Fostering a love of reading and writing in young children can be a difficult task. But thanks to the work of Dr. Doug Kaufman, associate professor at the Neag School of Education, students at Dorothy C. Goodwin Elementary School in Storrs are learning to appreciate the creative writing process.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have kindergartners who can write for 45 minutes at a time,\u201d explains Kaufman.<\/p>\n
Each day, kindergartners, first- and second-graders spend time in \u201cWriting Workshop.\u201d The 45-minute sessions begin with a 15-minute mini-lesson on a topic that relates to the class\u2019 current writing needs. Rather than a more formulaic curriculum, teachers are able to tailor\u00a0 lesson plans to areas most needing improvement. This flexibility means students are learning things relevant to, and challenging them at, that time.<\/p>\n
After this lesson, students write for 15 minutes. Teachers walk around the room, encouraging and pushing students to go further with their writing. In the final 15 minutes, students talk about and share their work. Most are eager for their turn, as well as proud and excited about what they have written.<\/p>\n
These Writing Workshops have become\u00a0 an essential part of students\u2019 class time, with students recognizing the value of work they produce. Equally important is the fact that they\u2019re having a good time doing it. \u201cIf you go into one of these classrooms to see what is happening, you will see kids working very independently with a lot of diligence and extreme enthusiasm. You will see kids getting upset when the workshop is over because they want to keep writing,\u201d says Kaufman, who started the project five years ago after talking with Goodwin staff about the writing challenges they were facing.<\/p>\n
Designed to help students understand how writers get their ideas, write and then work with others to improve their writing, the workshops include regular presentations and \u201cmini-lessons\u201d given by Neag graduate school interns. This past year, that was MA students Annie Ramos and Christy Attanasio, who also shared their own writing and worked one-on-one with Goodwin students who needed extra help.<\/p>\n
Kaufman, who has a Ph.D. in Reading and Writing Instruction from the University of New Hampshire, believes these Neag interns often impact students most, as their focus is nothing but \u201cpure,\u201d and on writing only. \u201cThey are not worried about test scores or other peripheral aspects of teaching,\u201d Kaufman said. \u201cTheir focus is to help the Goodwin students write as effectively as possible, and to believe in what they can do.\u201d<\/p>\n
The interns also bring a fresh eye, says first grade teacher Angela Mann: \u201cWhen you\u2019ve been teaching for a while, students often remind you of past students, but these intern have a fresh perspective. They look at each student as an individual case.\u201d<\/p>\n
Though Kaufman and his team have not yet formally tested the program\u2019s success, a tremendous amount of anecdotal evidence shows its benefits, including the improvement of students\u2019 writing test scores.<\/p>\n
\u201cI could really see the difference in the first grade students who had been part of the program the previous year,\u201d explains teacher Janet Pagoni. \u201cWhen you ask them, they will willingly tell you that they love writing. They look forward to the workshops and are proud to share their work.\u201d<\/p>\n
They also look forward to learning what their teachers have written, as teachers take part in the writing and sharing process, too. This gives students the opportunity to learn from the writing choices their teachers make. \u201cWhen teachers explain why they wrote something a certain way, they\u2019re showing their students\u00a0how<\/em>\u00a0to make writing choices and how to decide what is important,\u201d says Kaufman.<\/p>\n The \u201cFearless Speller\u201d aspect of the program encourages students to experiment with word choices and use big words that they might not yet be able to correctly spell.<\/p>\n \u201cSince we have a responsive environment, children feel safe and open to trying new things,\u201d says Pagoni. \u201cThey also learn that the more they use new words, the more quickly they become familiar with these words and learn how to correctly spell them.\u201d<\/p>\n The success of the program has led to Kaufman, Neag interns and Goodwin teachers being invited to present information about the program at the National Council of Teachers of English Convention for each the past five years. In 2012, Kaufman attended with three of the teachers, Mary Lee Geary, Mann and Pagoni. \u201cIt\u2019s a great opportunity for teachers at the school to show their work and innovation, and to share what the kids are doing,\u201d says Kaufman.<\/p>\n Kaufman\u2019s hope for the program is that it will expand not just throughout all grades at Goodwin School, but throughout the Mansfield School District. He\u2019s also considering pursing grants or other external funding as a way to share the benefits of this unique program with an even wider range of students.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Fostering a love of reading and writing in young children can be a difficult task. But thanks to the work of Dr. Doug Kaufman, associate professor at the Neag School of Education, students at Dorothy C. Goodwin Elementary School in Storrs are learning to appreciate the creative writing process. \u201cWe have kindergartners who can write […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":190,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2424,1855],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[2455],"class_list":["post-206050","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-neag-community-engagement","category-neag"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-10 13:09:56","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206050","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/190"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=206050"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206050\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":206051,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206050\/revisions\/206051"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206050"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=206050"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=206050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}