Groton — The school system has been awarded a nearly $1 million Department of Defense grant to support a five-year teacher training program that could change the way writing is taught in the public schools.

The $983,348 grant will support professors from Teachers College at Columbia University working with Groton teachers in grades kindergarten through 8. Groton set aside $465,200 in Title 1 funding for the program to bring the total to about $1.4 million.

The program is called “Writers' Workshop.” About 45 Groton teachers attended a session last month to learn how to better instruct students in writing to create their own work.

One example: If showing first-grade children how to write a simple informational book, do not assign the topic. Let the children pick one. Then the child already is the expert, does not have to learn the topic and can focus on writing and organizing a simple book.

Val Nelson, a former Groton principal for 26 years, will manage the grant program. Faculty from Columbia would demonstrate a writing lesson to Groton teachers who would then design a lesson based on what they had learned and ask for feedback.

Later, teachers would conduct the lesson in the classroom, where their colleagues would look on as students participated. 

“I think the biggest thing that I see as a former classroom teacher is that it’s allowing me to watch someone who is an expert in my field teach my students,” Nelson said, adding that it goes further by having teachers help one another. “You’re learning from each other. You’re building capacity in the classroom itself. It’s not just a one-shot deal.”

The grant also would offer two week-long summer writing “camps” to students from 9 a.m. until noon, Nelson said. The goal is to offer the camps for all students starting next summer.

Staff from the Groton Department of Teaching and Learning worked on the grant proposal and Shannon Weigle, a parent from Northeast Academy who has experience in grant writing, volunteered to write the text.

Superintendent Michael Graner was at a Military Child Education Coalition conference in Washington, D.C. last week with Board of Education chairwoman Kim Watson, and got the news when he was returning this past weekend.

Graner said he believes the grant will be a “game changer” for Groton.

“Our teachers will be trained by experts in literacy, and the result will provide outstanding academic and personal support for our military children. With some good planning, we wrote the grant so that the training would also be available to teachers at our non-military elementary and middle schools,” he said.

d.straszheim@theday.com

Twitter: @DStraszheim