Welcome to the New Academic Year!

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INSIDE THIS ISSUE 2-3 Research Profile | Dr. Jodene Morrell continues to lead an array of teacher fellows in

research all across the country and Dr. Limarys Caraballo receives dissertation award

4 Upcoming Events and Alumni Updates | A jam packed calendar ahead and new faculty positions for our Post-Doctoral Fellows

Oct. 2013 Newsletter | Vol. 1, Issue 1

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The Literacy Teachers Initiative (LTI) Project is a partnership between IUME and Community School District 5 of the New York City Department of Education. With the support and encouragement of Superintendent Gale Reeves, the LTI Project has served as a way to bring Teachers College and local teachers together to design and implement collaborative action research to help teachers hone their craft and improve their students’ literacy engagement and achievement. Due to several requests by teachers completing their Literacy Specialist Masters degrees at Teachers College, the Powerful Literacy Pedagogy (PLP) Project was developed as a parallel project for middle school teachers in Brooklyn and Harlem. The twelve Teacher Fellows from the LTI and PLP Projects meet on a monthly basis to share their research and collaborate on grant and conference proposals. The LTI and PLP Projects just completed their second productive and exciting year. While Year 1 (2011 – 2012) was focused on learning how to do action research and present to an audience, Year 2 (2012 – 2013)

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was focused on dissemination of research by the Teacher Fellows, securing funding for future research, and learning how to write grant and conference proposals. Teachers often find themselves in the audience, rather than presenting at conferences. We believe that teachers, both newer and veteran, have valuable pedagogical knowledge to share with fellow educators. Therefore, in October 2012 six Fellows (Danielle Messerschmitt, Rachael Cooper, Alison Kan, Siobhan Gordon and Marie Clevering) presented their pilot studies from spring 2012 at Teachers College to their colleagues, administrators, and members of the TC community. In January 2013, Rachael Cooper and Danielle Messerschmitt presented their research on bullying, literature, writing and socioemotional learning at the Beyond Bullying Conference, sponsored by IUME and Zaner-Bloser Publisher, to an audience of educators and scholars at the Cowin Center at Teachers College. Eight Teacher Fellows (Danielle Messerschmitt, Alison Kan, Siobhan Gordon, Lexie Fichera, Lauren Scott, Rachael Cooper, Marie Clevering, Pamelyn Williams), the LTI doctoral

Research Profile:

By Dr. Jodene Morrell, LTI/PLP Project Director

IUME NEWSLETTER | October 2013 2

Dr. Edmund W. Gordon Receives “Living Landmark Award”

Adding to his list of remarkable achievements, the IUME Founder and Director Emeritus has recently received the “Living Landmark Award” by the Rockland County Historical Society. The award “honors individuals who have demonstrated commitment and service and who have made a difference in Rockland and beyond while representing the county’s spirit and history.” Congratulations Dr. Gordon! To read more about Dr. Gordon’s award via the local newspaper, please click here.

Jen Johnson Featured in Huffington Post

IUME Research Fellow Jen Johnson’s recent article about her Hip-Hop Debate Institute is featured in the Huffington

Post, in which Jen describes the power that debate can have in the lives of youth. As Jen writes, “this innovative academic intervention serving black and Latino youths” in urban schools has helped them develop critical literacies and a greater awareness of society. Way to go Jen! To read Jen’s article in the Huffington Post, please click here.

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IUME Spotlight: Dr. Limarys Caraballo

IUME Faculty Fellow A warm congratulations to Dr. Limarys Caraballo, IUME Faculty Fellow and Assistant Professor at Queens College, on being the recipient of the “John Laska Distinguished Dissertation Award in Curriculum” from the American Association for Teaching and Curriculum! The Award is given for dissertations in teaching and curriculum that best represent the mission of the organization. Dr. Caraballo will be invited to present her dissertation at the AATC conference in the upcoming year.

Cati de los Ríos IUME Research Fellow

Congratulations to Cati de los Ríos, recipient of the Televisa Foundation Fellowship based out of Mexico City. The fellowship is

awarded to U.S. scholars committed to improving the social conditions of Latina/o education in the U.S. and the preparation of future Latina/o teachers.

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research assistant from Year 2 (Kelly Johnston), and Director Jodene Morrell will be presenting their research at the New York State Reading Association annual conference in October 2013 in Albany, New York. During Year 2, several Fellows learned how to write grants to support their individual or collaborative research across grades, schools, and projects. We are excited to share that Rachael Cooper, a third grade teacher at Thurgood Marshall Academy Lower School, was awarded the Teacher as Researcher grant by the International Reading Association to conduct action research during the 2013 – 2014 academic school year. She will be presenting her research on writing, socioemotional learning, and literacy achievement at the annual conference in May 2014 in New Orleans, Louisiana. Andrew Wintner, the newest PLP Fellow and a middle school teacher in Harlem, and Barry Goldenberg, a doctoral student in History at Columbia University, collaborated to develop the “Middle School Harlem Historians Project” which was awarded an ING “Unsung Heroes” grant. Their proposal was put forward to the next higher level of funding and we are hopeful they will receive additional funds to learn more about helping middle school students develop literacy skills and historical knowledge of Harlem. In October 2012, six Fellows hosted high school students from Baylor School in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The high school students read aloud a Baylor student’s children’s book about persistence and facilitated discussions with the students from first to fifth grade. Due to its success, nine more students from Baylor School will be returning this year to work with the Teacher Fellows and their students in October.

To learn more about how you can help support this study, please click here. For additional information about YHH, please visit the project website here.

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When Fellows were interviewed at the end of Year 2, their reasons for applying to the projects as Fellows were enlightening. With little time to collaborate with colleagues, particularly across grades, schools, and boroughs, many Fellows felt that the most important and valuable aspect of participating in the projects was about building relationships. By talking through their research, seeing one another each month, and sharing the challenges and rewards of teaching, they have developed friendships that would not have otherwise existed. They also agreed that as they have developed as teacher-researchers, they have learned a great deal about action research, which has improved their practice. They have become more reflective educators, better listeners, better at questioning, and more aware of existing research as it pertains to their teaching dilemmas and pedagogical interests. We believe the answers to today’s most pressing literacy pedagogy questions are in the classrooms and as one teacher stated, “who better to do the research than teachers”. To learn more about the LTI and PLP Projects, you can visit the IUME website. You can also join us at Teachers College (Grace Dodge 177/179) on October 16 from 5:00 – 7:00 p.m. to hear our Fellows present their research and encourage thoughtful dialogue about teachers as researchers, literacy pedagogy, and improving elementary and middle students’ literacy achievement through collaborative action research. ♦

IUME NEWSLETTER | October 2013 4

October 10 | Inaugural Edmund Gordon Lecture: Charles Payne WHERE: 6pm in Milbank Chapel at Teachers College Dr. Charles M. Payne, the Frank P. Hixon Distinguished Service Professor in the School of Social Service Administration at the University of Chicago, and an affiliate of the Urban Education Institute, will speak at Teachers College in the honor of IUME Founder Dr. Edmund Gordon. His lecture entitled, “Whatever Happened to the Negro Question? Educational Discourse and the Lost Question of Race,” will discuss issues of race and education within an 80-year context. Not only is this lecture of unique importance with the first endowed African-American lecture series, but kicks off the Educating Harlem Lecture Series for 2013-2014 as well.

October 16 | Literacy Teacher Initiative Teacher Fellows’ Presentations WHERE: 5pm in Grade Dodge Hall 177 at Teachers College This presentation through the Literacy Teachers Initiative (LTI) Project, a partnership between the Institute for Urban and Minority Education (IUME) and K-8 teachers of Harlem and Brooklyn, will feature eight Teacher Fellows who will be presenting their research in a mini-conference style. This event will encourage dialogue on teachers as researchers from various grade levels that have been performing collaborative action research in diverse urban public schools. Do not miss this unique event hearing about the innovative research of local teachers.

For more details and to view the rest of the IUME calendar of events, please click here.

Community Partner News Want to get involved in the Harlem community? Make sure to stay in touch with Total Equity Now (TEN), which has a host of community evens in September and October. To learn

more and see TEN’s event calendar, please click here. The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture is looking to hire a college student for a paid internship (1 to 3 semester). To learn more about this opportunity, please click here.

Interested in being a Proctor for an upcoming SAT Exam? YES (Youth Education through Sports)

Inc. is looking for paid proctors to help out! Contact Mr. Russel Shuler for more information: yesincusa@aol.com Want to share news in our next newsletter? Contact us!

IUME Alumni Updates

Dr. Arshad Ali is currently the John Adams Research Fellow Institute of Education, University of London. He has recently accepted a position to begin Fall 2014 as an Assistant Professor of Research Methods at

George Washington University in Washington, D.C.

Dr. Benji Chang is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow at Teachers College, Columbia University. Dr. Chang has recently been appointed a lecturer at California State University-Los Angeles, in the Division of

Curriculum & Instruction, as well as at the UCLA Asian American Studies Department. Recent Publications: Ali, A. (2013). A threat enfleshed: Muslim college students situate their identities amidst portrayals of Muslim violence and terror. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education. Chang, B. (2013). Voice of the voiceless? Multiethnic student voices in critical race approaches to pedagogy, literacy and agency. Linguistics and Education, 24(3), 348-360.

presents

Literacy Teachers Initiative ProjectK-‐8 Harlem and Brooklyn Teacher-‐Researchers:

Sharing OUR Research in OUR Words

For disability related accomodations, contact OASID@tc.edu or 212.678.3689 as early as possible.

The Literacy Teachers Initiative (LTI) Project is a partnership between the Institute for Urban and Minority Education (IUME)

and K-8 teachers of Harlem and Brooklyn. Eight Teacher Fellows will be presenting their research in a mini-conference

style to encourage dialogue on teachers as researchers and collaborative action research in diverse urban public schools.

Oct. 16, 2013 5:00 - 7:00pm @ Teachers College Grace Dodge Hall 177

Lauren Scott Pamelyn Williams Kelly Johnston (1st Grade)

Research  Projects

Lexie FicheraRachael Cooper Danielle Messerschmitt (3rd Grade) (Special Ed. 4th/5th Grade)

Marie Clevering Jodene Morrell

Alison Kan Siobhan Gordon (1st Grade) (1st Grade)

Join us to learn more about the Literacy Teachers Initiative (LTI) Project and our Teacher Fellows’ collaborative action research projects

525 W. 120th Street New York, New York 10027-6696 Location: Zankel Hall 112 iume@tc.columbia.edu

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/iumetccolumbia iume.tc.columbia.edu