The Effects on Students' Self-Efficacy Beliefs Regarding Their Comprehension of American Literature When Aesthetic Reading and Reader Response Strategy are Implemented

High-stakes testing and accountability have infiltrated the education system in the United States; the top priority for all teachers must be student progress on standardized tests. This has resulted in the predominance of reading for test-taking, (efferent reading), in the English, language arts, and reading classrooms. Authentic uses of print activities, like aesthetic reading, that encourage students to engage individually with a text, have been pushed aside. During a 3-week time period, regular level, English 3/American literature students in a Title I magnet high school, participated in this quasi-experimental study (N = 62). It measured the effects of an intervention of reading American literature texts aesthetically and writing aesthetically-evoked reader responses on students’ self-efficacy beliefs regarding their comprehension of American literature. One trained teacher and the researcher participated in the study: student participants were pre- and post- tested using the Confidence in Reading American Literature Survey which examined their self-efficacy beliefs regarding their comprehension of American literature. Several statistical analyses were performed. The results of the linear regression analyses partially supported a positive relationship between aesthetically-evoked reader responses and students’ self-efficacy beliefs regarding their comprehension of American literature. Additionally, the results of the 2 (sex) x 2 (treatment) ANCOVAs conducted to test group differences in self-efficacy beliefs regarding the comprehension of American literature between treatment and control groups indicated a main effect for treatment (but not sex; nor was there a significant sex x treatment interaction), suggesting the treatment was partially effective in increasing students’ self-efficacy beliefs. Seven of the twelve ANCOVAs indicated a statistically significant increase in the treatment group’s adjusted group mean self-efficacy belief scores as a result of being exposed to the intervention. In six of these seven analyses, increases in self-efficacy beliefs occurred in tasks that required three or more higher-order levels of thinking/learning. The results are discussed in terms of theoretical, empirical and practical significance. Future research is recommended to extend the intervention beyond the narrow confines of a Title I magnet school to settings where the intervention could be tested longitudinally, e. g., honors and gifted students, elementary and middle schools.

A poesia promovendo o trabalho integrado e colaborativo na escola: uma contribuição à formação de professores na educação básica

Este estudo, desenvolvido através de uma investigação-ação, busca aprofundar a compreensão sobre o papel da poesia e de sua abordagem associado à integração curricular e ao trabalho colaborativo, em programas de formação de professores, inicial e continuada, visando à mudança de uma prática docente solitária para uma prática mais reflexiva e solidária. Esta investigação desenvolveu-se em uma escola pública de São Paulo - Brasil, com professores de diferentes disciplinas, coordenação pedagógica e estagiários do curso de Letras de duas universidades privadas. Com o propósito de contribuir para o debate, associamos o estudo teórico à investigação empírica, numa investigação-ação, recorrendo à observação participante e às entrevistas semiestruturadas. Elegemos para este trabalho três grandes eixos e suas respectivas referências teóricas: i) formação de professores; ii) currículo e desenvolvimento curricular; e iii) poesia e abordadem da poesia. Com base nesses eixos, elaboramos e desenvolvemos o estudo empírico que nos mostrou sua relevância através dos resultados obtidos: viabilidade de construção e implementação de projetos interdisciplinares nas escolas da rede pública; importância da interação entre professores e restante comunidade escolar; humanização do ambiente escolar; protagonismo de professores e alunos. Mostrou-nos também algumas limitações, especialmente o pouco investimento e apoio das equipes de gestão ao desenvolvimento de projetos integrados, assim como a falta de tempo necessário à construção de ambiente propício à criação da cultura de colaboração docente. Esperamos ter contribuído, através deste projeto, para que um novo olhar seja lançado aos programas de formação, inicial e continuada, de professores, menos tecnicista, mais crítico e reflexivo, mais solidário e integrado, mais humanizado e democrático, bem como à potencialidade da poesia/abordagem da poesia nesses contextos.

Beyond hope: Rhetorics of mobility, possibility, and literacy

When writing teachers enter the classroom, they often bring with them a deep faith in the power of literacy to rectify social inequalities and improve their students’ social and economic standing. It is this faith—this hope for change—that draws some writing teachers to locations of social and economic hardship. I am interested in how teachers and theorists construct their own narratives of social mobility, possibility, and literacy. My dissertation analyzes the production and expression of beliefs about literacy in the narratives of a diverse group of writing teachers and theorists, from those beginning their careers to those who are published and widely read. The central questions guiding this study are: How do teachers’ and theorists’ narratives of becoming literate intersect with literacy theories? and How do such literacy narratives intersect with beliefs in the power of literacy to improve individuals’ lives socially, economically, and personally? I contend that the professional literature needs to address more fully how teachers’ and theorists’ personal histories with literacy shape what they see as possible (and desirable) for students, especially those from marginalized communities. A central focus of the dissertation is on how teachers and theorists attempt to resolve a paradox they are likely to encounter in narratives about literacy. On one hand, they are immersed in a popular culture that cherishes narrative links between literacy and economic advancement (and, further, between such advancement and a “good life”). On the other hand, in professional discourse and in teacher preparation courses, they are likely to encounter narratives that complicate an assumed causal relationship between literacy and economic progress. Understanding, through literacy narratives, how teachers and theorists chart a practical path through or around this paradox can be beneficial to literacy education in three ways. First, it can offer direction in professional development and teacher education, addressing how teachers negotiate the boundaries between personal experience, theory, and pedagogy. Second, it can help teachers create spaces wherein students can explore the impact of paradoxical views about the role of literacy on their own lives. Finally, it can offer direction in public policy discourse, extending awareness of what we want—and need—from English language arts education in the twenty-first century. To explore these issues, I draw on case studies and ethnographic observation as well as narrative inquiry into teachers’ and theorists’ published literacy narratives. I situate my findings within three interrelated frames: 1) the narratives of new teachers, 2) the published works of literacy educators and theorists, and 3) my own literacy narrative. My first chapter, “Beyond Hope,” explores the tenuous connections between hope and critique in literacy studies and provides a methodological overview of the study. I argue that scholarship must move beyond a singular focus on either hope or critique in order to identify the transformative potential of literacy in particular circumstances. Analyzing literacy narratives provides a way of locating a critically informed sense of possibility. My second chapter, “Making Teachers, Making Literacy,” explores the intersection between teachers’ lives and the theories they study, based on qualitative analysis of a preservice course for secondary education English teachers. I examine how these preservice English teachers understood literacy, how their narratives of becoming literate and teaching English connected—and did not connect—with theoretical and pedagogical positions, and how these stories might inform their future work as practitioners. Centering primarily on preservice teachers who resisted Nancie Atwell’s pedagogy of possibility because they found it too good to be true, this research concentrates on moments of disjuncture, as expressed in class discussion and in one-on-one interviews, when literacy theories failed to align with aspiring teachers’ understandings of their own experiences and also with what they imagined as possible in disadvantaged educational settings. In my third and fourth chapters, I analyze the narratives of celebrated teachers and theorists who put forth an agenda that emphasizes possibilities through literacy, examining how they negotiate the relationship between their own literacy stories and literacy theories. Specifically, I investigate the narratives of three proponents of critical literacy: Mike Rose, Paulo Freire, and Myles Horton, all highly respected literacy teachers whose working-class backgrounds influenced their commitment to teaching in disenfranchised communities. In chapter 3, “Reading Lives on the Boundary,” I demonstrate how Mike Rose’s 1989 autobiographical text, Lives on the Boundary, juxtaposes rhetorics of mobility with critiques of such possibility. Through an analysis of work published in professional journals, I offer a reception history of Rose’s narrative, focusing specifically on how teachers have negotiated the tension between hope and critique. I follow this analysis with three case studies, drawn from a larger sampling, that inquire into the personal connections that writing teachers make with Lives on the Boundary. The teachers in this study, who provided written responses and participated in audio-recorded follow-up interviews, were asked to compare Rose’s story to their own stories, considering how their personal literacy histories influenced their teaching. My findings illustrate how a group of teachers and theorists have projected their own assessments of what literacy and higher education can and cannot accomplish onto this influential text. In my fourth chapter, “Horton and Freire’s Road as Literacy Narrative,” I concentrate on Myles Horton and Paulo Freire’s 1990 collaborative spoken book, We Make the Road by Walking. Central to my analysis are the educators’ stories about their formative years, including their own primary and secondary education experiences. I argue that We Make the Road by Walking demonstrates how theories of literacy cannot be divorced from personal histories. I begin by examining the spoken book as a literacy narrative that fuses personal and theoretical knowledge, focusing specifically on its authors’ ideas on theory. Drawing on Bakhtin’s notion of the chronotope—the intersection of time and space within narrative—I then explore the literacy narratives emerging from the production process of the book, in a video production about Horton and Freire’s meeting, and ultimately in the two men’s reflections on their childhood years (Dialogic). Interspersed with these accounts is archival material on the book’s editorial production that illustrates the value of increased dialogue between personal history and theories of literacy. My fifth chapter is both a reflective analysis and a qualitative study of my work at a men’s medium-high security prison in Illinois, where I conducted research and served as the instructor of an upper-level writing course, “Writing for a Change,” in the spring of 2009. Entitled “Doing Time with Literacy Narratives,” this chapter explores the complex ways in which literacy and incarceration are configured in students’ narratives as well as my own. With and against students’ stories, I juxtapose my own experiences with literacy, particularly in relation to being the son of an imprisoned father. In exploring the intersections between such stories, I demonstrate how literacy narratives can function as a heuristic for exploring beliefs about literacy between teachers and students both inside and outside of the prison-industrial complex. My conclusion pulls together the various themes that emerged in the three frames, from the making of new teachers to the published literacy narratives of teachers and theorists to my own literacy narrative. Writing teachers encounter considerable pressure to align their curricula with one or another theory of literacy, which has the effect of negating the authority of knowledge about literacy gleaned from experience as readers and writers. My dissertation contends that there is much to be gained by finding ways of articulating theories of literacy that encompass teachers’ knowledge of reading and writing as expressed in personal narratives of literacy. While powerful cultural rhetorics of upward social mobility often neutralize the critical potential of teachers’ own narratives of literacy—potential that has been documented by scholars in writing studies and allied disciplines—this is not always the case. The chapters in this dissertation offer evidence that hopeful and critical positions on the transformational possibilities of literacy are not mutually exclusive.

Estudio, edición crítica y traducción del "Memoriale virtvtvm" de Alfonso de Cartagena

Alfonso de Cartagena (1385-1456), possibly the most representative figure of the courtly, political and cultural dimension built around Juan II, was the third son of the famous convert Pablo de Santa Maria, Burgos’ rabbi and, later on, bishop of that same town. He started his career as governor of Cartagena’s cathedral, afterwards he was named dean of Santiago and Segovia, canon of Burgos and, after his father’s death, bishop of Burgos. Alternatively, he played a vital role in Castile’s national and international politics, as an ambassador in Portugal’s court, at Basel’s council and before Poland’s and Germany’s kings. His work, written both in Latin and Romance, either as an historian, treatise writer, theologist or translator, is quite broad; his literary connections were strong either with Italian humanists or with those who were fond of the language arts from Spain. The first part of this Thesis seeks to provide a wide enough perspective of the author, for which we place the emphasis on the most distinctive aspects of his life. Therefore, we divided the introduction in three sections: a biographical overview, his work and, last, a study on the Memoriale uirtutum itself. Thus, regarding the first aspect, we focus on the course of his life (§1.1), where we can highlight his university education, which isn’t restricted to his training as a jurist, but we also observe that his mental vitality takes him to develop certain inquisitiveness for Moral Philosophy or Latin, which leads him to study Grammar and Rhetoric; this would allow the influence of studia humanitatis to emerge, although he never got to learn the Greek language, as we can deduce from the epistolary confrontation between him and Leonardo Bruni. We also focus on the significance of his Jewish past, upon the defence of the converts during the massacre experienced in the XVth century (§1.2), and on his presence at Basel’s council (§1.3). Despite the fact that his work as a diplomat begins during the missions in Portugal as an emissary of king Juan II, he will get recognition owing to his legation in Basel, not only among the European ecclesiastics, but also among the scholars from Italy; the importance of Basel’s council in Cartagena’s life goes beyond his official work there, either as defending the Castilian interests, or as an active member of the purely conciliar functions, since it also had a huge impact in his intellectual growth. During this time period, Cartagena establishes a friendship with Pizzolpaso, Bishop of Milan, writer, humanist, and friend of Leonardo Bruni. As a result of this type of relationship with men of such high cultural standard, he re-awakens the study of the Classical antiquity among his contemporaries, developing a huge interest in the Greco-Roman masterpieces, which will bring him closely to the highly-regarded Spanish humanists of the XVIth century...

Pasos para lograr el exito : GUÍA PARA LA FAMILIA DE LOS ALUMNOS DE TERCER GRADO : LENGUA Y LITERATURA EN INGLÉS

This document, printed in Spanish, is designed to: provide examples of the standards, skills, and knowledge your child will learn in English language arts and should be able to do upon exiting third grade ; suggest activities on how you can help your child at home ; offer additional resources for information and help. Este documento está diseñado para: ofrecer ejemplos de los estándares, habilidades y conocimientos que su hijo(a) aprenderá en Lengua y Literatura en inglés y debe conocer al salir de tercer grad ; sugerir actividades sobre cómo puede ayudar a su hijo(a) en cas ; ofrecer recursos adicionales para obtener información y ayuda.

Integrating Creative Practice and Research in the Digital Media Arts

Research is often characterised as the search for new ideas and understanding. The language of this view privileges the cognitive and intellectual aspects of discovery. However, in the research process theoretical claims are usually evaluated in practice and, indeed, the observations and experiences of practical circumstances often lead to new research questions. This feedback loop between speculation and experimentation is fundamental to research in many disciplines, and is also appropriate for research in the creative arts. In this chapter we will examine how our creative desire for artistic expressivity results in interplay between actions and ideas that direct the development of techniques and approaches for our audio/visual live-coding activities.

Craft, process and art : teaching and learning music composition in higher education

This paper explores models of teaching and learning music composition in higher education. It analyses the pedagogical approaches apparent in the literature on teaching and learning composition in schools and universities, and introduces a teaching model as: learning from the masters; mastery of techniques; exploring ideas; and developing voice. It then presents a learning model developed from a qualitative study into students’ experiences of learning composition at university as: craft, process and art. The relationship between the students’ experiences and the pedagogical model is examined. Finally, the implications for composition curricula in higher education are presented.

Whole-proteome phylogeny of large dsDNA viruses and parvoviruses through a composition vector method related to dynamical language model

Background The vast sequence divergence among different virus groups has presented a great challenge to alignment-based analysis of virus phylogeny. Due to the problems caused by the uncertainty in alignment, existing tools for phylogenetic analysis based on multiple alignment could not be directly applied to the whole-genome comparison and phylogenomic studies of viruses. There has been a growing interest in alignment-free methods for phylogenetic analysis using complete genome data. Among the alignment-free methods, a dynamical language (DL) method proposed by our group has successfully been applied to the phylogenetic analysis of bacteria and chloroplast genomes. Results In this paper, the DL method is used to analyze the whole-proteome phylogeny of 124 large dsDNA viruses and 30 parvoviruses, two data sets with large difference in genome size. The trees from our analyses are in good agreement to the latest classification of large dsDNA viruses and parvoviruses by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV). Conclusions The present method provides a new way for recovering the phylogeny of large dsDNA viruses and parvoviruses, and also some insights on the affiliation of a number of unclassified viruses. In comparison, some alignment-free methods such as the CV Tree method can be used for recovering the phylogeny of large dsDNA viruses, but they are not suitable for resolving the phylogeny of parvoviruses with a much smaller genome size.

Composition portfolio and commentaries

In an attempt to provide an analytical entry point into my compositional practice, I have identified eight themes which are significantly recurrent: reduction – the selection of a small number of elements; imperfection – a damaged or warped characteristic of sound; hierarchy – a concern with the roles of instruments with regard to their relative prominence; motion – apparently static sound masses consist of fine internal movement; listener perception – expectations for change influence the experience of affect; translation – the transitioning of electronic sounds to the acoustic realm, and vice versa; immersion – the creation of an accommodating soundscape; blurring – smearing and overlapping sounds or genres. Each of these eight factors is associated with relevant precedents in the history and theory of music that have been influential on my work. These include the minimalist compositions of Steve Reich and Arvo Pärt; the lo-fi aesthetic of Boards of Canada and My Bloody Valentine; concerns with political hierarchy in the work of Louis Andriessen; the variations of dynamics and microtonal shifts of Giacinto Scelsi; Leonard B. Meyer's account of expectation in music; cross-fertilisation of the acoustic and electronic in pieces by Gérard Grisey and Gyorgy Ligeti; the immersive technique of Brian Eno's ambient music; and the overlapping sounds of Aphex Twin. These eight factors are variously applicable to the eleven submitted pieces, which are individually analysed with reference to the most significant of the categories. Together they form a musical language that sustains the interaction of a variety of techniques, concepts and genres.

La composition au moyen des quarts de ton

La version intégrale de cette thèse est disponible uniquement pour consultation individuelle à la Bibliothèque de musique de l’Université de Montréal.

Trahisons liquides : la composition d’un opéra dans le contexte des productions multimédias actuelles

La version intégrale de cette thèse est disponible uniquement pour consultation individuelle à la Bibliothèque de musique de l’Université de Montréal (http://www.bib.umontreal.ca/MU).

Composer avec le volume : tentative de systématisation du Traité de l'orchestration de Koechlin et application à la composition.

La version intégrale de ce mémoire [ou de cette thèse] est disponible uniquement pour consultation individuelle à la Bibliothèque de musique de l’Université de Montréal (www.bib.umontreal.ca/MU).

L’influence réciproque qu’exerce la pratique conjointe de la composition de musique à l’image et de la composition de musique de concert sur le développement de mon langage musical

La version intégrale de ce mémoire est disponible uniquement pour consultation individuelle à la Bibliothèque de musique de l’Université de Montréal (www.bib.umontreal.ca/MU).