Research paper (M.A.) -- Cardinal Stritch College -- Milwaukee, 1979. / A research paper submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Education (Reading Specialist). Includes bibliographical references (221-258 p.).

<p> The purpose of this ethnographic case study was to examine how a white male teacher creates a culturally relevant pedagogy infuses arts integration to create an authentic learning environment for his students. This study traced student engagement, perceptions of, and performance in their English language arts class. This study concentrated on 21 Latino students and 3 black students in a middle school ELA classroom in an underperforming urban school. The questions that guided this study were, 1. How does this White male teacher integrate art within English language arts framed by the Common Core? 2. How does art integration and public display of art shape students&rsquo; perceptions of school and English language arts? 3. How does a white male teacher create a Culturally responsive pedagogy while navigating the required modules and common core standards. Data included field notes during class as well as audio, and visual recordings, interviews with the teacher and students, and student artifacts to trace the ongoing learning and teaching in the class. Findings show that giving students a platform to publish their work in a more public sphere outside of the classroom can be a crucial element in a culturally responsive pedagogy. This teacher helps his students get their ideas and questions out of the classroom into the school environment. The students embrace this more creative way of learning and thinking and it fuels their learning.</p><p>

<p> This study incorporated an intervention that combined discussion and sentence writing to promote vocabulary development. Fourth grade students were assigned to either an intervention or control condition. Teachers in the intervention classrooms used a word learning protocol that was designed to provide students with student-friendly definitions and a minimum of 15 exposures to each target word through both receptive and expressive tasks. These tasks called upon students to begin to make connections between spontaneous and scientific concepts to support their word learning. Teachers in control classrooms followed instructional routines as specified in their school&rsquo;s reading series. Multiple choice assessments from the district adopted reading series for vocabulary and comprehension along with a researcher-developed sentence writing task were used to measure growth in word knowledge. On the multiple choice vocabulary assessment, the intervention group outperformed the control group on one of the three weekly assessments from the reading series. There were no differences in comprehension scores on weekly reading tests across groups. On the sentence writing task, results indicated that the intervention group outperformed the control group with the intervention group showing a statistically significant difference in the rate at which they learned words.</p><p>

<p> This exploratory case study was designed so that I could investigate the writing processes of sixth-grade students when composing traditional and digital compositions. With the increase in multimodal composing in classrooms, understanding how students compose and what traditional print text skills can be appropriated for digital composition is important. This knowledge will guide educators in how to effectively develop pedagogies to support digital writing development. I used a teacher-research paradigm to guide this study. I found several key factors that influence student writing through document analysis, participant interviews and stimulated recall sessions. Knowledge of purpose impacted student awareness of audience that in turn impacted revision processes. In addition, I discovered that students&rsquo; traditional writing knowledge was insufficient when composing digitally. While students possessed declarative knowledge for what they wanted to compose, they were unable to produce the types of digital compositions that met the rhetorical demands of the task. While digital writing motivated the students, they did not possess the knowledge to produce a digital composition that maintained the integrity of their compositions. During interviews, it became evident that the participants lacked rhetorical knowledge about digital composition and reverted to the knowledge they possessed about print writing. Utilizing the more familiar rhetorical knowledge they possessed about composing traditional text created digital compositions that did not utilize the affordances that digital writing offers to create meaning. These finding can impact the way digital composition is taught in school to ensure that students possess the necessary rhetorical skills for creating digital compositions.</p><p>

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 1999. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 278-291). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 1999. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 278-291). Also available on the Internet.

<p> The problem that undergirds this study is the communication and understanding gap that exists between parents of Long Term English Language Learners (LTELL) and educational institutions. The purpose of this qualitative study was to uncover what Latino parents of LTELLs understood about their children&rsquo;s language development as well as their academic standing. Using focus groups and interviews, the study examined how five parents of LTELL students communicated with their children&rsquo;s schools and what understanding they held about the educational programs and policies in the district. The study included gathering parents&rsquo; ideas for how to improve the current system of communication between parents of LTELLs and the schools. </p><p> By exploring parents perceptions, through counter-story telling, of what was communicated to them about their children&rsquo;s linguistic progress and academic placement, they made sense of current practices and determined future expectations between them and the school. Additionally, the study helped parents understand the academic trajectory and linguistic development of their children and the impact they can create by having their voices heard. </p><p> The analysis revealed four overarching themes. First, parents moved to the U.S. because they <i>desired for a better future</i> for their children. Second, the notion of <i>education versus la educaci&oacute;n </i> was explored, where parents expressed cultural and linguistic teaching expectations at home and at school. Third was the theme of <i>self-blame, </i> where parents tended to blame themselves, rather than the system, for their children&rsquo;s lack of language proficiency. Finally, parents highlighted <i>communication,</i> which they described as the core cultural and linguistic barrier at home and school. </p><p> Although the parents of LTELLs may unintentionally experience being uniformed and overlooked, they are highly concerned about their children&rsquo;s English language proficiency and academic placement. Their collective voices expressed the hope for a good education leading to a successful future.</p>

The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of multimedia anchored instruction in language arts on the motivation to learn and academic achievement of students with and without learning disabilities (LD) enrolled in a seventh-grade general education classroom setting. Anchored instruction incorporated research-based instructional components including the multimedia video anchors, authentic tasks and learning activities, promoted discussion and communication when working as a group, integration of technology and effective learning strategies, and students' chances to control own learning activities. The study was conducted in seventh-grade inclusive classrooms. Two teachers and 80 randomly selected students including 28 students with LD participated in the study. A quasi-experimental comparison-group design was utilized, experimental classes received the anchored intervention, and comparison classes received non-anchored instruction. Measures included two self-report questionnaire scores as well as two academic achievement test scores. Results indicated that students in anchored instruction group made significant gains of peer learning, interestingness, and less work avoidance than non-anchored instruction group. In addition, the results of within-group analysis demonstrated that the anchored instruction students' scores of task value, peer learning, subjective competence, interestingness, and performance orientation changed significantly after completing the anchored instruction. Moreover, students with LD who received the anchored instruction improved their motivation to learn and academic achievement to a level similar to students without LD. The overall results of this study suggest that anchored instruction is an effective instructional approach that integrates technologies into the classroom learning as a medium for enhancing students' motivation to learn and academic achievement.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Kent State University, 2007. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed July 15, 2008). Advisor: Nancy Padak. Keywords: Curriculum; reading; standards; adolescent literature. Includes survey instrument. Includes bibliographical references (p. 206-217).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2009. / Title from first page of PDF file. Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 234-248).