Holly Daquila, Joyce Smith and Tiffany Ramirez will be working with students at Chollas-Mead Elementary. Dustin Brandon and Whitney Cotter will be teaching at Johnson Elementary. Both schools are in the San Diego Unified School District.
The student teachers will be working for four weeks in the Summer Literacy Program, a COE partnership with the Diamond Educational Excellence Partnership and Arts for Learning San Diego.
The Diamond Educational Excellence Partnership is a community collaborative committed to improving educational outcomes for children in the Diamond District, home to about 88,000 residents and includes Chollas View, Emerald Hills, Lincoln Park, Mountain View, Mount Hope, North and South Encanto, Oak Park, Valencia Park and Webster. Arts for Learning San Diego introduces students to the arts, enliven communities and can connect to school curriculum in areas including math, science, history, social studies and multicultural studies.
The Summer Literacy Program was established to support local elementary students who could benefit from additional literacy, arts, and science experiences over the summer while school is not in session. The goal is to prevent the students from falling behind and guide them as they make progress in the early grades.
Future teachers working on their credential through the College of Education also benefit from the program since it gives them additional student teaching experience. They also get to teach a diverse group of students. Additionally, they get to make a little money thanks to allocations from the COE.
These students have already completed two semesters of coursework and will be returning this fall to complete their edTPA, a comprehensive teacher performance assessment, and other final program requirements.
“Our students will benefit from additional training from the California Reading and Literature Project,” said Dr. Marva Cappello, COE professor who teaches courses in literacy methods and assessment. “They will also gain experience building upon the assets struggling students bring to literacy learning at the elementary schools through assessment and instruction.”
The goal of the California Reading and Literature Project is “to provide high-quality, standards-aligned professional development in reading and language instruction to ensure that every California K-12 student achieves the highest standards of academic performance.”