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 onehttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
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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My class is currently doing whole class - group writing- for informational purposes (we are making a brochure to be used by our school to welcome visitors and new students), so I had to find a recent project to conference with the students on. My students just turned in some writing for science and our unit the human body. I decided to do the conferences on this piece of writing (The Apple's Digestive Adventure) because it was current, available, and many of the students had done the pre-write/rough draft and editing portion of this paper. Many had turned in their 'final draft'as well.
ReplyDeleteI met with Aaron, a writer with good imagination, but little organization to his writing. He had a great story to tell about how his apple traveled in his digestive tract, but it was hard for the reader to understand. The dialog was mixed in with the explanation, and it didn't make sense. I began the conference, armed with my notebook and stack of sticky notes.
Aaron did have a great story, and we read it first together a couple of times. That was the first time Aaron had read his story all the way through before (he admitted this after we began our reading). When we encountered some sentences that did not make sense, they made him laugh. He knew that his writing was not complete.
I tried these conferencing steps (written in my binder):
Read story with student two times through.
Have student tell me what he/she liked about their writing so far.
Have student tell me what they think could be improved.
Share what I think could be improved about the story, and what suggestions I would make. Aaron needed to make the apple's adventure a bit clearer to the reader. There was many times when the apple was "speaking" but the reader would not know it and it was confusing.
Made a plan for how student was going to edit the story, and write the final copy.
Gave Aaron a strategy and some steps for making his story better - along with a pile of sticky notes to help him remember what we had talked about!
This was such a good conference for me to start with. I know there is a lot of room for improvement, but Aaron was willing and enjoyed thinking of ways to make his story better. I appreciated the fact that we could celebrate the writing he had done, but improve on it as well. We did not get to celebrate his writing yet, but I hope to next week (he had some work to do). I know there are some other students that I will be conferencing with very soon.
So overall, I think the conference went well. I think that this will definitely improve my independent instruction, and finding the right way to encourage and teach writing to these students. I do believe it did help with whole group instruction, because as we are writing as a class, I am "editing" the writing along with the class. I am using the same language for trying to figure out what we are tying to get the reader to understand. It is a bit of trial and error, but overall the process is rewarding and I am seeing a positive change in the interest and motivation of many of my students.
I worked with a small group (4 students) of 6th graders. We had a fun time, especially because we started reading the book Star Girl, by Jerry Spinelli. If you're unfamiliar with the book Star Girl, then let me assure you, the opening chapters of the book leave the reader with many questions (where did Star Girl come from, Who is she, What does she want, what is the rat's name that lives in her school bag, AND, Where does she get those clothes???) Lots of fun and great reading. We started the lesson out by my reading with them the first 3 chapters (fun for me!). Following this we started asking some questions (discussion format), then I wrote a few of them down, modeling for the students how to write a good questioning sentence, and commenting about the important aspects of the sentences (grammar, nctuation, spelling, legible writing). Next, I asked the students to write at least 3 questions about the reading that we'd done in the book, so far. They came up with fabulous sentences, and I praised them for their thoughtful questions. Each student chose their favorite question and read it to the group. I followed up by asking if their sentences contained correct grammar, punctuation, and spelling. I noticed that there were some misspellings, so I asked the students to circle at least one misspelling. 3 out of the 4 students had spelling errors. One student had difficulty with spelling "dose", and I let her know that she had the correct letters, but they were in the wrong order. She was able to independently correct her error. Another student had some difficulty with the word "learner" (he'd left out the "r"), so by having him sound out the word, he was able to correct the word by himself. Another student couldn't figure out the spelling for the word "weird". Since this is a strange spelling word (doesn't seem to follow any rules/patterns that I can see)I thought it would be a great one for all of the students to review. We reviewed the correct spelling for "weird", then I had them each practice writing it two times.
ReplyDeleteAfter this, we read a little more into Chapter 4 (just enough to get them asking lots more questions), then we were out of time. I dismissed them, but before they could go, they had to spell "weird" for me one more time!
Overall, the lesson was full of enjoyment: the reading was really interesting and thought provoking, and the writing turned out to be full of learning opportunities. Everyone left happily, and I had a great time, as well!!
Assignment #7 Student Writing Conference
ReplyDeleteThis week I tried to focus more on celebration and sharing rather than just getting kids to write as an activity and then move on to our reading groups, then math, then centers, then recess, then science and social science, then home, then back for another day. The days go by fast and are packed. I HAVE to prioritize celebration and take sharing as opportunities for learning or else it won’t happen.
I decided to do my writing conference based on journal-writing. My guidelines for their journals are to include: 1) people 2) what they are doing 2) and where they are. In terms of organization I have the students write the date, draw their picture (with the three guidelines), write words to match their picture (just like we see in our books in the library and bookshelf) and then to color their picture (like the illustrators do for us) to bring it to life. We talk about how we are growing up and learning nice handwriting so that people can read our wonderful ideas. We talk about stretching out words, finger spaces, and some punctuation.
For sharing journal entries, we talk about the audience’s responsibilities (listening, thinking, sitting without distraction, and not taking the speaker’s turn by talking). I leave time after their sharing where we can 1) comment 2) give a compliment and 3) ask questions (my favorite part!).
This week I decided to give a conference with about half the group looking on while the other half were working on their own writing. I let them know that there would be an audience for them when they felt their journal was ready. I also did something I haven’t made time for: I wrote with them. I know I need to do more think aloud writing modeling but at this time I thought even modeling writing in my own journal was a huge priority. It was amazing the response I got. “You have your own journal!?” the kids exclaimed. I made the comment that it’s hard to concentrate when people talk (which is SO TRUE for me—I get completely distracted with noise—I can often imagine how my students must feel), and it was unreal how focused the students were. I decided to use your conference form at this point; it is very easy and developmentally appropriate for kindergarten—thank you!
So often children scribble a picture down and write a few words and think they’re finished. I want them to take pride in their work; to not just get something done but to communicate (and come back to it later if needed). So I am encouraging to extend upon an idea (write another sentence) or detail up their pictures.
Student 1 Wrote an entry about going fishing with his father.
Questions: What is happening in this story? Who did you go with? Did your brother go? Where are the other people in your family? How come they didn’t go? Was it dark when you went? I’ve heard that you have to go when it’s dark. Did you catch anything? Did you eat it?
Compliment: I really enjoy the effort you put into your journal. I can really tell what you were trying to communicate. I like that you chose many colors (just like real life!).
Teaching Point: One thing we add in our sentences are names to add extra detail and answer questions that people might have (like “Who is that? What is his name? Was it a special occasion?”, etc.)
For Next Time: Let’s extend upon this entry tomorrow and answer some of the questions we talked about in our conversation. Let’s add information that is interesting to an audience.
After finishing administrating the state writing test- choking back any reminders, or helpful strategies to help students I delighted in this assignment.
ReplyDeleteI decided to lead a writing conference with one of my students on an IEP for language. One of her challenges is aligning subject verb agreement, as well as speaking and writing her plurals. This language deficiency is her spoken language as well as her written language.
The students’ assignment was to write an expository test choosing someone important to them in their daily life. This student wrote a beautiful essay about her Mom. Though my intended lesson focus was going to narrow in on her subject verb agreement I switched mid-way through the conference to focus on details that did not fit. This student is one of a set of triplets in a house with five children. In her writing she had many side details about her younger brother teasing her and how her Mom defended her against him.
I followed the conferencing steps:
I had my student read their writing and then I read it to her. I asked her what she liked best about her writing and she answered “writing about her Mom.” Her parents are divorced and she just now is able to see Mom without a state worker supervising the visit.
I asked her what she felt she wanted to work on as she revised. She answered it was confusing in parts when I read it to her. So we talked about organization and I was able to talk about the side stories about her brother. I made the point that the side stories were very interesting and that I think she should consider writing a separate story about the misadventures she has with her brother. We made a plan for her to cut out the details that didn’t fit.
I think the conference went really well. I think that having enough teaching experience to throw out my original plan of focusing the conference on subject/verb agreement in order to focus on the teachable moment that was screaming out to be focused on (details that don’t fit within the story) really helped. With conferencing I realized how important it is to really push out the world of the classroom to focus in on the moment with the student you are conferencing with.
Assignment # 7: Student Writing Conference
ReplyDeleteAs a class, we are working on writing personal narratives. To begin, we brainstormed a list of important and/or memorable moments in our lives. From this list, the students had to pick one that they would like to write and share with the class. These are the papers that I am currently using to conduct student conferences with.
For this assignment, I chose to work with a student named Abbie. Abbie is a very average student. She works very hard, but language does not come easily or naturally to her. We began the conference by having her read her story out loud a couple of times, at least the part that she had finished. This in itself proved to be valuable. By reading it out loud to me, she caught many of her errors, especially her multiple run-on sentences. She was also able to hear that she had used the same words over and over again.
After reading her story, we focused on some of the positives of her story. She had a great lead, her details were in order, and she had a very strong voice. This was an important piece for Abbie, as she is easily discouraged. Once we determined some of the strengths of the paper, we focused on one writing element for her to improve on. The goal for this paper is to elaborate on her details. She had a lot of ideas, but it sounded more like a list than a story. I made notes to check in with her on elaboration run-on sentences in the next conference.
Overall, the conference was a very positive experience for me. The difficult part was keeping 30 other students writing. They knew what they were supposed to be doing, but it was a challenge to keep them focused. I am sure with time and practice, we will all become better at this process.
These conferences will impact my classroom greatly. I have already tried a whole class conference, and it went great! These individual conferences with Abbie and others that I have squeezed in have impacted their individual writing in a very positive way. I am looking forward to the challenge of making conferencing a more permanent fixture in my classroom.
Sincerely,
Julie
Jenni, Erin, Lauren, Virginia, and Julie thanks for sharing your conferences with your students. Jenni – it sounds like you had a great conference with Aaron. What a support to leave him with a “track” of your conference together after he went off on his own to work independently. Realizing how important it was for him to reread his work was a great learning moment for him. Erin – Great idea to meet with a group of writers…definitely efficient! Small group is a great way to address some of the editing needs such as spelling! Lauren – I’m glad the form was helpful for you…it’s nice to be able to see the group as a whole also. You shared a perfect “to the point” conference! I loved the whole “fishbowl” idea! Virginia – Yeah for testing to be over…we just begin next week…2/3 weeks of hell…following the heels of a month of test prep bootcamp….uuugh! Great conference – I loved the way you narrowed in on organization…and particularly for her to write smaller. She did have so many stories to share that she could write more about at another time...way to be flexible. Julie - I loved that you began with the compliment…reinforcing the positive writing behaviors. Also a good idea to stick with the one teaching point of elaboration. As far as keeping the others writing independently, even fourth graders have to build up their writing stamina.
ReplyDeleteConferences
ReplyDeleteWe are nearing a deadline, so I spent the entire period on Friday talking individually to students. I hit about ten students during the class, averaging about three to four minutes with each student. I’m going to recount a few of the tougher ones…
MT
MT wrote an opinion piece about the recent internet posting of Greg Oden’s naked cell phone photos. I complimented his use of humor and told him the draft had made the vice principal laugh out loud. (That’s high praise.) I told him we could not; however, use the title “Hanging with Greg” for obvious reasons, and then I had him read aloud a paragraph with four or five rhetorical questions. I asked him why he needed all of them. He agreed he didn’t and edited them off the page. It was an easy, successful conference; although, knowing MT he will still try to sneak some sexual innuendo in. I finished the conference by encouraging MT to write more opinion pieces because he has a strong voice.
CW
CW is stubborn and refuses to lose an argument, even when he knows he’s wrong. Editing anything with CW is a struggle. He’s a good writer, but he has a stilted, pompous style, and he argues about everything. CW wrote an advice column for freshmen. I began by complimenting his humor. We talked through a few confusing sentences and a couple of grammar edits. He seemed resigned to changing these. Then, I asked him about his use of the word “prolific.” He described himself as a prolific journalist. “Do you mean prolific or do you mean something more like wise?”
“Well, prolific means wise too.”
Rather than argue with him, I said, “Why don’t you look it up? I’ll watch while you do.” (I was super proud of myself for this tactic.)
Even after he saw the definition, he didn’t want to change it. I decided you don’t win every battle. If he wants to be “prolific,” more power to him. I didn’t leave him with encouragement for the future, but at least I didn’t show any irritation either…
Our class has been working on writing a “how to” book. This book is to teach a first grader how to do something. This writing project happened over a few weeks time. First we had already been focusing on writing and reading books with strong beginnings. We were focusing on the importance of organization. We “read” the book the Snowman by Raymond Briggs. It is a wordless book about a boy who builds a snowman who comes to life. It shows each step through pictures. Then we took that book and wrote a class story called “How to Build a Snowman”. It took us two class periods to do this. Some things emphasized were using transition words (of which we had already been making a list as we found them in books), engaging the reader from the beginning so they would want to read their story, and having clear steps so the reader could follow them easily.
ReplyDeleteThe first day of writing independently was choosing a topic from a class generated list, of which I was the final say, because some of the topics were way to hard such as how to play basketball, how to walk, etc., and writing a beginning that will grab the reader’s attention. The next day they wrote an outline of the steps that they would need, the following day they wrote their steps using a different transition word for each step. The last day they wrote an ending that would wrap it up and made a cover for their book. In addition, we spent two days with peer editing and a few different times with author’s chair throughout the process.
While all of this was going on, I was conferring with a few students a day. The two that I will be mentioning were a TAG student “Tessa”, and a student with an SPED label for dyslexia, “Dan”.
During my conference with Tessa, I asked her what she was working on, and she had completed the entire project and was working on her ending. I told her that I really enjoyed her word choice. I pointed out some great transition words that she had used as well as specific verbs that helped explain her steps in an interesting way. Her topic was “How to Check Out a library book from the Earl Boyles Library” and she was trying to teach the first graders, or new students the procedure for checking out a book. She told me that she was sort of stuck with the ending. She didn’t want to say “the end like (she) use to in first grade”. So we talked about how to end a story that was informational text but in an interesting way. Together we talked about endings of other stories that she enjoyed and what she liked about them, she came to the conclusion that she wanted to leave the reader wanting to read other pieces of her work so she concluded it, saying that she hoped her steps were helpful and if they enjoyed her directions and wanted to learn more, they should look for her other books to soon be released, (and she named a few more how to books). This was great because it got her really excited to jump into writing more books of the same genre. When she was done, she did exactly that. She is on her 4th book now.
Sorry this was too long, so I had to post twice...I guess I should keep it a bit shorter next time!!!
ReplyDeleteMy next kiddo, was “Dan” and he was one of the first kids I conferred with. I had done this on purpose because I knew that he would need me to check in several times. He chose his topic, “How to Ride a Skateboard”, was really excited, and went straight over to begin writing. After the first day of independent writing, they shared with a partner what they had written so far before they began writing the following day. Dan had a great start but when I came to him and asked him what he was working on, he broke down in tears and said, “My mom and dad won’t even be able to read this.” He had a lot going on with this piece of writing and at first glance it was a mess. As he read it to me, I realized that his story was GREAT! It had a funny beginning, and the first few steps were clear and in order. So I told him how wonderful his beginning was and how it made me laugh, and definitely made me want to read more. He smiled and wiped his tears. I told him that his parents will be so proud to read this, but let’s do just one thing that will make it easier for them to read it, finger spaces. He didn’t had one single space in between sentences on each page. So we went through and put a little backslash after each word to indicate that he needed a space there. I did the first page to model and he did the rest. He left the conference feeling good about his writing and fixed his spacing to help his parents be able to read it. (Although, as he continued to write, he didn’t consistently leave spaces, so we went through and did the same thing once he was finished). I feel like both of these conferences were a big success, however I spent around 8 minutes for each student, and I’d really like to cut that time in half if possible.
Assignment seven
ReplyDeleteI went back to the seventh grader, my student from last year who “published” her book, to hold an individual celebration conference. As I read the book, a mystery, I kept track of what I what I was thinking, predicting, and suspecting as I read. I also wrote about the sentences that I loved and the characters that struck me as the most believable. I gave her the letter and then met with her for a few minutes. I asked her what she enjoyed most about the letter. She really liked hearing the sentences and bits of dialogue that I liked best. For example, her main character, a detective Commins, confronts all of the murders at the same time. They acknowledge that he is right, then they promptly band together and throw him in a hidden passage where he sighs to himself, “I guess I didn’t think that through very well.” This turned out to be one of her favorite lines, too, so we talked about how an author’s love of words really comes through. Then I asked her about her favorite part to write. She loves using language suited to the time and is obviously a big fan of Nancy Drew, Agatha Christie, and Sherlock Holmes. She works hard to be authentic and worries about imitating these authors, but I told her that imitation is a great strategy for improving writing. Then I asked her how she felt when she first held that book. She was very proud, but what she is proudest of is that there is a long line of her teachers and classmates waiting to read the book. I apologized for taking so long with it…I was the first she brought the book to and I am proud of that!
Last Friday we had a group writing session about how to begin the original Greek myths they’ve been writing. They are finished with their first drafts. We looked first at how the myths begin in D'Aulaire’s Greek Myths, and noted that they all begin with the name of the god or mortal who will figure prominently in the story. Then they looked at other aspects of the early part of the stories: how soon the action begins, what kinds of verbs are used, and how other characters are introduced. We wrote a beginning for a myth about Ares, the heartless and annoying god of war. They spent about 20 minutes revising the beginnings of their myths, and before we went to lunch, they commented that sometimes the beginning is the hardest part. We talked about something I had talked about with Colette, my mystery writer, and that is the value of imitating good authors in order to improve writing. It worked well and seemed to give them confidence.
I hope one thing they are learning when we write together is that it’s important to talk stories out!
Thanks for sharing your conferring experiences – Hillary, Nicole, and Virginia. Hillary – First of all…WOW! 10 conferences in one class – that’s awesome. It sounds like you nailed MT’s conference - seems like a funny kid. As far as your CW conference – first of all, good for you for being able to take the high road and not fall into the trap of “sinking as low as the kid”. I loved that you started with a compliment, but possibly it would help a kid like him to only choose 1 teaching point within that short conference for him to work on….could a peer help him edit his “grammar” and make sure it sounds right before it even gets to you? Just some thoughts. Nicole – How great that you helped to turn Tessa into a “writer” ..you’re encouraging and informative conference gave her just the right amount of push to make her writing better while at the same time stick to the purpose of her informational “how to” piece. As far as Dan’s concerned , learning how to skateboard is a very “big” topic to write about. I think that in his case, the “finger space” was probably the most important teaching point you could have given him...but in a future one, you could encourage him to write “smaller” by just writing how to do one particular trick on the board. Katy – I loved the reading/writing connections that developed with your student. You make a very important point when you mentioned how important it is for kids to “talk” their stories out. I agree that kids should be given time for the oral language piece before putting words down on paper as often as possible.
ReplyDeleteI conferred with an eleventh grader in my high school English group. Let’s call him “J”. J’s assignment was an essay in response to a short story he read. One thing I’ve been working with him on his use of combining quotes and evidence from the text with his own analysis, so that each paragraph is not 100% quotes from the text and none of his own thoughts. He also used to not put quotes around evidence pulled from the text, which we discussed is getting into a bad habit of plagiarizing. This seemed to all stem from a low confidence and motivation for writing, as well as the assignment not being inspiring. Unfortunately, he is a part of our independent learner program where assignments are pre-planned from a textbook, and the students work independently at their own pace. This is difficult because it wouldn’t even be an assignment I would have given him, but this is part of the curriculum of the program.
ReplyDeleteJ struggled to specify which thoughts were his, and which were quotes taken from the text. Also, much of his writing was based on quotes from the text, and less of his own thoughts and reasoning for why he picked certain pieces of evidence.
This particular essay was his best yet. Each paragraph was organized to have 25% evidence and 75% his analysis of the quote. His ideas were clear to me and stayed focused throughout the essay. As we read through the essay, he could easily see what parts were in his voice and which the voice of the text was. We talked about why I wanted to hear more of his voice rather than the words of the story. He needed to understand this was the most important part, and that his words and voice were important to the reader, not just a regurgitation of the story. He still lacks voice and makes minimal conventional errors—but “For Next Time” he will focus on the little conventions as well as continuing to add details.
This “assignment” was actually a lot of fun. While few of my students would actually claim to enjoy writing, many of them do actually like sharing their writing and getting feedback from me, whether it is in a whole class setting or just one-on-one. This week when I did informal conferences I tried to meet with every student at least once. But for the purpose of this reflection I’ll discuss the meetings with two students; Madison and Bailey. Madison is a hardworking student, but her skills and writing level are a little low and she lacks confidence in her academics, especially writing. Bailey is a strong writer who really enjoys experimenting with words and mimicking the writing styles of her favorite authors.
ReplyDeleteThe writing that we were working on this particular day was a piece of on-demand, expository/persuasive writing in which students were to make a list of the most important inventions or discoveries in human history. Then they were to explain which was the most important and why. This was kind of a pre-reading exercise before reading the myth of Prometheus bringing fire to humans. For the conferences, I essentially followed the format on the blog. One challenge that I’ve had with individual conferences in the past was that each one took too long as I tried to address too much. Regie’s suggestion to just focus on one or two concepts was helpful.
When I met with Madison, despite having very little written, there was much to praise. Her topic was clearly stated, her conventions were good, and I could tell that her ideas were sound. I felt this was important as Madison, as stated earlier, lacks confidence. I stole the idea from Jenni on the blog to ask the students what they thought could be improved, and Madison thought she needed “more”. Through questioning, we were able to determine that she needed more meaningful explanations of her ideas, and she was able to add to her writing. Later, after the conference I walked by and scanned her writing and did notice that she carried over the concepts that we had used to add more explanation into her next paragraph, which shows progress. However, my biggest question about this conference is whether she will retain what we discussed for future writing.
Bailey’s conference also went well. Not satisfied with following the formulaic method of topic sentence-reason-explanation, she began her writing with a humorous anecdote to set the stage for why the spare tire is the world’s greatest invention. Again, there was much to praise. She, on the other hand, was unable to identify anything in her writing that could have been improved other than “it’s not finished”. I attempted to explain to her, following a shared reading process, that while I loved story she was telling, it was difficult to follow as the reader. Once we did this Bailey was quick to agree with me and eager to fix it. However, the question remains; will she be able to do this on her own in the future?
Ultimately, the conferences did allow me to teach some individual skills on an individual basis, which is great. I did keep notes for each student regarding what we discussed and what I need to check on in the future. Hopefully doing this will allow me to later answer those questions above of whether the skills were retained and used. At times, I did make the rookie mistake of out of eagerness leading the discussion too much, rather than helping my students come to their own conclusions. Also, I should have done a better job of helping my students with goal setting and what they should attempt to do next time. I guess that’s my goal.
I mentioned the idea of writing a Third Grade Secrets book and my class latched on immediately. I started out by modeling writing (something I am doing more and more of lately!) about how I left my dog out all night because I was too tired to get up and let him in. After I was finished and we discuss exciting words, new words, idea etc I gave the class a few minutes of “think time” to come up with their personal secret. Once they all gave me a thumbs up that they were ready, I asked them to shared with a neighbor. Then, when they felt they were ready, I sent them back to their seats to start writing their story.
ReplyDeleteOn day two I started conferencing with students to see where they were in their story. I told the class that while I was conferencing I was “off limits” so if they had a question that was specific to writing they were to quietly ask one of their peers. This worked for most of my students, those who approached me were met with a hand up STOP!
My most challenging conference was with Stephanie, a very good writer. The problem is she never seems to be able to find anything she can change to make her story better (they are pretty good). She feels she is finished after her first draft. She include details which kept my interest but failed to use “new” words. I showed her how to use some of her writing recourses to find synonyms for words to put some spark into her story. Also her beginning sentence needed a little work to draw me in and encourage me to keep reading.
My second conference was with Jeff. Jeff struggles with staying focused and not giving in to his desire to be the first one finished. While I read his story and he would interrupt me and say, ‘No, that is not what I meant, I meant …” Then I made him read his story back to me, touching each word as he read so he couldn’t make verbal edits. This helped him understand that our mind works faster then our pencil does. I explained this is why it is important to reread while you are writing like I do when I am modeling.
Overall the conferencing went well. It was rewarding to have the student walk off eager to make revisions. I struggled with not being able to get to everyone in one day, but patience is something I need to remember for myself.
When I was finished conferencing with a few more students, I walked around the room and held mini-conference (about 1 min) with the rest of the class. What I was looking for were “catchy” opening sentences. Then next day I focused my mini lesson on opening sentences. I asked for a variety of students to share (being sure to include those who I made note of the day before). I wrote all of the sentences on chart paper. Then we looked at them one by one. I told them that while all of them were good, some of them were better. I starred the one that drew me in, and explained it was so catchy it made me eager to read the rest of the story. I invited the student to come forward and read her story. From there the students when back to their seats to share their opening sentence at their table and evaluate them for “catchiness” This was probably one of my best whole class conferences / mini lessons.
It is really funny that Nicole is making a "how to" book with her class because I am doing something similar. My class has pen pals in Alvin, Texas. We decided to teach our pals how to build a snowman because it would be something new for people from Texas. We used the book The Snowman and went over the detailed progression of pictures. I talked about how their writing should paint a picture in the same way that the illustrations did in this book.
ReplyDeleteWe had been working on our writing for about a week and most kiddos were at the editing part. We have also been working on writing stolid conclusions. So starting my conferences these were the areas I would focus on.
I used Regie's guide for what makes a productive conference and the prompts you gave. The first student I met with took a lot longer then I anticipated, but it was new and I was trying to get into the groove. Just being able to have the conversation with the student really was an eye opener into her reasoning of ideas and understanding of the writing process. I think that the 15 minutes I spent with this one student was some of the most valuable instruction she got all year. I was truly meeting her needs and using her own writing to teach. I loved setting a goal(picking more colorful words) for what we will focus on for next time. It gave her something to look forward to. I also saw her really focusing on our goal outside of the conference.
My biggest challenge was keeping the rest of the classes writing stamina up. Usually, I walk around the room, answer questions, help edit, and have mini conversations about their work. It was so hard for them to understand that I would be helping them during an individual conference. I know that with more practice and implementing this into the routine will help. But, I also made me realize that my students depend too much on my guidance and approval.
I really see the value in having whole group and individual conferences. I need to make more of an effort to make this work in my classroom because it really is what is best for everyone.
Lindsay, Derek, Clara, and Jennifer -thanks for sharing your comments on conferring with your students, it was great to read how each of you were able to move your students further along in their writing process. Lindsay – I think that it’s still going to be hard for many of your students, even eleventh graders, to synthesize information into a thoughtful response. More struggling students will need even more modeling and then even some guided practice. It was so great that you were able to provide “J” with the support he needed to be successful! Derek – I agree…one of most important things I’ve learned about conferring (in either reading or writing) is to try and stick with the one teaching point. Your point on whether students retain the information discussed during conferences is a good one. I try to write the teaching point on a sticky note for future reference, or they keep a running log of teaching points in the back of their writing notebooks. It really is a helpful reference, especially for the older students. Clara – Yeah - for all of the modeling :) When you conferred with Stephanie, did you use either “new” words or entertaining beginnings as your teaching point? I’m curious whether she revised her work. I think the idea of having Jeff work on self-monitoring was a perfect idea! Jennifer – it takes a long time to get the timing down…it sounds like your conference was great…and how awesome (and effective) that your student transferred learning outside of the writing block!!!
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