Video Composition, Creative Discourse, and Facilitated Freedom: A Teacher\u27s Journey to Reveal Student Potential

This research project was conducted in response to students’ lack of engagement in traditional modes of instruction and composition in a high school English Language Arts course. In order to better understand students as creative composers of knowledge, this research project asked students to engage in the video production process in collaborative groups. The research was conducted over the course of eight class periods in three different sections of Junior-level English Language Arts courses. Analysis of the data from this study reveals three important findings: 1) students respond well to creative and relevant performance assessments; 2) students’ collaborative conversations, or talk, reveal their true potential to compose; and 3) the use of multimodal composing in the high school English classroom offers opportunities for teachers to reposition themselves as facilitators of creative composition, which can invite greater student engagement. These findings have pedagogical implications for educators who wish to increase student engagement through implementation of innovative, creative, multimodal composition assessments in their classrooms

Perception of soundscapes : an interdisciplinary approach

This paper takes an overall view of findings from the Positive Soundscape Project, a large inter-disciplinary soundscapes study. Qualitative fieldwork (soundwalks and focus groups) have found that soundscape perception is influenced by cognitive effects such as the meaning of a soundscape and its components, and how information is conveyed by a soundscape, for example on the behaviour of people within the soundscape. Three significant clusters were found in the language people use to describe soundscapes: sound sources, sound descriptors and soundscape descriptors. Results from listening tests and soundwalks have been integrated to show that the two principal dimensions of soundscape emotional response seem to be calmness and vibrancy. Further, vibrancy seems to have two aspects: organisation of sounds and changes over time. The possible application of the results to soundscape assessment and design are briefly discussed

Using digital stories to improve writing skills of students With Autism Spectrum Disorder

Writing is an important medium to express one\u27s ideas and needs and is an integral part of the curriculum in secondary schools. Within an accountability system, students are expected to compose narrative, persuasive, and informational essays for state and district level assessments. Students with ASD demonstrate developmental delays in language and communication skills, including verbal and written language, thus, writing is a difficult area and challenge in their learning. This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of computer-assisted instruction using digital stories to teach expressive writing to students with ASD. A total of six students with autism participated in the study. A single subject design with AB phases was used to compare the level of total words written, total words and sentences correctly written, and quality of writing. During the baseline, participants were evaluated by their free writing with assigned topics, and during the intervention, students were shown six stories with digital pictures and wrote a total of six compositions in response to each story. The results showed an increase of their total words written, total words and sentences correctly written, and improvement in their writing quality. Computer-assisted instruction using digital pictures seemed to benefit students with ASD in learning writing

Use of songs in teaching and learning ionic bonds: a case of a secondary school in Vihiga County, Kenya

Factoring learner engagement during chemistry lessons is key if conceptual understanding is an objective. In Kenya however, the gradual decline in chemistry mean scores, coupled with evidence from studies, reveal disengagement in chemistry among learners. One of the most cited causes of this disengagement is the domineering teacher-centred teaching pedagogy. This action research studied how science content songs can be used to enhance engagement and interest in ionic bonding among high school learners in Kenya. The study, which was conducted in a mixed double-streamed secondary school, involved two collaborating teachers and 65 students, out whom, 8 participated in a focus group discussion. Data collection was conducted via multiple tools like document analysis protocol, lesson observation protocol, interview protocols, and focus group discussion protocols to enhance corroboration of findings. The findings revealed that the current teaching methods and resources in chemistry and particularly in ionic bonding, like lecture method, charts, and models are less engaging, thus leaving learners as passive consumers during lessons. At the intervention stage where songs were used, it was found that songs engage the learners throughout the lesson, capture their attention, enhance their recalling abilities, and have the potential to restore their positive attitudes towards chemistry. Additionally, findings revealed that songs enhance diverse learner preferences and extend learning outside the classroom. Despite the remarkable classroom benefits of songs, data revealed that the use of songs is associated with challenges like inappropriate vocabulary, diverse learner preferences for songs, and reduced classroom control. The findings recommend that secondary school teachers embrace engaging pedagogies like teaching through songs to engage their learners in the classrooms and to transform their attitudes. The findings are also projected to inform the ministry of education and other stakeholders on the formulation of a policy guiding use of songs as a pedagogy in high schools. Finally, it was recommended that future studies consider pure boarding schools or mixed days schools, and concepts involving experiments

Administrator and band director perceptions of the implementation of KY Core Content for Assessment in Music.

The purpose of this study was to survey secondary school administrator and band director perceptions regarding the implementation of Kentucky\u27s Core Content for Assessment 4.1 (CCA 4.1) in Music in the band programs at their schools. Secondary topics addressed included how administrators observe and assess their program with regards to KY CCA 4.1 and how band directors implement the different content standards set forth in KY CCA 4.1. An online survey using both Likert-type questions and short answer open response questions was completed by secondary public school administrators (n=20) and band directors (n=17) in a major metropolitan region in the Southeast. Results indicate that band directors were generally more critical of their instruction with respect to the content standards than administrators. Additionally, gaps were found in the assessment of standards relating to creating and composing music and improvising, between what administrators are observing and band directors are implementing. Suggestions for future research are offered

Putting Pedagogical Compositional Theory in Action : A Case Study of Process Based Approaches to Exploring Unfamiliar Writing Tasks

In this paper, I explore how employing process theory can aid eleventh grade AP English Language and Composition students in adjusting their writing to an unfamiliar composing task: the AP exam’s argument essay. I also investigate how to assist developing writers in adapting their composing to the unknown through their use of prewriting, drafting, and revising, and in their use of these reflective writing strategies that Mary Jo Reiff and Anis Bawarshi (2011) call “discursive resources”: accessing prior knowledge, possessing genre awareness, crossing boundaries, developing problem solving dispositions, and identifying as novice writers. Furthermore, I examine how to implement these practices into classroom instruction through Nancie Atwell’s writer’s workshop, where the teacher models how an expert composer converts her writing to an unfamiliar assignment, and confers individually with her learners and provides them feedback on their composing performances. In my attempt to evaluate the students’ employment of these writing practices, I gather data from surveying and interviewing the participants in the study, and by reading their reflective journal responses. I end this paper discussing the results of these data and share observations about how educators can teach writing and how students can perceive it