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2009: Rising Star Public Middle School

Finding a Middle School Voice
Urban Assembly Academy nurtures young minds through creative endeavors

In a few short years, the Urban Assembly Academy for Arts & Letters has developed into one of Brooklyn’s most sought-after middle schools.

Established by St. Ann’s graduate Allison Gaines Pell in 2006, this Fort Greene institution is her vision for a middle school that would not only teach students, but would help them find their own voices in the world. Her idea fit perfectly with the goal of the Urban Assembly school network, which helps kids from under-resourced neighborhoods prepare for college and develop a love of learning.

“This is where they get excited or where we lose them,” she said. “It’s important that in these three years they get excited.”

Excitement is something parent Nancy Bruni has seen grow in her 7th-grade son, Alessandro, who likes history. Bruni said his teacher recognized his interest and gave him extra homework and assignments geared toward the subject.

“They do something a little extra,” she said. “My son has really grown into a little scholar because they have nurtured his intellectual curiosity.”

Certainly smaller class sizes of about 25 students per room, with adult advisors for even smaller groups, helps nurture curiosity. The school’s “Explorations Program” is another tool that encourages students to be creative while they discover cultures, writing, ideas and history. In 6th grade, students make a book, in 7th grade they work with actors to put together a theatrical performance based on abolitionists and in 8th grade they perform a spoken word piece about the civil rights movement.

In John Banks’ 7th grade humanities class, where social studies and English are taught together, students worked on composing a poetry anthology. This is a little different than last year’s illustrated “A to Z” book about Rome, but no less fun—for both Banks and his kids.

“It’s nice ’cause there is a tangible something,” Banks said. “Here is this thing you created and it shows what you learned.”

Banks also appreciates that Urban Assembly Academy encourages teacher participation and individual employee growth. Teachers are even involved in discussions about how to improve the school and classrooms.

Urban Assembly Academy is currently working with Open Road of New York, a non-profit group that does environmental projects with kids, to help beautify the schoolyard. Administrators also plan to have students design a mural for the wall and commissioned the 6th grade class to plan the school’s changing facade.

As the name implies, arts are a big part of the curriculum at Urban Assembly Academy. Each semester, students are required to participate in arts classes in visual art, music, drama and creative writing. Options are varied, and include West African dance, drawing with live models, Brooklyn Buckets drum line and a yearlong drama intensive class. In 8th grade, many students end up applying to visual arts programs, like Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, Brooklyn High School of the Arts and the Urban Assembly high schools.

“We concentrate on the arts not as an end, but as a means,” Gaines Pell said. “We see it as a way to develop creativity and their creative minds.”

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Urban Assembly Academy for Arts & Letters
225 Adelphi St., 3rd Floor
Brooklyn, N.Y. 11205
Allison Gaines Pell, Principal
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— Linnea Covington