Rite stuff
Student teachers demonstrate classroom effectiveness
Each semester, as many as 30 USF Sarasota-Manatee teaching candidates completing final internships at elementary schools throughout Sarasota and Manatee County are able to demonstrate their effectiveness as educators thanks to a unique program launched in 2015 celebrating the positive, hands-on impact they have had on student learning in their K-5 classrooms.
Led by Coordinator of Clinical Education Heather Duncan, PhD, and with support from USF Sarasota-Manatee campus School of Education faculty, the Research in Teacher Excellence Program (RiTE) Celebration features posters that detail the achievements of their elementary-aged students. Examples include lesson plans, sample student work, evidence of arts-integration and evidence of student growth from pre-test to post-test.
Candidates are required to create and implement lesson plans utilizing previous student learning data, as well as other student demographics.
Program graduate Nicole Marcinko chose multiplication facts as her focus skill because her observations and data from her Problem of the Day (POD) activities indicated that students struggled in this area, with an average pre-test result of only 64 percent. After implementing a series of lessons, which included educational games, student-created songs and collaborative learning, the class average on the post-test soared to 84 percent.
“The RiTE celebration provides the opportunity for our candidates to showcase the value they have added to their students’ learning experience,” Duncan said. “It is a powerful indication of their effectiveness as teachers.”
