guided reading. However, little is known about how teachers combine student data and pedagogical content knowledge to plan guided readings lessons. This study focused on understanding how elementary teachers use guided reading pedagogical content knowledge and student data when planning a guided reading lesson. The conceptual framework was based on Fountas and Pinnell's guided reading framework, and Clay's theory of data collection with respect to literacy processing. The research questions concerned how teachers' use, guide, and reflect on guided reading pedagogical content knowledge and students data when planning a …

Teachers' Perceptions About Reading Instruction In Elementary Inclusion Classrooms, Elizabeth Ann Kempf

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Researchers argued that special education students should learn alongside regular education students because involvement with peers affects special education students' ability to assimilate information. However, inclusive elementary classroom teachers in a local Texas school were struggling to meet the learning needs of their diverse student populations in reading instruction. The purpose of this study was to explore teachers' perceptions about reading instruction in an inclusion setting and to investigate what teachers believe was needed to improve the effectiveness of their practice. King-Sears's inclusion instructional model served as the conceptual framework to guide this study. The research questions were focused on …