This research examines students’ understanding and ability to work with composition functions in different representations. Its underlying purpose is to analyze students’ level of procedural knowledge and conceptual understanding of composite functions and to identify common errors and misconceptions associated with these functions. It was hypothesized that college students would incorrectly substitute one function into another when evaluating at a variable. Furthermore, it was hypothesized that evaluating a function value at a constant would produce better results as well as working with visual representations, such as tables and graphs. The results of this study indicate that non-mathematics major college students have neither strong conceptual understanding nor adequate procedural fluency in terms of composition functions. However, there was no significant difference between evaluating constants versus variables in the functions. Additional results revealed that while visual and algebraic representations produced no significant differences in their means (p-value = 0.545), algebraic notation negatively influenced students’ solving capabilities (p-value = 0.000).

This Master’s curriculum project focused on creating a developmentally appropriate curriculum for a toddler classroom. The findings from the literature review suggested that a curriculum should include meaningful experiences for children to explore with all senses. Findings further find the curriculum should be child-centered, interactive and age appropriate. This resulted in a professional development inquiry project for toddlers to experience farm life through picture books and interactive learning segments throughout play.

Emergent literacy is a child's knowledge of reading and writing skills before they learn how to read and write words. This skill should be continued to be monitored through the transition from kindergarten to first grade. There are affective factors that affect a child's emergent literacy skill, self-efficacy, motivation, attitude and family factors. It is important for parents and guardians to be educated on what emergent literacy is and what they can do to support and enhance their child's skills and behaviors. As a result, a curriculum project was developed to present to a wide variety of school districts for parents to develop a better understanding of what emergent literacy is and what factors can influence their child's skill and behaviors. Also, this website will provide ideas and activities for parents to help to enhance their child's skill and support their learning.

Summer reading setback is an issue that can have an impact on a child's reading ability. This setback can take place over the summer months when children have an extended break in their formal schooling. There are many factors that can impact summer reading setback and one is parental involvement. This extensive research focused on primary grade levels and the types of support parents or family members can provide during the summer months in order to reduce summer reading setback. As a result, a curriculum project was developed to present multiple strategies families can use with their children over the summer months while working with them on reading. Also, this handbook demonstrates how important it is for families to be active participants when a child is learning how to read. [from author's abstract]

The number of English Language Learners (ELLs) in the United States continues to grow at a rapid rate. In New York State, the home language of ELLs is mainly Spanish. In Buffalo, New York, at an urban public school serving grades kindergarten through 8, the native Spanish-speaking ELL students are largely from Puerto Rico or Puerto Rican culture. As the population of ELLs continues to rise across the country, public school teachers in New York can expect to see an increase of ELL students in their classrooms. Research has shown that many pre-service teachers are ill prepared to accept and accommodate ELLs in their classrooms. This includes, but is not limited to, music teachers. Music is a required subject for students in grades kindergarten through 8 in New York State. In order for ELL students to receive an equal, quality music education, research has proven that a culturally relevant approach to teaching is necessary. A required part of providing a quality, culturally relevant education to ELLs is to incorporate their funds of knowledge into the curriculum. My culturally relevant music curriculum project was designed to provide music teachers with knowledge about best teaching practices for teaching ELLs. Another intended outcome of my music curriculum is for music teachers to learn how to incorporate culture into their curriculum so that all students, not only ELLs, receive a meaningful education. [from author's abstract]

This thesis project is a Professional Development Project used to complete a review of literature about what are effective literacy strategies for general education teachers to use when teaching students on the Autism Spectrum, literacy instruction. The researcher took a personal interest in this topic based on her own teaching experience of students on the Autism Spectrum. The most appropriate way to address this question was to complete an exhaustive literature review and synthesis. After a synthesis of the research was completed, four significant findings were produced. The first finding is that according to research, five instructional strategies produce effective results on literacy instruction with students with ASD. The second finding is at the middle school and high school level, comprehension is the area of literacy instruction where most instructional strategies are being applied. The third finding is that the instructional strategy of cooperative learning groups are most effective with students with ASD at the elementary level. The fourth finding is that the most effective instructional strategies can be applied across all three grade levels of elementary, middle school and adolescents: direct instruction (DI) and Class Wide Peer Tutoring (CWPT). These findings are pertinent to the professional development of general elementary teachers with students on the Autism spectrum and will be shared with them through a professional development project in the form of a handout. [from author's abstract]

This Curriculum Project reviews all of the different ideas and concepts dealing with the term community helper. The community helper project touches on multiple ways to educate both students with or without disabilities on their community, who to contact in certain situations and the familiarities of each community professional. The importance of educating students on the community, the different jobs and all the different people working for the same community is very relevant. Young children today are not as familiar or comfortable as they should be with their community helpers. They are to be educated on the uniforms they wear, the tools they use and the types of jobs they are in charge of. Essentially this project shows how to incorporate the community helpers unit in all subjects throughout the day and the research that supports each and every lesson [from author's abstract]

School readiness is a problem for Kindergarten and grade one teachers and for school administrators who may not have a clear understanding of what the term includes or how it is measured. This problem of confusion of concept and measurement of "school readiness" leads a reading specialist to ask the question, what does research indicate to be the role and measurement of school readiness especially as related to literacy development? To address this question, an extensive literature review and synthesis were conducted. Results indicate four findings. First is that there appears to be no universally accepted definition for the term "school readiness." Second is that school readiness appears to be defined in one of three ways: as a measurement of certain literacy skills (frequently oral language skills, letter recognition, letter sounds, phonological awareness, knowledge of print); as a measurement of certain behavioral skills (generally: emotional coping, problem solving, self-regulation); or as a measurement of a combination of behavioral and literacy skills. The third finding is that only a few researchers define readiness exclusively in terms of literacy skills, many define it exclusively in terms of behavioral skills, and some define it in terms of a combination of literacy and behavioral skills. The fourth finding is that when including literacy skills in the definition, there is no one literacy skill or set of skills that universally determine school readiness, and no one measurement or set of measurements for measuring those skills. These findings will be disseminated through an informational professional development brochure. [from author's abstract]

Department of Language, Learning, and Leadership Elementary students who exhibit behavioral problems often underachieve in all academic subjects, especially in developing their reading skills (Haak, Downer, & Reeve, 2012). This issue of student emotional and behavioral disorders creates a problem of classroom management for teachers. This review and synthesis of the literature to address the question of what are effective classroom management strategies for use with school age students exhibiting emotional and behavior disorders has produced three findings. The first is that research has identified three main types of classroom management strategies that produce positive impact on students with emotional and behavioral disorders: classroom instruction, teacher positive feedback and praise, and student self-monitoring. The second finding is that of the three types of strategies, the classroom instruction and teacher positive feedback and praise increased the time on task and academic performance of these students. Classroom instruction appears to produce positive academic results at the early elementary and late middle school levels, while teacher positive feedback and praise appears to produce results across all grade levels. The third finding is that student self-monitoring appears to be the type of classroom management strategy that decreases negative emotional and behavioral incidents by students with emotional and behavioral disorders across all grade levels. As a result, this strategy type also increases student time on task. These findings are relevant to the professional development of general and special education teachers, and will be dispersed to them through a professional development project in the form of a digital brochure. [from abstract]

To answer the question of the influence of prewriting strategies on the academic writing of students with learning disabilities, the most appropriate way is with a research synthesis. The first finding is that all single prewriting strategies examined for both expository and narrative writing are either mnemonic devices (verbally-based) or a form of graphic organizer (visually-based). Both devices guide students through the prewriting process: mnemonic devices also remind students to plan their work, while graphic organizers display a plan for writing. Students with learning disabilities in grades 6 to 9 appear to be influenced most by pre-structured graphic organizers in either paper or computer-based mode. Second is that how prewriting strategies are taught also appears to play a major role in the impact of the strategies, with the most effective form of instruction for both strategies being an explicitly taught direct instruction approach. Third is that the most effective instruction for pairing with a mnemonic device appears to be the Self-Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD) approach, while direct instruction of any prewriting strategy improves the writing of students from grades 2 to 9. The fourth finding is that the most effective prewriting strategies for students with learning disabilities appear to be strategies which use a visual or mnemonic device and are taught through direct instruction using a form of self-regulatory instruction, frequently Self-Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD). These four findings will be presented on the internet as professional development in the form of a Prezi intended for educators and reading teachers. [from author's abstract]