WCUUSD Curriculum Newsletter

Hi, WCUUSD educators--

Last month I wrote about a science of writing course that I took earlier this fall. Thanks to all who sent in responses using the "because, but, so" strategy. Some of you sent ideas for classroom application. Others responded to the prompt about reading the district curriculum newsletter. It was a joy to read your responses!

I'm going to keep this short this month... Have a wonderful break next week!

Warmly,

Jen

Curriculum Council met once in November.

A major area of focus was planning the half day inservice day for elementary educators that will take place on Wednesday, December 10. A small team drafted a plan based on teacher feedback and the rest of Curriculum Council provided feedback on the first draft.

The current draft is focused on writing across content areas as a unifying theme. The design is modeled after the UDL sessions in which we’ve been engaged this fall and includes an Inclusive Welcome, Looking at Student Work, Self-Differentiated Learning, and an Intentional Closing. We are continuing to work on the overall design and details. Logistically, we know that all teachers and elementary administrators will meet from 1:30-4:45 p.m. at Berlin Elementary School, and teachers should bring student writing samples based on the K-6 fall writing prompt. More details will be forthcoming after November break.

We spent time beginning to dive into fall data results that are aligned with each school’s continuous improvement plan, including Acadience, i-Ready, and DESSA. We also looked at Spring 2025 VTCAP results. Data analysis will continue next month.

We encourage our colleagues to continue to complete feedback forms after each professional development module. We routinely review the results and use them to inform our next steps. Your honest and thoughtful feedback is important to us. Thank you!

• Berlin: Celia Guggemos, Melissa Maring

• Calais: Ainsley Burroughs, Jenna Howard, Jarrod Weiss

• Doty: Allison Fayle, Gillian Fuqua

• East Montpelier: Alicia Lyford, Hilary Paquet, Dave Willard

• Rumney: Veronica Fair, Karoline May

• U-32: Jenn Ingersoll, Brittany Perry, Becca Tatistcheff

• WCUUSD: Ellen Dorsey, Jen Miller-Arsenault

The EQC met on November 13 to review our district's post-secondary outcome data, a review that happens annually. You can find the full presentation here.

The next EQC meeting will take place on December 11. The topic is Transferable Skills, including social and emotional learning and executive functioning. I will share the work we've done during the past two summers to crosswalk our transferable skills and functional skills and the effective practices that we have identified regarding functional skills. We will also look at the results of the DESSA, our social and emotional learning screener.

Beginning in January the EQC will meet on third Wednesdays from 5:00-6:00 p.m. Hopefully this shift in schedule will lead to greater attendance since the meeting will take place just before a regularly scheduled school board meeting.

The Humanity and Justice Coalition met on November 13. Our major area of focus is continuing to consider ways to build an authentic partnership with students. We spent the first part of the meeting learning about student' thoughts related to the Education Quality Standards and preparing for students to join us during callback that same day. Then we had 9 students from 7th-12th grade join us for callback. We broke into small groups and engaged in conversation about community and connection, equity and belonging, relevance, and student voice and ownership. Our next step is to make more concrete plans to include students in our upcoming inservice day on January 20, 2026.

Our next meeting is Thursday, December 11 from 12:30-1:55 p.m. at U-32. There is a virtual meeting link for those who need it. This month, with the support of our district's technology office, the hybrid meeting ran much more smoothly! Please reach out to a member of the HJC if you'd like to join us for our next meeting.

Current members of the HJC include:

• Ellen Cooke (U-32 school counselor)
• Steven Dellinger-Pate (superintendent)
• Natasha Eckart (school board member)
• Jen Miller-Arsenault (curriculum director)
• Amy Molina (U-32 assistant principal)
• Steve Sheeler (U-32 social studies teacher)
• Michael Sherwin (East Montpelier Elementary behavior coach)
• Flor Diaz Smith (school board chair)
• Shelley Vermilya (district scholar-in-residence)
• Erica Zimmerman (community member)

Shelley Vermilya, our Humanity and Justice Scholar-in-Residence, is planning to offer a course this spring entitled Education in an Era of Change: A Class for These Times. The course will run for nine weeks on Tuesdays from 4:15-6:15 p.m. starting on January 6 and ending on March 17. The first and last classes will meet in person; the rest will meet virtually. Topics include: Identity, Poverty, Racism, Gender and Sexuality, Responding to Hate and Harmful Speech, Trauma Wise Practice, Neurodiversity, and Reframing Equity in Organizations.

Importantly, the course is open to all educators. For those who may want to take the course for graduate credit, we hope to have that option available. We have submitted the syllabus to Southern New Hampshire University and hope to have the course approved soon.

We will share more details, including the final syllabus and an opportunity to sign up, shortly after November break. In the interim, please reach out to Shelley at svermilya@u32.org if you have questions or concerns. We hope you will consider joining us!

December is a quiet month in terms of our Local Comprehensive Assessment Plan. The Teaching Strategies GOLD fall checkpoint for PreKindergarten is due on December 15 and we assess our Kindergartners on their current knowledge regarding Concepts of Print between December 1-23. Other than that, the month of December is blank on our LCAP.

As such, December is a great month to revisit your students' fall assessment results. How did they do? What are their current strengths? What are their current needs? How will you use their assessment results to inform your instruction?

December is also a great time to look ahead to the winter assessments, as the winter assessment window opens shortly after we return to school from December break. Please take a few minutes to review the LCAP for your grade level and to begin to plan accordingly. As always, please reach out to your principal or me if you have any questions or concerns.

Because our district hosted a Responsive Classroom course this past summer, we received a few host site benefits. Each of our elementary school counselors recently received a complimentary license to Fly Five, a social and emotional learning program developed by the Center for Responsive Schools. They will explore the program and pilot lessons in the months to come.

We also received a gift certificate to the online bookstore. I used the gift certificate to buy the following books for the district:

• Building an Academic Community
• Closing Circles K-6
• Doing Language Arts in Morning Meeting
• Doing Social Studies in Morning Meeting
• Energizers! K-6
• The Joyful Classroom
• Make Learning Meaningful
• Middle School Motivators!
• The Power of Our Words: Middle School
• Refocus and Recharge: 50 Brain Breaks for Middle Schoolers

• The Responsive Advisory Meeting Book
• Seeing the Good in Students

The books should arrive during November break. Please let me know if you'd like to borrow any of them.

On a related note, we've been selected to host Responsive Classroom courses again next summer. This is great news! If there is enough interest, we will host both elementary and middle school levels. More information will be forthcoming. For now, save the date: August 11-13, 2026.

There is a lot happening at the VT AOE right now and there has been some significant restructuring in recent months. The best way to stay informed is to subscribe to the Weekly Field Memo. You can subscribe here.