About VWC

The Vermont Writing Collaborative is a group of teachers in Vermont (and elsewhere!) whose mission is to help all students, K - 12, write thoughtfully and effectively.
The five founding members are: Jane Miller of Burlington, Karen Kurzman of Derby Line, Eloise Ginty of Thetford, Joey Hawkins of Strafford, and Diana Leddy of Strafford. Among us, we have over 130 years of public school teaching experience at all grade levels.
In the fall of 2008, we published a book through Authentic Education (with a foreword by Grant Wiggins) called Writing for Understanding:Using Backward Design to Help All Students Write Effectively.
Since then, we have offered courses and workshops in the principles of Writing for Understanding around Vermont, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, and elsewhere.

Welcome, VWC members!

June, 2011 - what a grand Summer Institute! We held four different strands, and had the honor of working with both old friends and new ones. It was a joy!
Teachers are working on a whole new batch of Writing for Understanding sequences, and those will begin appearing here. If you're a course participant, thanks for posting and giving your thoughtful feedback.
If you're a VWC follower, your feedback is most welcome as well!


Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Animals Can Be So Speedy

Teacher: Michele Fay
Class: Kindergarten
Writing Genre: expository
Text: Animals Can Be So Speedy by Diane Swanson


Content: (GE PK-K 30-39): All living organisms have identifiable characteristics that allow for survival.

Writing: (GE WK 10): In reports, students demonstrate use of a range of elaboration strategies by identifying details/information related to topic or to a given focus (pictures may include labels).

Focusing question: How (and why) does the ___________ move?

Focus: The _____________moves by ___________ with its ____________.


Test Drive: (class constructed)

Animals move in different ways. The eagle moves by soaring with its wings. The hare moves by springing with its feet. The cheetah moves by clawing the ground. There are many ways that animals move.
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3 comments:

  1. Ileen GilbarJuly 14, 2011 at 1:58 PM

    Thanks Michele. This is a great kindergarten example. I do an organisms' unit and this fits in perfectly. The frame is just right for many students at this age/grade level. Some may even be able to answer the focus question without the frame. Nice job incorporating tier 2 vocabulary into your test drive (soaring, springing, clawing). Kindergarten students would love to act those out.

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  2. Emily WrigleyJuly 18, 2011 at 3:58 AM

    Michele, this writing frame is a great scaffold to teaching information writing via the report writing format. It is a perfect place for Kindergartners to begin learning how to write factual information coherently to answer a question in response to what they have read. Will you use other text to support this work leading up to or as a follow up? Vocab included in your TD is key, and will engage your K writer's thinking to answer the how/why focus question.

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  3. Judy DurandJuly 21, 2011 at 6:32 PM

    Hi Michele -
    I really appreciated all three of your posted lessons. They are simple, straight forward, and very focused. I would love to share them with other teachers in my school as examples of how to develop and scaffold effective writing prompts for primary children. I will happily credit you if you are willing to share them. Great job!

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