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!
Hannah, As your Walk and Talk partner, I know that this assignment was, at times, overwhelming for you. Clearly, you have done a massive amount of research and work. Bravo! I feel that your work will be a tremendous help for teachers that may struggle with teaching ELL students so that they too have the opportunity to be successful in the classroom.
ReplyDeleteWow, Hannah, what a lot of thought and work went into your assignment. I really appreciated reading your review of the WU lesson plans through the lens of the SIOP MODEL. I especially like the idea of using manipulatives and dramatization to help students understand vocabulary and key ideas. You are so right that all learners can benefit from these approaches. It sounds like the Echevarria book might be worth reading as a regular classroom teacher. Thanks!
ReplyDelete-Meg Clayton
I was especially impressed by how much the lessons you reviewed already contained so many of the necessary elements that make the learning accessible for all learners - those were great lesson plans and the analysis that you did was thoughtful and thorough. I don't currently work with any students that are ELL but I agree with Meg that the strategies used in the SIOP model might be interesting and offer some insights for regular ed teachers as well.
ReplyDelete