Instructor Spotlight: Constance Kong

We conclude the 2018-2019 school year and our five borough tour with the Manhattan Instructor of the Month: Constance Kong! This year you have read about passionate, organized, creative instructors from the Bronx, Queens, Staten Island, and Brooklyn. Like them, Constance is an excellent example of a Reading Rescue instructor. Unlike them, she works for a local community-based organization rather than a school.

Constance has been working for the Chinese-American Planning Council (CPC) for about six years. CPC and P.S. 2 in Chinatown have had an ongoing partnership since 1972, which includes CPC staff running after school and summer programming for the school. Constance is their Education Specialist and in 2015, she joined the P.S. 2 Reading Rescue team. Constance is so passionate about helping students that she approached the school’s Reading Rescue program coordinator Janice Lee to get some advice on incorporating a different literacy support into after school programming.

Constance Kong at P.S. 2 M.

Constance has typically worked with a first grader who is already in the CPC after school program, as there were always at least a few who needed Reading Rescue. This made the daily commitment easier for both the student and Constance. This semester, however, she’s working with a student during the day, because there was more need among students who were not attending after school. Her current student has behavioral struggles, and she's been creative with a sticker chart and other incentives to keep him moving and developing a love of literacy. 

Last summer, Constance worked with members of the Literacy Trust program team (program managers) so that we could run a summer Reading Rescue program in collaboration with CPC and P.S. 2. Our team worked daily to work with two students each in a summer program. This collaboration meant that more students were able to build their foundational reading skills while they were already in the building. 

Constance working with a Reading Rescue student.

“I feel like I use it everyday,” Constance said about how her knowledge of Reading Rescue helps in her day job at CPC. Part of after school is homework time, and Constance’s ability to support all students’ literacy with phonics-based prompting and useful comprehension questions benefits all after school students. After school program staff often do not get instruction in how to teach literacy. “Often it’s just based on what you remember from growing up,” she said. “With my knowledge of the Reading Rescue program, I can think about what it is they don’t know and then help them.”

Although they technically have different employers and schedules, Constance and the P.S. 2 Reading Rescue team collaborate closely. “I feel as if I’m always hoping that I’m doing things the correct way and looking for assurance from them. When I see that they also have different struggles too I feel better and think ‘oh it’s not just me!’” They ask each other questions and share their experiences with their different students.

Working with a community-based organization and being a part of a school's Reading Rescue team can be logistically challenging, and we've seen schools struggle with this model. It is because of P.S. 2 and CPC's organization, dedication, and creative thinking that Constance has been so successful.

Thank you Constance, for your work with students these past few years!