Failure, Flexibility, and (Self-)Forgiveness: Authentic Modeling through Distance Instruction

After adjusting her writing methods course for distance learning due to coronavirus restrictions, an experienced teacher but early-career teacher educator gets a difficult and important reminder about what failure in the classroom feels like. Using this failure as an opportunity, she chooses an honest and vulnerable approach to readjusting the course and finds that the strategy serves both her and her students well

Redirecting Redirection: Understanding Directive Use in Secondary Classroom Activities

poster abstractSecondary teachers use directives—speech acts that are intended to cause the hearer to act in some way— regularly in the classroom, and the purpose of this research is to examine how classroom activities affect teacher directive use and how effective teacher directives are in various activities. In particular, this study targets teachers of students who struggle academically. The data used was collected using direct observation of two pairs of cooperating teachers of low-achieving ninth-grade English and Geography students. In the data, two of the five identified functions of directives in the classroom suggested areas for pedagogical improvements regarding teacher directive use. One is redirection (directives such as “Do not throw things in class,” requiring students to replace unwanted behaviors with more desirable ones) and the other is for-response directives (those that intend for students to provide some sort of answer or response, such as “How do you prove that?”). Group-work activities in the classroom resulted in an increased use of redirection directives. Conversely, inquiry-heavy review and lecture activities resulted in an increased use of for-response directives, and students were far more compliant to the directives for response than to those intended for redirection. Thus, two significant conclusions can be drawn from the research: (1) use of for-response directives leads to more effective student-teacher interaction, and (2) the regular use of redirection in group work is not only less effective, but may also contribute to greater noncompliance and disruption in the group-work setting. The increased success and engagement using directives for response found here suggests that teachers of lower-level students should not only use inquiry strategies regularly in their classrooms, but they should also seek out training and support in inquiry strategies to improve their pedagogy. In addition, the study indicates that adjustments to directive use paired with additional scaffolding will result in more successful group activities for struggling students

Cardiovascular Disease: Analyzing Primary and Secondary Prevention Strategies

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the single most common cause of death around the world, with an increasing number of people living with coronary heart disease (CHD) (Anderson et al., 2016). Smoking and tobacco use are major risk factors for CVD and are the leading preventable causes of death globally. The chance of developing CVD is reversible and the elimination of tobacco use after a heart attack can reduce an individual\u27s risk of CVD mortality by 36% over two years (Rigotti & Clari, 2013). Smoking cessation is the central element of primary and secondary prevention strategies. Primary interventions can include aspirin and statin therapy, while secondary preventions include, but are not limited to, exercise-based rehabilitation and psychosocial interventions. The purpose of this project is to determine whether primary or secondary interventions are more effective in reducing the risk of developing CVD. To answer the clinical question, a thorough review of the literature was organized in the databases, Cochrane Library, National Guideline Clearinghouse, CINAHL, and PubMed Clinical Queries. The search yielded relevant sources of evidence which met the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Evidence included systematic reviews and randomized control trials. The findings regarding the best interventions to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease will be presented. These findings will assist healthcare providers in implementing the best quality of care to their patients

Cardiovascular Disease: Analyzing Primary and Secondary Prevention Strategies

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the single most common cause of death around the world, with an increasing number of people living with coronary heart disease (CHD) (Anderson et al., 2016). Smoking and tobacco use are major risk factors for CVD and are the leading preventable causes of death globally. The chance of developing CVD is reversible and the elimination of tobacco use after a heart attack can reduce an individual\u27s risk of CVD mortality by 36% over two years (Rigotti & Clari, 2013). Smoking cessation is the central element of primary and secondary prevention strategies. Primary interventions can include aspirin and statin therapy, while secondary preventions include, but are not limited to, exercise-based rehabilitation and psychosocial interventions. The purpose of this project is to determine whether primary or secondary interventions are more effective in reducing the risk of developing CVD. To answer the clinical question, a thorough review of the literature was organized in the databases, Cochrane Library, National Guideline Clearinghouse, CINAHL, and PubMed Clinical Queries. The search yielded relevant sources of evidence which met the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Evidence included systematic reviews and randomized control trials. The findings regarding the best interventions to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease will be presented. These findings will assist healthcare providers in implementing the best quality of care to their patients

Fail Forward! Perspectives on Failure in the Writing Classroom

In this inaugural Teacher-to-Teacher column, three classroom teachers discuss how they approach failure to normalize it and help students work toward problem solving rather than answer getting in their own classrooms. Missy Springsteen-Haupt explains how sharing her own authentic writing failures helps students see the natural emotional connection to their writing as normal and also to prove to them, as Shirley Rose notes, that \u27all writers always have more to learn about writing\u27 (59). Framing student writing in terms of growth mindsets, Stacy Stosich discusses a practical strategy for allowing for ugly drafts and redefining success and failure. Finally, Nora K. Rivera delineates a system of peer review and weekly sentence work designed to allow for experimentation without penalty; her methods not only pushed students to carefully evaluate their own and others’ work, but also resulted in a reduced grading load and student success in district testing

"Discovering" Writing With Struggling Students: Using Discovery Learning Pedagogy to Improve Writing Skills in Reluctant and Remedial Learners

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI)Few writing teachers will disagree that teaching writing conventions in isolation is a fruitless, even harmful, pedagogy which does little, if anything, to improve student writing. Teaching conventions, style, and usage (often collectively referred to as grammar) in context, however, proves difficult when struggling secondary students develop good ideas and evidence but fail to clearly articulate them because of their lack of understanding of various writing conventions. The purpose of this study is to test the efficacy of a carefully designed discovery learning activity which intends to push students into metacognition about what they read, how it is structured, and how that structure affects the reader. Three sources of data were used to determine whether students who had learned by discovery were better able to avoid and revise run-on sentences than students who did not learn through discovery pedagogy. The data sources include two sets of essays, surveys taken by the students, and teacher analyses of essays for readability. The results of the data analysis indicate that use of run-on sentences, especially early in an essay, detrimentally affects the readability of student written work; discovery learning activities improve student understanding, application, and transfer of skill; and while students believe they understand more than their written work indicates, the results provide teachers direction for further instruction. The findings of this study indicate that use of discovery learning for writing instruction with struggling learners holds great promise: a group of students generally regarded as academically weak showed greater understanding and application of run-on sentence avoidance than slightly stronger students who learned without discovery methods. This indicates that discovery learning is a method that improves learning among reluctant secondary students, a population many teachers struggle to reach effectively. Discovery learning is not limited to conventions, though: the promise of its application potential extends into a variety of writing skills and concepts. In addition to the run-on sentence discovery activity studied here, discovery activities for various other skills—from semicolon use through creating characterization with dialogue—are included

Radio Dim/Gamma-Ray Bright Active Galactic Nuclei

Inside virtually every large galaxy lies a supermassive black hole, known as active galactic nuclei. An especially interesting subclass of active galactic nuclei are those that emit high energy radiation. Certain sources that are part of this subclass have been detected by high energy telescopes but are undetectable by radio telescopes. To make better sense of this irregular trait, we have been searching for X-rays emitted from these same sources by looking for detections in hard and soft X-ray energy levels. The current emphasis is searching for detections of the sources in the hard X-ray energy band. The Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope and the Swift satellite have provided the necessary data for analysis. Aboard Swift is the Burst Alert Telescope(BAT), which provides the location of high energy bursts as well as a survey of hard X-ray data. We hope that this research will help constrain comprehensive characteristics and allow comparison with other subclasses of active galactic nuclei

Whole-class Engagement in the Age of Boaty McBoatface

Participation and engagement can be tricky because two or three actively participating students may seem like a fully engaged class. This interactive presentation explores a way to use crowdsourcing through Google Drive applications in the classroom to encourage whole-class engagement. Participants will benefit from having an internet-accessible device with them

A Comprehensive Study of the X-Ray Pulsar Population in the Small Magellanic Cloud

X-ray pulsars form from binary star systems containing a neutron star and a companion star. Due to the strong gravitational pull, particles from the companion star accumulate into an accretion disk around the neutron star. The gas that is accreted from the companion star is channeled to the magnetic poles when the neutron star has a strong magnetic field. As the neutron star spins, we can detect those x-rays in pulses. Using data from the Chandra Space Telescope, we intend to search for unidentified strong x-ray pulsars and weakly pulsing, accreting x-ray pulsars in the Small Magellanic Cloud. We will also use data gathered on potential new and already known sources to see what spin can tell us about accretion, and search for correlations between pulse profiles and luminosity