Secondary Education and Teaching Commons^™

Blind Date Poetry: Introducing Poetry To Today’S High School Students, Amy Rottmann

Journal of Educational Research and Practice

This study examined an early college high school English teacher's instructional method of introducing poetry through Blind Date Poetry. Blind Date Poetry was created by the teacher to introduce her students to 25 poems in a 90-min class session. The study was to find if the poetry introduction engaged and motivated students to learn poetry. The collected data showed that students preferred autonomy, quick decision-making, and personal interest when being introduced to poetry. Also, the instructional method increased students’ engagement and motivation to learn about the poems they had chosen.

Literacy Leaders : An Analysis Of West Virginia Secondary School Principals' Self-Reported Literacy Leaderships Perceptions And Practices, Stephanie Adria Burdette

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Sweeping changes, such as those ushered in as a component of contemporary school improvement initiatives, have created an educational culture in which all teachers are now considered to be literacy instructors with principals being placed in the role of instructional leader. Yet, review of research literature reveals a severe lack of funding and adequate professional development necessary to ensure that secondary school teachers and administrators have the training they need to provide such literacy services to students. The purpose of this research study was to examine the literacy perceptions and practices of West Virginia’s secondary school principals to ascertain the …

“What Makes Me Who I Am?”: Using Artifacts As Cosmopolitan Invitations, Tiffany A. Dejaynes

Publications and Research

As a classroom researcher, Tiffany DeJaynes revisited the curriculum of an English elective she helped design and found students using artifacts to investigate personal identity and create community

"It Teaches Them To Have A Conversation In The Real World" : An Analysis Of How Identity Performances Shape Classroom Discussions., Ashley Lauren Shelton Arnold

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Although discussion has long played a role in classroom learning, recent focus on moving discussion away from the evaluative and toward the dialogic is key to understanding how discussion can be driven by multiple, shared understandings. Adopting a sociocultural perspective, this dissertation explores the ways in which identity performances shape one teacher and his students’ participation in classroom discussions. The theoretical framework guiding this study draws on the relationship between discourse and identities construction, with further attention given to improvisations of identities, figured worlds, and the ways in which power shapes discourse. This dissertation argues that performed identities shape the …

Asking The Tough Questions: Teaching Literature And Nonfiction Through Critical Literacy To Recapture Our Voices, Agency, And Mission, Elsie L. Olan, Wendy Farkas, Kia Jane Richmond

Conference Presentations

Exploding the Myth of Mental Illness

Disrupting Notions Of Stigma While Empowering Voices: Examining Language Identity, Mental Illness, And Disability Through Young Adult Literature, Elsie L. Olan, Wendy Farkas, Kia Jane Richmond

Conference Presentations

Presenter Two will share new research on young adult literature which features characters with mental illness. She will describe strategies for using texts such as Your Voice is All I Hear (2015), Thirteen Reasons Why (2007), and The Impossible Knife of Memory (2014) to analyze and critique representations of mental illness in young adult literature. Drawing on research by Koss & Teale (2009) and Richmond (2014), this presenter will help session attendees interrogate “the power of language choices” and “become empowered to confront the stigma associated with mental illness and confront bullying” (p. 24).

Embodying Rhythm Nation: Multimodal Hip Hop Dance As A Site For Adolescent Social-Emotional And Political Development, Lauren M. Roygardner

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This exploratory study employed qualitative methodology, specifically values analysis, to learn more about how being involved within Hip hop dance communities positively relates to adolescent development. Adolescence was defined herein as ages 13-23. The study investigated Hip hop dance communities in terms of cultural expertise (i.e. novice, intermediate and advanced/expert) to look specifically at dance narratives (i.e. peak experience narratives and “I dance because” essays) and hip hop dance performances. The primary purpose of this dissertation was to (1) explore how adolescents use multimodal Hip hop dance discourse for social-emotional development and critical consciousness, and to (2) understand how values …

"Resisting From Within": (Re)Imagining A Critical Translingual English Classroom, Kate Anna Seltzer

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This ethnographic case study of an urban, linguistically diverse English classroom explores what happened when space was made for students both to voice their experiences living amidst ideologies that marginalize their language practices and identities and to resist such ideologies through writing that pushed monoglossic boundaries. Intensive one-on-one work with a high school English teacher led to the creation of a year-long curriculum that emphasized metalinguistic inquiry and discussion, linked language, power, and identity, and modeled the ways that writers and other artists take linguistic risks in order to critique monoglossic language ideologies.

Over the course of the year, students …

Claim, Evidence, And Reasoning: Evaluation Of The Use Of Scientific Inquiry To Support Argumentative Writing In The Middle School Science Classroom, Gabriela Mastro

Dissertations, Masters Theses, Capstones, and Culminating Projects

In light of the essential science and engineering practices identified by the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), this study focuses on the specific science and engineering practice, "engage in argument from evidence," and how classroom practices can serve to strengthen this skill (National Research Council, 2012, p. 71). The NGSS focus on inquiry necessitates students’ use of argument, particularly in writing, to communicate their knowledge and scientific findings and to develop an understanding of scientific practice. The purpose of this teacher action research study is to evaluate the influence of inquiry-based argumentative writing exercises, based on the Argument Driven Inquiry …

The International Baccalaureate Learner Profile: A Social Justice Framework In The English Language Arts Classroom, Kristin Sovis, Sarah Pancost

Language Arts Journal of Michigan

“The International Baccalaureate Learner Profile: A Social Justice Framework in the English Language Arts Classroom," highlights the story of an expert secondary ELA teacher as she navigates the political climate in the wake of the 2016 presidential election. Through narrative, classroom anecdote, and pedagogical reflection, this story offers readers an authentic portrait of the complex decisions that face teachers as we navigate tenuous political terrain in our classrooms. Central to this story is the International Baccalaureate (IB) Learner Profile (LP), which is the framework from which this teacher operates: the IB LP serves as both the anchor and guide for …

Applying Encoding And Retrieval Techniques To Chinese Rhyme Reading In Advanced Placement Chinese Instruction, Nan Wang

The Nebraska Educator: A Student-Led Journal

Learning Chinese as a foreign language is increasingly prevalent in public school districts in the U.S. As ACTFL (2011) reported, an increasing number of enrollments of Advanced Placement Chinese courses indicate a growing demand for Chinese language courses in U.S. public school districts (ACTFL, 2011; ACTFL, 2017). AP foreign language exams indicate that students from the mainstream culture in the U.S. do not perform as well as racial minority test takers (Brown & Thompson, 2016). Therefore, implementing appropriate teaching strategies in a student-centered foreign language environment is a desperate need. This is a pragmatic instructional design proposal, which emphasizes the …

(Mis)Reading The Classroom: A Two-Act “Play” On The Conflicting Roles In Student Teaching, Christi U. Edge

Journal Articles

This case study examined concentric and reciprocal notions of reading—that of high school students, a pre-service teacher, and a teacher educator. An intern charged with teaching students to read, interact with, and compose texts in an English/language arts classroom constructed her role in the classroom based on her reading the “text” of her internship experiences, relationships, and responsibilities. Using interviews and observations, a teacher educator read and interpreted the classroom “text” the pre-service teacher “composed” during her internship and then constructed a two-act “play” which details the conflict in the intern’s enacting the dual role of student-teacher and her subsequent …

Storying Our Journey: Conversations About The Literary Canon And Course Development In Secondary English Education., Elsie L. Olan, Kia Jane Richmond

Journal Articles

Olan and Richmond present preservice English teachers’ stories about having little experience with canonical texts they are asked to teach in their field experiences.

Teaching In A Mixed Secondary Spanish Classroom: A Case Study Of Strategies And Successes Of Minnesota Teachers, Meredith Gunderson

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

The population of Spanish heritage language learners is increasing throughout the state of Minnesota. This change in demographics impacts schools in a variety of ways; one such consequence is the creation of classes for Spanish for Native Speakers in locations with high Latino populations. However, in most locations, such programs currently do not exist, resulting in Spanish heritage language learners enrolling in Spanish foreign language classes. These classrooms, called mixed classes due to the combination of second language learners and Spanish heritage language learners in the same classroom, pose a unique challenge to the foreign language instructors. This qualitative multiple …

Conversations, Connections, And Culturally Responsive Teaching: Young Adult Literature In The English Methods Class, Elsie L. Olan, Kia Jane Richmond

Journal Articles

The authors' research shows that preservice teachers can develop more confidence and make more meaningful culturally responsive connections with texts and with their secondary students if they use young adult literature in methods courses

Differences In Mathematics And Literacy Achievement Between African American Males And Other 11th-Grade Students, Jeffery Flanigan

College of Education Dissertations

The gap in school performance between African American students and students of other subpopulations has shown up in a range of academic success measures including course grades, test scores, course selection, and college graduation rates (Johnston & Viadero 2000); college and high school grade point averages [GPAs] (Banks & Banks, 2004); and dropout rates (Gordon, 1999; Green, 2001; Irvine & Armento, 2001; Jencks & Phillips, 1998; Kober, 2001; Lee, 2002). These indicators all point to a disturbing pattern in the educational system and beg the question: What is going on with the education of African American males in the United …

The Development Of A Model Of Culturally Responsive Science And Mathematics Teaching, Cecilia M. Hernandez, Amanda Morales, Gail Shroyer

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

This qualitative theoretical study was conducted in response to the current need for an inclusive and comprehensive model to guide the preparation and assessment of teacher candidates for culturally responsive teaching. The process of developing a model of culturally responsive teaching involved three steps: a comprehensive review of the literature; a synthesis of the literature into thematic categories to capture the dispositions and behaviors of culturally responsive teaching; and the piloting of these thematic categories with teacher candidates to validate the usefulness of the categories and to generate specific exemplars of behavior to represent each category. The model of culturally …

Growing Effective Cld Teachers For Today’S Classrooms Of Cld Children, Gayla Lohfink, Amanda Morales, Gail Shroyer, Sally Yahnke

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

Using a case study design, this investigation examined the effective teaching characteristics of nontraditional, culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) student teachers placed in rural, elementary schools with high populations of Latino/a students. Data collected reflected high percentages of effective teaching characteristics in multiple domains with specific indicators reflective of consistent teaching over time. A discussion of these findings considered aspects within the distance-delivery model that facilitated the CLD participants’ development of effective teaching and noted (1) consistent leadership, (2) explicit teacher instruction within CLD school settings, and (3) the strong cohesive nature of the CLD participants’ cohort as positively affecting …

Teacher’S Scaffolding Moves In Communication Strategies In Secondary School Efl Classes, Wahyu Usadiati

Bahasa dan Seni: Jurnal Bahasa, Sastra, Seni, dan Pengajarannya

Teachers have their own strategies in communicating their messages in EFL classes. The strategies may be in the form of verbal and nonverbal signals to get the message through to the students. The results of the study show that scaffolding moves were mostly used by the teacher, consisting of organizing and maintaining student’s interest and motivation, modeling, code switching, explaining or elaborating, eliciting student’s response, checking student’s comprehension, and providing wait time. Non-verbal signals always occur for the accompaniment of the verbalization of the teacher’s messages.

Curriculum Design To Teach High School Students: How To Pull Evidence From Text, Karen Marie Hughes Bray

All Graduate Projects

Inadequate pe1formance of Washington State's public school students on national exams motivated the state legislature to pass the Basic Education Act in 1993. Graduation requirements were changed and expectations increased to specific skill levels in reading, writing, and several other subjects. The problem is that48% of North Central High School IO'" graders have averaged below standard in reading and 56% have averaged below standard in writing for the last six years. The project is designed to increase reading and writing skills at the high school level in classes outside of the academic arena by direct instruction. Washington State's Commission on …

Slow Learners In High School English, Gwendolyn Jordan

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.