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2008: Independent Elementary School Teacher of the Year

Young Writers in Training
With weekly journal entries, 1st graders get a jump start on literacy

Most 1st grade teachers are content to have students finish the year understanding the fundamentals of writing. But Erin Constabile is not most 1st grade teachers. With an aggressive writing curriculum that has her students exchanging personal journals by year’s end, Constabile has become one of Riverdale Country School’s most prominent teachers by setting high expectations and helping all of her students to meet them.
“My degree is in school psychology, so when I started in education I came to it with the mind-set of figuring out how to get inside their heads and get them really understanding, appreciating and being invested in their own learning, even at a very young age,” Constabile said.

In concert with her curriculum, Constabile’s engaging personality ensures that every 6- and 7-year-old in her class is invested from the moment the student enters the room.

“The level at which she gets to know the individual children allows her to create an ongoing dialogue,” said Sandy Shaller, head of the Lower School at Riverdale. “When she’s teaching a lesson, most of the children think that she’s talking to them personally. Really good teachers can do that.”

That level of accountability enables Constabile to carry out her aggressive writing program with students of varying levels. Even before the class has mastered reading skills, she distributes dictionaries to each student and encourages them to explore the print materials she keeps around the room.

After establishing basic writing skills, the students then receive personal journals, in which they are expected to write two to three sentences every week—no small feat for a 1st grader. The topic is open-ended, but they must turn in the journal to Constabile, who responds to each child in writing.

“It can be private or they can share it with their parents, but we want them to take ownership of the journal and do the writing on their own,” she said. “Some of them will write pages and pages. They love it because of the power that it gives them.”

Constabile perfected her writing-intensive curriculum inside the walls of Riverdale, where she has grown up alongside her students. First arriving at the school as a student-teacher, Constabile was hired as assistant, then she taught seven years of kindergarten before moving into the 1st grade.

“It’s such a love fest in that class,” said parent Lisa Peretz. “She has an unbelievable sense of humor and wit. It’s fun to just talk to her. The parents get such a kick out of her and kids adore her and respect her immensely.”

Constabile commands that respect by listening to her students, understanding how they learn and catering her lessons accordingly.

“To the extent that I can, I let each of them approach whatever we’re learning about in their own way,” she said. “If they are more auditory, I find ways to read the material to them; if they’re more visual, I give them books so they can read the information themselves.”

— Carolyn Braff