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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The student I chose to have a one on one conference with is a 4th grade boy in my classroom. He is on an IEP (reading, writing, math, and speech) and is the lowest student I’ve had in my classroom in quite some time. (He is functioning at about a beginning first grade level.) After all the testing was done on him last year it was determined that he doesn’t have much short term memory, long term memory, or working memory. He also shows signs of dyslexia with many letter reversals. Everything about 4th grade is a struggle for him. Most days he is eager to please and will write during writing time even though the majority of what he puts down on paper is not legible or understandable. It would be “easy” to do an editing conference with him because there are so many areas that need to be “fixed”. I decided to do a content conference with him and dig past all of the areas that need to be corrected and deliberately find things to celebrate in his writing.
ReplyDeleteThis student loves anything related to the Army and that is generally what his writing is about. I asked him what he was working on and his response was “an army story”. He had attempted to give it a title “rme” (“Army”) and that was the first thing I complimented him on because that is not something he does very often. When I met with him he had written almost 2 full pages. He was obviously very interested in his topic! I had him read his piece aloud to me and the expression he put in his voice was pretty impressive. He had even attempted to write down some “sound effects” of a gun firing (“rttt tatr rtatata”).
For the “Teaching Point” of this conference I decided to focus on having this student work on trying to put some dialogue into his story. He had a lot of background description but his story lacked conversation of any type. We talked about some places in his story where he might add some talking. For the “For Next Time” portion, to end this conference, he and I decided that when I met with him the next time he would have added some talking to 3 different parts of his story…once each in the beginning, middle, and ending portions of his writing piece.
Overall, this one-on-one content conference went pretty well….it went longer than I intended it to go. I did have to interrupt it a couple of times to redirect a couple of my students who were being particularly disruptive. They were distracted by the conference I was having because the student I was working with tends to speak in a rather loud voice and they were allowing themselves to be off task and trying to get others off task as well. The other students’ off task behavior was a good reminder that I need to be incredibly implicit in my instruction and expectation for the writing period before I begin conferencing individually with students.
Sharon – thanks for sharing your reflections on your writing conference with your IEPed 4th grader. I love how even with so many disabilities; you were determined to “dig past” all of the things that really could be corrected, and find a positive to celebrate! It sounds like even though this boy as some very serious needs, he continues to be positive and put effort into his work. In order for this to continue, he will need teachers like you to encourage him on!!! I am curious as to whether your district might have adaptive technology tools that might be able to support someone with such disabilities in writing (as well as other areas). There are many tools that would help him get his thoughts and ideas down on paper without having to deal with the struggle of “writing” on paper. For example, some students with learning disabilities may simply use built-in highlighting and spelling /grammar checker features as an accommodation. Other individuals may benefit from phonetic spelling software, which can render phonetic spelling into correctly spelled words. For some students with dyslexia, screen reading software with speech output can present audio text. Speech recognition products can help students dictate assignments or term papers as well as navigate the Internet using voice commands. It might be something you can look into???
ReplyDeleteThe student conference that I chose to share is with a struggling student on my caseload. I will call her “Sara.” Sara is a sweet 4th grade girl, despite her home life, she has a happy disposition. She is on an IEP for writing, reading, math and language. Sara’s limited expressive and receptive language interfere with her ability to access story telling (orally and written). Alexsandra, from the DVD, reminded me of Sara’s language characteristics, without the ELL aspect.
ReplyDeleteSara’s writing group has been focusing on writing personal narratives. The theme during this writing conference that I used to generate a writing topic was “Things I worry about.”
When asked, Sara shared that she is working on finishing her story about a time when she got separated from her grandma while shopping at the mall. She worries about getting separated from her grandma and getting lost at the mall. I had heard bits of the beginning of her story the other day, which made it easier to follow today. As she read her story, she took breaks from her written piece and looked up at me to orally tell me more (or explain) parts she had left out in her written draft. I specifically complimented her on the climactic part of her story. She wrote, “I was looking at all the pretty make-up at the counter and when I turn around my grandma was gone!” I told her that the words she used brought me back to the scene and even I get distracted by the pretty make-up counter. My teaching point focused on having her incorporate the parts of the story she told me orally to her written draft. I asked clarifying questions to help her see gaps of her sequencing, which guided her to a written piece that made sense! A goal for next time is to be able to share her written story with limited oral fill-ins.
The conference went great! Sara celebrated by sharing her writing in front of her small group. Sara also shared with the group what went well and what goals she has for her next writing piece. She was just glowing the whole time she shared. All the kids’ eyes were locked on her as she read aloud. I could see that her celebration motivated her peers.
I conducted my student conference today and thoroughly enjoyed it….as did my student! ☺ I decided to meet with one of my 5th grade boys (I’ll call him “Anthony”) who has an IEP just for writing. His IEP goals include organization, handwriting, and spacing. His handwriting is quite a challenge to read because he runs all of his words & letters together, thus one has to slow waaaayyyy down to find his words and sentence breaks. He has been doing this since kindergarten, so he has a 5+ year “habit” to break!
ReplyDeleteAnthony was working on a short writing piece where he was prompted (his choice) to describe his perfect meal. He had already shared his piece out loud with the class and his voice was fabulous. He had utilized wonderful word choice, which painted a very clear picture of his “perfect meal.” Not only could we easily visualize the food on his plate, we could nearly taste it as well! ☺
I used the format you offered on the blog. It’s very user-friendly….thank you! The conference went like this:
Q: What are you working on?
Anthony: “Organizing my thoughts. Taking my time, and spacing.”
C: My compliments for Anthony included his colorful, creative word choice that helped to make his writing piece very descriptive and enjoyable to read.
TP: We examined the ending to his piece and I pointed out a way he could have written a “smoother” ending to his story. We brainstormed together a couple of ways to revise the ending and then he chose the one he liked best. I wrote it out on post-it note for him. (I promised to start using those in lieu of writing directly on their papers.) Anthony said he doesn’t usually do much revising once he writes something, so this was a valuable beginning to what will hopefully become habit for him.
FNT: The next time we meet, I told him I would like to see him attempt a revision of some sort in his writing. It can be anywhere in his story. He agreed with me that in this type of writing, a need for revision is usually arises. Added to his goals “for next time” (to support his IEP), we talked about how he needs to
focus on writing slower and taking his time to help improve his penmanship
and spacing.
As I said, the conference went very well for both Anthony and myself. He even thanked me for sitting down with him to do the conference (oh the joy! ☺). I know it was wise decision to start with a shorter piece of writing to help ME keep the conference short and “on task.” I am working on improving my teaching time management, so this helped me to get a feel for a writing conference and gauge how I will manage the clock and myself. I’m looking forward to many more writing conferences to come! ☺
Thanks both Andrea and Mardy for sharing your writing conferences! I’m glad that you both found your conferences to be very successful for both you and your students ! When you stick to ONE teaching point and students are clear about their expectations…AND they have you sitting side by side to (working in the "with" portion of the OLM)…how can it go wrong? The biggest hurdle is always the time management…and as with everything it'll get better as you practice your conferring techniques!
ReplyDelete