In this spotlight interview, we hear from Kristal Rice, who describes her experience using Being a Writer when she was a teacher as well as how the program supported her goals as she transitioned to the role of Academic Dean in the American School Foundation in Mexico.
Tell us a little about yourself, your school and district, and the students that you serve.
My name is Kristal Rice and I am the Academic Dean of the Early Childhood Center (ECC) in the American School Foundation (ASF) here in Mexico City.
ASF has been serving the community for over 135 years as the oldest accredited international school. We have about 2,500 students from K1 (nursery)–12th grade. We have been an IB World School since 2001 currently working within the Primary Years Programme (PYP) and Diploma Programmes (DP).
I am originally from Brooklyn, New York, and have been an educator for 25+ years. My teaching career began in both private and public progression schools in NYC and have worked and learned from students and children from 2 years old to 10 years old in various settings.
I joined the ASF community in August 2006 and was a K–2 and K–3 classroom teacher and grade-level coordinator until I became the Academic Dean in 2015.
Tell us about your experience with Being a Writer.
I began my relationship with the Center for Collaborative Classroom and New Edulight in 2012 with Lesson Study, Being A Writer, and SIPPS as we were working through our Language Arts review process.
During this process, I was elected to be one of the K–3 teachers to pilot the program.
I immediately recognized how certain elements of the program were similar to the writing program I had been successfully using for years. As time passed, it became evident to me that Being A Writer was a collection of the best practices in the field.
But the element that stood out for me the most during our review process—one that I had not encountered or taken into consideration when teaching writing—was the social-emotional development and practices. These were not only thoughtfully embedded in each lesson, but were explicitly taught through cooperative structures, learning strategies, and student reflection.
These [social-emotional development and practices] were not only thoughtfully embedded in each lesson, but were explicitly taught through cooperative structures, learning strategies, and student reflection.
That was the hook for me and the school. We shifted our practice and have been working with Being A Writer since then.
Can you tell us more about your successes and challenges with Being a Writer first as a teacher and now as Academic Dean at ASF?
After choosing to implement Being A Writer, the impact that it has had on my teaching practice has remained with me to this day. Collaborative Classroom and New Edulight’s commitment and determination in crafting customized professional development and guidance largely allow teachers to deliver a program constructed for the needs of their students.
Structures and Routines
The structure of each Kindergarten lesson in Being A Writer and how it is built allows for each student to access the learning at their level and develop skills in a setting that nurtures and guides them to become comfortable with the writing process and evolve into confident writers.
Over time, as we engaged in a Being A Writer lessons, my students began to feel safe in trying new ideas and, as a result, started to own their writing journey.
My students began to feel safe in trying new ideas and, as a result, started to own their writing journey.
The predictable routines and design helped in lowering the anxiety level of students who were learning and communicating in either their second or third language. The cooperative structures and learning strategies were two of the keys to helping students move through their apprehension and share their writing pieces from the Author’s Chair.
I quickly utilized these structures and strategies to support learning in the content that students were engaging in within other subject areas, which made them an even more powerful tool in my class—o the point where students would use them in their play when they pretended to be Ms. Kristal!
Classroom Community
But I have to say one of the best results of using Being A Writer in those first years of implementation was the spirit of community it helped us to build in the classroom.
Stepping into the role of Academic Dean at ASF has been both exciting and challenging, as one can imagine. The foundation of the role is to ensure that each student is socially and emotionally safe, secure, and confident and has access to learning.
With the success I had with Being A Writer as a teacher, I wanted to ensure that the community of K–3 teachers I was working with experienced that as well, so when looking for a reading program, we turned to Being A Reader, which offers that same structure of support for students and teachers as Being A Writer does.
However, I realized that while that was my goal for them, their immediate goals were managing the requirements of a K–3 teacher and ensuring that students mastered the skills necessary for first grade—and doing it all in a half day of school!
This is when I leaned on NewEdulight and Collaborative Classroom for support in navigating the reality that the teachers were facing and to adjust their facilitation of both programs within the structure of our school day.
Each year as we launch our Being A Writer units, I try to find ways of introducing the program to the teachers through different lenses so that they can see how versatile the program is in meeting the needs of our K–3 students.
Explore Being a Writer
Evidence-Based Writing Instruction for Grades K–5
Teacher as Writer
Last year, I decided to launch the units using the Teacher as Writer prompts. The prompts transitioned our conversations from how students are learning to write to incorporate what they were writing about, and even better, to how writing made them feel.
The connection between the teachers and their students grew a bit deeper and stronger when they had a moment to experience what their students felt.
The connection between the teachers and their students grew a bit deeper and stronger when they had a moment to experience what their students felt.
Now that they have experienced the new edition of Being A Reader, the teachers are looking forward to the new edition of Being A Writer and the opportunities it will offer to support students in deepening their learning connections and supporting their social emotional development.
I am anticipating the ways in which it will impact our teaching and learning practice across the disciplines. I feel comfort in knowing that Collaborative Classroom and NewEdulight will continue to support and give us the wings to take the programs and grow them in a way that makes sense for our students, teachers, and school.
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Related:
Read another Spotlight blog out of Mexico: Colegio Atid’s Primary Years Program: Vivian Orihuela on Writing
Learn more about Being a Reader.