Schema and Comprehension

This review will focus on the effect of schema on upper elementary reading comprehension test scores as well as how to build the desire for upper elementary students to self-question while reading. Accordingly, this deficiency in comprehension skills and practical strategies have been evident in classrooms across the nation. This review investigates scholarly research contrasting striving readers and exceptional readers’ schema and characteristics. Next, research is presented to explore the gap between striving and exceptional readers in hopes of finding practical ways to bridge that gap between readers. Therein, this research is synthesized to help students build the desire for self-questioning while reading. This research is then applied to teaching implications and what a classroom might look like. An inability to monitor metacognitively and apply strategies was found to be a major reason why students struggle with comprehension (Anderson & Pearson, 1984; Pressley, 2000; Snow, Burns, & Griffin, 2002; Mason, 2004). Therefore, teachers must explicitly instruct and model those processes to increase comprehension skills and comprehension test scores

Counter-narratives and collegiate success of Black and Latinos

Today’s college student is endowed with enormous pressure to succeed; to graduate within four years, to work part-time, to be involved in extracurricular activities, curate friendships, pursue internships, and maintain a competitive grade point average. These pressures can wreak havoc on the physical, mental, psychological, and emotional well-being of students. Eurocentric and patriarchal ideals shape American values and standards exacerbate the social pressures faced by minoritized groups who are already distanced from the status quo. The university campus is no exception to this exacerbation. College and university campuses can be viewed as microcosms of society; which means the same types of social discrimination, racial privileges, and racial oppression observable in the greater society are also observable on a university campus and influence peer-to-peer interactions, student self-perception, students’ relationship with professors, and ability to succeed. College and university campuses that are comprised of a predominately White student body, with students of color comprising a smaller group, are often referred to as Predominantly White Institutions (PWIs).   While some PWIs strive to create a diverse and inclusive campus culture, many university campuses are deemed as unresponsive to the needs to racial minorities (Gomer & White). Unresponsive colleges and universities exhibit the effects of institutional racism: equating success with cultural conformity through campus culture, maintaining a racially homogenous faculty, and exclusionary practices which lead minorities to feel excluded, inferior, or forced to assimilate. In these environments, minorities are pressured to meet societal standards, assimilate and defy stereotypes which decreases their mental bandwidth and limits their capacity to learn and succeed on a university campus (Verschelden, 2017). Institutional racism, which reduces the cognitive bandwidth of Black and Latino students, can be noted as a contributing factor to the discrepancies in retention and graduation rates of Blacks and Latino students compared to White students. Bandwidth can be reclaimed by decentering Whiteness and empowering marginalized students to define their own identities, name their own challenges, validate their own experiences, find community, and develop strategies to dismantle oppression through rejecting assimilation, cultural expectations, and master-narratives (Verschelden, 2017).  These efforts of resisting the assimilation and marginalization are collectively referred to as counter-narrative storytelling, a form of self-actualization which validates the identities, experiences, and capabilities of traditionally oppressed groups. Counter-narrative storytelling has historically been used to uplift and encourage minoritized groups through validating their identities, dismantling stereotypes and stereotype threat and by providing community by creating space for sharing commonalities between individual experiences. Counter-narrative storytelling can help empower marginalized individuals to set and achieve the goals they set for themselves personally, professionally, academically or otherwise. Counter-narrative storytelling is grounded in Critical Race Theory (CRT). CRT  provides a critical means of evaluating the relationships between the success of Black and Latino/a students and their ability to construct a counter-narratives and achieve collegiate success. CRT is referenced in the included research as it. CRT will also provide a framework for evaluating what university practices are most effective in promoting the success of Black and Latino students. This paper will examine the influence of counter-narrative storytelling on the success collegiate success Black and Latino students at PWIs. The phrase “success” shall be operationalized to mean college retention, feeling included and supported within the university, and graduation from college. The referenced articles examine the experiences of Blacks and Latino/a students enrolled in colleges and universities across the United States and the influence counter-narrative storytelling had on their experience

Adolescent Mothers’ Life Trajectory: What is Dimming Their Futures?

For years, researchers contended that early pregnancy was the primary determinant for poor life outcomes for adolescent mothers (Hayes, 1987, as cited in SmithBattle 2007, p 410). More recently, the flaws in these assumptions have surfaced as theories such as the general systems theory on human behavior are gaining traction. This states that from the individual level (social interactions, cultural beliefs and values, degree of self-efficacy) to the environmental level (family, peer groups, societal norms, social class, economic status, racism), the widening disparity along one’s developmental life course reveals outcomes unique to a person and their experiences (Coie et al., 1993, pp 1014, 1016). The intertwined nature of these systems, each of which will be discussed in further sections, have altered the direction of research concerning sources of poor life outcomes commonly attributed to adolescent motherhood

Marcus Pound, Theology, Comedy, Politics

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A Confession - We Do Look Alike

This is an essay about my conflicted feelings I have towards my mother, stemming from the realization that although I try not to acknoweldge it, we do indeed look alike.&nbsp

Culturally Responsive Pedagogy in Mathematics

Purpose: This paper is a thematic literature review to examine the current state of research about Culturally Responsive Pedagogy in mathematics. The main themes are students’ perception, teacher education for pre-service teacher and professional development for teachers. Research methods/ approach: Literature was collected from Eric, which is a research engine of the education field. Also, Google Scholar is used to find articles of major scholars introduced by Dr. Rich Milner, who is the instructor of this course. Findings: Students faced microaggressions in mathematics class, which discouraged them to learn mathematics. The effect of teacher education was inconsistent in terms of the awareness of culturally responsive pedagogy and lesson plans. Research of professional development mentioned that mathematics was cultural. Implications for research and practice: It is more interesting to conduct long term or follow-up research to find the teacher’s practice after a taking professional development program. Also, it is critical to expand research scope besides African American and Latino students. Finally, evidence-based research is needed to change the political situation. Keywords: culturally responsive teaching, mathematics, teacher education, professional development, student’s perceptio