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

Writing about Monarch Caterpillar Life Cycle

Teacher: Elizabeth Feinberg
Grade one and two

Writing Assignment One

What do I want students to understand about this content? What understandings about the craft of writing do I want them to develop?


Content: Introducing geographic concepts of river, mountain and ocean and political concepts of state and country.

Writing: with adult guidance and support students will write an informational picture of a Monarch butterfly's journey to Mexico in the form of a Post card.

Focusing Question: What can a Monarch butterfly see across the United States as it migrates to Central Mexico for the winter?

Focus: A Monarch butterfly will be able to follow the White River as it flows into the Connecticut River to New York on it’s way to Mexico.

A Monarch Butterfly will be able to fly through Mississippi and across the Mississippi River, joining hundreds of thousands of other butterflies heading to Mexico.


GREETINGS FROM TEXAS

Two Facts about Texas

  • Texas is the largest state in the United States of America

  • In the Fall monarch butterflies can been seen flying across
Texas. As many as ______ an hour at times


Needs:
Google Earth on SmartBoard to follow butterfly migration from Bethel, VT to El Rosario
Large US map with physical features notes
Informational texts describing physical features of US states.
Vocabulary: migration, equator, state, country, river, mountain, ocean





Writing Assignment Two

What do I want students to understand about this content? What understandings about the craft of writing do I want them to develop?


Content: Develop a deeper understanding of the characteristics of butterfly and caterpillar

Writing: with adult guidance and support students will write an Opinion piece choosing butterfly or caterpillar and using evidence from public notes and group organizer to support choice.

Focusing Question: Why would you choose to be a butterfly or a Caterpillar?

Focus: I would choose to be a __________________. I would choose this stage of the life cycle because:

1. I get to eat lots of milkweed

2. Caterpillars are black white and yellow striped, I love stripes

3. Eggs are my favorite breakfast and monarch caterpillars eat their eggs after they hatch from them.

That is why I would choose to be a ___________________.


Needs: Monarch Butterfly Life cycle model (each student creates their own)

Caterpillars to watch go through the life cycle process and be released

Classroom Content Area books describing the various life cycle stages

Classroom Public Notes and Graphic Organizer describing each life cycle stage.

Vocabulary: Life Cycle, Metamorphosis, transformation,










Writing Assignment Three

What do I want students to understand about this content? What understandings about the craft of writing do I want them to develop?


Content: An imagined day in the life of a caterpillar turning to butterfly

Reading:

Writing: With adult support students will write an ‘exploded moment’ day in the life of an egg to caterpillar transformation. (Diary of a Caterpillar.....)


Focusing Question: What will happen during the 24 days from caterpillar hatching to transformation into chrysalis and butterfly.

Focus: On day _____ our caterpillar climbed to the very top of his milkweed plant to see what he could see. It was a very long climb and it took a long time. The caterpillar saw _____________. While he was climbing he met a_________ who was also resting on the milkweed plant. The caterpillar was glad to see a friend and dismayed when when the didn’t say hello. Second Grade expectation.

Here is a picture of what he saw.



Needs: Vocabulary: chrysalis, transformation, migration, poisonous, enemies,

Classroom content area books (fiction and nonfiction)

pictures of life cycle for reference

Water Color Paper and Ultra thin Sharpie Pens to outline desired design. Watercolors to color in design and picture.

typed or neatly written words to be glued over picture when picture is completed and dry.

End Result book to be Tunbridge Fair entry.

3 comments:

  1. Elizabeth, I like how you have the students writing from the perspective of the monarch butterfly. The exploded moment component really gives them the opportunity to demonstrate their content knowledge of the change from caterpillar to monarch butterfly. Students will enjoy the technology component as well. How fun to be able to map the trip the monarchs will take as they migrate. I noticed your content and writing goals. Were you looking at any reading goals connected to this unit as well?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Elizabeth, what a fun and well integrated (geography/tech) approach to teaching the Monarch Butterfly unit. I have taught the unit at the Kindergarten level with a focus on lifecycle and adaptations for survival, I would be curious about the science/geography standards your students will meet. I a have used Google Earth with some success with first graders in the past, will you teach them how to use the program or is this an area your technology instructor on staff will cover? I am also curious abour your reading goals with this unit and if you are planning to use a writing rubric to score your student's pieces? Which pieces will you score? The Tunbridge Fair entry is a great idea! Have fun with this project.
    -Emily

    ReplyDelete
  3. This is my favorite unit of study to do with kindergarten students. This unit it such a great way to start the year off. Children love to see the whole process of metamorphosis and I have to say I never tire of this unit. I like your detailed plan especially the smartboard where you can track the butterflies. I will be interested to hear how this all goes for you. I have a promethian board and have shown them what migration looks like on it. Nothing gets children more motivated to write then writing about something that excites them. Great work Sharon Somers

    ReplyDelete