Melanie Allen teaches grades 6-8 English Language Arts/humanities at the Rafael Hernández K-8. She has taught in BPS for fifteen years and has presented to educators on creating accommodations for English Language Learners, using hinge questions to make decisions about reteaching, engaging reluctant learners with complex texts, and, most recently, at the AERA with professor Paola Uccelli on Core Academic Language Skills. She is an involved union activist and a mother of two BPS students.