Other Teacher Education and Professional Development Commons^™

Using Assessments Intentionally With Consideration For English Language Learners, Elizabeth Ropp

Masters Projects

Assessment systems in the United States are failing English Language Learners (ELLs), and it has become apparent that action must be taken to try and right this injustice. There is a wide achievement gap between native English speakers and non-native English speakers when it comes to performance on state, local, and classroom assessments. Unfortunately, many teachers report that they do not feel adequately prepared to support ELLs both on classroom assessments and on mandatory state or local tests. With an ever-growing increase in ELL enrollment in American schools, it is imperative that teachers are given tools to help them better …

Using Poetry To Help Young Adults Cope With Mental Health Challenges, Erin Seeley

Language Arts Journal of Michigan

This manuscript explores the use of poetry to support young adults in coping with mental health challenges, including anxiety, grief, and trauma. Drawing on real classroom experiences and examples from young adult literature in verse, this paper illustrates how poetry can provide students with a safe outlet for self-expression, emotional processing, and connection to others. Works by Elizabeth Acevedo, Thanhha Lai, and Benedetti are examined to demonstrate how poetry fosters belonging, resilience, and hope. Implications for educators highlight the role of literature in promoting social-emotional learning and mental health awareness in the classroom.

Coaching For The Whole Teacher: 10 Humanistic Practices For Reflective And Relational Literacy Coaching, Emily Caylor

Michigan Reading Journal

At a time when teacher professional learning often emphasizes compliance and efficiency, literacy coaching can serve as a humanizing counterbalance that centers teachers’ identities and professional agency. This article draws from a yearlong coaching partnership between a literacy coach and an experienced elementary teacher to illustrate how reflection, relational trust, and dialogic interaction cultivate teachers’ intrapersonal awareness and willingness to change. Grounded in Maslow’s (1943) hierarchy of needs as a foundational layer of psychological safety and Korthagen’s (2004) onion model as a framework for identity-centered reflection, this work positions coaching as a relational, dialogic, and context-sensitive process. The article translates …

Learning Labs As A Professional Development Model To Strengthen Special Education Literacy Instruction, Claire Krajkowski

Masters Projects

Special education teachers face unique challenges in delivering effective literacy instruction to students with disabilities, yet traditional professional development often remains disconnected from the realities of special education classrooms. These conventional models frequently lack opportunities for sustained collaboration, reflective practice, and the application of evidence-based strategies tailored to diverse learner needs. This project presents a comprehensive plan for designing and facilitating Learning Labs, a form of embedded professional development grounded in constructivist and sociocultural theories. The Learning Lab model emphasizes collaborative inquiry, pedagogically productive talk, and the analysis of authentic instructional artifacts to deepen teachers’ understanding of effective literacy instruction. …

Teaching To Transgress: A Practice Of Justice And Healing In Teacher Education Program, Finney Cherain, Syed Ali Nasir Zaidi

Language Arts Journal of Michigan

We create deep connections with our surroundings, people and societies, and classrooms are one of such deep connections. Classrooms are spaces where the unfulfilled dreams and painful experiences of teachers and students can fester and estrange classrooms from being places of justice and hope. The absence of justice, healing and hope estranges public education of many of its democratic ideals and promises. We believe that teachers and students can heal together to deconstruct their experiences with oppression and envision new ways of coexisting with others and personally transform. Influenced by the work of Bell Hooks and Parker Palmer we offer …

Building Anti-Racist Teacher Education, Kel Nemetz

Masters Projects

Preschool through twelfth grade education in the United States is ever evolving and has always been influenced by socio-political context. Throughout history, the goals, methods, and values of public education have shifted depending on political ideologies and influence. This thesis acknowledges the major significance and impact decisions like these can make on our students in PK-12 schools and on the educators who teach them, while centering the importance of anti-racism as a foundational goal. Despite the anti-diversity, equity, and inclusion political campaign lead by Trump’s second administration to try to dismantle all DEI efforts in PK-12 schools and beyond, this …

Coaching And Developing Non-Certified Instructional Staff In Key Literacy Practices, Holly Nicole Bigos

Masters Projects

Paraprofessionals are vital staff members of elementary schools that often provide small group instruction for struggling students to develop key literacy skills. Despite the critical contribution paraprofessionals can provide, schools often neglect to adequately train and develop these staff members to support students’ instructional literacy needs. This project explores the relevant history of paraprofessional staff in schools and the current need for increased development and support of these staff members. Additionally, modern sustainable solutions are explored to develop paraprofessional literacy knowledge and instructional skills for these vital staff members. Programming recommendations are grounded in adult learning theory, feedback and coaching, …

Supporting 3rd Grade Reading Proficiency: Utilizing Paraprofessionals To Provide Literacy Intervention, Hayley Jacobs

Masters Projects

Being able to read on grade level by third grade is a standard across the United States for public school systems. With the current educational climate enduring a teacher shortage, the ability to provide consistent reading intervention is affected. Paraprofessionals are increasingly being hired to support these gaps, but are not provided with the necessary resources and professional development to employ quality reading intervention. This project will provide the framework of a professional development schedule with necessary resources for paraprofessionals to refer to and expectations for paraprofessionals and administrators when implementing it.

Faculty Learning Community: Advancing Faculty Academic Advising Pedagogy, Linda Jean Raynard

Masters Projects

Within higher educational institutions faculty may serve in a faculty advising role. The quality of faculty advising conversations can impact student’s sense of mattering and support to campus leadership, community, and beyond. Faculty, however, have competing priorities and a lack of pathological training that has prevented them from investing deeper in advising practices. Students may then miss important opportunities to initially connect with campus leaders about their curricular and co-curricular development. To better operationalize academic advising practices for faculty to use in their everyday student conversations, a faculty learning community is suggested to aid. The Faculty Learning Community: Advancing Faculty …

Addressing The Teacher Shortage: School-Sponsored Alternative Teacher Certification Programs, Briana Renee Pepke Herr

Masters Projects

The ongoing teacher shortage in America has created an unprecedented demand for high-quality educators. To address this challenge, the establishment of school-sponsored or company-sponsored alternative certification programs is necessary. These partnership initiatives should involve assigning school or company employees as coaches to candidates, facilitating bi-weekly in-person and online coaching sessions to enhance instructional practices, and offering constructive coursework feedback. The primary objective is to equip aspiring alternatively certified teachers with essential skills, ensuring they are highly qualified while receiving ongoing support. This project highlights the need for school-sponsored alternative certification programs in producing highly qualified teachers capable of meeting the …

Building A Beloved Community Of Literacy In Professional Spaces, Elizabeth Petroelje Stolle, Jennifer L. Vanderground

Michigan Reading Journal

This article shares the experiences of two literacy teacher educators who sought to create a beloved community for both themselves and the teachers with whom they work within their professional spaces. The authors emphasize the importance of fostering safe, collaborative environments that promote personal and professional growth. Drawing from the principles of the Beloved Community, popularized by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the authors discuss the value of embracing a growth mindset when building such communities. Specifically, the article delves into two different professional development models as effective frameworks for cultivating beloved communities: Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) and Learning Labs …

Transforming Faculty Identities Within A Community Of Practice: An Academic Literacies Model, Gabriela Gui, Richard Vandermolen, Rui Niu-Cooper, Mary Bair

Peer Reviewed Articles

The COVID-19 pandemic of 2020-21 caused faculty to struggle with remote teaching and scholarship productivity. This article examines the experiences of faculty members who participated in a professional development project focused on writing for publication during the pandemic. Through an academic literacy lens, results indicate that participation in a community of practice was a transformative experience that helped faculty members build capacity for scholarly writing, develop writer’s identities, provide and receive increased emotional support, and develop closer relationships with colleagues. Vital to this transformation were faculty commitment and a structured and supportive community.

Case Study Of An Sel Coach And Instructional Specialist: Understanding A New Role, Rachelle S. Savitz, Jacy Ippolito

Michigan Reading Journal

As social and emotional learning (SEL) moves to the forefront of elementary education, new roles are emerging: SEL coaches and instructional specialists. While these new roles may mirror literacy coaches in many ways, there is still much that is unknown. Therefore, this exploratory qualitative case study documents how a district-based SEL instructional specialist/coach describes her role and the impact of her work. Analyses focus on semi-structured interviews and artifacts, such as her formal role description and weekly sample schedules. Findings illustrate three main ways of synthesizing and integrating a multitude of professional SEL responsibilities: 1) through building relationships and ongoing …

Career Counseling: How To Help School Counselors Analyze And Strengthen Their Program, Kevin Scott Squire

Masters Projects

Abstract

The American School Counseling Association lays out three main domains of focus for school counselors: academic, social-emotional, and career developments. This project explores research related to the theory and background of career counseling and the current state of career counseling services being offered and shows data that supports my claim that career counseling services are often the smallest percentage of time dedication of the three domains. The implementation of the project will include helping school counselors analyze their current career counseling services offered to students, time spent creating and providing these services, and providing resources to improve their career …

Professional Learning For Educators To Gain Knowledge On Incorporating Trauma-Informed Teaching Practices To Support All Students, Morgan Pueschel

Masters Projects

Teachers and other school personnel need to take time to meet the basic needs of students and build relationships with them. Schools need to teach, model, and allow students to practice social and emotional skills which will in turn, provide students with the ability to learn and increase academic performance (Brackett & Rivers, 2014). The purpose of this project is to create a teacher professional learning opportunity for all school staff that work directly with students to teach them about trauma, the prevalence, how it impacts students, and trauma-informed teaching practices such as the use of social and emotional learning …

Exploring Using Game-Based Learning And Gamification In A Secondary Classroom To Increase Engagement, Mandee Lynn Thiell

Masters Projects

Research has connected the importance of student engagement and student experience within the classroom but continue to use teacher directed traditional teaching methods. This project explores the use of gamification and game-based learning and how it promotes student engagement. The use of games and game-elements provide a relevant approach that focuses on student autonomy and experience, and ultimately use fun engaging ways to motivate students to learn. This project provides an entry level learning in-service opportunity for secondary educators to discover and create their own lessons that implement gamification and game-based learning in their classrooms in hopes to increase student …

Culturally Responsive Teaching As A Way To Narrow The Opportunity Gap For African American Students, Emily Bazini

Masters Projects

Research reiterates the importance of implementing culturally responsive teaching and learning. Today, African American students and their families are in critical need for schools and teachers to support and implement characteristics of culturally responsive teaching and learning. The regular, standard curriculum is not benefitting African American students, as they are unable to make personal connections to their learning. In order to fully meet the needs of African American students, it is imperative that the teaching methods and the curriculum taught incorporate the cultural background and home lives of these students. It is important to note that the teaching workforce is …

Nurturing The Learning Zone: Moving Toward Hope And Possibility While Coaching Through The Covid-19 Pandemic, Dana Vanderlugt, Kathy Levandoski, Erica R. Hamilton

Michigan Reading Journal

Effective instructional coaching is teacher-centered and responsive, aimed at supporting K-12 teachers’ and their students’ learning and development. Using Briceño’s (2016) challenge to shift humans from “performance zones” to “learning zones”, this article showcases the adjustments two instructional coaches made as they worked throughout the COVID-19 pandemic to support teachers’ learning zones. Their work included facilitating meaningful peer observations, creating space for purposeful dialogues centered on relevant research and practice, and intentionally meeting teachers where they were at. Based on their experiences and feedback, attending to teachers’ learning zones holds positive and long-term implications for instructional coaches seeking to find …

Virtual Literacy Coaching: A Response To Time, Space, And Resources, Kimberly Peters

Michigan Reading Journal

Athletes use video all the time to carefully breakdown their physical performance while also selecting areas to improve based on video footage. Why should teachers be any less engaged in their instructional performance? Applying these same principles in education has potential to create an awareness in a teacher’s literacy instructional performance. Virtual literacy coaching is a job embedded professional learning model and it was one rural educational district's answer to time, space, and resources.

Teaching With The Genius In Mind: Enacting Literacy As A Civil Right, Katie Glupker, Pam Gower, Angela Knight

Language Arts Journal of Michigan

Because literacy is a civil right, educators are responsible for designing and implementing literacy education that is designed with the excellence of all students in mind. In order to learn about ways to ensure that literary practices are equitable for all students, the authors joined an educators’ book club to read Cultivating Genius: An Equity Framework for Culturally and Historically Responsive Literacy by Gholdy Muhammad. Muhammad describes the Black literary societies of the past and challenges educators of today to enhance classrooms by upholding equity and excellence through a five-layered framework: Identity, Skills, Intellect, Criticality, and Joy.

We studied Muhammad’s …

Supporting English Language Learners: Preparing Content Area Teachers To Promote Academic Achievement Among Culturally And Linguistically Diverse Learner Populations., Molly K. Roesler

Masters Projects

Teachers throughout the United States continue to be ill-prepared to support the evergrowing English Language Learner (ELL) population. ELLs often experience less academic achievement than their non-ELL peers. One factor in this academic gap is the amount of preparation content area teachers receive. Content area teachers are not sufficiently prepared to teach ELLs because of the lack of training they receive in Second Language Acquisition theories and strategies. This project examines what the research has identified as negative factors that result in lack of teacher preparation, and how to address these factors. Additionally, the project examines what the research highlights …

Grey Clouds And Silver Linings: Professional Learning For Secondary Educators During Covid-19, Jenelle Williams

Michigan Reading Journal

No abstract provided.

Virtual Coaching: Throughout And Beyond A Pandemic, Kimberly Blumke

Michigan Reading Journal

This article describes the implementation of virtual coaching to overcome barriers encountered with face to face coaching. The author gives an explanation of why virtual coaching was first explored and how it is currently being used with K-3 teachers to promote the use of the K-3 Essential Instructional Practices in Early Literacy. Additional information and specific documents are shared at the end of the article.

Big Kids Need Books Too: Lessons Learned From Building Classroom Libraries At The Secondary Level, Jenelle Williams, Megan Kortlandt

Michigan Reading Journal

This article is intended to describe the rationale and process of creating and effectively using classroom libraries in middle- and high-school English Language Arts classrooms. The authors connect theory to practice, using research to guide decisions about book selection and teacher professional development that takes into account the unique affordances and constraints of using classroom libraries at the secondary level. Additionally, the authors include considerations for the current reality of remote, virtual, and blended learning scenarios.

From Critical Self Reflection To Cultivating Equitable Literacy Classrooms: Educators Creating Pd As They Move Forward With Hope, Elisabeth Spinner, Emily Sommer, Naitnaphit C. Limlamai, Anna J. Roseboro, Lynne Lesky, Kim Stein, Rick Kreinbring, Shelley Esman

Language Arts Journal of Michigan

Though teaching has felt discouraging at times throughout the past year, this article looks at how a group of educators used a book club to not only maintain a hopeful outlook, but also learn more about antiracist teaching. Their work has benefited not only their personal journeys, but also their classrooms and school districts.

Political Activist + Public Servant?, Sharon Murchie

Language Arts Journal of Michigan

How do we write as political activists while also working as public servants? Do we have freedom of speech as public school teachers? Can—and should—our writing and our speech be censored? How can we write and work for social and political change, when we are charged with remaining apolitical in the classroom? This article outlines the limitations on teachers’ First Amendment Rights and is both a call to action and a call to caution.

Writing On Demand In College, Career, And Community Writing: Preparing Students To Participate In The Pop-Up Parlor, Kelly J. Sassi, Hannah Stevens

Language Arts Journal of Michigan

The Writing on Demand Unit is an important part of the College, Career, and Community Writers Program. In this article, we review the literature on C3WP; contextualize the writing on demand unit in relation to the other instructional resources in C3WP; explore five big ideas about writing on demand; and describe an approach to teaching this unit that includes some preliminary results of teaching this unit in a rural, Native American high school. The five big ideas that inform its use are the following: 1) emotions matter, 2) everyone does it, so provide reasons for writing on demand, 3) time …