Maryann Cucchiara
Biography
Maryann Cucchiara has been teaching for the New York City Board of Education since 1973. She has served as both a foreign language and English as a Second Language (ESL) instructor on the elementary through high school levels. In addition, Ms. Cucchiara is an adjunct lecturer teaching writing at the City University of New York (CUNY). In 1989, she joined the Brooklyn High School Superintendency, one of the largest and most diverse high school superintendencies in the United States, as the Bilingual/ESL Instructional Specialist. In her capacity as staff development specialist, she has trained hundreds of new bilingual and ESL teachers serving the 27 urban high schools that comprise the superintendency. In addition, she has worked on several curriculum projects and has just finished her most recent work entitled "Journey for Discovery: An Integrated Language and Literacy Program." In 1996, she was appointed to New York City's Chancellor's Committee on Adolescent Literacy. As a member of this citywide task force, Ms. Cucchiara was instrumental in designing and implementing "Project Freire," an in-school and after school literacy immersion program for the Brooklyn High Schools. This program has served as a model for other superintendencies throughout the city as they seek viable literacy programs for the many urban adolescent students in their high schools. Ms. Cucchiara is currently serving as a member of the curriculum committee for a newly designed nationwide literacy project, Adult Literacy Media Alliance (ALMA), to be launched in August 1998. The Brooklyn High Schools Superintendency will serve as a hub for training and dissemination of this pilot adult literacy program serving four cities in the USA, New York, El Paso, Seattle and Pittsburgh. Last year, Ms. Cucchiara was selected as the United States representative to UNESCO/ILI STLP'97. She is currently working on her dissertation at New York University. Her research focuses on language and literacy issues facing English Lexicon Creole immigrant students in New York City public high schools.
SLTP Presentations
INTERNATIONAL LITERACY
INSTITUTE