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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

 

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>
Philippa Rappoport
50
 

Artist and Archivist: The Papers and Legacy of Angel Suarez Rosado

<p>The Archives of American Art seeks to identify and acquire personal papers and institutional records of national significance in the arts. This topical collection explores the documents and objects from the papers of Angel Suarez Rosado, a living artist of Puerto Rican descent, and their lasting significance to the public.</p> <p>Included here are a bilingual video with curator Josh T. Franco, an exhibition webpage from Rosado's site-specific installation at the Allentown Art Museum in Pennsylvania, and the Archives of American Art homepage where users can explore online collections, resources, and publications, and a final discussion question. </p> <p>#LatinoHAC<br /></p> <p><br /></p>
Philippa Rappoport
4
 

Intangible Heritage through Material Culture: The Journey of an Ecuadorian Boat Seat

<p>This teaching collection helps students to look closely and think critically by exploring an Ecuadorian boat seat, the first object donated to the National Museum of African History and Culture, and how this tangible object represents the survival and transmission of intangible cultural heritage in the African diaspora. The seat belonged to Débora Nazareno, a descendant of enslaved Africans in Ecuador, and is engraved with Anansi, a popular spider figure in West African folklore. The boat seat was gifted to the museum by her grandson, Juan Garcia Salazar, a renowned Esmeraldan historian. </p> <p>Included here are the objects itself, a bilingual video with curator Ariana Curtis, two suggested Thinking Routines - "See, Think, Wonder" and "Unveiling Stories" - from Harvard's Project Zero Thinking and Global Thinking materials, and supporting digital content about the museum display, Maroon communities, Anansi, the oral tradition.</p> <p>For use in Social Studies, Spanish, English, and American History classes<br /></p> <p>#LatinoHAC </p>
Philippa Rappoport
21
 

Looking Past Words: An Exploration of Language, Systems, and Power through Three Case Studies

<p>This teaching collection explores the role of language and power in American and European history through three case studies: the Holocaust, Japanese American incarceration, and Northern Plains treaties. Paired with discussion questions from Project Zero's Global Thinking routines, "Think, Feel, Care" and "The 3 Y's," the collection aims to develop in students a sense of how individuals interact within a particular system, and the significance of these systems and interactions from personal, local, and global contexts.<br></p> <p>#EthnicStudies</p>
Philippa Rappoport
12
 

Metadata and Tagging Activity

<p>This activity, designed as a group exercise, asks participants to assume the role of a college student researching American women's work in the early 20th century, as an entry point to consider what is useful when tagging, searching, and creating digital resources. The collection includes the images that participants considered, followed in each case by a PDF of their responses. For the activity instructions, see the second tile of the collection.</p> <p>This activity was conducted at the inaugural meeting of the Smithsonian Digital Resources Steering Committee, a group convened to share knowledge and explore best practices, issues, and strategies that arise in using and creating digital cultural museum resources.  </p> <p>Kayo Denda, Librarian for Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies at Rutgers University and Visiting Fellow at the Smithsonian Office of Educational Technology, created the activity reproduced here.  As a Fellow, Ms. Denda is exploring how libraries, museums, and archives develop metadata for content on women in American history.  <br></p> <p>#DCRSC</p> <p><br></p> <p><br></p>
Philippa Rappoport
17
 

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>
Philippa Rappoport
10
 

Eye to I: Self-Portraiture as an Exploration of Identity

This collection serves as a preview for the final of six seminar sessions in the 2019 Smithsonian-Montgomery College Faculty Fellowship Program. This year's theme is “The Search for an American Identity: Building a Nation Together.”<br /><br /> National Portrait Gallery colleagues Wendy Wick Reaves and Briana Zavadil White will discuss the exhibition, "Eye to I: Self-Portraits from 1900 to Today." They maintain that, as people are confronted each day with “selfies” via social media and as they continue to examine the fluidity of contemporary identity, this is an opportune time to reassess the significance of self-portraiture in relation to the country’s history and culture.<br /><br /> Resources included in this collection have been chosen by the presenters for participants to explore before the seminar itself.<br /><br /> #MCteach
Philippa Rappoport
7
 

Culture and Aesthetics Meet Physics: Why Soviet and American Spacesuits Look Different

<p>This collection serves as a preview for the fifth of six seminar sessions in the 2019 Smithsonian-Montgomery College Faculty Fellowship Program. This year's theme is “The Search for an American Identity: Building a Nation Together.”</p> <p>National Air and Space Museum curator Cathleen Lewis will discuss objects from the Space Race gallery, in particular how spacesuits from the USSR and the United States indicate differing cultural and aesthetic answers to similar engineering challenges. </p> <p>Resources included in this collection have been recommended by the presenter for participants to explore before the seminar itself.<br /></p> <p>#MCteach<br /></p>
Philippa Rappoport
16
 

Learning Lab Training Collection on the Theme "The Search for an American Identity"

<p>This collection is designed to help educators bridge the classroom experience to a museum visit. It is intended to demonstrate various ways to use the Learning Lab and its tools, while offering specific, replicable, pre-engagement activities that can simply be copied to a new collection and used to help students engage with museum resources. </p> <p>Included here: </p><ul><li>Section 1: a set of flashcards, a template document so that teachers can create and print their own specific sets, and strategies for their use in their classrooms. </li><li>Section 2: a variety of student activities and resources to explore artist Luis Cruz Azaceta's "Shifting States: Iraq," a metaphorical representation of the unrest taking place in Iraq, and more broadly, an exploration of the human condition during times of crisis.  This section includes an image of the work from the Smithsonian American Art Museum, an explanatory video with curator E. Carmen Ramos, two  Thinking Routines - "See, Think, Wonder" and "The 3 Y's" - from Harvard's Project Zero Visible Thinking and Global Thinking materials, and  an array of prompts and Learning Lab tools to help students think critically and globally.  </li><li>Section 3: a short assignment to get participants started using the Learning Lab.</li><li>Section 4: spacer tile template to serve as chapter headings in longer collections.</li></ul><p>This collection is adapted from a teaching collection on the same theme (Luis Cruz Azaceta's "Shifting States: Iraq" ( <a href="http://learninglab.si.edu/q/ll-c/mBWHa8fHUy9vJsE5" style="background-color:rgb(63,63,63);">http://learninglab.si.edu/q/ll...</a>), that includes extension activities. It was created for the 2019 cohort of the Smithsonian-Montgomery College Faculty Fellowship Program on the theme, "The Search for American Identity: Building a Nation Together," - the subject of the Montgomery College - Smithsonian 2019 Fellowship program. </p> <p><br /></p> <p>Keywords: #MCteach</p> <p><br /></p>
Philippa Rappoport
29
 

Rethinking Americans

This collection serves as a preview for the second of six seminar sessions in the 2019 Smithsonian-Montgomery College Faculty Fellowship Program. This year's theme is “The Search for an American Identity: Building a Nation Together.”<br /><br /> National Museum of American Indian colleagues Paul Chaat Smith, Cecile R. Ganteaume, Colleen Call Smith, and Mandy Van Heuvelen will provide a behind the scenes look at the most daring exhibition the National Museum of the American Indian has ever staged. The exhibition argues that Native American imagery is everywhere in American life, and rather than being merely kitsch, stereotype, and cultural appropriation, it is evidence of the centrality of Indians in both history and 21st century life in the United States.<br /><br /> Resources included in this collection have been chosen by the presenters for participants to explore before the seminar itself.<br /><br /> #MCteach
Philippa Rappoport
8
 

The Search for an American Identity: Smithsonian-Montgomery College Faculty Fellowship 2019 Opening Panel Resources

<p>This collection serves as an introduction to the opening panel of the 2019 Smithsonian-Montgomery College Faculty Fellowship Program. This year's theme is “The Search for an American Identity: Building a Nation Together.” Three Smithsonian staff members will present at the opening panel, including David Penney (Associate Director of Research and Scholarship at the National Museum of the American Indian), Ranald Woodaman (Director of Exhibitions and Public Programs at the Smithsonian Latino Center), and Paula Johnson (Curator at the National Museum of American History). Their bios, presentation descriptions, and other resources are included inside.</p><p>As you explore the resources be sure to jot down any questions you may have for the presenters. </p><p>It's going to be a great seminar series!<br /><br /><br />#MCteach</p>
Philippa Rappoport
17
 

Learning Lab Teaching Collection for Frost Art Museum Workshop using Luis Cruz Azaceta's "Shifting States: Iraq"

<p>This teaching collection is designed to be used in the Frost Art Museum's "Exploring Latinx Artists from the Frost Art Museum Collection" workshop on November 6, 2018, to guide participants in a looking activity and to demonstrate the range of tools available in the Learning Lab. </p><p>It is adapted from a teaching collection on the same theme (Luis Cruz Azaceta's "Shifting States: Iraq" <a href="http://learninglab.si.edu/q/ll-c/mBWHa8fHUy9vJsE5">http://learninglab.si.edu/q/ll...</a>) , which aims to help students think critically and globally using two Thinking Routines to explore the painting. The work is a metaphorical representation of the unrest taking place in Iraq, and more broadly, an exploration of the human condition during times of crisis.</p> <p>Included here are an image of the work from the Smithsonian American Art Museum, an explanatory video with curator E. Carmen Ramos, a contextual video featuring the artist himself, three suggested Thinking Routines - "Colors, Shapes, Lines," "The 3 Y's," and "Headlines" - from Harvard's Project Zero Artful Thinking and Global Thinking materials, three other works by Azaceta in the Smithsonian collections, and an array of prompts and Learning Lab tools.</p> <p>For use in Social Studies, Spanish, English, American History, Art History classes</p> <p><em>This program received Federal support from the Latino Initiatives Pool, administered by the Smithsonian Latino Center</em>.<br /></p> <p><br /></p> <p>#LatinoHAC</p>
Philippa Rappoport
15