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Families of students with disabilities and those who are culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD), are looking for better educational opportunities. Charter schools offer promise as they were designed to promote student learning with limited control from the state. Charter schools though, have been criticized for relying on exclusionary discipline policies that affect CLD students and students with disabilities disproportionately. This study was designed to understand how Arizona charter schools use exclusionary discipline practices, with a focus on students with disabilities and CLD students. Two participants, a fourth grade and fifth grade teacher from a Phoenix metropolis charter school completed surveys and interviews where they answered questions about their classroom and their school’s discipline policies. Teachers were asked how they have adapted and administered classroom discipline policies and to what extent have positive behavioral strategies been implemented in an online setting due to the COVID-19 pandemic when schools transitioned to virtual learning. The results showed that in a virtual setting, teachers retained the practice of removing students from the “classroom”, expectations had to be modified to meet the needs of the new environment, and the school counselor served in conflicting roles. The findings suggested that charter schools and teachers may be transferring and adapting their reliance on exclusionary discipline practices even for an online setting with classrooms that have students with disabilities and those who are CLD.
This project is a wordless children's book about an excluded child with autism who, with the help of a cat, learns to make friends and be happy with who she is. The book is illustrated with water color and acrylic paints and is based on my experiences with autism. The goals for this project were to create representation for autistic people and to give something to younger autistic children to practice their communication. The essay portion of the project details the creation of the project, my inspirations, the research that has been done on how autistic children interact with storytelling and other non written communication, and a reflection on how the project went.
benefits. Fathers are often not a part of this experience due to outdated gender roles that have led
to the classification of reading as a feminized activity. This review discusses the literature
surrounding the cognitive and social-emotional benefits of reading aloud to children. In addition
to academic literature, this paper takes into account the experiences of educators and parents
shared through social media and literacy organizations external to academia due to their presence
on the front lines of the reading aloud. This paper is divided into five sections, each of which
addresses a different domain of the read aloud practice. The first section is a personal narrative in
which the author shares a story surrounding her experience with read alouds to provide context
on why this topic was chosen for her undergraduate thesis. Section two addresses the importance
of read alouds in a child’s literacy journey and serves as a framework for the remainder of the
review. Section three discusses the vitality of the participation of fathers in the practice and
includes the explanation of the feminization of reading and the implications of the lack of fathers
within the read aloud experience. Section four discusses the implications of fathers taking an
active role in reading aloud. Lastly, section five serves as a resource pool for fathers, including
tips, a guide to community resources, and sample book lists.
Keywords: read aloud, gender roles, educator, literacy, parents, fathers