Warner School recognized with two grants

Teachers in the Rochester City School District and in three suburban districts will benefit from the New York State Department of Education's Eisenhower professional development grants awarded to the Warner School. The grants, reauthorized each year, are expected to total nearly $700,000 through 2004.

Professor Raffaella Borasi and doctoral student Judith Fonzi have received first-year funding of $93,000 to work intensively with teachers in four school districts: Rochester, Greece, Penfield, and Brighton.

Borasi and Fonzi approach mathematics education using the inquiry method, where a student's curiosity and problem-solving abilities help them to gain a fuller understanding of mathematics.

The goal of the mathematics project is to promote systemic reform in the four school districts in the Rochester area as well as improve the preparation of student teachers at the Warner School. Ultimately, a regional network will be created to support the state's learning standards for math, science, and technology.

The second grant aims to create "a foundation of literacy" for children in pre-kindergarten through grade 2 at School 33 in northeast Rochester. The grant, with first-year funding of $45,000, will advance efforts by the teachers in School 33's Early Childhood Unit to develop more meaningful language arts curricula, which will prepare students for the new state language arts tests.

Joanne Larson, assistant professor of literacy and elementary education at the Warner School, focuses her research on literacy as a social practice and examines the ways in which classroom language and literacy practices mediate access to participation in literacy events. She will coordinate all school-based activities with the unit's 35 teachers and their program administrator.

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