Vermont Writing Collaborative Inc.

“Expenses advertising 762 website design 4,328 travel reimbursement 4,168 conference building rental 45,724 class supplies 3,820 class refunds 650 course materials 11,793 consulting 74,588 video 2,415 meeting meals 50 total 148,298”

“The vermont writing collaborative was founded in 2007 by five vermont public school teachers. At that time, the five had been working, individually and collectively and at all grade levels, with an approach to writing instruction we were developing. We call this approach writing for understanding, and it is premised on the idea that writing is all about meaning. If students are to write effectively, it is clear that 1) they need to have solid understanding of the ideas about which they are writing, 2) they need to have a clear structure to build that understanding so that orthers can follow their thinking. In writing for understanding, teachers "plan backward", with an outcome clearly in mind so that they are able to build in successful opportunities to learn for students - and then to show that understanding in effective writing.”

“Vermont writing collaborative accomplishments 2014 1) we held a summer institute at lake morey that was attended by 100 teachers, mostly from vermont. This included running four courses concurrently so that the needs of teachers in various stages of learning about writing instruction could be met. 2) we received a grant of 50,000 from student achievement partners to create a set of student pieces of writing that illustrate the new common core writing standards in grades k-12, working in all three genres of common core writing. This collection, called in common, is housed on the acheivethecore.org website, and has been used by tens of thousands of teachers, nationwide - all free of charge. 3) we were hired by student achievement partners to develop "enhanced writing sequences" for a reading/writing project called the basal alignment project. Also free, these are housed on edmodo and have been used by hundreds of thousands of teachers, nationwide. 4) we were asked to present to the north carolina department of education about student writing (which we did in january of 2014). 5) we presented about student writing to the council of great city schools in washington dc in march, and to the council of chief state school officers in october. 6) we have made dozens of instructional sequences designed by us and by students at the summer institute freely available as downloads on our website. 7) our newsletter now reaches 1300 people nationwide.”