Thursday, May 28, 2020

Dr. Rose Reissman - 2020 Winner of Annual ISTE literacy Network SPOTLIGHT LITERACY PRACTICE AWARD




2020 Winner of Annual ISTE literacy Network SPOTLIGHT Literacy PRACTICE AWARD

Dr. Rose Reissman, Literacy Teacher and Coach  at Ditmas IS 62, a Brooklyn public intermediate school.


Practice: “Curating Free Media Resources for Heightened Literacy Learning Activities”


Q1: How did you come to develop this practice? What contributed to your seeing this as an important way to teach and to encourage colleagues?
A: I have a long history of teaching ELA/Literacy. But even before that, I’ve always been someone who reads a great deal… a wide variety of things and lots of them. I love reading and making connections to life. And, as teaching is in my blood, connecting what I read to teaching is a natural for me. If something moves me and fires my imagination, one of the most natural things for me to do is to ponder how it might make learning exciting and meaningful for students.

When the World Wide Web became popular I began to find all sorts of free, easy to access and use resources that seemed to me full a wonderful possibilities.  I put them at the service of teaching the curriculum that Literacy teachers must present to students. I’ve observed how they make learning that curriculum more enjoyable and effective and, in the students’ minds, may overshadow the required material significantly.

I’ve shared these resources and the activities and ways to implement them that I’ve developed with many colleagues who find them very useful, and whose students find them to be highly engaging and meaningful and favored parts of the school day.  

Q2: INSTRUCTIONAL APPROACH… Having taught, coached, and written original curriculum for a good many years… what take-away from the experience would you most like to share with younger teachers?

A2: Teach multiple platforms; even, and perhaps especially, when teaching print texts of novels and stories that come from the provided curriculum. Teachers should be sure to include in the student experience free, digital media resources like publishers’ pages, book trailers, and interviews with authors or other persons talking about books and writing in enlightening ways. 

Try to find and present (through media resources) some authors who, strike students as relevant and appealing (In sync with local neighborhood and youth culture)


My personal bonanza find this year is Jason Reynolds and his new, Library of Congress online writing workshop set up during the COVID19 lockdown, enabling him to function as an ambassador for Literature. It’s filled with traditional approaches, for instance   elements of the writing workshop, like framing a narrative and a prompt of invention with a set script. Yet he communicates it all so coolly!
Make sure the instructional approach includes an element for the students of “It’s your turn!” in which they can instruct or share their favorite literature with others.

Q3: CONTENT… What variety of content do you find works best with the kids you work with (low income, inner city, minority, many recently arrived immigrant etc.)?

A3: Connect to external, major issues, like the COVID19 crisis, immigration and threats of deportation, dropping of standardized test results, shootings or other high profile incidents that relate to your students’ lives. Present these with news items from popular print or broadcast or blog post sources. Mix up media; kids love that and it addresses their mixed learning styles. 

Teach the theme of Rites of Passage.  This will consistently hit your students emotionally.
Teach about becoming a woman or man, becoming independent, differences between friends,  friends who move away and friends who stay, betrayal, deaths and losses, divorces and breakups being a foster or adopted child - there are many works on these themes many set in school which resonates particularly well.

Q4: Self Evaluation – How do you judge whether or not your teaching (and by extension, teaching in general) is effective. Beyond scores, how do you know that your teaching has been impactful?

A: Judge by the volume of student responses. Are responses well detailed and in sync with your assignments? Is there length, detail, and depth in the responses? If you get say, 75 percent of these things in student responses then you are on to something good. Continue to tap that vein. 

Capture student work samples digitally and/or save work produced digitally and maintain an individual portfolios Organize and post them online, open to the public if possible, so that students can have the experience of authentically presenting/ being accountable to an authentic audience and to support self-assessment.


Q5: What’s the absolute key to engaging students and keeping them engaged so that real, lasting learning can take place?

A5: Connect to kids’ passions. For instance, I recently bonded with my students over BTS, (a Korean Boy Band whose videos are extremely popular in the age and demographic group with which I work.) My students made me aware of their existence and their appeal and fame.  Have students reflect, analyze, and write about their passion and argue for it. This is just one example of how my students and I find common ground in things of interest to explore, discuss and write about.

Make project based learning an important part of what you have students do so they can exit school with hard copy, digital, or web based  products to show what they accomplished. Literacy projects very often include visual art, audio recordings, and student made video or animation and represent concrete highpoints in their learning that they can share and build on later in life.

Teach them skills (reading aloud, performing, movement, poster art, newsletter design and publishing, interviewing, etc.) that will enable them to  lead a debate, make a presentation to peers or adults, and to shine in other ways. Provide a platform for them to learn and see how literacy facilitates their presence as individuals and their authentic impact on their world

Q6: Your work is known in your school and beyond as ‘off the charts’ in terms of
Authenticity, Relevance, Student Engagement, and Impact. Mining your own long career for a take away for teachers interested in producing this sort of effect on their students, class, school, and beyond, what would you recommend they begin doing?


A6: Put pizzazz into your work with students.  Put passion into it.  Infuse your personal values into what you do.  I love fashion, acting, rescuing animals, social activism, community service, reading aloud and performing poetry, as well as dancing.  Whatever I teach has always been filled with that.  I have an Aunt Sophie unit dedicated to the real life oral history of my great aunt, Sophie Gromer, an immigrant who arrived here in the 1920’s, worked in a sweatshop and raised three American citizen children who became successful.  My mother was my role model for living life with grit and style and loving books and leading and speaking to groups of people.  All my students know about her.  Sharing parts of one’s life with students is telling them they are part of your emotional landscape and are more than just clients you are paid to teach.  This year I brought in digital photos of the real Aunt Sophie and of my mother in her youth…. and the students brought in their own family photographs,  Yes, they learned oral history, and interview and research skills, but they also bonded as a class community.  I led that community and was part of it, as well.


Q7: How would you like to see the field, itself change? What truth would you like to see the field embrace as it moves forward?

A7. Literacy should include inherent and explicit life lessons.  And in my opinion, as part of the literacy activities taught, students should learn how to lead… it’s an important lesson to include.
 

Teachers should CONNECT TO students and to their NEEDS, LOVES, and DESIRES. Prioritize that over scores…




Rose Reissman is the founder of the Writing Institute, now replicated in almost 250 schools. The Rosalyn Yablow school in the Bronx will be next in Fall 2020. She was a featured author in New York State Union Teachers Educators Voice 2016 and was filmed discussing ESL student leadership literary strategies developed at Ditmas IS 62, a Brooklyn public intermediate school. Ditmas IS 62 is under the leadership of Marielena Santiago Principal and Michelle Buitrago AP. The Writing Institute Team are: Michael Downes, Angelo Carideo, and Amanda Xavier.The team and Dr. Reissman produce Ditmas Life www.ditmas.life created by Mr. Carideo and the Ditmas Buzz newsletter  is run by Mr. Downes and edited by Ms. Xavier.

Karina Costantino is the Superintendent of District 20, Brooklyn NY who supports literacy, arts and student leadership programs throughput her district with personal visits to students.

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Below a complete listing (as of this date of Dr. Rose Reissman's Articles published here @ Literacy Special Interest – the blog of the ISTE Literacy Network



  1. Creative and Engaging Projects to Foster Writing a...
  1. On the 21st Century Open Road, Technology Supports...
  1. CONNECTING ESL Learners through Digital Storytelling
  1. RESOURCE REVIEW: Write About – A One Stop Digital ...
  1. Human Teachers STILL Required