In Manitoba, a new English Language Arts (ELA) curriculum focusing on language and literacy practices invites learners to authentically and meaningfully engage with a variety of texts in the classroom. This thesis supports educators by valuing their professional judgment, as they are provided with researched text selection criteria and called upon to evaluate and choose texts of rich quality for use with children in classrooms in the beginning years of school (Kindergarten–Grade 2). Drawing upon this ELA curriculum, the author questions, provides insight, and reflects on how a variety of multimodal texts could be incorporated into the classroom learning by interweaving the four key literacy and language practices that represent valued ways of thinking, being, and doing in ELA. The author’s insights are presented in a written workshop format, in which a critical literacy stance is adopted in order to examine, discuss, and analyze an assortment of multimodal texts. / May 2016

Teachers' attitudes are shaped by the language, culture, and power constructs surrounding the disability in our society. This qualitative case study investigated how a sociocultural lens supported an English teacher's efforts to plan and implement lessons that use literature to examine disability critically. The theories of Bakhtin (1981), Rosenblatt (2005), as well as literature that highlights the use of disability studies, social justice, and dialogic pedagogy guided the methods of the study. The sample included the teacher and one ninth grade English Language Arts class of approximately 25 students in a rural high school. Methods involved three semi-structured workshops which served to guide the teacher in an examination of the social discourses surrounding disability, encouragement of aesthetic responses to reading, and the facilitation of a dialogic pedagogy. Participant interviews, lesson plans, observation field notes, and reflective journals were transcribed and triangulated with researcher field notes. Attention was paid to the participant's learning as a social act which leads to a teacher's "ideological becoming" and development of the self as a "process of selectively assimilating the words of others" (Bakhtin, 1981, p. 341). Therefore, the lenses of Transactional Analysis (Stewart, 2011) and content analysis (Schreier, 2014) was used to examine the context and process of planning and implementation for an ELA teacher in order to uncover the meaning-making processes that the teacher undergoes when using literature to examine disability critically. Findings give insight into the development of a teacher as he learns how to apply a sociocultural lens to literary study, as well as how he contextualized and situated his understanding of disability as connected to other forms of difference. While this study is not generalizable due to its qualitative nature, it can be transferable by providing insight into how a teacher guides students through texts that portray disability. / Doctor of Philosophy / This study explored how one English Language Arts teacher used a sociocultural lens to plan and implement lessons that use literature to examine disability critically. The sample included the teacher and one ninth grade English Language Arts class of approximately 25 students in a rural high school. Through a series of three semi-structured workshops, the teacher and researcher examined the social discourses surrounding disability, as well as how to encourage student aesthetic responses to reading and the facilitation of a dialogic pedagogy. Participant interviews, lesson plans, observation field notes, and reflective journals were analyzed. Findings give insight into the development of a teacher as he learns how to apply a sociocultural lens to literary study, as well as how he used this new understanding of disability as connected to other forms of difference. This study provides insight into how a teacher guided students through texts focused on disability as a way of critically analyzing disability in general.

Teachers' decisions are a powerful influence on student learning and it is important to fully document accomplished teachers' instructional decisions, as well as to investigate possible influences on those decisions. Shakespearean dramas are central to high school curricula across the U.S. and pose particular instructional challenges, therefore teachers' decisions about teaching these texts are of particular interest. There is limited empirical research, however, about these instructional decisions. Thus, the purpose of this study was to describe how four accomplished high school English teachers working on a single campus make instructional decisions about teaching a Shakespearean play. Specifically, research questions addressed teachers' decisions regarding the teaching of a Shakespearean play and various influences on those decisions (self-reports and inferences from the data). Case study methodology was used, including an inductive analysis of individual teacher interviews, classroom observations, focus group, instructional artifacts, and researcher's journal. The findings revealed that instructional activities described by these teachers addressed support for meaning-making during four stages of reading instruction: (a) before, during, and after; (b) before; (c) during; and (d) after. Comparison of these cases suggests that, although each teacher brings personal preferences and unique background knowledge to her instructional decisions, all make decisions to promote student engagement and student construction of meaning. Regarding influences on these teachers' decisions about teaching the Shakespearean play, four categories were identified: (a) response to students; (b) aspects of the text; (c) response to contextual constraints and supports; and (d) personal preferences and background experiences. Individual teacher differences are clearly a strong influence, even among this group of colleagues on the same campus. Also, two influences not reported explicitly by the teachers suggest a complex integration of these influences. One is their intuitive thinking, which deserves a closer investigation in future research. The other proposes that each teacher's decisions are influenced by her instructional interaction working model (IIWM), a conceptual framework that shapes each teacher's conversational patterns, non-verbal behaviors, and other interactional patterns. Further research should explore the use of such a model to describe and explain the complexity of teachers' decisions, particularly when teaching complex, challenging tasks and texts.

Students at an eastern United States high school have experienced low pass rates on the High School Assessment Program for English Language Arts (HSAP ELA) for the past 5 consecutive years. The HSAP ELA test is 1 of 2 exams that students must pass to receive a high school diploma. Students who failed the HSAP ELA were provided remedial content and test preparation courses and enrichment tutorials to pass the state's ELA high-stakes test. The purpose of this qualitative bounded case study was to explore the teaching practices used to improve student performance on the HSAP ELA test. The conceptual framework for this study was the ELA competency model, a framework that combines instructional-practice principles and assessment. A purposeful sampling of 8 high school ELA teachers (3 regular education teachers, 4 remedial teachers, and 1 teacher who taught both groups) who taught ELA content and test preparation courses volunteered to participate in semi-structured interviews and provided sample lesson plans for document review. Qualitative data were analyzed using thematic analysis with open coding to identify patterns and themes. Teachers used graphic organizers, vocabulary study, questioning, relevant texts, and writing to prepare students for success on the HSAP ELA test. It is recommended that the current ELA curriculum and professional learning opportunities include teaching practices which could increase student content knowledge and performance on the HSAP ELA. These endeavors may contribute to positive social change by providing ELA teachers with specific teaching practices to prepare students to pass the HSAP ELA test, thus increasing the number of students receiving high school diplomas and increasing employment opportunities after high school.

This study examines the effects of the CSCOPE prescribed curriculum on four English language arts teachers. CSCOPE, created for implementation in Texas public schools, is directly aligned with the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS). Research objectives included the effect of implementation on experienced teachers and how it affected their general or personal teaching efficacy, curricular planning, and attitudes about the profession. A qualitative case study research method guided this study. Purposeful sampling was used in order to ensure that the subjects selected would be able to best encompass a true experience of the curriculum being explored. The subjects for these case studies were four teachers from four different school districts in Texas. The four teachers were in schools that had implemented the CSCOPE curriculum at the time of the interviews. Each teacher was required to have three years minimum of teaching experience prior tothe implementation of CSCOPE. In actuality, they all had significantly more experience, ranging from a teacher in her 8th year to a teacher in her 29th year. Because each teacher worked in a different school and had varying experiences, their stories were different, but similarities certainly existed. The similarities of their experiences became apparent and produced three major themes that emerged from this study: 1) CSCOPE is terrific in theory but ineffective in practice, 2) Good teachers teach in spite of CSCOPE, not with it, 3) CSCOPE makes too many false assumptions about students. The findings indicate that while the CSCOPE curriculum is an idea that would work in an idealized educational system, because the teacher is the variable and students have different needs, CSCOPE is an unrealistic mandate for all Texas schools. Additionally, problems arise with gifted education, and Advanced Placement, and other high-performing programs. CSCOPE does not address any differentiation for gifted students. In some schools, due to enrollment levels or scheduling conflicts, all levels are included in one classroom. To mandate a teacher use one curriculum system and serve all students is unrealistic.

No description available.

Doctor of Philosophy / Curriculum and Instruction Programs / F. Todd Goodson / With changes in technology over the past decades, literacy now requires receiving and transmitting information using various, multiple media. Recognizing the need for students to be literate in more the traditional areas of reading and writing, professional organizations and states have set standards for English/language arts related to non-print literacy, including visual literacy. Yet, it has been unclear how secondary English/language arts teachers feel about the mandate to teach non-print literacy, if they understand what is expected of them in teaching non-print literacy, and if they indeed are teaching concepts related to comprehension and production of information in non-text format. This study attempts to discover teachers’ attitudes toward, understanding of, and use of visual literacy concepts through a survey of secondary English/language arts teachers in three counties in central Kansas. Based on the information from the responses to the survey, secondary English/language arts teachers in central Kansas have received little formal training in teaching visual literacy and that their informal training consists mainly of discussions with colleagues and independent study. Because they have received little training, most respondents see teaching visual literacy as secondary to teaching traditional literacy rather than as an integral part of such instruction. The state of Kansas has several standards relating to teaching non-print text. Yet, the emphasis on state and national tests is on print text. As a result, secondary English/language teachers surveyed know little about what it means to teach visual literacy. Training in how to incorporate visual literacy instruction with traditional literacy instruction, how to set outcomes for visual literacy and how to assess those outcomes are necessary if standards related to non-print text are to be addressed in secondary English/language arts classes across the state. While English/language arts pursue training in visual literacy on their own, teachers-preparatory institutions and public school systems also have a responsibility to see that English/language arts teachers know how to help their students become literate, not only in traditional literacies but also in non-traditional literacies such as visual literacy.

Thesis (Ed.D.)--Boston University / This study concerns John Passmore (1914-2004) and the applicability of his philosophic work to American education policy and practice. Passmore, an Australian educator and philosopher, is rarely cited by scholars of American education and his possible influence on public policy governing education in America are yet to be articulated. This study applies the methodology of analytical educational philosophy, with which he is often associated. The Massachusetts English Language Arts Curriculum Framework (MELACF) is used to illustrate the practical value of Passmore's work to education today. This dissertation examines the life and published scholarship of John Passmore to investigate the relevance and significance of his work as a guide to the paths American educators might follow or avoid in forming policy and directing practice. His nine education constructs, found in The Philosophy ofTeaching (1980), are a primary source of this analysis. The study is mindful of the evolution of American culture from its earliest days through the present. It considers the influence of the politico-social environment, philosophical trends and religious forces upon the establishment of public and private education. Perennialism, essentialism, romanticism and reconstructionism are reviewed comparatively. The impact of Nation at Risk and No Child Left Behind in light of current national educational policy trends is also considered. The utility of Passmore's work is tested by an in depth analysis of Massachusetts English education policy. The period of interest dates from the Massachusetts Education Reform Act of 1993 to the present implementation of MELACF, and its guiding principles, strands and standards. Modifications that could effectively be made are noted. Criteria for a just and democratic society set forth by the analytical political philosopher, John Rawls, informs education policies and practices consistent with those necessary to promote the free, just and democratic society. It concludes with questions aimed to inform the limits and duties of the federal, state and local governments in secure the health, safety and rights of their citizens. An integral part of those limits and duties must be directed toward preserving democracy through thoughtfully conceived public education.

Social media has provided innovative ways for teachers to engage students in the learning process but has created a challenge for teachers to incorporate these applications in a manner that is both meaningful to the learning objectives and acceptable to their administration. While social media in education has been the focus of many studies, research on the implementation of social media within English language arts (ELA) classrooms is limited, leaving ELA teachers and school administrators without a full scope of the educational potential or best practices when using social media for instruction. Accordingly, this study explored the experiences of secondary ELA teachers using social media as an instructional tool. Using a basic qualitative design, this investigation was framed by the concepts of connectivism and convergence culture. The study employed in-depth interviews of 9 teachers chosen through a purposeful sampling of ELA teachers within the United States. Data analysis began with a priori coding of the interview transcripts based on the conceptual framework, followed by a secondary analysis through in vivo coding. The results indicated that social media networks provided teachers with an engaging and relevant approach to connect their content and instruction to students' lives. Results also revealed that while the teachers faced challenges similar to those noted in previous research, these challenges were viewed as opportunities to teach digital literacy within the ELA content rather than as a deterrent. The results of this study may allow teachers to use social media networks as educational tools in alignment with instructional practices to improve student performance.

Teachers of poetry to high schoolers must navigate special challenges and balance competing tensions, including analysis “versus” appreciation, their status as both novice and expert readers of poetry, and differing conceptions of poetry “mastery” that are historically at odds. What does it mean to be an exemplary teacher of poetry in an era of high-stakes assessment, when poetry itself and poetry teaching have been marginalized? Though existing research highlights poetry’s capacity to cultivate students’ higher-order habits of mind, this mixed-method, phenomenological study fills a research gap by creating a rich portrait of exemplary teaching of poetry at the high school level. For this study, I recruited, surveyed, observed, and interviewed five exemplary teachers of poetry--all identified as experienced, motivated, supported, committed, and reflective--currently teaching in five diverse high schools surrounding Boston, to answer the research question: What are the practices and attributes of five exemplary teachers of poetry in the secondary English-Language Arts classroom? Teachers were observed for three classes teaching three “anchor” poems (one researcher-selected poem, one collaboratively-selected poem, and one participant-selected poem), and interviewed post-observations. The study drew on Elliot Eisner’s conception of students as connoisseurs and critics and Rosenblatt’s conception of poetry reading as a transactional event. It found that these teachers of poetry are specialists who value student agency and share power, make their pedagogical aims transparent and their strategies for reading poetry explicit to students, use multiple modes of representation and manipulate poetic texts to demystify and enrich poetry study, and balance a host of competing tensions. These exemplary teachers, two of whom are published poets, were humble, confident, relational, responsive to both student and text, caring, passionate, and authentic. The most resonant finding was the centrality of the student-teacher relationship to the poetry teaching endeavor. The study found that being an exemplary teacher of poetry is as much about how one is in and out of the classroom as it is about what one does in the classroom. Recommendations are made at the teacher, school, and community level regarding practices and structures that support exemplary teaching of poetry in the high school ELA classroom.