Submitted Photo Carly Koopman, sixth-grade teacher, says students work best when they’re “engaged.”

Carly Koopman, a sixth-grade teacher and the instructional leader for the English Department at Fredonia Middle School, gave a detailed update to the Fredonia school board this week about things going on in the English Department. And one point of emphasis was how they discovered students learn.

“We know our students are at their best when they’re engaged, motivated, and driving their own learning,” said Koopman.

With that principle in mind, students in Melissa Prevet’s seventh-grade classroom have the opportunity to collaborate with people at the college to help them progress in their learning. Prevet, joined by SUNY Fredonia Professor Heather McEntarfer, her student Emily Fish, and Fredonia Middle Schoolers Cameron Matteson and Lainey Ashlock, detailed a project they held in December and January.

As part of the project, Prevet asked her students to write a memoir, intending to give them a real-world context by engaging in the writing process. She wanted them to experience writing as real writers do, with a process of constructive criticism, editing and revising.

Prevet said that the class was able to accomplish this by working with Dr. McEntarfer’s students.

“They worked tirelessly providing my seventh-graders with the needed feedback and support to strengthen them as writers,” Prevet said.

This tied in with McEntarfer’s class as well, having taught a writing class that worked more like a workshop, conferencing with other students to improve writing. Fish said while they could learn about conferencing, getting the firsthand experience that this collaboration with the Fredonia Middle School was a valuable experience.

“We could read about conferencing in our textbook all day long, but what really set this apart is that we got to do it,” Fish said.

Students in McEntarfer’s class were paired with three Fredonia Middle School students, who wrote their memoirs and sent them to the college students, all done via GoogleDocs, where comments could be made on aspects of pieces and a conversation could be had.

“Over this three-week span, we got to really delve into their writing,” Fish said. “It definitely helped from that standpoint of learning how to give feedback and how to talk to students about writing.”

McEntarfer said she appreciated the method that Prevet used in her classroom, which helped strengthen the collaboration. McEntarfer said it’s not used all that often, which got Prevet and McEntarfer talking over the summer about how she wanted her students to see it. And the feedback given on writing was a two-way street.

“After the college students finished critiquing our writing, we critiqued some of their works,” said Ashlock. “We were told to give positive feedback on their writing and tell them what we liked about it. We picked out certain parts and explained why we enjoyed them so much. It was really good practice for giving constructive criticism in the future.”

And by the end of the project, the growth was apparent. Fish said her most memorable moment was seeing how quickly the kids improved, and as an aspiring teacher, she said it was a good lesson for her to have on how to help instruct kids in the future.

“I could not believe what they were able to do as seventh graders,” said Fish. “It was very eye opening for me as a future teacher, what they can do when you’re conferencing and helping them along.”

The arrangement between Fredonia Middle School and SUNY Fredonia is something that both sides would like to see continue in the future, as each recognized the value that this program provided.

“We have often said on this Board for years that we have such a resource at Fredonia State,” said Board President Brian Aldrich. “As an education school teaching our next generation of teachers, what a great asset we have here. And you’ve started something very unique, and I’m hoping that if this is that successful, we’re able to continue on with this and other areas.”