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      Philippa Rappoport

      Lead, Education and Engagement
      Smithsonian Office of Educational Technology
      Smithsonian Staff

      I work in education and engagement, teacher professional development, and outreach at the Smithsonian Office of Educational Technology (OET), and have a particular interest in developing and producing trainings, programs, teaching techniques, and platforms that foster deep learning and contribute knowledge to improve practices in museum and preK-16 education and engagement. At OET over the last decade+, I created digital assets for schools, families, and new immigrant English Language learners to complement teacher professional development and pan-Smithsonian programming, including Learning Lab teaching collections, YouTube videos with tradition bearers, a handmade family stories book-making website, and online heritage tours.

      Philippa Rappoport's collections

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      Exploring the History of Rice Cultivation in the United States

      <p>This collection serves as a preview for the fifth of six seminar sessions in the 2020 Smithsonian-Montgomery College Faculty Fellowship Program. This year's theme is “Humans and the Footprints We Leave: Climate Change and Other Critical Challenges." </p> <p>The National Museum of African American History and Culture tells American History through an African American lens. After a welcome and introduction to the museum by Deputy Director Kinshasha Holman Conwill, STEM Education Specialist Christopher W. Williams will engage participants in an exploration of the history of rice cultivation in the United States, and how enslaved West Africans used indigenous knowledge and technology to turn rice into the first globally exported cereal grain from the U.S. <br></p> <p>Resources included in this collection have been recommended by the presenters for participants to explore before the seminar session itself. A fuller description and presenter bios are included inside the collection.<br></p> <p>#MCteach</p>
      Philippa Rappoport
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      Interpreting Content from the Smithsonian Transcription Center: Oral Interviews from the Faris and Yamma Naff Arab American Collection

      <p>This collection is a topical collection guiding students to a fascinating trove of content from the Faris and Yamma Naff Arab American Collection at the National Museum of American History, with discussion questions from Project Zero's Global Thinking routine, "Step In, Step Out, Step Back," to help them explore the content. Also included is additional content from the Smithsonian Transcription Center that students can explore and volunteer to transcribe. By volunteering with the Transcription Center , students would help transcribe these stories of early Arab-America immigration, and contribute to our collective knowledge of Arab American History.</p> <p>The Faris and Yamma Naff Arab American documents the immigration and assimilation of mostly Christian Syrian-Lebanese who came to America at the turn of the twentieth century. The immigrants were predominately-small land-owning peasants and artisans from the village of Syria and Lebanon. It was in these Syrian communities created by Arab immigrants that Dr. Naff sought interviews, photographs and personal papers.<br></p>
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      Serving Community in the 21st Century: Presentations from the National Museum of African American History and Culture

      <p>This collection serves as a preview for the fifth of six seminar sessions in the 2021 Smithsonian-Montgomery College Faculty Fellowship Program. This year's theme is “Facing the Complex, Multiple Challenges of the 21st Century."<br><br>Five colleagues from the National Museum of African American History and Culture - Kinshasha Holman Conwill, Candra Flanagan, Anna Hindley, Kelly Elaine Navies, and Esther Washington - will discuss signature programs of the museum's engagement, education, and outreach strategy. </p> <p>Resources included in this collection have been recommended by the presenters for participants to explore before the seminar session itself. A fuller description and presenter bios are included inside the collection.<br></p> <p>Special thanks to Candra Flanagan for the beautiful slides, and to Danielle Lancaster for keeping us all on track!</p> <p>#MCteach</p>
      Philippa Rappoport
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      Introductory Activity to Generate Discussion about Ethnic Studies and Digital Museum Resources (#EthnicStudiesY2)

      <p>This collection is a standalone flashcard or online activity designed to generate discussion for Ethnic and Area Studies classrooms and workshops. The collection includes:</p> <ul><li>images to spark discussion</li><li>questions to guide you in considering and selecting objects</li><li>a word document template that educators can use to edit (or create from scratch) and print flashcards with images and descriptions on opposite sides of each flashcard.</li><li>the Learning Lab Getting Started Guide</li></ul> <p>This collection was co-created with Maritza De La Trinidad, Laura Esparza, Francisco Guajardo, Chris Milk, <a href="https://learninglab.si.edu/profile/9">Tess Porter</a>, <a href="https://learninglab.si.edu/profile/212">Philippa Rappoport</a>, and Elizabeth Salinas, and serves as a preview of the Learning Lab platform and springboard for discussion during the <em>Exploration of Ethnic Studies</em> workshop, held online with the City of Austin Parks and Recreation Department, <em>Academia Cuautli,</em> Texas State University, the Museum of South Texas History (MOSTHistory), and the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley's (UTRGV) <em>Historias Americanas </em>program during academic year 2020-2021.<em> </em>The collection can be copied and adapted for use in your own classroom. </p> <p>This program received Federal support from the Latino Initiatives Pool, administered by the Smithsonian Latino Center.<br></p> <p>#EthnicStudies #HistoriasAmericanas</p> <p>Keywords: TEKS</p> <p></p>
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      American Indian Responses to Environmental Challenges

      <p>This collection serves as a preview for the third of six seminar sessions in the 2020 Smithsonian-Montgomery College Faculty Fellowship Program. This year's theme is “Humans and the Footprints We Leave: Climate Change and other Critical Challenges.” <br></p> <p>National Museum of American Indian colleagues Edwin Schupman, Christopher Turner, and Mandy Van Heuvelen will explore how the National Museum of the American Indian's educational resources, exhibitions, and interpretive programs address the issue of climate change. <br>Resources included in this collection have been chosen by the presenters for participants to explore before the seminar itself.<br><br></p> <p>#MCteach</p>
      Philippa Rappoport
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      Reimagining a National Symbol: The Immokalee Statue of Liberty, by Kat Rodriguez

      <p>This teaching collection helps students to look closely and think critically by examining Kat Rodgriguez's <em>Immokalee Statue of Liberty</em>. In 2000 members of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) in Florida carried this statue on a two-week, 230-mile march for “dignity, dialogue, and a fair wage.” The CIW brought together diverse, interracial groups including agricultural workers, environmentalists, and community organizers, to negotiate for better working conditions and higher wages in the agricultural industry. The statue represents liberty, diversity, inclusion, and liberal rights, and seems to asks us to examine our ideas of national identity. <br></p> <p>This collection prompts students to consider both the Immokalee Statue of Liberty and the Statue of Liberty at Ellis Island, and our changing notions of liberty. Included here are </p><ul><li>the statue</li><li>a suggested Thinking Routine, "See, Think, Wonder," from Harvard's Project Zero Thinking materials</li><li>a bilingual video with Smithsonian National Museum of American History curator Margaret Salazar-Porzio</li><li>two poems - "I, too, am America" by Langston Hughes, which was featured on the Immokalee statue's original pedestal, and "The New Colossus" by Emma Lazarus, which is featured on a bronze plaque on the pedestal the Statue of Liberty at Ellis Island, after which the Immokalee statue is reimagined</li><li>a discussion/writing prompt</li><li>supporting digital content from the National Museum of American History<br></li></ul> <p>For use in Social Studies, Spanish, English, and American History classes<br></p> <p>#LatinoHAC #EthnicStudies</p> <p>This collection supports Unit 1: Intersectionality of Economics, Politics, and Policy, of the Austin ISD Ethnic Studies Part B course.</p> <p><em>This Smithsonian Learning Lab collection received Federal support from the Latino Initiatives Pool, administered by the Smithsonian Latino Center. </em></p> <p><br><br></p> <p></p>
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      From One Artist to Another: "Rudolfo Anaya" by Gaspar Enríquez

      <p>Students use a Global Thinking Routine to explore both a portrait and a work of literature that together offer a  rich view of the Chicano experience in the American southwest in the middle of the 20th century. </p> <p>This teaching collection features Gaspar Enríquez's portrait of Rudolfo Anaya. It is the first commissioned portrait by the National Portrait Gallery of a Latino sitter by a Latino artist. Both artists address the Chicano experience and confluence of cultures in the American southwest.</p> <p>Included here are the portrait, a bilingual video with National Portrait Gallery curator Taína Caragol, the "Step In - Step Out - Step Back" Thinking Routine from Harvard's Project Zero Global Thinking Strategies, two other works by Gaspar Enríquez, and some links to National Portrait Gallery supporting materials. </p> <p>Teachers and students can pair the portrait and read Rudolfo Anaya's coming of age novel "Bless Me Ultima," first published in 1972 and reflecting Chicano culture in rural New Mexico in the 1940s, to gain a deeper understanding of the Chicano experience in the American southwest.</p> <p>#LatinoHAC #EthnicStudies<br /></p>
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      Crucial Conversations in American History: "Many Voices, One Nation" and "Becoming US"

      <p>This collection serves as a preview for the second of six seminar sessions in the 2020 Smithsonian-Montgomery College Faculty Fellowship Program. This year's theme is “Humans and the Footprints We Leave: Climate Change and other Critical Challenges.” </p><p>National Museum of American History colleagues Orlando Serrano and Steve Velasquez will discuss the making of the exhibition, "Many Voices, One Nation," and its accompanying educational website, "Becoming US." Together the exhibition and educational website aim to explore not only how the many voices of people in America have shaped our nation, but also to guide high school teachers and students in learning immigration and migration history in a more accurate and inclusive way.<br></p> <p>Resources included in this collection have been chosen by the presenters for participants to explore before the seminar itself.<br><br></p> <p>#MCteach</p>
      Philippa Rappoport
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      Cuban Balseros: Using Art and Artifact to Explore an American Immigration Story

      <p>This teaching collection helps students think critically and globally about migration,  using two objects from 1992: a screenprint, "Fragile Crossing," by Cuban American artist Luis Cruz Azaceta, and a small Cuban raft that was intercepted off the coast of Florida.</p> <p>Using Project Zero Visible Thinking and Global Thinking Routines, students will consider the personal, local and global contexts in which these objects were created, the larger story they tell, and why they matter. </p> <p>Included here are the screenprint from the Smithsonian American Art Museum, a video with Grant Czubinski (Anacostia Community Museum) and Ranald Woodaman (Smithsonian Latino Center), two suggested Thinking Routines - "See, Think, Wonder" and "The 3 Y's" - from Harvard's Project Zero Artful Thinking and Global Thinking materials, an article on Cuban <em>balseros</em> by Natalie Catasus, and a Learning Lab collection about the work of Luis Cruz Azaceta. <br /></p> <p>For use in Social Studies, Ethnic Studies, Spanish, English, American History, Art History classes<br /></p> <p>#LatinoHAC #EthnicStudies</p> <p><br /></p> <p><br /><br /></p>
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      Teaching with the Smithsonian Learning Lab: A Workshop for George Washington University Faculty and Graduate Students

      <p>For the workshop, <strong><em>Teaching with the Smithsonian’s Learning Lab – Millions of Resources at Your Fingertips! </em><strong>(January 8, 2020),</strong> </strong>this is <em>a </em>collection of digital museum resources and instructional strategies.  It includes a warm-up activity, a close-looking exercise, and supporting materials for participants to create their own teaching collections. </p> <p>This collection was co-created with <a href="https://learninglab.si.edu/profile/9">Tess Porter</a>. </p><p>#GWTeach</p>
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      Digital Museum Resources for the High School Ethnic Studies Classroom (Irving Arts Center )

      <p>This collection includes digital museum resources and replicable activities that will serve as a springboard for discussion during the <b><i>Exploration of Ethnic Studies</i></b><b> workshop at the Irving Arts Center on October 16, 2019. </b>The collection models how digital museum resources can be leveraged to support critical thinking and deeper learning for high school Ethnic Studies curricula. The collection can be copied and adapted for use in your own classroom. </p><p>This program received Federal support from the Latino Initiatives Pool, administered by the Smithsonian Latino Center.<br /></p> <p>#EthnicStudies</p><p>Keywords: Ethnic Studies, Mexican American Studies, MAS</p>
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      Down These Mean Streets: Community and Place in Urban Photography

      <p>Photographs are the entry point to help students think critically about the nature of community in America's urban environments of the 1960s and 1970s.  The exhibition introduced here, after which this collection is titled, features Latino artists who "turn a critical eye toward neighborhoods that exist on the margins of major cities like New York and Los Angeles." Smithsonian American Art Museum Curator E. Carmen Ramos has said that the exhibition was meant to explore the artists' complex vision of life in the urban environment, juxtaposing both a sense of unwelcoming urban neglect with a strong sense of community.  </p> <p>Included here are photographs from the exhibition, a bilingual video with the curator, the "Step In - Step Out - Step Back" Thinking Routine from Harvard's Project Zero Global Thinking Strategies, some links to Smithsonian American Art Museum supporting exhibition materials, including the exhibition webpage, a blog post, a link to Piri Thomas's book after which the exhibition was titled, and footage from a poetry reading at the museum. </p> <p>Teachers and students can use these photographs in a variety of ways - to explore the work of individual artists, to compare the works of different artists, and to look as a whole at the exhibition and extract deeper meaning about "the urban crisis" of America's urban environments in the 1960s and 1970s.</p> <p>Keywords: El Barrio, New York City, Urban Crisis</p><p>#LatinoHAC<br /></p>
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