This dissertation was a study of the efficacy of incorporating a creative writing-based curriculum into English Composition I courses. The goal of this study was to determine whether students learning with this style of curriculum could meet the student learning outcomes and master the core competencies for this course as effectively as students…

In light of an increased focus on the importance of soft skills to academic achievement and success later in life, educators are looking towards social-emotional learning (SEL) as a means for addressing the diverse needs of students. This qualitative study was aimed at understanding how secondary English Language Arts (ELA) teachers use literary…

This dissertation uses practitioner inquiry (Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 1999, 2009), narrative inquiry (Clandinin & Connelly, 1990; Rolling & Bey, 2016; Schaafsma & Vinz, 2011; Toliver, 2020a), composite character counter storytelling (Baker-Bell, 2020), and critical discourse analysis (Bloome et al., 2008; Bloome & Power-Carter,…

In recent years, teacher preparation programs have revised their curriculum to reflect the changes in K-12 education, especially in terms of technology integration. As more schools implement technology initiatives to align to Common Core State Standards and improve student achievement, teachers find themselves struggling to effectively use…

This year-long, multicase study employs cultural-historical theory to analyze the learning to teach process of nine novice English teachers enrolled in two different teacher preparation programs in the same large city: a university-based program and an Urban Teacher Residency. Broadly, this research investigates how novice English teachers learned…

The purpose of this study was to determine if Morphological Instruction (knowledge of the Germanic, Latin, and Greek words, roots, and affixes of English) was an effective instructional approach towards accelerating the acquisition of spelling, vocabulary, and reading comprehension and closing at least a 6,000 word gap between English language…