Matching Items (2)
Filtering by
- All Subjects: Common Core Standards
- All Subjects: English teachers
- Creators: Roe, Mary
Description
An unrelenting need exists to improve literacy instruction in secondary schools in the United States. Reading scores, especially among minority and language minority students, as well as the economically disadvantaged, have not produced significant gains in recent years. The problem of low level reading skills in secondary grades is complicated to address, however, as many secondary teachers find themselves ill-equipped to deal with the challenges they face. Improving student achievement by integrating reading comprehension strategies into the freshman English curriculum was the ultimate goal of this innovation. A total of 15 freshman English language arts teachers and 30 freshman students participated in this 14 week action research study, which involved teaching explicit pre-, during-, and post-reading strategies during daily lessons at a large, urban high school in the Southwestern United States. Data were collected using a reading diagnostic test, focus group interviews with teachers, individual interviews with teachers and students, and teacher observations. Findings from the data suggest that professional development designed to infuse comprehension strategies through collaborative inquiry among English language arts teachers contributed to assisting students to perform better on reading diagnostic measures. Furthermore, the findings suggest that this method of professional development served to raise teachers' self-efficacy regarding literacy instruction, which, in turn, improved students' efficacy and performance as readers.
ContributorsWilliams, Jeffrey (Author) / Roe, Mary (Thesis advisor) / Weber, Catherine (Committee member) / Allen, Althe (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
This study explores the presence of figurative language in reputable children's literature and the importance of figurative language instruction in the elementary classroom. It seeks to answer three basic questions for the teaching community. First, how prevalently does figurative language appear in prominent books written at reading levels for the elementary grades? Next, how essential is students' understanding of this figurative language to their overall comprehension of a story? Finally, how do the recently implemented Common Core Standards consider the presence of figurative language in children's literature across elementary grade levels? In order to investigate these questions, the researcher analyzed 39 books that received the Caldecott Medal or Honor distinction in 2003-2012 and recorded the presence of figurative language in the text. Results were analyzed using descriptive statistics. The researcher found patterns among the types of figurative language used and the target age groups of the books. She also found that the use of figurative language in the text was generally stylistic by the authors and not necessarily essential for students to fully comprehend the stories. The researcher then made connections to the Common Core Standards across elementary grade levels. She found that there were several Common Core Standards concerning figurative language in the Reading and Language categories. The researcher concluded that figurative language should complement the curriculum across all elementary grades, including grades below third. This conclusion has implications for the entire elementary teaching community.
ContributorsWontor, M. Lisa (Author) / Roe, Mary (Thesis director) / Weber, Catherine (Committee member) / McElhany, Patricia (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2013-05