The Beacon Spring 2013

The Windward School

The

Beacon The Windward School Newsletter for Professionals, Parents and Faculty Spring 2013 Vol 2 Issue 1

In This Issue Professional Development Page 1

The Importance of Deep Reading Head Lines From the Head of School 2 Windward Teacher Training Institute 9

WTTI Offers Weekend Classes for High School Students Faculty 10

Marsha Finkelstein: Faculty Profile 12-13 Faculty News Alumni 14

Evan Thompson ’09 Credits His Success to Windward

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What will it take for the next generation to read thoughtfully–both in print and online?

The Importance of Deep Reading

by Maryanne Wolf and Mirit Barzillai

Maryanne Wolf is Director of the Center for Reading and Language Research and Professor of Child Development, and Mirit Barzillai is a doctoral candidate and an Evans Literacy Fellow in the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Development at Tufts University, Somerville, Massachusetts.

Editor’s Note: In April, Dr. Wolf will deliver the Robert J. Schwartz Memorial Lecture at The Windward School. Her topic of discussion will be: “How Can Knowledge of the Reading Brain Advance Instruction and Change Our View of Dyslexia?”

O

f the three lives Aristotle speaks of, the life of action, the life of contemplation, and the life of enjoyment, we have the two, action and enjoyment, but we lack the other, contemplation. That, I thought, is why ours is a violent city.

A culture can be judged, in Aristotle’s view, according to how it pursues three lives: the life of activity and productivity, the life of enjoyment, and the life of contemplation. As our society ineluctably transitions from a print-based to a digital culture, it is important to examine how this transition influences these three lives.

The digital learner seems particularly well-suited for a life of activity and a life of enjoyment. The emphases of digital media on efficient, massive information processing; flexible multitasking; quick and interactive modes of communication; and seemingly endless forms of digitally based entertainment encourage such lives. These emphases, however, can be less suited for the slower, more time-consuming cognitive processes that are vital for contemplative life and that are at the heart of what we call deep reading.

By deep reading, we mean the array of sophisticated processes that propel

comprehension and that include inferential and deductive reasoning, analogical skills, critical analysis, reflection, and insight. The expert reader needs milliseconds to execute these processes; the young brain needs years to develop them. Both of these pivotal dimensions of time are potentially endangered by the digital culture’s pervasive emphases on immediacy, information loading, and a media-driven cognitive set that embraces speed and can discourage deliberation in both our reading and our thinking.

Such a perspective presents a Gordian knot of cognitive advantages and challenges for the present and upcoming generations, which, if unaddressed, could affect the already diminishing role of contemplation in our society. Moreover, these emphases of the digital culture may radically change how we learn to read and acquire information. And they may well change how we think.

There is some historical irony here.

The ancient Greeks raised similar concerns during a related historical shift–the transition from an oral to a written culture.

As reported by Plato, Socrates cautioned Please turn to page 4

2 The Beacon Spring 2013 Head Lines

Head lines

Set for September 2015: Windward’s Manhattan Campus

Dr. John J. Russell, Head of School

I

am excited to report on the extraordinary progress The Windward School has made in fulfilling its mission and defining the next chapter in its history. Year after year, the lives of far too many learning disabled students are filled with serious academic challenges that jeopardize their future success in school and in life. For more than 35 years, Windward has been transforming the lives of these students through our proven teaching methodology.

Yet despite having transformed the

lives of so many students and their families, thousands more children continue to struggle with language-based learning disabilities because they do not receive the research-based instruction they need to become confident, successful students and adults. In fact, Windward is forced to turn away two to three times the number of students that are accepted for admission each year simply because there are not enough seats available to accommodate the demand.

Recently, the School completed the first phase of its strategic plan, which called for the construction of a state-of-the-art facility to house the Windward Teacher Training Institute. The new facility will enhance the School’s ability to provide professional development for Windward teachers and parents and other educators from independent and public schools throughout the region. Built on the Red Oak Lane campus, this new home for the WTTI features a striking and technologyenhanced auditorium, spacious lecture rooms, and administrative offices. An important added benefit of this beautiful new building is that it has enabled the School to increase the size of the student body by almost 5%. Despite this increase in capacity, far too many deserving students are still turned away.

Windward’s Board of Trustees responded to this heartbreaking reality by

commissioning comprehensive studies and spending hundreds of hours meeting with leading educators and educational consultants to determine the best way of serving more children who struggle with language-based learning disabilities. After careful consideration, the Board unanimously voted to expand the School’s capacity and to broaden its influence within the educational community.

Perhaps the most significant aspect of these ambitious goals is a watershed event that will allow Windward to transform the lives of many more children who are urgently in need of the School’s research-based program: A New York City campus! This new campus will: •P rovide over 350 additional children each year with the opportunity to gain the education they need to succeed.

•A llow Windward’s Director of Admissions, Maureen Sweeney, to say those precious words so many parents desperately want to hear: “We have a seat for your child.”

• I ncrease the School’s recognition and reputation, firmly establishing it as one of the preeminent schools for children with dyslexia and language-based learning disabilities.

Windward is extremely fortunate to be partnering with one of New York City’s leading developers, The Related Companies, to build its Manhattan campus

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in an incredible new building that will be located on 93rd Street between Second and Third Avenues. Construction will begin this year and the first classes are scheduled to start in the fall of 2015. As you can see from the architectural renderings displayed in this edition of The Beacon, Windward will have a world-class school that will be built exactly to its specifications.

The need for additional seats in research-based programs is great. Between 10 and 20% of all students are learning disabled. In New York City schools alone that amounts to 110,000 to 220,000 students; there are currently only 1,200 seats in specialized schools to serve these students. With the opening of Windward’s Manhattan campus, many more of these students will finally have access to the educational expertise they so desperately need. For them, Windward is not merely opening a school; it is unlocking a door to the future.

Countless studies confirm the critical need to fill the gap that exists between the instructional programs that students with language-based learning disabilities currently receive in public and private schools and the research-based program they need to be successful. What our students tell us confirms this and inspires us in everything we do.

One student writes: “At my former school, if I didn’t answer a question correctly, the other students would laugh at me and I would feel very stupid and embarrassed. Being different felt awful.”

Another student writes: “Imagine going to school every day and praying that you won’t be called up to read. ...

Imagine knowing that you try your best in school every day but still have report cards

that say you are failing, not trying and need to start making an effort in school.”

No child should ever have these horrible memories of school!

The lives of Windward students begin to change dramatically upon entering the School and by the time they leave, over 96% are scoring in the average or above average ranges in vocabulary, comprehension, and math problem solving as measured on standardized tests. Two years after leaving Windward, an amazing 98% of these students are judged by their new schools to be academically in the average or above average ranges when compared to their grade level peers. With academic success comes confidence and increased self-esteem. After years of struggling, they are now succeeding. The impact on their emotional and social well-being is immeasurable.

We believe that this type of academic and personal success should not be just for Windward students alone; we believe that all students with language-based learning disabilities can succeed when they receive appropriate instruction in a research-based program; and we believe that we have an ethical obligation to share our expertise with the broader educational community so even more students can be transformed through the proven Windward way of teaching. The Manhattan campus will include additional WTTI facilities so that professional development activities, based on scientifically validated research in child development, learning theory and pedagogy, can be conducted there. Courses, workshops and lectures addressing a broad range of developmental and curricular topics, appropriate for both mainstream and remedial settings, will be presented at

the School’s Manhattan campus and at the Judith C. Hochman Building in White Plains. It will serve as a resource for educators and professionals in allied disciplines, such as speech and language therapists and psychologists, as well as for parents.

However, we recognize that Windward cannot do it alone. So while it is time to provide greater access to our expertise– regardless of financial wherewithal–it is equally important to elevate the discussion of dyslexia and language-based learning disabilities to a national level. Windward will be in a unique position to play a leadership role in the effort to elevate the recognition and understanding of dyslexia and language-based learning disabilities by opening a school in Manhattan.

Language-based learning disabilities, if left untreated, can have a devastating impact on an individual’s quality of life.

Entire futures, including job and financial security, confidence and a sense of accomplishment, rest on the ability to read and write. In classrooms throughout the tri-state area and beyond, untold numbers of children struggle to master these most basic skills that are the foundations for future academic achievement. The Windward School’s mission is to set more students with language-based learning disabilities on the road to academic success.

The opening of the Manhattan campus will enable the School to transform even more lives. This is one of the most significant and exciting initiatives in the history of The Windward School and presents a unique opportunity for the School to exert greater influence on the way all students with language-based learning disabilities are educated.

The architects’ renderings of the entrance to Windward’s New York campus, located on East 93rd Street.

4 The Beacon Spring 2013 Professional Development

Continued from page 1

his society against learning to read. He believed that literacy could alter the kind of memory and probative processes required for the young to deeply pursue and internalize knowledge. He worried that the seeming permanence of writing would delude young people into thinking that they had learned the “truth,” when they had just begun the search for it.

Will factors inherent in the digital medium produce similar issues for today’s

young learners? Will the digital culture produce changes in the more cognitively demanding deep-reading processes? And could these changes have unintended effects on the intellectual development of generations to come? We can gain insights into these questions by examining how the brain learned to read.

The Brain–Rewired Human beings were never born to read (Wolf, 2007). We were born to see, move, speak, and think. Genetic programs

unfold for each of these functions as the organism interacts with the environment.

Not so with reading. Reading is a new cognitive function, invented only 5,500 years ago, which translates into about a minute before midnight on the clock of human evolution. Understanding how humans learned to read helps illumine one of the brain’s great, semi-miraculous design features–its plasticity. This aspect of the brain enables us to make whole new circuits and connections among our older, genetically programmed structures. In the

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case of reading, plasticity enables the brain to form new connections among the structures underlying vision, hearing, cognition, and language. This design feature means that the very organization of the human brain enables it to go beyond itself.

This view has fascinating implications for the history and future of literacy. If the brain has no one programmed reading circuit, then circuitries for different languages and writing systems will not all look the same. An increasing amount of

Academics at Windward: A Lower School student follows along with a reading lesson during language arts class. The Windward School’s researchbased, multisensory method of teaching reading ensures that students learn and master the skills required to read fluently.

cross-linguistic imaging data demonstrates exactly that. All writing systems share some universal structures, but some orthographies use different structural regions and activation patterns (Bolger, Perfetti, & Schneider, 2005).

For example, the brain of a reader of Chinese requires extensive activation of visual regions in the occipital areas, a physiological correlative of the cortical “space” needed for acquiring thousands of Chinese characters (Tan, Spinks, Eden, Perfetti, & Siok, 2005). By contrast, alphabetic reading brains require more processing in the temporal and parietal regions to accommodate the alphabet’s early emphases on sounds (phonemes) and the rules of correspondence to visual (letter) symbols. In such a way, the requirements of individual writing systems shape reading circuits in the brain.

The amount and quality of experiences with written language also shape reading circuits. Fascinating differences exist between expert readers and novice readers, who are just learning to set up their reading circuits. Novice readers in English must learn a great many things–from the not-so-simple alphabetic principle, to the varied sound-symbol correspondence rules in English’s orthography, to decoding hundreds of new words. As a result, in the beginning, young reading brains need to activate far more expansive brain regions than adult brains do. Gradually, as the expert reading brain emerges over time, the original reading route changes to a set of

pathways that are streamlined for decoding and that can now incorporate ever more sophisticated semantic and syntactic processes (Sandak, Mencl, Frost, & Pugh, 2004).

The properties of print itself also play a role in shaping the reading circuit. For instance, the stability and linearity of printed text as well as the layers of thought and composition that it represents invoke the reader’s complete attention to understanding the thoughts on the page.

Thus, becoming fluent in the decoding processes enables readers to allocate the time and attention necessary to process the ideas, information, story, and intellectual arguments and assumptions presented. To be sure, such comprehension is not simple, nor does it develop overnight in terms of clues to aid understanding. Little is given to the reader outside the text. For that reason, readers must engage in an active construction of meaning, in which they grapple with the text and apply their earlier knowledge as they question, analyze, and probe. In the process, they learn to build knowledge and go beyond the wisdom of the author to think their own thoughts.

This latter capacity, which we refer to as the Proustian principle (Wolf, 2007), requires great amounts of attention, effort, motivation, active imagination, and time– time for the reader and time for the brain, a few hundred milliseconds to be exact.

Depicted in imaging research on comprehension, these milliseconds involved in deep reading require extensive

“What we read and how deeply we read shape both the brain and the thinker. Physiologically and intellectually, human beings are substantively changed by evolving richness of the neural networks that we add through our reading over time. That said, the expert reading brain is not a given. Any reading circuit can emerge, including one that uses only part of its potential.”

6 The Beacon Spring 2013 Professional Development

activation of both hemispheres (Keller, Carpenter, & Just, 2001). By the time the expert reader has comprehended a text at a deep level, all four lobes and hemispheres of the brain have contributed significantly to this extraordinary act–a neural reflection of the many processes involved. What we read and how deeply we read shape both the brain and the thinker.

Physiologically and intellectually, human beings are substantively changed by evolving richness of the neural networks that we add through our reading over time.

That said, the expert reading brain is not a given. Any reading circuit can emerge, including one that uses only part of its potential.

The Distracted Reader With digital text, the potential for creativity, learning, and discovery that encourage deep thought is immense. For example, interest in a Shakespearian play can drive a discovery process that links the reader not only to the text of the play and various comprehension supports, but also to relevant historical information, videos of the play, discussion groups, articles from noted literary critics, and artistic interpretations that may drive deeper reflection.

However, this great gift of easily accessible, readily available, rich information has the potential to form a more passive and, as Socrates put it, an even more easily “deluded” learner.

Although this is possible within any medium, online reading presents an extreme of sorts with its uncensored, unedited maelstrom of anything and everything that is always available and capable of diverting one’s attention.

As the medium itself offers little in the way of clear boundaries, standard, and organization, the ability to discern these features is a necessary skill for the online

reader–in particular, the ability to read critically when considering the quality of text and the reliability of online sources. As Nick Carr opined in his article, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” (2008), sources are often prioritized on the basis of the number of hits rather than on the quality of information or whether the information comes from an adjudicated source.

Taking advantage, then, of the wealth of information that is always just a click away demands the use of executive, organizational, critical, and self-monitoring skills to navigate and make sense of the information. Thus, even as this hyperlinked environment offers seemingly endless opportunities to enhance comprehension through easy access to information such as vocabulary and background knowledge, students typically underuse such opportunities (Dalton, Pisha, Eagleton, Coyne, & Deysher, 2002; MacArthur & Haynes, 1995). This behavior suggests that readers have not yet developed the comprehension-monitoring skills and self-awareness necessary to fully avail themselves of the supports of the Web. Students are often unable to evaluate whether links will be useful or simply distracting (Kamil & Lane, 1998).

Without this knowledge, they may find themselves mired in irrelevant and unrelated information.

As opposed to the relative linearity of printed text, the very appearance of digital information at once presents both new richness and new challenges for the online reader. The fluid, multimodal nature of digital information enables online readers to become immersed in a subject, both visually and verbally. Even as this presentation of material in several different modes provides the reader with multiple points of entry into a subject, it also opens the door to great distraction. It further requires that the reader understand how to

“Here lies the crucial role of education. Most aspects of reading– from basic decoding skills to higher-level comprehension skills– need to be explicitly taught.”

evaluate visual information and make meaning in and across several different modalities. Indeed, some research indicates that elementary-age students are less likely to recall information from a source when it is filled with many pictures and animations in addition to the text (Eastin, Yang, & Nathanson, 2006).

What We Stand to Gain– and Lose Online reading has the potential to mold a mind adept at effectively finding, analyzing, and critically evaluating and responding to information across several modalities. The participatory nature of the Web may help foster young minds skilled in communicating, collaborating, and

Academics at Windward: A Lower School student looks up during a language arts lesson. Evidence has shown that direct instruction of the kind offered at Windward is beneficial to all students, even those without learning disabilities.

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creating in new ways. And the deitic nature of technology (Leu, Kinzer, Coiro, & Cammack, 2004)–that is, the almost momentary creation of new modes of representing information and connecting digitally–may promote problem solving and lifelong learning for many.

However, many of the skills involved in maximizing the potential of digital reading, such as choosing the right search words and locating and evaluating information, require a host of decisionmaking, attention-monitoring, and executive skills. Many of these skills are known to develop later in life. For example, young children, who are concrete in their thinking and who are just learning to discern fact from fiction, are less likely to

successfully navigate the online world and understand all it has to offer.

An early immersion in reading that is largely online tends to reward certain cognitive skills, such as multitasking, and habituate the learned to immediate information gathering and quick attention shifts, rather than to deep reflection and original thought. The immediacy and volume of available information may well delude new learners into thinking they have what they need to know. From a pedagogical perspective, when information seems so complete, what motivation is there to go beneath and beyond it? From a cognitive neuroscience perspective, the digital culture’s reinforcement of rapid attention shifts and multiple sources of

distraction can short-circuit the development of the slower, more cognitively demanding comprehension processes that go into the formation of deep reading and deep thinking. If such a truncated development occurs, we may be spawning a culture so inured in sound bites and thought bites that it fosters neither critical analysis nor contemplative processes in its members. As technology visionary Edward Tenner (2006) remarked, it would be a shame if the very intellect that created this new technology was threatened by it.

Encouraging Deep Reading Online Here lies the crucial role of education.

Most aspects of reading–from basic decoding skills to higher-level comprehension skills–need to be explicitly taught. The expert reading brain rarely emerges without guidance and instruction.

Years of literacy research have equipped teachers with many tools to facilitate its growth (see Forman & Al Otaiba, in press).

For example, our research curriculum, RAVE-O (Wolf, Miller, & Donnelly, 2000), uses digital games to foster the multiple exposures that children need to all the common letter patterns necessary for decoding. Nevertheless, too little attention has been paid to the important task of facilitating successful deep reading online.

The medium itself may provide us with new ways of teaching and encouraging young readers to be purposeful, critical, and analytical about the information they encounter. The development of tools–such as online reading tutors and programs that embed strategy prompts, models, thinkalouds, and feedback into the text or browser–may enhance the kind of strategic thinking that is vital for online reading communication.

For example, programs like the Center for Applied Special Technology’s (CAST) “thinking reader” (Rose & Dalton, 2008) embed within the text different levels of strategic supports that students may call on as needed, such as models that guide them in summarizing what they read. In this way, technology can help scaffold understanding (Dalton & Proctor, 2008).

Such prompts help readers pause and

8 The Beacon Spring 2013 Professional Development

monitor their comprehension, resist the pull of superficial reading, and seek out a deeper meaning. For example, in the CAST Universal Design Learning edition of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart” (http://udleditions.cast.org/INTRO,telltale_ heart.html), questions accompanying the text ask readers to highlight words that provide foreshadowing in a given passage; to ponder clues about the narrator as a character in the story; and to use a specific reading strategy (such as visualize, summarize, predict, or question) to better understand a passage.

Well-designed WebQuests can also help students learn to effectively process information online within a support framework that contains explicit instruction. Even practices as simple as walking a class through a Web search and exploring how Web pages may be biased or may use images to sway readers help students become careful, thoughtful consumers of online information.

Instruction like this can help young minds develop some of the key aspects of deep reading online.

The Best of Both Worlds No one has real evidence about the formation of the reading circuit in the young, online, literacy-immersed brain. We do have evidence about the young reading brain exposed to print literacy. Until sufficient proof enlarges the discussion, we believe that nothing replaces the unique contributions of print literacy for the development of the full panoply of the slower, constructive, cognitive processes that invite children to create their own whole worlds in what Proust called the “reading sanctuary.”

Thus, in addition to encouraging the explicit instruction of deeper comprehension processes in online reading, we must not neglect the formation of the deep-reading processes in the medium of human’s first literacy. There are fascinating precedents in the history of writing: the Sumerian writing system, in use 3,000 years ago, was preserved alongside the Akkadian system for many centuries. Along the way, Akkadian writing gradually incorporated, and in so doing preserved, much of what

was most valuable about the Sumerian system.

Such a thoughtful transition is the optimal means of ensuring that the unique contributions of both online and print literacies will meet the needs of different individuals within a culture and foster all three dimensions of Aristotle’s good society.

Rich, intensive, parallel development of multiple literacies can help shape the development of an analytical, probative approach to knowledge in which students view the information they acquire not as an end point, but as the beginning of deeper questions and new, never-before-articulated thoughts.

References Bolger, D., Perfetti, C., & Schneider, W. (2005). Cross-cultural effect on the brain revisited: Universal structures plus writing system variation. Human Brain Mapping, 25, 92-104.

Carr, N. (2008). Is Google making us stupid? Atlantic Monthly, 301(6). Available: www.theatlantic.com/doc/200807/google Dalton, B., Pish, B., Eagleton, M., Coyne, P., & Deysher, S. (2002). Engaging the test: Reciprocal teaching and questioning strategies in a scaffolded learning environment [Final report to the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs]. Peabody, MA: CAST. Dalton, B., & Proctor, C.P. (2008). The changing landscape of text and comprehension in the age of new literacies.

In J. Coiro, M. Knobel, C. Lankshear, & D. Leu (Eds.), Handbook of research on new literacies (pp. 297-324). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Dunne, J. (1993). Love’s mind: An essay on contemplative life. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press.

Eastin, M.S., Yang, M.S., & Nathanson, A.I. (2006). Children of the Net: An empirical exploration into the evaluation of Internet content. Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media 50(2), 211-230.

Foorman, B.R., & Al Otaiba, S. (in press). Reading remediation: State of the art.

In K. Pugh and P. McCardle (Eds.), How children learn to read: Current issues and new directions in the integration of cognition, neurobiology and genetics of reading and dyslexia research and practice. San Antonio, TX: Pro-Ed.

Kamil, M.L., & Lane, D. (1998).

Researching the relationship between technology and literacy: An agenda for the 21st century. In D. Reinking, M.C. McKenna, L.D. Labbo, & R.D. Kieffer (Eds), Handbook of literacy and technology: Transformations in a post-typographic world (pp. 321-341). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Keller, T.A., Carpenter, P.A., & Just, M.A. (2001). The neural bases of sentence comprehension: A fMRI examination of syntactic and lexical processing. Cerebral Cortex, 11(3), 223-237.

Leu, D.J., Kinzer, C.K., Coiro, J. & Cammack, D. (2004). Toward a theory of new literacies emerging from the Internet and other information and communication technologies. Reading Online, 7(5). Available: www.readingonline.org/newliteracies/lit_ index.asp?HREF+/newliteracies/leu MacArthur, C.A., & Haynes, J.B. (1995). Student assistant for learning from text (SALT): A hypermedia reading aid.

Journal of Learning Disabilities, 28(3), 50-59.

Rose, D., & Dalton, B. (2008).

Learning in the digital age. In K.W. Fisher & T. Katzir (Eds.), Building usable knowledge in mind, brain, and education. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Sandak, R., Mencl, W.E., Frost, S.J., & Pugh, K.R. (2004). The neurological basis of skilled and impaired reading: Recent findings and new directions. Scientific Studies of Reading, 8(3), 273-292.

Tan, L.H., Spinks, J.A., Eden, G.F., Perfetti, C.A., & Siok, W.T. (2005). Reading depends on writing, in Chinese. PNAS, 102, 8781-8785. Available: www.hku.hk/fmri/ index/journals/Tan_Siok_PNAS_2005.pdf Tenner, E. (2006, March 26). Searching for dummies: The New York Times, p. 12.

Wolf, M. (2007). Proust and the squid: The story and science of the reading brain. New York: HarperCollins.

Wolf, M., Miller, L., & Donnelley, K. (2000). Retrieval, automaticity, vocabulary, elaboration, orthography (RAVE-O): A comprehensive, fluency-based reading interaction program. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 33, 375-386.

From the March 2009 issue of Educational Leadership, 66(6), pp 32-37. © 2009 by ASCD. Reprinted with permission. Learn more about ASCD at www.ascd.org.

The Beacon Spring 2013 News From WTTI 9

News From WTTI

WTTI Offers Weekend Classes for High School Students in Writing, Research Process WTTI Presents: Faculty member John Manganiello, pictured at right in his Windward classroom, led a study skills course for area secondary school students at WTTI this winter. He will teach the course again in April.

F

or the past two decades, the Windward Teacher Training Institute (WTTI) has provided superior courses and workshops for Windward faculty and educational professionals in the School’s research-based, multisensory methods of instruction. This year, WTTI welcomed secondary students from the broader community to its facility in White Plains for two writing and research courses aimed at enhancing the skills necessary for academic success in high school.

During Saturdays in February, students attended The Research Process: Essential Skills for Academic Success, taught

by Mr. John Manganiello, a Middle School teacher and past recipient of The Windward School’s prestigious Isabel Greenbaum Stone Master Teacher Award.

Students in grades eight through eleven from a number of area public and independent schools spent four Saturday mornings enhancing their study and research skills under Mr. Manganiello’s instruction.

Utilizing the same curriculum by which Windward’s students learn the finer points of study and research skills, Mr. Manganiello taught the visiting students a number of strategies. Through the use of direct instruction, students were taught to take notes; organize information; read sources critically; and develop an outline that would serve as a guide for writing a research paper. The course proved so

WTTI welcomed secondary students from the broader community to its facility for two writing and research courses.

popular that Mr. Manganiello is slated to teach an additional course in April.

Another student course on WTTI’s roster this spring includes Teaching Students How to Write a Document-Based (DBQ) Essay: An Innovative Methodology, which will take place over the course of four Saturdays in April. Under the instruction of Mr. Timothy Caccopola, a Middle School faculty member, students in ninth through eleventh grades will learn how to successfully navigate the DBQ process.

Mr. Caccopola will help students with the

complexities of writing an essay that requires the use of primary and secondary sources by introducing them to an article on a particular topic. Students will then be taught to underline pertinent details in the piece, identify its theme and compile an outline with a thesis statement and background information in preparation for writing their essay. WTTI is pleased to be able to provide these courses, reflecting aspects of Windward’s research-based program, to students from the surrounding community.

For more information about these courses or to register, please contact Ms. Sandra Schwarz, Director of WTTI, at (914) 949-6968, ext. 1254, or e-mail her at sschwarz@windwardny.org.

10 The Beacon Spring 2013 Faculty Profile

Faculty Profile: Marsha Finkelstein

A Dream Nurtured Since Childhood

W

hen Marsha Finkelstein’s students enter her classroom for the first time, she makes them a promise. “I tell them, ‘If you put forth your best effort as often as you can, I will work very hard to make learning exciting,’ she said. “‘We will share the joy of reading and the satisfaction of expressing yourself in writing.’”

These skills do not come easily to Windward students, and those newest to the School often enter their classrooms in September unable to imagine a time when reading and writing might be a smooth and easy undertaking. But for the past eleven years, Ms. Finkelstein and her unwavering belief that every student in her class is capable of success has transformed even the most struggling student into a confident reader and writer.

For Ms. Finkelstein, the opportunity to teach at The Windward School is the culmination of a dream nurtured since childhood. In the third grade, when asked to write about what she wanted to be when she grew up, she composed an essay about becoming a teacher. “I still have the essay,” she remarked. “In it, I said that I wanted to change children’s lives, which is funny because here at Windward we are about transforming children’s lives.”

The road to a teaching career proved to be a winding one, however. Upon her early graduation from the City University of New York at age 20–she earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology with a concentration in elementary education-Ms. Finkelstein was unable to immediately find

an open teaching position, and accepted a job as a social caseworker for the Westchester County Department of Family and Children’s Services. Her duties included supervising children in foster care, work she describes as “very challenging.” She worked in this capacity for several years before electing to stay home with her children. Her return to the working world was preceded by volunteering in a fundraising capacity for a variety of philanthropic and educational organizations.

This included work with CancerCare, the nonprofit that provides support services to those affected by cancer.

In spite of these noble undertakings, a teaching career still appealed to Ms. Finkelstein, and she eventually went back to school to pursue a master’s degree in special education. She first became aware of The Windward School while studying at nearby Manhattanville College, and subsequently applied for a position as an assistant teacher. She was immediately contacted for an interview by Ms. Sandy Schwarz, the director of the School’s Windward Teacher Training Institute (WTTI). Ms. Finkelstein recalled arriving at the School and sitting for an interview with Ms. Barbara Landau, then the Head of Middle School, before being immediately offered–and accepting–the job.

“I was so looking forward to teaching at Windward,” she recalled of the months leading up to the opening of school and the commencement of her teaching career.

“I took WTTI coursework the summer before I started, and it immediately became clear to me that I had made the best decision of my life.”

“For me, it was a true graduate education,” she added, referencing the WTTI courses that gave her the foundation from which to deliver the School’s multisensory curriculum. “The related coursework gave me the tools and instructional strategies that enable me to remediate the special group of students I instruct.”

Although her colleagues and students know Ms. Finkelstein as a beloved fifth grade teacher, she began her Windward career as

an assistant teacher in the seventh and eighth grades, and then spent the following year teaching seventh grade language arts and social studies. She eventually settled into teaching fifth grade, which she describes as a “match made in Heaven.”

Her students seem to feel the same way. To visit Ms. Finkelstein’s classroom on any given day is to see children learning with joy and purpose. Ms. Finkelstein has ample confidence in her students’ abilities, and her steadfast belief that they can learn is evident not only in the way she conducts her classroom but in the inspirational advice she offers her students. A small sign, bearing the simple command, “Believe,” sits on her desk and is visible to all.

“I feel that by establishing a trusting relationship with my students, even the least confident can make a good amount of progress,” she said. “I want them to feel that my classroom is a place where they can make a mistake and that it’s okay, because they’ll just go on learning.”

When she isn’t teaching, Ms. Finkelstein can be found on both campuses, busy at work assisting students and faculty members. She has served as the Middle School’s Committee on Special Education (CSE) liaison, a job that involved representing the best interests of Windward students to their home school districts. Windward’s student population comes from three different states, and part of Ms. Finkelstein’s job was to keep the districts abreast of their students’ progress and, if a student was preparing to leave the School, discuss with district representatives the specific resources he or she would need upon return to a public school setting. The job was not always easy.

“It presented great challenges, particularly to districts that weren’t aware of Windward’s program,” she said, describing phone calls in which she would have to speak with public school administrators unfamiliar with the School’s mission. “I gained skills as an advocate to help the children here who were returning to the mainstream.”

“My work as the CSE liaison was a tremendous opportunity to gain greater

A small sign, bearing the simple command,“Believe,” sits on her desk and is visible to all.

The Beacon Spring 2013 Faculty Profile 11

Ms. Finkelstein, shown standing, works with a group of assistant teachers during the Summer Intensive Program.

perspective on our very unique student population,” she added.” It meant more frequent communication with teachers who instructed these students, and advocating for them.”

But the most gratifying part of the work for Ms. Finkelstein was being able to get a broad picture of the Middle School, its students and the academic offerings across the grades. Her work took her beyond her normal duties as a classroom teacher and enabled her to see different aspects of the Middle School and the work of the teachers in each department.

It also allowed her the opportunity to assist Windward parents in navigating the often difficult CSE process, which can leave families feeling overwhelmed and confused. “As a Windward representative, I stood with the parents,” she said, “and they really respected Windward’s role in the process. Windward is essentially a living, working IEP (Individualized Educational Plan), and they were so grateful.”

It was Ms. Finkelstein’s ability to succinctly and gracefully guide families through the intricacies of the CSE process that led to her next leadership role within the School community, that of coordinator for the Summer Intensive Program (SIP).

Designed to provide assistant teachers with comprehensive training that will allow them to lead their own classes, the SIP program is held at Windward for a week every summer and attracts assistant teachers from both the Lower and Middle School campuses. It was Sandy Schwarz, one of Ms. Finkelstein’s mentors, who approached her about leading the SIP program.

“At first I was speechless, but I was honored to be a part of it,” Ms. Finkelstein said of the program, now in its sixth year.

“The presenters are from across the content areas, and it has been a very enriching experience to work with the different coordinators.” Ms. Finkelstein’s duties with the SIP program include working with departmental coordinators and program instructors to build a quality instructional program for the assistant teachers.

Assistants are given the opportunity to learn from master teachers from all subject areas, and are given instruction in everything from lesson planning to classroom management in order to prepare them to lead their own Windward classrooms.

Her success with the SIP program was such that Ms. Finkelstein was elected to serve as the assistant teacher staff developer, a position that allows her to work with approximately 30 assistant teachers on developing their pedagogical skills during the academic year. “First year assistants are acclimating to Windward’s unique program and culture,” she explained, citing that part of her work is to help them make as seamless a transition as possible. Ms. Finkelstein enjoys the role, as it allows her to meet with assistants from both campuses.

“It was a meaningful moment to be able to go between the two campuses,” she explained, adding that she particularly enjoyed visits to the Lower School to work with faculty there. “For me, it was a very connecting moment to see what goes on at the Lower School and what the youngest students experience, and connecting that

with what happens at the Middle School.”

Ms. Finkelstein added that the School’s thorough training program for assistant teachers provides them opportunities to learn, grow as faculty members and ask questions from more experienced colleagues.

It is not, she added, the sort of training program that leaves its participants unprepared. “You’re not just given your canoe,” she said, likening the teaching process to boating. “Due to the level of teacher preparation, you’re given your canoe, oars and a warning of every rapid ahead.”

Ms. Finkelstein has nothing but praise for the School’s professional development program and the opportunities it has afforded her to grow as a teacher. “It’s allowed me to stay in the classroom and inspire students to have a love of reading,” she said. Her work with faculty members, she explained, was yet another way of furthering her own work as a classroom teacher. “Each assistant teacher who goes on to teach touches the lives of more students than I could ever do as one person,” she said. “My students are my inspiration. When I get up in the morning, I’m very certain about where I’m going and what I’m doing. My students inspire me to put forth my best effort every day.”

She is grateful, she added, to the School’s administration for its dedication in providing faculty with the necessary training to deliver Windward’s academic program with effectiveness.

“The professional development and guidance from coordinators and administrators is my foundation of teaching,” she said. “They are always working to improve curriculum through their tireless efforts.”

“I wouldn’t want anyone to think I do this all by myself,” she added. “Working in collaboration with my fellow teachers provides me with extraordinary encouragement and inspiration every day, and their talent as educators is exceptional.

I am part of a highly qualified group provided with tremendous support, which makes us all an integral part of the unique learning experience for Windward students. We help children gain the skills that allow them to reach their full potential. It’s difficult to imagine an opportunity greater than the chance Windward teachers have to make a difference in the lives of such remarkable children.”

12 The Beacon Spring 2013 Faculty News

Faculty News: Professional Development

Windward Congratulates Faculty Earning IMSLEC

T

he Windward School maintains a deep commitment to faculty professional development and continuing education, offering weekly staff development sessions and courses, workshops and lectures via the Windward Teacher Training Institute (WTTI), through which faculty can build their pedagogical skills. The School would like to congratulate the following faculty members on their recent pedagogical achievements: An article by Sandra Schwarz, Director of WTTI, was published in the October 2012 issue of The IMSLEC Record, a publication of the International Multisensory Structured Language Education Council (IMSLEC). Titled “The Making of a Windward Teacher,” the article discussed WTTI’s comprehensive teacher-training program and the School’s commitment to professional development for all faculty.

Diane Happas, the School’s Coordinator of Language, was recognized earlier in the year by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association with its second ASHA Award for Continuing Education (ACE). The award is the organization’s formal recognition of professionals who have demonstrated their active commitment to lifelong learning by earning a select number of ASHA Continuing Education Units (CEUs) over a three-year period; this is the second time that Ms. Happas has been so honored. She completed 70 hours of training in three years, more than double ASHA’s basic requirement of 30 hours in that same time frame.

WTTI was pleased to recognize a number of Windward faculty members for the successful completion of their IMSLEC certification. To achieve this certification,

faculty members must complete a minimum of 100 hours of IMSLECcertified coursework and conferences; and participate in an extensive supervised practicum before this professional certification is granted. Over the past five years, 26 current faculty members have earned their IMSLEC certification.

In January, Lower School faculty members Carly Lichtenstein and Allison Oppedisano became the latest members of the Windward faculty to earn their IMSLEC certification; Ms. Lichtenstein is a member of the third grade faculty, while Mrs. Oppedisano teaches second grade. In August 2012, Middle School teachers Diane Schonberger and Robyn Travers, and Lower School faculty member Lindsay Baer, all earned their IMSLEC certification.

Mrs. Schonberger and Mrs. Travers teach fifth grade and seventh grade, respectively, while Ms. Baer teaches third grade.

WTTI is also proud to acknowledge the following IMSLEC-certified faculty members who have completed the required IMSLEC Continuing Education Units: Amy Linden, the Lower School’s reading specialist; Christy Brockhausen, a Middle School faculty member and the School’s research coordinator; and Marsha Finkelstein, a Middle School teacher, assistant teacher staff developer and coordinator of the SIP program for assistant teachers. All IMSLEC certified recipients are required to complete 30 IMSLEC CEUs every three years in order to keep their certification current; CEUs may include participation in conferences and workshops, university or college courses, or independent study. Fulfillment of these requirements helps keep graduates abreast of current research and educational developments within the field of dyslexia and related learning disabilities.

Over the past five years, 26 current faculty members have earned their IMSLEC certification.

Congratulations to Windward Teacher Training Institute International Dyslexia Association Recognizes the International Multisensory Structured Language Education Council for Meeting Teacher Training Standards in Reading

The Beacon Spring 2013 Faculty News 13

Certifications, ASHA Award

IMSLEC certified faculty members

Diane Happas, pictured at the podium, leads a parent seminar at Windward Teacher Training Institute. Ms. Happas was recognized with the ASHA Award for Continuing Education.

In mid-February, the International Dyslexia Association (IDA) bestowed a prestigious recognition on the International Multisensory Structured Language Education Council (IMSLEC). IMSLEC was formally recognized for meeting the IDA’s Knowledge and Practice Standards for Teachers of Reading, standards that assist the IDA in endorsing programs that specialize in training multisensorystructured language education teachers and specialists.

IMSLEC, which is dedicated to improving reading instruction for children and adults nationwide, accredits high-quality training courses in multisensorystructured language education. Windward Teacher Training Institute (WTTI) is one of the few training centers in New York State accredited by IMSLEC and able to offer IMSLEC’s professional certification to those who undertake the extensive supervision and coursework requirements. The Windward School extends its congratulations to WTTI, as an IMSLEC-accredited training center, for its dedication to meeting the exacting teacher training standards promoted by the IDA.

Lindsay Baer Janine Bartnett Kaarina Bauerle Ronnie Berish Christy Brockhausen Alice Cohen Shelley Donato Betsy Duffy Dorothy Dunne Jill Fedele Marsha Finkelstein Pat Gay Viviane Goodwin Cynthia Goracy Andrea Kaminsky Diane Kissner Carol Leahy Carly Lichtenstein Amy Linden Ruthanne Mahoney Allison Oppedisano Diane Schonberger Lisa Sheptin Lori Squillante Robyn Travers Laura Trifiletti

14 The Beacon Spring 2013 Alumni Corner

Alumni Corner

Evan Thompson ’09 I remember the day I was labeled as “different.”

Evan Thompson ’09, an accomplished actor and athlete, will graduate this spring from New York University. He credits his success to time spent at The Windward School.

I

was in the second grade at Solomon Schechter School, and on that particular day I was taken out of Hebrew class and placed in a special “catch up” program, as it was termed by the other students. To complicate matters, I was not on the same reading level as the rest of my classmates, and this meant I had to spend additional time out of the classroom and in the resource room, where attempts were made to get me to the reading level of my peers.

Nothing worked, and it stayed that way through fourth grade.

I constantly heard the same refrain from my teachers: “We are surprised at you,” they would say. “We’re disappointed in your efforts; you can try harder.” I heard this over and over again, and it got to the point where I thought I was simply not

teachable. Although I had applied to The Windward School at the beginning of my fourth grade year, my family was told that I would probably have to wait until sixth grade to enroll due to a lack of available seats. Longing for a better environment, I enrolled in my local public school in the middle of my fourth grade year. I entered with a complete lack of confidence in my ability to learn like other students, and I was hoping that I would be accepted at Windward.

The day Ms. Maureen Sweeney, the Director of Admissions, called to say I was admitted, my mother cried. The next few years at Windward, where I spent the fifth through eighth grades, opened up a completely new door for me.

When I arrived at Windward, my fifth grade teacher, Ms. Ruthanne Mahoney,

“Being learning disabled didn’t make me less than others, it just meant I learned differently than others.”

told me firmly that I was capable and was able to learn. From that moment on, everything changed for me, and it wasn’t long before I was achieving academic success. Armed with a new sense of self esteem and confidence, I began to explore different interests, including running and drama. It was the administration and teachers at Windward who pushed me to strive for success when I first began to explore my love of running and the theater.

I began competing on Windward’s cross country team, encouraged by Ms. Marilyn Hunt, the Director of Athletics, who had discovered my potential for the sport.

Windward’s drama club, then under the direction of Ms. Patel, encouraged me to participate without fear.

When it came time to leave Windward, I enrolled once more in my local public school, knowing that Windward had taught me to advocate for myself and had given me the tools needed to achieve success. Windward helped me

The Beacon Spring 2013 Alumni Corner 15

Evan Thompson ’09, at far left, with his fellow actors in a scene from Brighton Beach Memoirs, a production of the Town Players of Newtown, based in Connecticut.

understand that I should not view my learning disability as a disability but as a difference, and taught me to educate my teachers and peers as I went forward.

I continued to push myself throughout high school, participating in cross country and track as well as drama. I spent a summer abroad studying acting and script writing at Oxford University in England, and also spent a summer at Northwestern University as part of their Cherubs program, for select high school drama students. Upon graduating high school, I went to Israel to compete in the Maccabiah Games as a member of the United States Track and Field delegation, and came home with a silver medal for the 400 meter relay.

I decided to pursue my passion for drama when it came to college, and I auditioned for and was offered a place at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. I will graduate from Tisch this May, having studied drama, and I have been

fortunate to have had a number of great experiences. I performed the lead role of Eugene in a summer stock theater production of Brighton Beach Memoirs, at the Town Players of Newtown, in Connecticut, and will be performing this spring with the Atlantic Theater Company in an Off Broadway musical for children under the direction of Elizabeth Swados. I have also completed my first feature film starring Mira Sorvino, in which I served as a production assistant and had a supporting role.

In addition to my drama work, I ran track and cross country at NYU, and spent a semester studying with the Semester at Sea, a study abroad program that allows students to immerse themselves in different cultures by circumnavigating the globe and backpacking in 14 countries. I also spent the summer between my freshman and sophomore years doing environmental work in Australia’s Blue Mountains. The following semester I chose to get involved in student politics and was elected to the

Inter Residential Hall Council, planning events for the student body. I also spent two years interning with casting directors in both New York City and Los Angeles.

This led to starting my own casting company this past year with a fellow NYU student.

If it wasn’t for Windward, I wouldn’t have been able to achieve any of these things. I still carry with me today the tools Windward gave me, from organizational skills to learning how to clarify and seek assistance. I learned how to assess my strengths and weaknesses and how to advocate for myself, thereby being able to face every challenge that came my way. I learned that being learning disabled doesn’t define who I am; being learning disabled didn’t make me less than others, it just meant I learned differently than others.

As I look forward to graduating from NYU, I am excited to dive head first into the unknown, knowing I have the ability to face any challenge.

The Windward School

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Beacon The Windward School Newsletter for Professionals, Parents and Faculty Spring 2013 Vol 2 Issue 1 Head of School Dr. John J. Russell Board of Trustees Devon S. Fredericks President Thomas E. Flanagan Vice President Michael R. Salzer Vice President Fredrick Chapey, Jr. Treasurer Susan C. Salice Secretary Ellen Bowman Michael S. Bruno, Jr. Amy Jo Dowd Mark A. Ellman Andrew R. Feldman Lori Garbin Mark Goldberg Arthur A. Gosnell John K. Halvey Timothy M. Jones Gregory Kennedy Stacy Kuhn Michael V. McGill Eric Schwartz Adam Shapiro Ann Sullivan Robert Sweeney Editor Lindsay Kennedy Director of Communications Design Frank Palazzolo Design for Business Website www.thewindwardschool.org

BE INFORMED. BE INSPIRED. TRANSFORM LIVES. Windward Teacher Training Institute provides professional development based on scientifically validated research in child development, learning theory and pedagogy.

The IMSLEC-accredited training program leads to national certification in multisensory structured language education.

Register Now for Courses and Workshops

Multisensory Reading Instruction • Expository Writing Instruction Language, Learning and Literacy • Improving Math Competence National Certification in Multisensory Structured Language Education

Save the Date!

Fall Community Lecture Wednesday evening, October 23, 2013 G. Emerson Dickman, III “A New Look at Learning Disabilities”

For Further Information: (914) 949-6968 • wtti@windwardny.org • www.thewindwardschool.org @WindwardTTI Windward Teacher Training Institute is a division of The Windward School, an independent school for students with language-based learning disabilities, located in White Plains, NY.