Educator
Ronna has a PhD in Interdisciplinary Studies/ Basic Writing; an M.F.A. in Creative Writing/Poetry (Brooklyn College CUNY), studying with Allen Ginsberg; a B.A. in Communication Studies and Education (UMass, Amherst). At Kingsborough Community College CUNY, she was an Associate Professor of English; the Co-Director of the Developmental English program; a member of the CUNY Reading Panel, the CUNY Advisory Committee for Developmental English; and Co-Chair of the CUNY Writing Discipline Council. She served on Chowan University’s On-Site Reaffirmation Committee as their lead Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) Evaluator in preparation for reaccreditation from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges. Chowan University’s QEP is based on Ronna’s research with Literature Circles. Additionally, Ronna has presented papers at conferences across the country, edited a test-prep book for Pearson Longman, edited the Brooklyn Review 7 (poetry), published poetry and peer-reviewed articles. Ronna has taught first year composition and literature, but her favorite class to teach is developmental English, working with underprepared college students.
Scholarship
“Literature Circles Go to College”
In basic writing classrooms and scholarship, reading too often remains invisible; neither research nor established practice provides tangible activities to support reading and connect it to writing. This article posits literature circles, a student-centered and collaborative approach to reading used primarily in the lower grades, as a methodology that can offer college-level, basic writing students an inventory of reading strategies for entering and navigating a text, initiating textual discussions, deepening comprehension of and connection to reading, and expanding the experience of writing.
files.eric.ed.gov › fulltext › EJ988210Literature Circles Go to College - ed
Journal of Basic Writing, v30 n2 Fall 2011: p53-83
Book Review of Securing a Place for Reading in the Writing Classroom by Ellen C. Carillo. Logan: Utah State UP 2015. 199 pp. Teaching English in The Two-Year College May 2016
Carillo’s book is an excellent resource. Her text serves to inform curricula and pedagogy; additionally, sections of the book can easily support faculty development for writing teachers in the two-year college.
“Literature Circles: Access to Texts”
In our classrooms and in the scholarship, we understand our students’ inabilities and struggles to read the way we expect because for many, the reading process is elusive. This article demonstrates how the pedagogical model of literature circles provides the infrastructure to access a text and guides students through practices of annotation, reflection, discussion, and supports reading as a process paralleling the writing process.
Literature Circles: Access to Texts
Open Words: Access and English Studies, Vol. 12, No. 1 (December 2019): 88–109