John Gunn and Soribel Genao, Myra Zarnowski and Paul Longo, and Ted Kesler and SungHee Shin were awarded $15,000 for their three partnerships with local schools to improve student learning.
Along with teachers and administrators at Queens School of Teaching Liberal Arts and the Sciences, Gunn and Genao will explore the possibilities of improving the quality of student learning through enhanced teachers’ professional communities and school capacity. “We want to see if we can build teachers’ professional community through the creation of curricular design teams at [two] schools,” Genao explains.
At Queens High School of Teaching and Cypress Hills Collegiate Preparatory School, Zarnowski and Longo will continue their efforts to engage children in learning to read nonfiction literature in science and social studies. “We are working with teachers in those subjects, emphasizing the reading of nonfiction exclusively in elementary schools,” says Zarnowski. This approach is unique in that most literature used at the elementary level is fiction; yet, standardized tests and the Common Core standards currently being implement ask children to read and understand nonfiction.
At Queens College School for Math, Science, and Technology, Kesler and Shin set up a summer institute where nine volunteer teachers collaborated on ways to bring technology into their pedagogy. A follow-up project this fall will monitor the ideas and practices that have played a significant role in supporting student learning through the use of technology. “This will be a one-year investigation,” Kesler report. “Participants will keep blogs and analyze their teaching with technology and how it has [or has not] improved their pedagogy.”
For more information about the Center for the Improvement of Education, see link.
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