Susan Keehn, assistant professor of reading
Distinguished Achievement Award: Susan Keehn
(April 29, 2002)--Susan Keehn, assistant professor of reading in the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies and Curriculum and Instruction in the College of Education and Human Development, is the winner of the 2002 President's Distinguished Achievement Award for Teaching Excellence.
As an educator, Keehn makes the needs of her students her priority in teaching.
A firm believer that students must have ample opportunities to apply in different settings what they are learning in the classroom, she requires both her undergraduate and graduate classes to complete field experiences. By going with her students into the field or by bringing area school children to the UTSA Reading Place/Plaza de Lectura for which she serves as director, Keehn is able to use critical apprenticeship strategies--modeling, coaching and fading. By conducting demonstration lessons, she is able to ensure they see first-hand the instructional interventions discussed in class.
Noted one student in her evaluation of Keehn's class, "I'll always remember you... loaded down with books and playing your guitar to show us how songs teach literacy."
She is also committed to ensuring that UTSA students are prepared to work with the city's diverse population. When she takes her students into schools to work with children, it is with the inner city schools that she builds relationships.
And simply working with children from diverse backgrounds is not enough. Keehn also wants her students to understand the culture. For example, in Early Literacy Learning, a course where UTSA students tutor struggling readers in kindergarten and first grade, Keehn initiated a camera project to foster home-school connections.
After her students studied the research documenting the importance of home-school connections to early literacy, students gave their tutees disposable cameras to take photos of their favorite people and places. The tutors then used the children's photos as a core around which to plan language experience activities that address instructional goals. Not only the children benefit from the lessons--the tutors gained much insight into their young tutees' lives.
Her unique joie de vive is always evident in her interactions with students, and in their responses to her, recorded often in comments added to their consistently high evaluations of her courses.
Wrote one student, "This 'prof' is informed, compassionate, passionate
about her field and attentive to the needs of her students--plus she's fun!
Who could ask for anything more?"
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TODAY'S HEADLINES:
Distinguished
Achievement Awards: Jahan G. Eftekhar and Lars Hansen
Distinguished
Achievement Awards: Su Zhou and Dhiraj K. Sardar
Distinguished
Achievement Awards: Deanna M. White and Neil Maurer
Teaching Excellence Award: Susan Keehn, assistant professor of reading
Spring
2002 graduates invited to La Despedida ceremony
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© The University of Texas at San Antonio, 2002