Welcome to the AIR
The Alma College Institutional Repository contains the publicly available digital materials and archives created by Alma College students, faculty and staff. The Alma College Digital Photo Archive, the entire run of Almanian Student newspaper, and all of the Alma College Yearbooks are available here.
Recent Submissions
Item type:Item, Prodigal Daughter: Parables for Doubters & Nonbelievers(2026-07)This is a creative work. All rights are reserved by the author. Access is restricted until 2050. This collection of poetry journeys through religious deconstruction, exploring themes of gender, sexuality, and generational trauma. While unpacking what it means to be a daughter, wife, and woman, the manuscript draws on confessional, persona, and found poem techniques, emphasizing the connection between individual and collective experiences of womanhood. Each section is labeled after a book of the Bible, creating an overarching narrative of a woman leaving home, experiencing the world, and finding herself.Item type:Item, Figs & Other Fruit(2026-07)This is a creative work. All rights are reserved by the author. Access is restricted until 2050. This collection of personal essays explores how literature, mythology, and religion have depicted women eating forbidden fruit. Through braided narratives, these chapters interrogate gender roles and sexuality in the author’s personal life and popular cultural stories. From an abecedarian to autotheory, the essays employ a range of nonlinear styles exploring the boundaries of form and storytelling.Item type:Item, Item type:Item, Teaching Students With Learning Disabilities: Strategies and Best Practices(2026-06)Teaching students with learning disabilities requires more than just following a lesson plan; it takes collaboration, creativity, and a deep understanding of each student’s unique learning profile. Every student brings different strengths, challenges, and ways of processing information, which means teachers must be flexible and intentional in how they design instruction. Co-teaching, where general and special education teachers work together in the same classroom, provides a powerful framework for meeting these diverse needs. This model allows teachers to share expertise, divide responsibilities, and ensure that students with disabilities receive the individualized support they need while still learning alongside their peers in an inclusive setting. Effective co-teaching requires strong communication, joint planning, and a shared commitment to student growth. Teachers must learn to blend their teaching styles, set clear roles, and use evidence-based strategies that promote both engagement and understanding. Lessons must be differentiated so that all students, regardless of ability, can access the content and demonstrate their learning in meaningful ways. Progress monitoring and data collection are also essential, allowing teachers to make informed adjustments to instruction and interventions. In addition to planning and assessment, successful co-teaching depends on the ability to adapt in real time. Teachers must be ready to modify lessons, shift grouping strategies, and respond to student needs as they arise. This flexibility helps create a classroom environment that supports both academic and social-emotional growth. When implemented effectively, co-teaching not only benefits students with learning disabilities but also strengthens instruction for the entire class by encouraging collaboration, empathy, and innovative teaching. Keywords: inclusive education, collaboration, teaching strategies, joint planning, data collection, flexibility, supporting studentsItem type:Item, Language Barrier or Disability Exploring the Placement of English Language Learners in Special Education Services(2026-06)This capstone explores the misplacement and misidentification of bilingual and English Language Learners in special education services. This paper focuses on studying the layers of language acquisition and how it can potentially look similar to various learning disabilities, wrongfully administered assessments along with cultural ignorance. It also uses previous case studies and instances in which scholars of ELL backgrounds have been inaccurately placed in special education. Additionally, it takes a deep dive into how assessments appear to be biased in that they are created centering English speakers and can possibly aid in the misplacement of scholars struggling with language learning vs. learning disabilities. Lastly, it explores how educators, classroom teachers specifically adjusting or not adjusting their practices are a barrier as well. This paper provides a literature review, case study, and identification of interventions. Keywords: Special education, English Language Learners (ELL), evaluation, equitable, cultural responsiveness, learning disabilities, language acquisition
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