Brockport first-graders Austin Stumpf (left) and Brandon Granby give a special card that they made to their SUNY Brockport pen pal, Leslie Hicks, who they just met for the first time at a Pen Pal Party last month.

Elementary students meet their college pen pals

First grade students sat quietly in Brockport's Ginther Elementary library as they anticipated meeting their SUNY Brockport pen pals for the first time. After writing letters for 10 weeks and learning things about their pen pals such as their favorite color, animal, or hobby, they were finally going to meet them in person.

SUNY Brockport students called out clues like: "I have a goldfish named "Goldie," and "I like to fly kites," until the young writers stood up to ask the college student if they were their pen pal. The pen pal program is part of a literacy assessment class taught by Dr. Sue Novinger. Graduate students from Dr. Sue Novinger's class analyzed the children's letters to gain a better understanding about children's written language development. Ginther first grade teacher Carol Beers has been a part of the pen pal project for five years. "The children get so excited when the letters from their special friends arrive," said Beers. They can't wait to write back. The motivation for writing to real people couldn't be higher, and the more kids write the better they become as writers."

According to Dr. Novinger and her students, the pen pal project creates an opportunity for the graduate students to deepen their understandings of young children's writing development as they use the letters to analyze and assess the children's development as writers. The graduate students also analyze the letters to better understand how the things adults write in their letters impact the children's writing.