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

Cuddley Dudley

Teacher: Michele Fay
Class: Grade 1
Writing Genre: response to literary text
Text: Cuddly Dudley by Jez Alborough


Content: (GE R1 13): Analyze and interpret elements of literary texts, citing evidence where appropriate by…identifying relevant personality traits of main characters and identifying possible motives of characters.

Writing: (GE W1 6): In response to literary text, students make and support analytical judgments about text by…using prior knowledge or references to text to support a given focus (evidence may take the form of pictures.)


Focusing question: How does Dudley show that he wants to play alone?

Focus: Dudley shows he wants to be alone when he…

Test Drive: (class constructed)

Dudley is a very cuddly penguin, but he likes to play all by himself. In the story Cuddly Dudley, Dudley shows that he likes to play alone. He shows he likes to play alone when he walks many miles until he reaches an empty cabin. He also shuts the door on his brothers and sisters when they show up. When a big man comes to the door, he runs away from him too. Dudley does everything he can to be by himself!
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2 comments:

  1. Ileen GilbarJuly 14, 2011 at 1:52 PM

    I like the structure/scaffolding you are providing for students in this unit on analyzing character traits and identifying possible motives.
    Student experiences with this focus will certainly impact their thinking about characters, character traits, and motives when they are reading other books. This is sure to help them with comprehension and making connections.

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  2. AnonymousJuly 25, 2011 at 1:28 PM

    Michele,
    Great questions and test drives from wonderful texts that are so appropriate for these grade levels. Can't wait to share with my teachers!

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