Windermere-UB academic collaboration having success

The Amherst School Board received an update on the collaboration between Windermere Boulevard Elementary and the University at Buffalo at the April 22 board meeting.

For the last year and a half, UB and Windermere have teamed up for a pilot program in which UB graduate students help, on a one-to-one basis, Windermere students falling behind in reading and writing.

At the primary level, University at Buffalo Clinical Assistant Professor Lynn Shanahan oversees graduate level students who are learning how to teach elementary students how to read.

Windermere Early Childhood Education Principal Mary Lavin said the UB students get practical hands-on experience working with eight second-grade students who are not yet confident readers. The students are seen twice a week for 30-minute periods, which allows for reinforcement of reading strategies and skills to increase their ability to decode and comprehend text, she added.

At the intermediate level, Mary Thompson, assistant professor of learning and instruction, coordinates the Outstanding Writer's League, which provides after-school support on a weekly basis to a group of 19 third- and fourth-grade students by pairing them up on a one-to-one basis with a UB graduate student.

Thompson said some of the students are producing their first pieces of writing for the first time in their lives.

Windermere Intermediate Education Principal Daniel Lewis said the collaboration allows for the practical application of classroom theory (the grad class is held at Windermere) and provides additional resources for the students in an extended-day model.