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Education should provide the academic support to promote every child's potential. In my experience, schools often neglect the population of gifted students. One way to support any population is to provide books that include positive role models (Purves & Monson, 1984). Therefore, my study will attempt to answer the question: Are gifted students represented in children's literature? In particular, fictional Caldecott Medal books. The copyright dates range from 1938 to 2007. After creating a random sample of Caldccott Medal books, the selections were read and analyzed by the researcher for five specific traits of the gifted. As a means of analyzing these books, I created a schema to determine if the protagonists exemplified any of the gifted traits identified by prior research. My research revealed that out of 26 books, 14 characters were creative, 20 were intellectual, 6 were high achievers, 3 showed academic aptitude, and 4 were in the visual/performing arts. Next, the analysis revealed the protagonist characters were 17 males to 9 females; however, most surprising was the discovery that of all five characters identified as gifted, all were male and over the approximate age of eighteen. Certainly, the dominant educational implication from this study is the need for positive gifted role models that more equally represent both genders and that are school-age children.

The purpose of this research was to examine the effect on students' mathematics achievement and attitudes when children's literature was integrated into the mathematics curriculum. A major goal of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM, 1999; 2000) is for students to increase the amount and quality of their mathematical communication skills. This study researched how children's literature when integrated into mathematics might enrich the fourth grade curriculum and provide meaningful experiences for students to communicate their ideas and reasoning, thereby improving achievement. Through my research, I examined if infusing quality children's literature can improve student achievement and motivation in mathematics with three different treatment groups of fourth grade students. The children's literature treatment group received a mathematics lesson integrating children's literature, the textbook treatment group received a textbook-based lesson, and the control treatment group received no instruction. The results indicated that the students who received a lesson had an increase in student achievement and the children's literature treatment group had the highest student achievement in problem solving. Attitudes across all groups did not improve from the one lesson; thus, further research will need to be conducted to see if multiple lessons can change students' attitudes positively.

In the Florida Public Schools' Curriculum, there lacks a requirement for completion of foreign language credits in order for a student to graduate. However, many colleges and universities, as well as scholarship programs like the Florida Bright Futures Scholarship, require students to take a minimum of two consecutive years of a foreign language. In many schools, there is an abundance of Level 1 and Level 2 foreign language classrooms, but in the upper levels there seems to be a scarcity of students within those programs. Why is it that these few students are motivated to continue studying the language, even though it is not required of them? This study serves to show the variety of motivations felt by high school students during the 2007-2008 school year. After conducting several focus groups at Oviedo High School in Oviedo, FL, with Spanish 3 and Advanced Placement (AP) Spanish students, the researcher analyzed the variety of reasons given candidly by the students. Through the conversations with these students, a better understanding of the motivations of high school students can be attained. Through this understanding, educators can target other areas that might motivate students, and thus work to increase enrollment in classes and to ensure that students can see the benefits of learning a second language with fluency.

Throughout secondary education, students are given opportunities to hone their leadership and collaboration skills with one another. Unfortunately, these opportunities are few and far between in the elementary school classroom. Since there are few leadership curriculum options available for teachers of elementary students, this study attempts to offer a fourth grade curriculum on leadership and collaboration within the context of the social studies curriculum. The study is comprised of a piece of historical fiction, journal prompts, and group activities. The text taught students about the colonization of Jamestown with a unique focus on collaboration between the Native Americans and Jamestown colonists. Small groups of students worked together to complete group activities where they were able to improve upon their ability to collaborate. This thesis provides insight toward the need for leadership curriculum in the elementary classroom and one curricular option with which to do so.

The Florida Department of Education's Next Generation Sunshine State Standards were adopted in 2008 as a means of increasing the rigor of mathematics learning and teaching mathematics to depth. In this study teachers' beliefs about developmentally appropriate tasks were examined through a web-based survey. Participants' responses to the survey were compared to the Florida Department of Education's Next Generation Sunshine State Standards. These standards were created in accordance to the 2006 National Council of Teachers of Mathematics Curriculum Focal Points in Mathematics Prekindergarten through Grade 8. This study included 25 teachers from a large metropolitan school district in Florida. Results demonstrate that a difference does exist between teachers' beliefs regarding when certain tasks should appear in the curriculum and what is advocated by the Next Generation Sunshine State Standards. Teachers' demographic information such as years of experience, employment by Title 1 school, and number of different grades taught, were not found to be significant predictors of their responses to prompts regarding developmentally appropriate tasks.

This project was designed to discover a possible correlation between the theories surrounding teacher efficacy and Abraham Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs (1943). Teacher efficacy is a sense of confidence that teachers have in knowing that teachers can truly make a difference in the lives of their students. Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs (1943) theory was a concept created which explores five levels of life needs. These needs are illustrated in the form of a pyramid and allow for the understanding and development of Self-Actualization, or one's greatest potential. The foundation for this research was the hypothesis that if teachers have a high level of efficacy as well as a focus on the desired level of achievement, known as self-actualization, found in Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs (1943), then they would have an optimal learning environment for their students. This study was conducted by administering two surveys to ten teachers located in Florida, Pennsylvania, and New York. The surveys were made up of approximately twenty questions each, with one in regards to teacher efficacy, and the other referencing self-actualization. The surveys were completed anonymously, and then analyzed to research if one's level of teacher efficacy and focus on self-actualization enhanced their teaching environment. The correlation for these two views relates to the attitudes and perceptions teachers have on themselves and their abilities. At times, teachers who have a positive . outlook on education, believe in the potential of their students, and create classroom environments that integrates the strengths of each child are also confident, optimistic individuals who focus on achieving their best life. The potential allows for a dedicated, encouraging, and respectable role model for students.

Teachers and students spend countless hours in the classroom focused on the task of learning how to read. However, successful readers do not simply know how to read, they practice reading regularly. With limited time in the classroom, it is essential that students extend their reading practice outside of school. In regards to students' reading, two things are certain. First, students must become effective independent readers in order to experience success in school. Second, students must practice reading regularly in order to become successful independent readers. These two ideas arc correlational; in order to become effective independent readers, students must first practice reading. The necessity for successful independent reading is clear, as academic achievement relies on the premise that students are able to read and comprehend independently. However, the means by which to achieve this end have been surprisingly under researched. This study examines at-home reading programs being utilized in elementary schools in six Central Florida school districts. We cannot change or begin to improve what we don't know. This study was designed to examine the current practices related to at-home reading programs. My hope is that this study will provide valuable insight into the successful elements and challenges posed by at-home reading programs currently being employed in some Central Florida elementary schools.

The licensed character of DC Comics known as Superman has been a beloved pop-culture icon for nearly seven decades. This research examines the cultural and historical relevance of the character of Superman, as well as analyzes the character himself as he is portrayed in various comic books and graphic novels since 1938. Ten comic books featuring Superman as a central character have been examined from each decade starting from the l 930s through the 2000s for a total of 70 comics. The comics were read and analyzed to find possible changes in the character of Superman over time, as well as the roles of Lois Lane, alter-ego Clark Kent, members of Superman's family, emerging enemies, and other interesting aspects of Superman culture. The data collected showed that Superman remains relevant despite significant cultural and historical changes over the past seven decades. Further, much of his popularity lies in his ability to be retooled to meet the needs of the current culture while remaining true to his traditional values. Reviewed research also shows that Superman has educational value as a tool to be used by elementary school teachers.

With the implementation of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB), all schools are held accountable for student achievement. One southern US Title I school failed to meet NCLB mandated math standards for several years and was placed on program improvement. The purpose of this study was to compare math achievement of 34 students in fifth grade using differentiated instruction via Math out of the Box (MOOTB) and math achievement of 34 students in fifth grade using traditional textbook instruction. A second purpose was to determine if there was a difference between student attitudes toward math relative to confidence, value, enjoyment, and motivation. The theoretical base for this study is rooted in the works of Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences, Vygotsky's sociocultural theory, Bruner's psychological theory, Piaget's concrete operational theory, and Tomlinson's differentiated instruction theory. In order to examine the differences in math achievement based on the two instructional approaches, a quasi-experimental nonequivalent (pretest-posttest) control group design was implemented with scores analyzed using the one-way analysis of covariance. The univariate analysis of variance was used to compare the differences between MOOTB and traditional fifth grade students' attitudes toward math relative to confidence, value, enjoyment, and motivation. The findings from the study showed improvements in both instructional groups on MAP posttest, but differences between the groups on math scores were not significant. The main effect for socioeconomic status was significant. A significant difference in students' attitudes toward math relative to enjoyment was noted. This study has the potential to provide school systems with alternative ways to increase student achievement which is an important implication for social change.