ASSIGNMENT SEVEN: Student Writing Conference - Choose one or two children to conduct an informal conference with. You may choose to use one of Regie’s formats, your own or the one below, which I use in a conferring notebook. You need to find a system that will work for you. Example 1 (and below) is the format I use for each writing conference that I hold with students. Keep in mind that while you are conferring with students, the majority of other students should be writing!
(Note: If you aren’t currently teaching please find a school-age child to do a conference with. We believe you will find it is worth the effort.)
Student Name: Date:
? (Question- Teacher asks)- “What are you
working on today in your writing?”
C (Compliment)- Compliment the student on one
strategy they are using well.
TP (Teaching Point)- What is one
strategy/point/goal you can teach this student to
move them forward?
FNT (For Next Time)- What needs to be a focus
during the next conference/what were set goals?
ASSIGNMENT SEVEN:After completing your one or two conferences, please reflect on how well they went and how they will impact your whole group, small group and independent instruction in your classroom. Post your reflective response to the blog.
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I don’t have my own students right now but a friend of mine is teaching summer school and let me come visit for a couple of days. I don’t know the students well but I tried out a version of the conference questions that I originally wrote thinking of my 9th graders but changed a bit to be more relevant for the middle schoolers with whom I spoke. In reflecting upon the format of these questions, I realized that in a way, they are very similar to what I write as comments on student papers. It is MUCH easier to use a combination of spoken and written feedback, however. I loved that the students saw that I was talking about their writing specifically and this was a way to show them how much their own writing is valued. Allowing them the chance to ask me questions was helpful, I think, even if the students didn’t ask very much. Again, these were not my regular students and were much younger, writing on a topic that I had not assigned (but was a good prompt).
ReplyDeleteI think that what strikes me most about these conferences is that they enable a meaningful revision process as well as a clear indication of the relevance of writing. For these middle schoolers I was focusing on the goal of organization so that they could highlight the most important parts of the stories that they were telling. I asked them to tell me in words what they thought they had written. As they spoke, I took notes and then showed them what the narrative structure was in their spoken version. Then we compared this to what they had written in the one-page pieces. For many of them, the beginning and ending were the same but the middle sections of the narrative were much more convoluted in the written than the spoken. During the conference we talked about strategies to revise these papers so that they could be as clear as possible for a reader to follow. Doing these conferences around a paper on the students’ own personal stories made a huge difference. If it had been a persuasive essay, they would not have been as engaged. I do have to teach persuasive writing in high school but am lucky enough to be able to ask students to persuade the reader on a topic of their choosing.
In the fall I would like to be able to find more ways to bring in these types of conferences while my partner is working with other students, they are going back to do revisions or they are peer sharing. I need to block in more time than just 2-3 minutes per student because it could definitely run longer than that but I think that it would be helpful to say at the outset that we are going to have 5-minute conferences to work on just one aspect of their writing. If they need more time, they can find me at lunch or after school. If I were able to bring in these conferences more, then I’ll be that we could become pretty efficient at using them effectively.
In the conferences I had with these students, I noticed that they didn’t know how to ask me questions or would respond to my own questions with really short answers. Part of this is because I was a stranger and another reason was because they were so young. I think that my partner and I could model a writing conference using our own pieces and teach our students how to use this time well. I’m sure that many of my own students will still respond with monosyllabic answers but that is ok. For those, it might be even more important to show them that I value their work and that they have written something work taking the time to conference about.
Maybe with my seniors I could hold a few conferences and then set up some days when they are paired up to do their own. I already do a fair amount of peer review but have never been good at teaching them how to articulate in their own words what they think about writing. They are good at talking about ideas or the topic of study but not writing itself. Actually it could be pretty fun to set this up as a somewhat regular occurrence and once I did this, it might even lighten a bit of my own workload. That would be nice.
I really appreciate and enjoy the scripts provided in the book (as well as the videos, of course.) Everything is so worthwhile and positive. Finding concise and positive language is the key to good instruction. While I did not read a script or memorize what to say in my informal conferences, I had a good idea of what to say based on Ms. Routman's example (I kept a few post-its with key phrases I wanted to make sure to include.) As we know, with more practice the words will come more smoothly. There is so little time (Make Every Minute Count), it is important to be concise and use every minute well.
ReplyDeleteI used my daughters to conduct these interviews with some summer blogging they were doing. They felt good about their writing and want to do more. I have improved with conferencing already!
I can see how important this time spent with students is and how I can make the time for conferences.
For the conferring assignment, I contacted the family of a former first grade student, and tried out different conferences with the student, using his pieces of writing that I had saved from the school year.
ReplyDeleteThe child is a talented writer, who independently comes up with story ideas, spells high frequency words effortlessly, uses invented spelling fearlessly, forms letters easily, rereads and edits, has incredible writing stamina, and draws elaborate pictures to go with his writing. I had done many conferences with this child over the course of the school year, but not as part of a whole-class share, which is the system of public conferencing that I want to implement next year. I wanted to try out this style of conference, keeping it purely celebratory. I really want to practice seeing the writer’s strengths and focusing on the meaning of the piece.
The challenge, of course, is conferring with reluctant writers. It was easy to find things to celebrate with this child’s writing, and it is so easy to bring this kind of writer up to the front of the class to do a public conference, and not consistently celebrate the struggling writers. This is a problem I want to correct in my own teaching. I want to implement Routman’s suggested schedule of 2-3 roving conferences and 2-3 public conferences per day, to insure that writers of all ability levels get celebrated and recognized publicly!
In preparing for the conferences with this student, I knew I wanted to try a conference that was purely celebratory, like the public conferences that Routman conducts on the DVD. I did not want to give any suggestions or feedback on what to change, I wanted to use the language of helpful response, I wanted to leave the writer feeling confident and excited about himself as a writer. I had the child read his piece (about going to visit his grandparents) to me 2 times, and I forced myself not to look at it while he was reading it, but just to listen! This was a challenge for me. But, if I had been looking at it, I might have been focused on all of the capital letters in the middle of words, rather than his use of voice in the piece. (“I have good news and bad news. First the bad news. I will miss 3 days of school.”)
I read the piece the third time, holding it up for the child to see. I laughed out loud at the good news/bad news part of the story. I said to him, “I can really hear your voice in the story. You are talking directly to me, and all the other readers. It really sounds like you! That makes it really fun for me to read it.” I also wanted to keep the focus on the reader, so I said something like, “Wow. Your grandparents are really going to treasure this story. You wrote about them. They must be really important to you.” This student had dialogue in his piece, which I had modeled for my students quite a bit last spring. I noticed/celebrated that: “You used talking marks to show that your characters talked to each other. I feel like I’m right there in the room with you and your grandpa.”
The piece had a typical first grade ending: “And then we went home.” Given how interesting the rest of his writing was, I know he would be capable of an interesting ending, with more closure for the reader. This is probably the goal I would focus on to move the writer forward.
My personal goals around conferencing include implementing the whole-class share public conference structure with applause for each writer, creating a system of recording turns for public conferences, creating a system of recording conference notes, setting goals with students, using personal word walls, CELEBRATORY CONFERENCES focused on content, keeping the conferences short, becoming familiar with the language of helpful response, strategically orchestrating who shares, making sure the children who will have a public conference practice reading their piece ahead of time, and having the student state their next steps at the end of a conference.
I’ve been tutoring a student two days a week this summer in reading. Last week she couldn’t stop talking about how she just got her ears pierced. Knowing this assignment was coming up, I wrote down a few things she mentioned on note cards (I didn’t have any sticky notes with me). I asked her if she would do a special project for me and write down her ear piercing story for me. At first she crinkled her nose at thought of having to write, so I went on to say that her story sounds so interesting and exciting and I really want to remember her story so that I could share it with my first graders next year. This made her more than willing to write about it.
ReplyDeleteShe returned on Monday with her story titled, Getting My Ears Pierced. I wanted this to be a celebratory conference like the ones on the DVD. The first time she read it word for word, without any expression. I listened intently, looking interested and excited about the details. When she was done I clapped for her story and said, “I love all the details in your story! I felt like I was there with you. It was so exciting to listen to. I really like the words you used, especially click, click for the piercing gun. The best thing about your story is that I can tell you wrote it. It sounds like you. Can you read it again so that it sounds like you talking?” The second time she read it with pride and great expression. I loved this conference and it only took about 5 minutes! She felt so good about herself. I asked if we could look at it again tomorrow and she agreed. After she left, I used the conference form in Appendex H (Writing strengths /Next Step). This is the form I’d like to use for conferences in the fall. I reflected on her strengths, which were voice and content. The next step for her is learning to revise and edit her work. She often omits words in a sentence and has trouble with slowing down to spell her words correctly. The reader can easily get lost in these errors, and miss the creativity of her story.
Today (Tuesday) she was ready to talk about her story again. This time, we focused on rereading her story so that we could make sure all the sentences made sense. As she slowly read, she could find places where it didn’t sound right. With students like her I realized that celebrating her writing first is essential. It got her invested in her story and helped her to see that her writing was valued. Then, she didn’t mind as much taking the time to go back and revise or edit. She found meaning in her own writing and didn’t just see it as a writing assignment. She would also benefit from Reggie’s no excuse words technique. I added a few of these no excuse words to her conference sheet. This conference also did not last long, yet so much was accomplished!
Next year I look forward to having more celebration conferences, more whole class sharing conferences, and Reggie’s suggested 2-3 roaming conferences per day. I also need to get better about documenting these conferences, organizing this information, and using my anecdotal notes to guide my instruction and make goals for each student.
It sounds like your writing conferences went well :) Annarose - I think 5 min. writing conferences is a great goal...I still work hard to fit what I want to say into 5 minutes!!! I was surprised that your students don't prefer persuasive writing....what teenager doesn't excel at trying to convince others to agree with them :) Elin - I think it's a great strategy to keep some notes with you to support you during your conferences with students (its sort of like "guided practice") :) I'm glad your daughters benefited from the conferences! Thanks Meghan & Sarah Paul - good for you for trying something new!...and Meghan you're right that kid did have great voice in his writing and you would have missed it if you were focused on the print!!! It's funny that you both noticed the voice in your students' pieces during the "celebratory" conferences...and you both were able to find focused teaching points for your next conferences with your students!!!
ReplyDeleteFor my student writing conference, I chose one my students to do a few summer sessions with. His parents were thrilled and he wasn’t so much. He is a student who has done really well in reading but writing has been the last piece to get better.
ReplyDeleteWe spent time discussing potential topics. Our audience was next year’s teacher to show them what a good writer he can be. He at first said “I don’t know what to write about.” Upon further inquiry, I discovered that he had done some fishing this summer.
His first draft was very simplistic without even indicating where he went fishing, who he went with, was it on a dock, boat etc.. We spent our next conference on revising by adding these details through talking. He would get excited while talking with me, then he would write down his ideas. We then went through sequencing so the details would be in better order and then went through his final edit. I tried some of Regie’s spelling techniques with him. He usually gets most of the letters but in the wrong sequence so we worked on trying an alternative spelling.
Conferencing with him took about 5 minutes at the beginning of our thirty minute session and usually 5 minutes in the middle or so. We did more talking at certain points. The details section took him the longest amount of time to work through. He did write independently after that discussion for the majority of the 30 minutes. We discussed a goal for him next year is trying to get more of his great ideas for details down in the first draft. The goal setting was good for me to do with him since it is something I want to do more of in my conferences next year.
For the writing conference I asked TRR (he lives across the street) if he would be willing to help me out with my homework. He thought it was funny that I had homework! I asked him to write about something memorable that he had done while off for the summer. He agreed to help me.
ReplyDeleteTRR was in my classroom for third and fourth grade. He was in another classroom for fifth grade and he doesn’t know it yet…but he will be back in my classroom for sixth grade (I am going to be teaching fourth, fifth, and sixth grade next year). TRR chose to write about getting a new motorcycle this summer.
I had TRR read me what he wrote. The first thing that I noticed was the amount of detail that TRR used in his piece. He could tell me things about the size of the motor and how this motorcycle was better than his last one. He even discussed where he is allowed to ride it. I let TRR know what an amazing job that he had done in helping me know a bit more about motorcycles. I had no idea how many different types there were. I also told him that I could tell by his writing that this was something that really interested him.
Since I am familiar with TRR (I had him for third and fourth grade) I already knew a lot about his writing. He had shown a lot of improvement in his writing since fourth grade, but the one thing that hadn’t changed much was that he always seems to be in such a hurry to finish and rarely looks back over things. I did let him know that while I was impressed by all of the details, I was a bit distracted by the many misspellings that were in the piece, words that I knew that he was fully capable of spelling. We talked about how this detracts from the information he has to share. He agreed and then chose to go through the piece and fix words that he knew how to spell (which were almost all of the words). Most of his errors are just careless.
I asked him what he might do differently next time and he smiled and said, “Maybe read it over after I have written it.” We both agreed that rereading and fixing spelling and sentences that didn’t make sense, might really help his readers focus on the content of the writing and enjoy the amazing amount of information that he knows about his topic.
The conference took about ten minutes. I know that during school I will need to shorten this to about five minutes. I will continue to struggle a bit with making sure that I conference with everyone. I have a student in my classroom that takes a lot of my time due to behavior issues.
One thing that I have used in the past and will certainly use this year is a file folder system for keeping notes about conferences. I use a plain file folder and then attached index cards using masking tape – one over the other so that they flip up. This makes it so each kid has a card and I can flip though and write notes on the card after each conference. I do this a lot with reading and hope to with writing this year. We have narrative progress reports and having specific information written down throughout the trimester makes writing progress reports a bit easier.
Thanks Tamara and Michelle! Tamara, it sounds as though you had some great conferences with your student! Too bad you don’t loop or teach a split as so many others in this course. Goal setting is extremely effective, it’s something I’ve added into my conferring the last couple of years. It’d be great to check in and see how he’s doing with adding more detailed information to his writing! Michelle – how great for you to be able to re-establish a relationship with a future student for next year He seems like the perfect student for which the concept of audience would be so important! It’s great that you’ll be able to follow up next year! It’s great that you’ve found the conferring system that works for you! Recently I’ve been using a binder with a section for each student, and it’s been working well for both reading and writing, especially because I go in as support in the classrooms!
ReplyDeleteJoelle Beget
ReplyDeleteWeek Seven--Writing Conference
As it is summer, I was thinking about who I could do my writing conference with. I live quite a ways away from school and most of the students from school, so I decided to have my second cousin who is up from California visiting my parents with her family help me out. I asked her mom if she and her two brothers would be willing to write for me something fun about their trip up to Oregon, such as riding the horses or whatever they found interesting. They all agreed. I told them I would come back on Monday, and we would do some fun things together based off of their writing. They had the whole weekend to draw ideas from.
Well, only Amanda did the "assignment." The boys were too into living it up on the farm I guess. I had gone to the Dollar Tree and bought notebooks for the kids, and a special pencil and eraser and stickers. Amanda was so excited to share her writing. She is going into sixth grade, and she did an awesome job! We sat on the floor, and first off she read her story to me. Then I reread it out loud, and I complimented her on a variety of strengths I saw! She was beaming, and was loving the one-on-one time.
After thoroughly going through her story (we read it three or four times I think) I explained to her what the notebook was for. I showed her my reading record, and explained what it was for. Then I told her how it is a great idea to keep her writing ideas all in one spot, just like I keep a record of all of the books I have read in one area. She decorated her notebook, and wrote her on the front "Amanda's writing portfolio."
Then, I proceeded to--now don't pass out--actually write in front of her. I told her I wanted her ideas to help me form a story about teaching people how to ride horses. It was so great to be able to model for her the writing process. We brainstormed a list of ideas that we might want to include, and I was able to really help her see writing in practice and my though processes. It was so fun! We did so much rereading and crossing out and editing.
It was such a great learning time I think for her, but definitely for me. I am excited to continue to do writing conferences--in all their forms--in my classroom starting in the fall.
I like the outline that you provided for the conference. I have been using the outline that you gave out with the reading essentials class (that I took last summer) and like that they use the same language (C, TP, etc.). I have the outline on a clipboard in my classroom and then I keep the paper with 15 squares on it to record student data. I ended up changing the page each month and meeting with each student at least once a month. I color-coded (with a highlighter) names according to DIBELS (fluency) scores and made sure to meet with those students more often. It was nice to see all of my students in two pages. This year I will do the same for writing. Perhaps color coding for different traits?
ReplyDeleteI made up a new sheet to use for writing conferences with your questions and outline but with some added notes and cues from the book. It will help me to get in the habit of using Regie’s language to have it there in front of me.
I typically conduct my writing conferences during the daily 5. That way, I know that students are working on task and I don’t need to worry about management during that time.
For my writing conference, I used a student that lives in my neighborhood. He will be in my class next year and I enjoyed seeing his work and talking about writing with him.
Joelle – thanks for getting so creative for the writing conference, I’m glad that at least one of them cooperated for you , and it definitely seemed as though Amanda appreciated your time together. Kudos on the modeled writing!!! I’m glad the conference was such a success! Krista, I liked the way you organize your reading/writing conferences. I think color coding for the different traits would definitely be worth a try to see how it goes. As you know, it’s all about finding out what works for you!
ReplyDeleteI conducted a writing conference with a neighbor. He is a Russian student, 12 years old. I asked him if he would indulge me in some writing in exchange for computer time on my lap top. I set up some parameters, minimum 4 paragraphs, an introduction, a body, and a conclusion. I told him he could write about anything he wanted and I was practicing conferencing with students.
ReplyDeleteHe did a wonderful job for which I complemented him. We talked about the introduction and the various ways he could get the reader's attention. The ending was good, but we discussed ways to end an essay. I had to explain what an essay was. He had great voice and good details. We went back over some phrases to see if there were better ways to say the same thing and that was the way he talked.
Usually with 3rd to 6th graders we are working on very specific skills, the students have a goal sheet which we revisit every few months to see if they have been successful. They are pretty proud of themselves when they reach their goals. The one thing I can do in my class is have a few more celebrations for accomplishing goals.
Sometimes I do sit with my students and write at the same time, modeling what engaged writing looks like. I'll circulate when I see them stuck. I talk them through various teaching points....
Writing Conference
ReplyDeleteI asked a middle schooler (RS) to write a summer memory for me. I decided to use Jackie and Mary’s conference format. It seemed concise and easy to manage (I use a clipboard a lot in my classroom and this format will work for every student on one page.) We began with RS reading her memory aloud to me. I already knew some of the areas where this student excelled in her writing and where she needed some guidance. On her first reading, she hid behind her paper and it was hard to understand her. RS uses great descriptive details when she writes, “showing the reader” what is happening. So I started by celebrating this and then suggesting she read again with the paper lowered. After the second reading, I read aloud a few of her examples that showed her use of detail and voice and the feeling of flying in that airplane to Sweden. RS wrote this memory in a flashback style. We are in the airplane with her, feeling how it is to be in First Class, unexpectedly, on a transatlantic flight and then she tells us how she came to be there. At this point in the conference, I wanted to have a few of Regis’ key phrases at my fingertips. Please correct me if I’m wrong, but I didn’t feel I needed to change RS’s style and tell her to start with a topic sentence. Instead we focused on quotation marks and line breaks to help the reader with the dialogue. I chose a second teaching point, a strong closing to match her exciting beginning. I used sticky notes for the teaching points and I wish I had remembered to set a timer just to give me some idea of how long the conference lasted; it is hard to judge. The hardest thing for me, when you have a writer who has wonderful content, is to let go of the perfect editing to match this wonderful writing. If you have focused on a couple of teaching points and the student has fulfilled those requirements then you must remind yourself of the joyful writer, not the writing.
Katherine
I also had a friend teaching summer school and used two of her students to conference with. I decided to use the questions that you had posted and typed them up on a paper. I was a little worried that it might not feel authentic because I had never me these children before, but they were delighted to share their writing and were absolutely beaming when I gave them compliments about what they had shared.
ReplyDeleteThe first student I conferenced with had written about her birthday party. She had a lot of details about every single gift she received and what they had done. I praised her for her descriptions that helped me picture her party and also her use of transition words that helped me to follow her story. Because she was an incoming 3rd grader and ELL learner, I didn’t want to stiffly her creativity by having her try and not list all the boring details. I felt at this point, she was ready for paragraphs to help organize her ideas. I told her that because she had so MUCH great writing it would help the reader to show where a new topic starts by indenting with two fingers. I showed her how to do one, she did the next, and without prompting added a third where she had started to write about party favors. I thought, what a perfect way to introduce paragraphs without even planning on “teaching” it.
A few things struck me after doing this conference (the other students’ was very similar). First, they had no audience. When I asked them who they were writing for they said “no one.” It is summer school and creating a class book in such a short time might not be possible, but they certainly could add illustrations and share with their families. I was also amazed at how naturally I was able to scaffold the paragraphs without ever calling them paragraphs. At the end I told her that she was really ready for 3rd grade because she could write paragraphs and showed her that her indents indicated each paragraph. This would have been a perfect student to use as a whole class share on how she created paragraphs and they could try in their own writing. I finally felt like I understood 1. Let them write and love to write 2. Teach the “skills” as they are ready.
What a great experience and my friend was very interested and wanted to hear more about what I had been learning!
Kim Fast
ReplyDeleteI saw the importance of having an organizational system that works for me as being key in freeing me up to work with students. Because this was the first writing conference I’ve done, I was still trying to figure out something that works for my style. It felt clumsy at first but I will continue it because I see its benefits. Organizationally, I like the style of having a grid with all of the students on 1-2 pages depending on my class size with a small box for each student.
I think that by opening the conference up with a “Compliment” really helped by son, who is 9, feel more comfortable. He thought it was pretty cool to be able to help mom out with her homework. I see the compliments as being the key to breaking down the walls of those hesitant writer’s. For the “Teaching Point,” we talked about not getting too bogged down with spelling and that he can just catch most of that at the end. In this case, he wrapped up his writing so we didn’t need to have a “For Next Time.”
My whole group instruction will benefit because each student should know what they are supposed to be working on. I will have modeled my expectations for them many times prior to their working independently so they will be able to use their time well. I will be able to use whole group conferences to teach skills in a meaningful way. It gives each student an opportunity to celebrate their writing. I think that the celebration of their writing at the end of the writing time will be key in encouraging students to keep on writing.
With having all of my students writing at the same time while I am meeting quickly with many students, I can see if there are groups of students who are struggling with the same things. I will be able to pull these students during this time and we can work together in a small group to address those areas they need to work on. Also, by meeting with several students at once, they can then continue to work on their pieces with the support of the others in the group who just had the same lesson.
Being able to use my grid quickly and efficiently will greatly improve my individual writing instruction. It will help me hold the student responsible for what they are working on and it will help me remember what they need to work on. Also, it will help me to document their growth in writing which is great for showing the student, parents, etc. growth.
~Kim
For this assignment, I worked with my stepson Jacques who will be a freshman at OSU this fall. The conference morphed into a discussion on his past writing experiences and how he sees himself as a writer. Jacques shared with me a piece of writing he completed for a class this past spring but that he never felt was completed.
ReplyDeleteI began by asking his the purpose behind writing his story, and what he wanted to accomplish. His response revealed a lot about how he has internalized writing and sees himself as a writer. The assignment was to write an essay relating to discrimination for an American studies class. Jacques wanted to pick a topic that was unique and would stand out from the other students. Instead of taking something from American history or society, he decided to focus on a topic close and dear to him – The Hobbit. He wanted to point out how the elves in the story were racist and discriminated against the dwarves. For him it was easier to pick out the irony in discrimination using literature and a story that he is very familiar with and loved. This allowed him to be over the top regarding the futility of racial discrimination.
The voice through out the piece was amazing. The reader could tell that Jacques had spent time crafting and choosing his words and phrases. He was having fun telling the story and wanted the reader to laugh and have fun along with him. It was apparent he wanted to dramatically change the way the reader thought of these characters and the story line.
I wanted to know how intentional was Jacques’ decisions regarding the word choices and descriptions of the characters. From our conversation I understood them to be deliberate. He knew he was stretching the point at time and was being outrageous. That is what made the piece so much fun for him. My role was not to teach him something about writing but to appreciate and celebrate what he was doing with his writing. There are times as a teacher when the best thing you can do is give a student more latitude and freedom to pursue what they enjoy. I was there to support his decisions and point out what clicked with me as a reader.
The rest of our conversation focused on how he goes about revising and editing his work. He told me he is someone the constantly want to revise and rewrite what he has written. “Wow!” I thought to myself. He would be a dream student. However, he said this doesn’t always works well for him in school because he often turns his work in late because he still want to work on it. This was an important reminder to me as a teacher. When we have a student that has internalized a concept such as rereading and rewriting, we need to appreciate it and support it. Yet in school we have created these deadlines. We tell our students that on this day a piece of writing must be done. I want to make sure that if I have a student like Jacques, I don’t create artificial deadlines that limit his creativity. Yes, deadlines are a fact of life, but as teachers we need to provide flexibility and negotiate at times. We want our students to be writers; writers are artists and they need to be able to develop their craft.
ReplyDeleteKelly Rolwes
ReplyDeleteAssignment # 7
Writing Conference
I like the layout of the conference questions that is posted on the blog. In fact, I made up my own sheet using all the different layouts to use for writing conferences in my classroom. I wish I could post it on here. I am glad this assignment got me into getting everything set up for the school year and how I can better use my writing block. I like the idea of starting the conference with a question as “what are you working on today?” I also really like the idea of ending each conference with a specific goal for next meeting. Great way to keep the conferences meaningful and pertinent.
I used my little cousin who is a struggling writer and my neighbor for the conferences. My neighbor had really no problems and really enjoyed the time I was giving her. She was also a very high 3rd grade writer. I believe she felt the questions I asked were meaningful and she found parts of her writing to improve on. My little cousin is a 4th grader and tells me he hates writing. It was hard to even get him to write anything for me. I used the topic “what is the best thing that has happened to you this summer” topic. His first response was, “nothing.” Then I started writing my own response while sitting with him. I talked out loud as I went through the 6 writing traits and thought of ideas. He then was interested in what I was writing. I stopped and told him that I will finish this story after I can help him get started. It was a deal that worked. He did write. When we went into a conference mode after he wrote for about 10 minutes, I found it difficult to have a successful conference with him. He was not very responsive. I can relate this experience with him to my students this year too in 5th grade. They are really stubborn. I will keep working on this throughout the year. I think consistency is the best for these writers.
I agree with the other students here in this class that the time has to be efficient. For my class size being so small, I can probably go with 5-7 minutes. I saw with my little cousin that going too long might turn into torture fro the writer.
I think doing these individual conference will help in my classroom so much. If I can manage a great writing workshop where everyone has a place and thing to work on, then I can give my time to individual students during these conferences.
Thanks all for your responses…sorry for delay in my comments, I’ve been on vacation with limited internet access. Lily, it sounds like you had a successful conference with your neighbor, with both effective compliments and teaching points. It seems as thought you also are doing a great job of goal setting with your students. Katherine – it sounds as though you made great decisions during your conference. Your focuses would definitely allow for more fluent reading of the writing (keeping the audience in mind). I also like the idea of using one full sheet per child…rather than having multiple names on the form!!! Christina, your conferences also seemed very successful. It seems as though you chose appropriate compliments and teaching points, and I’m glad that you are able to see possibilities for that whole group share. Kim - you shared some great ideas! Writing conferences (as well as reading conferences), definitely become less awkward with time and practice….before you know it, you’ll be modeling for your peers.
ReplyDeleteI conferenced with my niece, who is going into 2nd grade this coming school year. It was neat to do this with her as I know her so well, but typically don't do anything like an actual writing conference. She is a very bright girl and is an amazing reader. Her mom has been really good at encouraging her writing as well by buying her cute journals to keep. She wrote about a vacation that our families took together to Central Oregon.
ReplyDeleteI too liked the format that you have included on this post as it was helpful to keep the focus on the conference. I have still been trying to find a form to keep track of my conferences that will keep my records the best. I have tried one with many squares with enough on one sheet for the whole class to be on one paper. But, it wasn't much writing space and ended up just writing on the student's goal sheet. Maybe I'll try some of the other methods suggested by others or the form in the back of the book.
As for my conference - it went really well. When I asked her what her story was about she told me about rafting in Sunriver and about going to her friend's birthday party. So, I already was thinking about my teaching point! I complimented her on the great detail and voice in her writing. I could tell she was writing this piece and got me excited about the activities she did.
I had fun telling her about a Lucy Calkin lesson about thinking of your writing idea like a big watermelon, but choosing one tiny seed to write a story about. She was totally excited about that idea! So, we talked briefly about breaking the story into two different stories. Overall, it was great practice.
At first I wasn't sure who to interview...as it is summer and I don't have any students. My own children are still a little too young and being a 6th grade teacher I don't think that interviewing a 5 year old would give me the same insight as interviewing a middle schooler. Luck would have it though that my 14 year old neighbor was just chosen to write for a blog for Nordstrom Brass Plum. It is part of new marketing campaign and she is already on their fashion board and she happens to be a great writer so the blog is a perfect fit for her.
ReplyDeleteClaire, my nieghbor, will be entering 9th grade in the fall. She has always been a straight A student and an amazing non-fiction writer. As I was talking with her about her writing she admitted that she prefers writing non-ficition...that she finds writing fiction is much more difficult for her and has never been a strong point. But give her something to research or to write an opinion about and she is all over it.
I used the format that was included in the assignment notes and found it very useful. I really like the idea of using a format like this to keep track of conferences next year...I think that it is a great system that would really help me stay organized.
Conference:
?-Claire is currently working on a blog post about accessorizing your wardrobe to update it and add to it without having to go out and spend a fortune on new clothes. She mentioned that she is working on voice and word choice because nobody wants to read a 'boring' blog.
C-I had Claire read the piece to me first and then I read it out loud to her. She cringed in a few places as I was reading the piece to her...she mentioned that it sounded so different hearing someone else read it and it made her think about her audience and how they would read her writing and she immediately added and changed a few things in her blog. Her writing was very descriptive without being to heavy and I felt that the advice that she gave was clear and easy to follow.
TP-Claire had already figured out during the conference one of my teaching points...always have someone else read your writing and if possible have them read it out loud to you so that you can really hear what you've written.
FNT-Claire was going to continue to work on the post for her blog and she is going to share it with me again before she posts it and while she is wrapping it up she is going to continue to work on voice and word choice.
Claire is an amazing writer and it was funny that just sitting there with her she was able to really teach herself and remind herself of some of the things that she has learned and that she knows about what good writers do. I really did not have to much teaching.
I have a niece that is going to be a 6th grader next year. So, this practice was actually fairly authentic for me. She was eager to help, until it came time to write. I think she felt pressured. I gave her a bit of guidance on what kind of topics to choose from. It so happens that she was with me on vacation this summer, so we worked out a topic about a trip to Silverwood Amusement Park. Big topic, I told her. Need to narrow it down. What was one of the most memorable times there? She came up with the roller-coaster, Aftershock. (That's the one I cried on. Lovely)
ReplyDeleteShe sat with nothing on her paper for a long time because she was struggling to start. She really wanted to have a great introduction. I see a lot of kids do this. So we took time to at least write down the words or phrases that she knew she wanted to include. That seemed to spark her engine, and she began to write.
This was great practice for me. As a writing scoring director I am so focused on the six traits and for seeing the paper as many, many parts, that I struggled with not attacking that paper from that angle. My director brain took off. Several times I found myself talking in "scoring guide language". I tried to be truly aware of what I was saying and how it might or might not be meaningful or encouraging. It was tough. But I LEARNED. The format was truly helpful for keeping me on track. Without that, I feel I would have wandered off in several different directions.
So...
Q: What do you want to focus on in your writing?
ReplyDeleteUsing really good descriptive words and having a fun beginning.
C: You really know how to get a reader interested. Your introduction is fantastic. I wanted to know more. (I have to admit, I complimented on more than just that. Lack of focus or okay to do?)
I loved seeing her response. She was nervous. We've talked many times about writing and the writing assessment etc. I think she thought I was going to rip her paper apart and tell her she needed to do better. That hurt me.)
TP: One thing I did see that she could work on was including more details to support her topic. She had a great intro and a great conclusion, the middle lacked the WOW a reader would want. So, I read the paper outloud to her and asked her, to be the audience and think about what a reader might want to know more about. She came up with wanting to know more about what it was like to be on the roller coaster. Excellent.
FNT: We decided that if she was in my class, the next time we met her goal would to have been to look for support. I wanted her to ask herself, " Would a reader be able to tell me all about my topic when they were done reading my work?"
Although this took longer than it should, I know that I can work on streamlining this to the benefit of my students, me and my schedule. I loved this experience and plan to use it in my classes. The structure allows me to individualize instruction easily. Love it.
Assignment 7
ReplyDeleteThis assignment is impossible for me right now because I’m not teaching during the summer and I am currently on vacation at the beach! I would instead like to reflect on the conferences I have had in the past and the changes that I would like to make after reading this text. In the past, I’ve had students sign up on the board for conferences when they wanted one. No specific criteria- some were finished and just wanted me to tell them they did a good job and others would be stuck. Students would race to the board to sign up and sit around while they waited (they often didn’t know what to do while they waited). When I called students up, I would either read their papers or they would read them. I would always start with something they did really well, but then I would write on their papers with different editing marks. Sometimes I would try to talk to students about changing things, but if they didn’t want to I wouldn’t push it. At the end, I would give students the final draft paper and they would begin to re-write.
There are so many changes that I need to make! First of all, who knew there were so many different types of conferences? The roving conferences will be perfect to stay on top of what kids are working on and briefly tell what lessons they might need. I will use this data to determine what to teach for whole class mini-lessons or possibly small group conferences. For example, I might notice that 4 kids are trying to use dialogue in their writing, but haven’t learned the correct way to punctuate dialog. I can call those students together for a small group mini-lesson. Next, there are content conferences that focus on revising students’ papers to make sense, be organized and engaging/interesting to the reader. Starting with a positive is extremely important to build students’ confidence in writing. Then, I will teach one or two things for them to work on. I plan on using a combination of the forms that Routman has on page 236. Previously, I had never thought of students running the conferences, but I love the gradual release of responsibility in order for the student to be in charge of his/her learning. Comments/Questions that I will use (from Essentials of Writing): What are you working on now? What do you see as your strengths in this piece? How can I help you? Let me show you how you can… One important goal is… Tell me what you’re going to work on next? I also need to explicitly teach when students are ready for a conference and behavior expectations for other students while I conference. Everyone else should be writing!
Editing conferences are the last type of conferences that I plan to use this year. These should be quick because I will expect the students to find everything they can on their own or with a peer. I plan to be much tougher with my expectations of what they can do and expect them to use resources like word walls and dictionaries during the editing phase. If a student hasn’t done his or her best work, I will give the paper back to them to make improvements.
These changes will make a huge impact in the classroom. Students will be continuously learning and working on skills and writing fluency. It will allow me to individualize learning so students are getting what they need. Conferencing will also give me a better understanding of where each student is and what he or she needs.
As I am the worst possible procrastinator, I waited until the very last minute to find a student to conference with, and, after large amounts of bribery, ended up working with the worst possible student for a mother to work with: my 11 yr old son. He is a very creative writer with a very strong voice, decent spelling and great ideas, his conventions are severely lacking, and he has difficulty taking any kind of direction, no matter how much I tried to reinforce him.
ReplyDeleteThat being said, I did see the great benefits to the ? C TP FNT format above. It really helped me to pare back my extensive comments, which probably end up overwhelming my students and making conferences way too long.
In the end, my son ended up with an afternoon at the movies with a friend and I found a good structure for writing conferences :)
I conducted a writing conference with one of my former students named Francis. I asked her if she could help me out with a class that I am taking by writing a short story for me. Luckily, she agreed. She wrote a wonderful fictional narrative story about two girls who got into a fight over a rumor and how it impacted their friendship.
ReplyDeleteI used the template provided when I conducted this conference and found it very helpful. I was able to compliment (C) Francis on many things in her story because it was very well written. It was believable, had a catchy opening, built tension throughout, had a clear climax, and a resolution. Her voice was incredibly strong; you could really sense her personality coming through the main character. It was obvious that she was writing the truth, and much of this story was borrowed from her life.
Since the story was so well written, I didn’t have too many teaching points (TP). One thing we did talk about is the punctuation rules for dialogue as she made a few mistakes with her grammar. Also, we talked about making the story as realistic as possible and discussed how some of the dialogue seemed a little contrived.
For the next conference (FNC) I recommended that she work on including more sensory details to her writing and also to make sure the dialogue seems realistic to the characters.
The conference went really well, but it took over ten minutes. I’d like to find a way to speed up conferences so I can meet with more students in a class period, but when the stories are two pages long, it may be an unrealistic goal to expect five-minute conferences. In the future, I plan to utilize more roving and shared conferences. Hopefully, by modeling shared conferences, students will become better at peer editing, so by the time the story makes it to me, it has already been refined.
Kelley,
ReplyDeleteGreat job on your conference. I bet giving your niece the visual of the watermelon and seed will always stay with her and help her to narrow her topics down.
Megan,
Your conference with Claire sounds like a dream conference. I (Mary) have not had any experience with high school students and conferences. How exciting to have her figure out things for her.
Oh, Angela, how funny about her picking the roller coaster ride you didn't enjoy. :) I would say that beginning is often one of the hardest things for kids to do, so lately what we've been working on (at my school) is oral rehearsal. It's very powerful to help them get started. We have the kids tell us their story and then repeat it to them. Then we have them repeat it back to us. We have them write it down right then. (If they need help we'll put lines for the words or even if they truly need it we can scribe for them to get started.) With the younger kids we have them sketch (real quick) pictures as reminders. I can't stress enough how powerful and supportive oral rehearsal is for you kids and I would encourage you all to give it a try. Once they get going, they often are on their way.
Glad you felt you learned something. Having the structure of the format is helpful for so many teachers! It helps to keep the time down and also keep to a point or two.
I would say it's def. OK to compliment on more than one thing. We want to build up the student's confidence and help them feel like writers. And again, with time and practice you'll have the pace down. Take it slow at first and make the time meaningful with your students, that's more important than "getting through" a certain number of conferences.
Kelly,
Thanks for modifying the assignment and taking some time to reflect on your practice. Educators often don't have the time to evaluate and reflect on what they do in the classroom. Glad you were able to find many things to try next year.
Leslie, you guys are cracking me up with these posts. How funny about your son. :) Hope he enjoyed the movie.
Brad, have you thought about having your students pick the page or section that they are most proud of or want to share with you instead of having to read all the pages? This might be a way to get your time down.