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.
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?
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.)?
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?
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…
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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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
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