Victoria Caruana
Madeira Beach Middle School
Saint Petersburg, FL
"R.A.R.E. Writing" is a program designed to teach sixth through eighth-grade students at Madeira Beach Middle School how to answer short and extended response questions in an efficient and effective manner. Caruana created the program to help students answer questions with confidence and competence, thus, becoming more effective communicators. R.A.R.E. (Restate, Answer, Reason, and Explanation) also gives the school's other teachers of math, science and social studies an easy strategy to use with students throughout the school. The ultimate goal is to help create an environment that values writing, raises the standard and builds test scores. By implementing R.A.R.E., students will receive a more direct approach to writing their answers to short and extended response questions. Potentially all 1,300 students at Madeira Beach Middle School will benefit from R.A.R.E. Caruana's hope is for the program to have a ripple effect on the entire school district and ideally the entire state. Caruana lives in Seminole.
Even though I am not teaching at Madeira Beach Middle School at this time, I am still facilitating the implementation of R.A.R.E. It is a very exciting venture for all concerned! I went to the school to received this award and were surrounded by colleagues who I admire and respect. It was a great honor.