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Content Writer
Amplify
Brooklyn, NY, United States
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ELA Content Writer
Job Description:
When Amplify created its ELA grade 6-8 curriculum, we assembled educators and invited them to join forces with the leading experts in adolescent literacy, language development, learning science, neuroscience, motivation and other non-cognitive skills, and curriculum design. We then invited some of the leading thinkers about literature and history to join our creative process and help us make sure that our ideas about texts and language were truly state of the art. Finally, we added the innovative visions of great game designers, animators, moviemakers, and digital artists who have their own ways of engaging today’s kids and teachers but have rarely been a central part of core curriculum development. The result is a new kind of English Language Arts curriculum [http://learning.amplify.com/CA-trials].
Rigorous: We have preserved a core focus on the essential activities of reading, writing, speaking, listening, and forming a literate community. The program gives students a lot of opportunity to learn from and about texts: to think in solitude, to concentrate without distraction, to figure things out by themselves and with their peers.
Riveting: In addition to the many familiar aspects of the program, Amplify strives to use multimedia and technology in new ways to engage students and to inspire them to read more, write more, discuss with their peers more actively, and think harder. The curriculum speaks to digital natives by giving students new interactive formats in which to gather evidence, solve problems, and explore the layers of meaning within a complex text.
Perhaps what is most exciting about being a digital program is our ability to understand how our students learn and what supports teachers need to drive that learning. We are constantly re-learning and re-invigorating our program with new content, new tools, and new approaches based on real results.
That’s where you come in. Our small, highly collaborative team develops lessons that challenge students to unpack a complex text deliberately and thoroughly in order to build skills, establish understanding, and develop an analysis. To do this, we need content writers who ‘get’ both text and young adolescent learners; who are ready to think creatively about critical reading and writing skills; and who love traditional pen and ink but are inspired by the possibilities of digital tools. A content writer’s work might include:
• Collaborating with designers and developers to create a storyboarding app that allows students to discover narrator unreliability for themselves.
• Crafting a debate about whether Dr. Frankenstein should create a mate for his monster that has students both burying themselves back in the text to find that perfect evidence and jumping up from their seats to argue their point.
• Supporting teachers to have students deliberately weigh the distinct meanings that may imbue each of Lincoln’s repetitions of the word “dedicate” in his Gettysburg Address.
• Collaborating with an academic expert on Shakespeare to present the specific richness of a text to middle school students with a variety of backgrounds and experiences.
If you’re someone who has a thousand ideas of your own about TellTale Heart, but are at your best when crafting lessons to help middle grade students have their own thousand ideas, we want you as part of our team.
Responsibilities of the Content Writer:
• Contribute to the research and selection of high interest texts that match Amplify’s standards for complexity.
• Work closely with the unit author to develop and execute a vision for the unit as a whole.
• Identify text excerpts and elements that highlight the workings of the text and provide insight into meaning.
• Recognize the key standards that name the way students will approach the text.
• Craft lessons that support students at all levels to dig into the text, deliberately investigate key elements and collaborate deeply with one another to refine their understanding.
• Collaborate with designers, developers, content producers to bring lessons to life on the Amplify platform
Basic Qualifications of the Content Writer:
• BA in English or Humanities field, and/or strong content background in literary genres and critical analysis.
• 2+ years education experience with adolescents (middle or high school).
• Experience creating challenging and engaging lessons/ curricula
• Demonstrated writing skills
Preferred Qualifications of the Content Writer:
• Experience creating curricula that integrates different genres, technologies, mediums
• Experience teaching to a diverse range of learners
• Willingness to try out new ideas with real teachers and students and return to the drawing board if needed
• Strong reading and thinking skills
• Detail oriented
• Comfort with classroom technology
• Widely read
• Graduate Degree
Amplify is an Equal Opportunity Employer of Minorities, Females, Protected Veterans and Individuals with Disabilities.
This position may be funded, in whole or in part, through American Recovery & Reinvestment Act funds.