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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

 

Activism and Change: Clara Lemlich and the New York Shirtwaist Strike of 1909

<p>This teaching collection asks students to consider photographs and documentation about early 20th-century Jewish immigrant activist Clara Lemlich (1886-1982, leader of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union and founder of the Progressive Women’s Councils), in the larger context of New York's Garment Industry, the New York Shirtwaist Strike of 1909, and the 1911 Triangle Waist Factory fire. By pairing historical documentation with three thinking routines from Harvard's Project Zero Global Thinking and Agency by Design materials - "Step In, Step Out, Step Back," "Think, Feel, Care," and "Circles of Action," - the collection encourages students to explore complexity and perspective, and fosters a disposition to participate. </p> <p>Included here are photographs, documentation, and resources from the Jewish Women's Archive's Encyclopedia of Jewish Women, the Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives at Cornell University's Industrial and Labor Relations School, the Tenement Museum, and the National Museum of American History. </p> <p>This collection pairs well with chapter 11 <em></em>("Jews are Pushed from Russia") of Ronald Takaki's <em>A Different Mirror for Young People: A History of Multicultural America, </em>and supports Unit 1: Intersectionality of Economics, Politics, and Policy, and Unit 3: Local History and Current Issues, of the Austin ISD Ethnic Studies Part B course. <br /></p> <p>#EthnicStudies<br /></p>
Philippa Rappoport
17
 

Facing Genocide: The US Response to the Holocaust

<p>My aunt remembers sitting at the kitchen table as a child while her parents, my grandparents, read the Yiddish newspaper, <em>Der Tag. </em>Often one would cry out, <em>nishta </em>("gone"), <em></em>"this one <em>nishta</em>; that one <em>nishta,</em>" in response to the paper's lists of towns in Europe overrun by the Nazis. </p> <p>This collection examines the US response to the Holocaust, pairing historical documentation with four thinking routines from Harvard's Project Zero Global Thinking and Agency by Design materials - "Unveiling Stories," :Think, Feel, Care," "The 3 Y's," and "Circles of Action," - to prompt students to ask important questions about our individual and collective responsibility to humanity. </p> <p>Included here are photographs, documentation, and resources from the National Museum of American History and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM), including a teaching resource and USHMM's online exhibition, <em>Americans and the Holocaust, </em>which examines "the motives, pressures, and fears that shaped Americans’ responses to Nazism, war, and genocide." Examined with thinking routines from Harvard's Project Zero Global Thinking and Agency by Design materials, students will explore complex and deeply troubling issues that continue to have relevance today. </p> <p>This collection complements chapter 14 ("World War II and America's Ethnic Problem") of Ronald Takaki's <em>A Different Mirror for Young People: A History of Multicultural America, </em>and supports Unit 1: Intersectionality of Economics, Politics, and Policy, and Unit 3: Local History and Current Issues, of the Austin ISD Ethnic Studies Part B course.  </p> <p>#EthnicStudies </p> <p></p>
Philippa Rappoport
19
 

"Hyphenated Americans": When “Bricklayer Bill” Won the 1917 Boston Marathon, It Was a Victory For All Irish Americans

<p>This collection explores the notion of hyphenated Americans, through the story of one man, William Kennedy, an American of Irish descent, born in New York in the late 19th century, who went on to win the Boston Marathon in 1918. Bill's nephew, in writing about his uncle, said, "When “Bricklayer Bill” Won the 1917 Boston Marathon, It Was a Victory For All Irish Americans." What did he mean?</p> <p>To aid discussion, included in this collection are images, a cartoon, several articles, a story fro WBUR, and one thinking routine from Harvard's Project Zero Global Thinking - "Step In, Step Out, Step Back" - to "encourage learners to take other people’s perspectives, recognize that understanding others is an ongoing process, and understand that our efforts to take perspective can reveal as much about ourselves as they can about the people we are seeking to understand."</p> <p>This collection complements chapter 6 ("The Flight From Ireland") of Ronald Takaki's <em>A Different Mirror for Young People: A History of Multicultural America, </em>and supports Unit 2: What is the history?, and Unit 3: Local History and Current Issues, of the Austin ISD Ethnic Studies Part B course. <br /></p> <p>#EthnicStudies</p> <p><br /></p>
Philippa Rappoport
9
 

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>
Philippa Rappoport
45
 

Humans and the Footprints We Leave: Smithsonian-Montgomery College Faculty Fellowship 2020 Opening Panel Resources

<p>This collection serves as an introduction to the opening panel of 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." Three Smithsonian staff members will present at the session, including Igor Krupnik (Curator of Arctic and Northern Ethnology collections and Head of the Ethnology Division at the National Museum of Natural History), Alison Cawood (Citizen Science Coordinator at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center), and Ashley Peery (Educator for the exhibition "Outbreak: Epidemics in a Connected World, " at the National Museum of Natural History). Their bios, presentation descriptions, and other resources are included inside.<br><br>As you explore these resources, be sure to jot down any questions you have for the presenters. It is sure to be a fascinating and fruitful seminar series!<br><br>#MCteach</p>
Philippa Rappoport
25
 

Deep Time

<p>This collection serves as a preview for the fourth 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>Three Smithsonian staff members, Jennifer Collins, Siobhan Starrs, and Scott Wing, will discuss content and educational materials related to the National Museum of Natural History exhibition, <em>Deep Time. </em></p> <p>Resources included in this collection have been recommended by the presenters for participants to explore before the seminar itself.<br></p> <p>#MCteach</p>
Philippa Rappoport
12
 

Making a "Kitchen Memories" Family Recipe and Storybook

<p>This collection includes an easy-to-do book project designed to get families talking, creating, and enjoying food together. It can be used as a home project, in the classroom (English, art, social studies), or in an informal learning setting, and can be combined with a family interviewing video project. </p><p>The book is made from a single, large sheet of paper. Click on the demo and accompanying downloadable instructions to get started!</p> <p>tags: art, crafts, crafting, how-to<br /></p>
Philippa Rappoport
7
 

Personal Responses to Covid-19: A Digital Storytelling Workshop Using the Smithsonian Learning Lab (for DC Public School educators)

<p>This Learning Lab collection was made to complement the presentation, "Personal Responses to Covid-19: A Digital Storytelling Workshop Using the Smithsonian Learning Lab," in support of the <a href="https://learninglab.si.edu/dcps">"Living Through History" Global Competency DCPS Cornerstone</a>.  The workshop also serves as an introduction to an opportunity for follow-on training and classroom activities to connect with classrooms across the globe and showcase students' digital stories about climate change, biodiversity, and sustainability at the <a href="http://sdg.iisd.org/events/2020-un-climate-change-conference-unfccc-cop-26/">UN Climate Change conference in Fall 2021</a>. (For more information, please write to learning@si.edu or saedstorytelling@lboro.ac.uk.)</p> <p>During the workshop,  co-facilitators <a href="https://learninglab.si.edu/profile/24977">Dr. Antonia Liguori</a> (Loughborough University, UK) and <a href="https://learninglab.si.edu/profile/212">Dr. Philippa Rappoport</a> (Smithsonian Office of Educational Technology) will demonstrate a variety of techniques to incorporate personal experiences in the exploration and use of museum resources. They will share how the Smithsonian Learning Lab and Digital Storytelling (DS) can be used together to access digital resources, build learning experiences, and cultivate collaboration and community over distance. </p> <p>We will explore artwork from an exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC, <em><a href="https://artsandculture.google.com/exhibit/IgLygJNprGf3JA%20and%20https:/npg.si.edu/exhibition/eye-i-self-portraits-1900-today">Eye to I: Self-Portraiture as an Exploration of Identity</a></em>), which compels viewers to consider how self-portraits reflect an artist’s identity through what is revealed and concealed. We will look specifically at the <em>Eye to Eye </em>artworks from the context of social distancing and unrest in the time of Covid-19 as a prompt to make personal connections.  </p> <p>After an introduction to the Smithsonian Learning Lab and previous experiences with Digital Storytelling within that environment, participants will be engaged in discussions about how Digital Storytelling can be used to support classroom work on the  <a href="https://learninglab.si.edu/dcps">"Living Through History" Global Competency DCPS Cornerstone</a>. In particular, digital storytelling as a co-created and participatory approach in the classroom can foster students' capacity and disposition to understand and act on issues of global significance. <br></p> <ul></ul> <p>You will find in this collection: </p> <ul><li>a short icebreaker activity using exhibition images to start shifting from a cognitive appreciation of art to a personal connection to museum objects; </li><li>some examples of annotated objects that demonstrate the functionality of the Learning Lab; </li><li>some examples of digital stories made by students and also other educators during previous Digital Storytelling workshops; </li><li>a description of the Digital Storytelling process; </li><li>workshop participants' reflections;  </li><li>supplemental resources. </li></ul> <p></p>
Philippa Rappoport
40
 

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
15
 

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>
Philippa Rappoport
6
 

Digital Museum Resources for the High School Ethnic Studies Classroom (#EthnicStudiesY2)

<p>This collection includes digital museum resources and replicable activities that will serve as a springboard for discussion during the <em>Exploration of Ethnic Studies</em> workshop, held online with the Museum of South Texas History (MOSTHistory) and the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley's (UTRGV) <em>Historias Americanas </em>program on October 23-24, 2020.<em> </em>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 collection was co-created with <a href="https://learninglab.si.edu/profile/9">Tess Porter</a>.  This program received Federal support from the Latino Initiatives Pool, administered by the Smithsonian Latino Center.</p> <p>#EthnicStudies #HistoriasAmericanas</p><p>Keywords: TEKS</p> <p></p>
Philippa Rappoport
57
 

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>
Philippa Rappoport
44