Doing it write

Qns. school adapts teacher’s essay approach

ONE QUEENS teacher is making an impact in the classrooms where she was once a student.

Rockeia Graham is an acclaimed English teacher at the Excelsior Preparatory High School located at the former Springfield Gardens High School.

And she couldn’t be more proud.

“I am a product of my neighborhood,” said Graham, who works with several of her former teachers and helps students master the craft of writing strong, argumentative essays.

“I always want to create avenues for every student to be successful,” she said.

Graham (photo right), 30, has been nominated for a Daily News Hometown Heroes in Education award. Parents, students and educators from around the city have been nominating school staffers who make a difference in the lives of city kids every day.

The winners will be selected by a panel of esteemed judges and honored at a breakfast on Oct. 1

Graham said one of her high school mentors predicted she would be a “great teacher.”

“I had a teacher who saw something in me I never saw within myself,” Graham said. “I’ve always had a love for literature, and I was an avid reader as a child.”

She started at Excelsior about six years ago after a one-year stint at her former junior high school.

“I noticed some students had difficulty developing and organizing essays,” she said. “I thought about an acronym they could use.”

Graham came up with PACE — Position, Answer, Counterclaim and Explain.

The students use that strategy when writing about weighty topics, such as whether schools should have day care for the children of teen parents and whether students should work while going to school. These writing skills are particularly vital for students getting ready for the Common Core-focused Regents exam. “Because of her abilities as a team player, this technique is now taught across the curriculum,” said Joan Kenyon-Woods, an English teacher at Excelsior. “In science class, in history class, everyone is teaching students how to make an argument and

then articulate how they came to that position.”

Graham credits her colleagues as well as her own passion for teaching and learning.

“It’s tough,” she said. “But it’s rewarding.”