544 research outputs found
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When Art Disrupts Religion : Aesthetic Experience and the Evangelical Mind
No full textThe stories gathered in these pages lay bare the power of the arts to unsettle and rework deeply ingrained religious beliefs and practices. This book grounds its narrative in the accounts of 82 Evangelicals who underwent a sea-change of religious identity through the intervention of the arts. There never would have been an undoing of my conservative Evangelical worldview confides one young man, without my encounter with the transcendent work of Mark Rothko on that rainy afternoon in London\u27s Tate Modern. The characters in The Brothers Karamazov began to feel like family to me, reports another individual, and the doubts of Ivan Karamazov slowly saturated my soul. As their stories unfold, the subjects of the study describe the arts as sources of, by turns, defamiliarization, comfort in uncertainty, a stand-in for faith and a surrogate transcendence. Drawing on memoirs, interviews, and field notes, Philip Salim Franics explores the complex interrelationship of religion and art in the modern West, and offers an important new resource for on-going debates about the role of the arts in education and social life.https://scholarworks.umf.maine.edu/publications/1028/thumbnail.jp
The Relationship between Digital Portfolio Use, Parent-Teacher Communication, and its Effect on Home-Based Parental Involvement in Middle School
Get PDFThe purpose of this study was to implement digital portfolios using Seesaw (Student Driven Digital Portfolios) to explore its possible effect(s) on home-to-school communication and facilitate the use of technology in a classroom setting. Previous educational research had clearly established that parent-teacher communication can be beneficial and technology’s continuous evolution can spur change to more traditional practices of home-to-school communication. Multiple interventions to the digital portfolio were conducted during this action research project and pre/post questionnaires were used to gather participant perceptions of school-to-home communication in a rural Maine middle school
Supporting Language and Literacy Development for All Students
Get PDFThe purpose of this study was to gain information pertaining to language and literacy skills for pre-kindergarten students and how educators support the acquisition of such skills. Educators shared their strategies and perceptions in regards to teaching these skills to all students. The students, ages four and five, participated in task completion activities that showcased the language and literacy skills each possessed. The data revealed that effective teaching strategies assist in yielding high success rates for students at school. For students who demonstrated below proficient abilities, educators determined next steps to best support them individually
The Influence of Home Literacy Activities on Children’s Reading Performance
No full textChildren with literacy rich home environments that include being read to, having access to reading material, visit libraries, and engage in literature conversations, experience literacy developmental success (Weigel, Martin, & Bennett, 2010). This quantitative study investigates the relationship of home literature activities and reading performance of second grade students. A sample of 12 second-grade students participates in this research which analyzes the sample population’s standardized test scores with parent completed surveys. The data analysis includes parent surveys and standardized assessment scores from Northwest Education Association’s (NWEA) Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) test and the Fountas and Pinnell Benchmark Assessments, System 1 (F&P). The data from parent surveys and the standardized scores predominantly indicates when children begin to read independently at younger ages, during the early years, they perform as more successful readers in second-grade
Approaches to Delivering Assessments within PreKindergarten Classrooms and Children’s Evidence of Letter Identification
No full textThe purpose of this research study was to investigate if the approach used to assess children’s letter identification within a PreKindergarten classroom has an influence on how they perform. This mixed methods study used PALS – Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening, (Invernizzi, Meier, Sullivan, & Swank, 2004) a formal assessment tool and informal classroom teacher observations to determine children’s uppercase and lowercase letter identification (visual identification, pointing, saying the name, and matching the letter to the sound). The twelve participants in this study ranged from four to five years of age, and were enrolled in a rural, full day, five days a week public PreKindergarten program located in New England. Findings indicate that, on average, children identified more uppercase and lowercase letters during formal assessments than during daily classroom observations. When applied appropriately both assessment methods are valuable instruments for individualized planning and goal setting (NAEYC, 2009)
Bonaventura Cavalieri and the CSHPM Logo
No full textTwo years after the Canadian Society for History and Philosophy of Mathematics was founded in 1974, the society selected as its logo an image from Bonaventura Cavalieri\u27s 1635 publication, Geometrica Indivisibilibus Continuorum nova quadam ratione promota (Geometry, Advanced by a New Method through Indivisibles of the Continua). This article briefly discusses the context and importance of this image in the history and philosophy of mathematics
Daisy In the Dark: a fantasy novel
No full textDaisy Delatour has the usual problems. Her classes. Her job. Her weird friends. Her love life. Her mom’s bad habits. Her mom’s love life. Oh, and going into the Dungeons of Valen to seek the Lapis Circlet.Daisy, an aspiring wizard and alchemist, and her best friends, a thief and a cleric, start off looking mostly for adventure. But they’re immediately caught up in the race to find the Circlet, caught up with new friends and new enemies and some which are neither or both: the brainless barbarian warriors, the smarmy archer guy, the blond frenemy enchantress, the enigmatic elf maiden, amidst hordes of orcs and goblins, monsters and dragons. The Circlet is found, defended from evil wizards, and returned to its presumed rightful owners. But a much more mysterious treasure beckons: not a Ring of Power, not a Wand of Wonders, not an amulet or an enchanted sword, just a plain-looking key planted in Daisy’s dream.Daisy and the enigmatic elf, the redoubtable Zelin, become convinced that the key is important in some way beyond the reach of their world’s comprehension. And while it seems to have no magical qualities—it’s not even jewel-encrusted, it’s just a key—it does seem to have attracted other seekers, powerful people shrouded in mystery. Daisy and Zelin and their friends can’t let it fall into the wrong hands, which may mean any hands but their own. And to win it, they have to steal it from under the nose of Thyrssa the Black, the most dangerous dragon in Valen.This is the story of how Daisy develops her skills, grows into her powers, and wins her boon, while navigating the minefield of the end of her teenage years, finding love, losing it, finding it again, and finding friendship as her life finally shows signs of meaning something. - from Amazonhttps://scholarworks.umf.maine.edu/publications/1085/thumbnail.jp
Historicizing Post-Discourses : Postfeminism and Postracialism in United States Culture
No full textHistoricizing Post-Discourses explores how postfeminism and postracialism intersect in dominant narratives of triumphalism, white male crisis, neoliberal and colonial feminism, and multiculturalism to perpetuate systemic injustice in America. By examining various locations within popular culture, including television shows such as Mad Men and The Wire; books such as The Help and Lean In; as well as Hollywood films, fan forums, political blogs, and presidential speeches, Tanya Ann Kennedy demonstrates the dominance of postfeminism and postracialism in US culture. In addition, she shows how post-discourses create affective communities through their engineering of the history of both race and gender justice.https://scholarworks.umf.maine.edu/publications/1035/thumbnail.jp
Does Free Play vs. Teacher-Directed Play Affect Emotional Behavior in Young Children?
No full textPlay is an essential part of young children’s social, emotional, cognitive and physical well being (Veiga, Neto, & Rieffe, 2016). This is an innate need and children benefit by being able to explore during free play as well as teacher directed play. Today’s classrooms have less free play and recess than only ten years ago. This study looked at nine 3-5 year olds to see if any emotional change happened when the play changed. The average score for free play was 3.46 vs the baseline 3.20 and the average score for teacher-directed play was 3.42 vs the baseline 3.20 out of 5. The research showed that four out of nine students performed better during teacher play. Anecdotal data supported the results by showing that the children were better able to concentrate and verbally share information about the different types of play
Vengeance, Vows, and “Heroick Vertue”: Reforming the Revenger in Delarivier Manley’s Almyna: or, The Arabian Vow
No full textThis first critical collection on Delarivier Manley revisits the most heated discussions, adds new perspectives in light of growing awareness of Manley’s multifaceted contributions to eighteenth-century literature, and demonstrates the wide range of thinking about her literary production and significance. While contributors reconsider some well-known texts through her generic intertextuality or unresolved political moments, the volume focuses more on those works that have had less attention: dramas, correspondence, journalistic endeavors, and late prose fiction. The methodological approaches incorporate traditional investigations of Manley, such as historical research, gender theory, and comparative close readings, as well as some recently influential theories, like geocriticism and affect studies. This book forges new paths in the many underdeveloped directions in Manley scholarship, including her work’s exploration of foreign locales, the power dynamics between individuals and in relation to states, sexuality beyond heteronormativity, and the shifting operations and influences of genre. While it draws on previous writing about Manley’s engagement with Whig/Tory politics, gender, and queerness, it also argues for Manley’s contributions as a writer with wide-ranging knowledge of both the inner sanctums of London and the outer developing British Empire, an astute reader of politics, a sophisticated explorer of emotional and gender dynamics, and a flexible and clever stylist. In contrast to the many ways Manley has been too easily dismissed, this collection carefully considers many points of view, and opens the way for new analyses of Manley’s life, work, and vital contributions to the full range of forms in which she wrote. - Amazon book descriptio