Rachel Bear

Rachel Bear teaches AP Literature and Composition at Boise High School and recently completed her MA in TeachingEnglish Language Arts. She has much experience with teaching through inquiry, has offered several in-services on various elements of inquiry planning at the unit and lesson level, is currently a member of the Idaho team working with the Gates Foundation and NWP in an exploration of how to blend inquiry with the new Core Common Standards and is a member of the NWP National Reading Initiative which focuses on Content Area Literacy. She has offered local and national professional development on supporting students before, during and after reading and implementing the new Common Core State Standards. At the 2010 NCTE Annual Meeting she presented on 21st Century Literacy with a focus on using wikis to develop critical thinking skills and for collaborative, multimodal composing. Rachel and Jeffrey Wilhelm, PhD have co-taught AP Lit and Comp and designed many new strategies for teaching reading and writing through this collaboration.