646 research outputs found
The Effects of a Shared Reading Intervention on the English Reading Skills of Year One Students in a Level Two Māori-medium Educational Context
No full textOne of the biggest challenges confronting literacy education in Aotearoa New Zealand is accommodating the differences in English reading-related variables at school entry to produce equitable outcomes in later reading achievement (Wilkinson, Freebody, & Elkins, 2000). English-medium schools in Aotearoa struggle to negotiate effective literacy practices that validate and cater for the cognitive, cultural, and linguistic differences children bring to the process of learning to read in English. Whereas, the role of English reading instruction in Māori-medium schools has been an under-researched and controversial issue. How to accommodate for these differences to achieve equitable English reading outcomes in a year 1 level 2 Māori-medium context is the theme that this research seeks to explore.
This Masters thesis reports on a shared reading intervention that explicitly teaches phonological awareness and alphabet knowledge to examine its effects on the English reading skills of year 1 students in a level 2 Māori-medium setting. The research implemented a Kaupapa Māori framework and used interviews, surveys, reliable literacy measures, and research-based literacy instruction to explore reading acquisition for this particular cohort. Thus, the purposes of the study were (a) to glean an in-depth understanding of the literacy and language practices that potentially shaped the participants English reading–related variables, (b) to examine the range of English reading-related skills for this cohort, and (c) to determine the effects of the intervention on their English reading skills.
Eight students were divided and matched with a pair according to their reported pre-test phonemic awareness and alphabet knowledge scores, and then randomly assigned to either an intervention (n = 4) or treatment control (n = 4) group. The intervention programme was carried out over a six week period and comprised 12, 30 minute lessons that integrated phonological and alphabetic based decoding skills within the shared reading approach. The duration of the treatment control programme was also carried out over a six week period and comprised 12, 30 minutes lessons that integrated semantic, syntactic, and visual graphophonic sources of information to recognise words. The results indicated the breadth and depth of English reading skills in year 1 level 2 Māori-medium contexts are diverse and the children had a positive attitude and sense of efficacy towards reading. A comparison of the test results between the intervention and treatment control group demonstrated that a shared reading intervention that focused explicitly on phonological awareness and alphabet knowledge is effective in raising letter-naming knowledge, pseudoword decoding, phonemic awareness, and invented spelling. The results are discussed in light of theoretical assumptions about reading acquisition that underlie word-base and text-base approaches to word recognition.
Overall, this study supports the development and reform of training and professional development opportunities in phonological awareness and alphabet knowledge to better support, inform, and educate Aotearoa reading teachers. This study contributes to the knowledge of English reading acquisition that validate the depth and breadth of early cognitive and linguistic differences to increase equitable English reading outcomes in level 2 Māori-medium contexts
What are the benefits of using questioning to scaffold critical thinking skills in literacy in the kindergarten classroom?
No full textPlan B Paper. 2013. Master of Science in Education- Reading--University of Wisconsin-River Falls. Teacher Education Department. 54 leaves. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 34-36).The purpose of this action research study is to examine ways to teach, model, guide and scaffold critical thinking mainly through questioning, so that all levels of learners can be immersed and engaged in meaningful, purposeful comprehension work. Can young children learn to think critically and ask questions about what they read? Can they synthesize elements of a story, retaining information to complete a thought at the end of the story? The author used teacher action research to investigate these questions and explore the effects of scaffolding critical thinking while working with sixteen kindergarten students and their parents. The impact of parent involvement has a sound research base attesting to the many potential benefits it can offer in education; however, kindergarten students' ability to think critically and synthesize in conjunction with parental involvement has only recently been investigated. This research presents a model of scaffolding critical thinking skills with kindergarten children, while at the same time increasing the confidence level and literacy skills of the parents. The author created pre and post questionnaires for parents to complete. The pre questionnaire was designed to assess: a) behaviors the parent and child engage in during home reading, b) parents' views on the importance of reading, and c) parents' reading habits. The post questionnaire was designed to detect and document reading behaviors that continued or changed during the course of the study. The sixteen students in this study were also given questionnaires before and after the unit of study. Most students' instructional levels increased by one level (Benchmark Assessment System by Fountas and Pinnell) and in some instances two levels over the course of the study. Gains were made during the synthesis unit of study as well. Parents reported a greater appreciation of the importance of reading in their lives and their child's life. Results indicate that the largest gains were made in the students' understanding of questioning, including what a question is, and how to implement questioning and synthesis strategies
The educational effectiveness of bilingual education
No full textBilingual education is the use of the native tongue to instruct limited Englishspeaking children. The authors read studies of bilingual education from the earliest period of this literature to the most recent. Of the 300 program evaluations read, only 72 (25%) were methodologically acceptable - that is, they had a treatment and control group and a statistical control for pre-treatment differences where groups were not randomly assigned. Virtually all of the studies in the United States were of elementary or junior high school students and Spanish speakers; The few studies conducted outside the United States were almost all in Canada. The research evidence indicates that, on standardized achievement tests, transitional bilingual education (TBE) is better than regular classroom instruction in only 22% of the methodologically acceptable studies when the outcome is reading, 7% of the studies when the outcome is language, and 9% of the studies when the outcome is math. TBE is never better than structured immersion, a special program for limited English proficient children where the children are in a self-contained classroom composed solely of English learners, but the instruction is in English at a pace they can understand. Thus, the research evidence does not support transitional bilingual education as a superior form of instruction for limited English proficient children
Stirring up the Jameson/Ahmad debate: "national allegory" through a cultural realist perspective
No full textDissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro de Comunicação e Expressão, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Inglês: Estudos Linguísticos e Literários, Florianópolis, 2013.Abstract : The main argument of this thesis is that the Jameson/Ahmad debate-articulated mainly around the universalism/particularism discussion-can be read from a cultural realist perspective, and that such a reading provides new possibilities for political engagement in postmodernism. The responses to the Jameson/Ahmad debate throughout the years have developed from an initial resistance to Jameson's conceptions-as they were seen as rigid concepts that endorsed macroconstructs-progressively towards an opening up for their polysemic potential, in particular in regards to the concept of "national allegory." With this research I seek to advance the debate a step further in this direction, suggesting that it is both possible and proficuous to read the debate through cultural realist lens, that is, considering the reality effects of macroconstructs. Such employment of the macroconstruct, then, far from endorsing it, constitutes the possibility for a political engagement with these reality effects.O argumento central desta dissertação é de que o debate entre Jameson e Ahmad - articulado principalmente em termos da discussão universalismo/particularismo - pode ser lido a partir da perspectiva do realismo cultural, e que essa leitura proposta permite que emerjam novas possibilidades de engajamento político no pós-modernismo. As reações ao debate entre Jameson e Ahmad ao longo dos anos partiram de uma resistência inicial à proposta de Jameson - conforme seus conceitos foram inicialmente interpretados como estruturas rígidas que endossavam macroconstruções - progressivamente em direção a uma abertura para uma potencial polissemia desses conceitos, em especial em relação ao conceito de "alegoria nacional". Busco com esta pesquisa levar o debate um passo adiante nessa direção, sugerindo tanto a possibilidade quanto a proficuidade de se ler o debate através da perspectiva do realismo cultural, isso é, considerando os efeitos reais das macroconstruções. O emprego das macroconstruções, portanto, longe de as endossarem, constitui a possibilidade de um engajamento político com seus efeitos reais
A review of "Fire in the Dark: Essays on Pascal���s Pens��es and Provinciales." by Charles M. Natoli
No full text
"Neither bedecked nor bebosomed" :Lucy Randolph Mason, Ella Baker and women's leadership and organizing in the struggle for freedom
No full textThis dissertation examines the feminized and racialized strategies of women organizers in the struggle for freedom. The lives of Lucy Randolph Mason and Ella Jo Baker suggest much about the ways in which women reject and change traditional leadership roles in order to create, build, and maintain the momentum of mass movements. Both women believed in the fundamental necessity of local people determining the responses to their oppression. This work, therefore, is an attempt to offer a description of Mason and Baker's organizing strategies and leadership styles, a description which can be read as a manual for creating social change.;Each woman functioned from a particular position---of privilege and/or protection---yet both chose to devote their lives to the struggle for racial and economic justice. Mason used her position as a Virginia aristocrat to reform the South, acting as a liaison between those who suffered and those in positions of authority she believed could assist them. Unlike Lucy Mason, Ella Jo Baker used her invisibility to organize working-class people because she was aware that politically active black voters threatened power structures. Each woman offers a glimpse into the contested world of women's activism and leadership---contested because it was largely prohibited by social conventions which privileged white males. Whether white or black, privileged or poor, each woman lived in a culture that proscribed leadership and activism for women. Given these prohibitions, each woman chose a path of leadership and organization that used her life experience as a strategy for social change. They each used tools provided by their specific vantage points for challenging racism, ultimately fashioning complementary archetypes for creating social change. The women were "neither bedecked nor bebosomed," as Ella Baker declared, meaning they both refused to remain constrained by any construction of women's work or identities that limited them to a pedestal, a kitchen, or a bedroom. Instead, they used prescribed roles to help undermine a system of racial supremacy that continues to haunt us. They show concretely that organizers are made, not born. We, too, can learn to change oppressive systems.American StudiesDoctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.
LAW STUDENT REMEMBERED
No full textTwo years after the murder of law school student Tara Baker, the case remains unsolved but not forgotten. To read the complete story, see the Athens Banner-Herald. Enter 01/19/03 in the View Archives Section and search under the News Section. The article is titled Who killed Tara Baker? Stephen Gurr is the author and the article was published on 1/19/03. Friends, classmates and family members of Tara Baker gathered at the University of Georgia Chapel for a memorial service marking the second anniversary of her death. To read the complete story, see the Athens Banner-Herald. Enter 01/20/03 in the View Archives Section and search under the News Section. The article is titled Baker\u27s life, service not forgotten. Kimberly E. Mock is the author and the article was published on 1/20/03
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