Suzanne Kaback
Assistant Professor
Office Hours:
Monday 11:00 am - 12:00 pm
Thursday 1:00 - 2:00pm
And by appointment for this term/semester
Degrees:
B.A. in American History: Hobart and William Smith Colleges (1989)
M.Ed in Literacy, Language and Cultural Studies: Boston University (1994)
Ed.D in Literacy Education: University of Maine (2003)
My career as a teacher began in 1991 when I accepted a job in Brooks, Maine, teaching a combined class of 5th/6th grade students. On my first day of school as a brand-new teacher, my room had no bulletin boards, no chalkboards, and no supplies. I lugged in boxes of my own children’s books to fill the bookshelves, and for the first month of school, my students decorated the walls with handmade displays and lots and lots of fiction and nonfiction writing. It was a perfect beginning.
After that auspicious start, I taught for 8 years in public and private schools, mostly in fifth grade, mostly in rural Maine. Along the way, I earned a Masters degree in Literacy, Language, and Cultural Studies from Boston University, and a doctorate in Literacy Education from the University of Maine.
I taught in the Education department at Elmira College for three years before moving to the Twin Cities to join the faculty at St. Kate’s in 2006.
If students leave my classes with just three sensibilities, I hope they are these:
1. Always be curious. Teaching will never be the wrong career choice if you keep an open mind, wonder about stuff, and seek out answers.
2. Be a reader and a writer. Would you take a pottery class from someone who didn’t throw pots? Learn to canoe from someone who didn’t spend a lot of time paddling on a lake? Sign up for cooking classes with someone who ordered take-out every night? To teach students how to read and write, and to do both with energy and passion, teachers need to read and write, too, so they can share the beauty of the word.
3. “Only Connect.” This famous excerpt from an E.M Forster quote suggests that the most effective teaching and the most significant learning happens when we make connections between the lives we know and what the world still has to offer. I urge my students to make their lessons meaningful and memorable for students. How? Know your content, know your students, then make the connection between what you’re teaching and why it is relevant to students’ lives.
My favorite part about being a teacher educator at St. Kate’s is working in local schools through our professional development partnerships. Students in my Literacy methods courses work on-site throughout the semester in a Literacy Lab setting where they are offered the opportunity to match theory with practice by studying/implementing best practices for effective Literacy instruction. In the Literacy Lab, we all discover that being immersed in the work of “real” teachers and students is enlightening, satisfying and humbling.
Courses Taught 2006-2008:
EDUC 2070/5070: Teachers as Leaders
EDUC 3490/7490: Emerging Arts and Literacy
EDUC 3550/7550: Extending Arts and Literacy
EDUC 3850: Student Teaching Supervision
EDUC 6700: Integration Seminar (Action Research)
Research Interests:
Professional Development in Literacy Education
Teaching Nonfiction Reading and Writing
Preservice Teacher Education Methods
Professional Development School Partnerships
Select Publications:
Fall 2007
Minnesota English Journal: Revision think sheets: Supporting college
writers from draft to final copy
Spring 2007
Choice Literacy (on-line publication at www.choiceliteracy.com): The Anticipation Guide: A Tool for Study Group Leaders
Spring 2006
Kappa Delta Pi Record: “High stakes are for tomatoes”: Supporting teachers and students when the growing conditions are poor
Fall 2006
The Language and Literacy Spectrum, journal of the New York State
Reading Association “Theoretical Inclinations”: How one teacher’s beliefs influenced reading comprehension instruction
Fall 2004
Education Week: Time, for a change: Rethinking graduate teacher education
July 2004
Elmira Star-Gazette: There’s no such thing as illiteracy
February 2003
The Back to School Book (with Connie Perry and Brenda Power) Scholastic, Inc.