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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Assignment #7
ReplyDeleteI used the student writing conference sheet in Regie’s book called “Writing Strengths/Next Steps”. My first conference was with a student who constantly tells me he’s “not a writer”. A couple of days ago I gave him some writing paper with a dinosaur border (periodically I put out writing paper with different borders to hopefully inspire the students). I asked to see his writing, anticipating there probably wasn’t anything, or at least very little on his paper. To my surprise, he had written two pages about a dinosaur. His spelling was very good, his ideas were great, and he had complete sentences. I asked him what he felt he needed to work on before the next conference and he indicated he wanted to have his paper out in the hall under the “Spelling Supervisor” poster. I talked to him about re-reading and changing his paper as he writes so that it makes sense. He agreed that he would work on that skill as well as spelling. I was so happy that this kid had finally found an interest in writing and was off to a great story.
The next child I met with using the same conference protocol and procedures in Regie’s book was also a very positive experience. We discussed her strengths, teaching points, and her goals. It was such an easy format to follow and I got so much out that conference in such a short amount of time.
I realize how important it is for me to allow students time to write about their individual interests. Reviewing how to re-read and re-write for meaning will be the first lesson I model. It is exciting to see my students so motivated and the variety of topics they write about. I thought most of my students were motivated before I took this class, now I’m realizing they were just accommodating my goals. I am anxious to have student conferences with the rest of my students, I can learn so much about each child and their writing skills in such a short time.
Assignment 7: Student Writing Conferences
ReplyDeleteI had introduced “Heart Poems” to my class a couple of weeks ago. I followed the lesson plan in Regie’s book with some modifications for my 5th graders. I use the Poetry Writing Rubric from Writing Essentials, as a guide for my students to self edit and to use for peer editing. I also used the student conference sheet from the DVD to guide my one-on-one writing conference.
As my class was writing poems, I called over a student that I knew would need some extra help (he has struggled with writing this year). We sat side by side and I started by asking him what he was working on. It was a poem about his dog. He read it to me and then I read it back to him. I started with a compliment, “I really like that you wrote about your dog, I can really tell you love your dog!” When I asked what he felt his strength was in writing he said he didn’t have any. He has no confidence in his writing abilities. So I started to point some out to him. He had a good rhythm to his poem, along with great word choice. I also showed him where he included great “voice” in his poem. Then I asked him what he wanted help with for this piece. He was quick to say, “punctuations!”. So we started with that. All I really needed to do was remind him to look at the chart we generated earlier that had the class’ list of observations from the numerous poems we had read and shared in class. He was able to tell me what changes he needed to make without a lot of help from me. I ended up making one suggestion with a word choice and then asked him what he was going to do next time, a goal for himself. He said he would use the class charts more for help and use the rubric or criteria page I gave him to self check his work.
He was able to rewrite his poem in a final published format and when it came time to share poems, he was the first one who wanted to share his. Like I had said earlier I have not taken the time to do as many writing conferences as I would like. Now I can see how powerful they really are. This boy had NEVER wanted to share any writing before and now he was the first to raise his hand! He got up and shared his poem with a pride and confidence I had never seen from him before. It was awesome!
I continued to have others come up and share their poems. We have a very tiny classroom with no “meeting” area so I had the kids come up to display their pieces on the DocuCam so everyone could view the format the author chose. I also decided that I would try some whole class conferences. I explained how I would do that and the kids were a little hesitant.
One brave girl came up to share next and we had a conference. It went well! In fact once the class had seen what the conference would be like they were more willing to share as well! I had never done a conference in front of the whole class before. I can see the benefits of them are huge!! I don’t think the kids have had them in other classes but once they saw that they could learn from each other, they were more willing to try.
I had great intentions to have writing conferences at the beginning of the school year. I even made up a form that I thought would be helpful. Needless to say, I only did a couple and then I felt I didn’t have enough time. Wow, again I am so glad to be reading Writing Essentials!! I am convinced that I have to make time for conferences and for sharing!!
Thank you Regie!
I have a student in my class that is an ELL student, but has been dismissed from the ELL program. Her academic abilities are just on the border of not meeting the standard is several areas. One area that she and I have been working on all year is her writing. She was the perfect student to profile in this activity.
ReplyDeleteLexy and I have repeatedly analyzed her writing from the beginning of the year. She has come a long way since September. She was working on a piece about a camping trip that she took with her family. As I was reading over her shoulder before her conference, I noticed that she had great ideas, but her sentence fluency and conventions were still not where they needed to be. I had Lexy read her story out loud to me. I told her how easy her story was to follow and that she had great supporting details about her camping trip. I also pointed out that she did a good job of placing her paragraphs. The next step was to look at her sentence structure and conventions. Together we focused only on the first paragraph. As I had her read the sentences out loud one at a time, she was able to see where she left out words. Spelling was more challenging. It was REALLY tough not to spell the words for her. I had her pull out her mini dictionary and look up the common words that she missed. This was time consuming, but I told her that she wasn't aloud to spell three of those common words again. (they, where, was) She agreed that she would try harder.
At the end of our conference, I asked Lexy what she thought she liked about her paper. She thought that she did a good job using "juicy words" and she even pointed out a few of her favorites. I always try to end the conference on a positive note. I asked her if she wanted to share her story and she was still too shy to even read the introduction. I told her that maybe next time, she might find her favorite "juicy" sentence to share.
Student conferences are huge in making writing successful. If students are not accountable for their mistakes, they don't learn and grow as writers. I'd like to do more whole group conferencing, but only with a paper that is not written by someone in class. I'm still not convinced that peer editing is very effective. I guess I need to see more modeling of how that's done. All in all, watching the video tape of conferencing was really helpful and gave me a better idea for how it's done.
Assignment #7
ReplyDeleteI conducted a couple of conferences using the format that you provided us and I found it to be very useful. The piece that I thought was the most helpful was the teaching point. Usually when I conference I end up telling them to make way more changes than I should. Before the conference begins, I tell myself to only correct a couple of things but it always ends up being more. With the conference sheet in front of me as a guide, I was able to quickly hit the points I needed to and still was able to manage the class.
The motivated students will always do their best, edit, revise and publish pieces with relative ease. The struggling writer’s can really benefit from the for next time goal. It gives them a focus as well as letting them know that when we check in again, we expect to see the goal THEY set.
Regular conferencing will hopefully provide a better scope and sequence for my instruction. We have silent sustained writing to build their stamina and to help their writing flow so daily conferences do pull some children off task. Managing writers is a constant struggle but providing an audience and purpose makes the management piece easier. I feel like if I can conference with the entire class each month that I will have made some connections with each student.
It was really great to have conferences with a few students. I have tried all year to do very informal conferences and just stop by the kids desks as they are writing. This time, I made it a little more formal. I met with the kids at the front of the room so there was not much distraction. I used the format that you provided. After the conference I felt like I had a much better grasp on their writing, and it was really insightful to have the conversation because I could hear what they were thinking and then make suggestions. I already felt like I knew them better as writers. I am excited to continue them using this format.
ReplyDeleteI told the class ahead of time that I would be having conferences with them more often. Like she said in the book, I told them that before I meet with them they needed to do a lot of the editing on their own. I told them I only wanted to see their best work so that we could help make it even better. They seemed pretty excited about it, and they were proud to show me!
I worked with one student that really struggles with spelling. It is almost impossible to read. That conference was more of a challenge because we had to spend some time reading it; he could not read it himself. Once we got through it, I gave him some compliments on the ideas that he had in his story. He felt proud of that. Then we worked on the spelling and I gave him some suggestions on ways to improve it. We talked about what he can do next time. I told him he should stop and re-read several times as he is writing. I thought that would help him to make changes as he goes.
The one thing I am struggling with is meeting with every student. She did mention that we could have a conference in front of the whole class with a student. I think that is a great idea because the other kids can benefit as well. I also noticed that some kids need conferences more often, and I will try to get to them once a week. Others may just need individual attention every few weeks. I am always looking for ways to manage this, but I guess nothing is perfect!
I really enjoyed conferencing one-on-one with my students, and wish I could do it more consistently. I find myself roaming around doing very informal conferences each day. At the beginning of the year in first grade it’s hard to conference when so many of my students are not independent writers. They constantly need help, so I am more focused on them. At this point in the year all of my students are able to write independently, so it would be nice to implement a more structured conference plan. I conferenced with one of my students who was writing about going over to a friends house. She is just on the verge of using the basic mechanics correctly. I followed the conference sequence and it worked very well. Complimenting the child right away really builds trust with them, so that when you teach them a new strategy or goal, they don’t feel like you are criticizing their writing. My student was very excited when I pointed out that she was remembering to skip spaces in her writing. After I complimented her, I brought up the teaching point of putting periods at the end of her sentences. We read through her writing together and I helped her figure out where to put punctuation. She was so excited to have such a put together piece, she asked if she could take home her journal to show her mom! I think making the time to meet with each child individually is something I am going to make a commitment to this spring. It’s a great way to check in with each child and give them personal goals, whether it’s as simple as skipping spaces in their writing or as advanced as learning how to write in paragraphs!
ReplyDeleteThanks Karrie, Tracy, Ann, Lisa, Kelly, and Kristin for sharing your writing work with your students. I believe that conferring is truly at the heart of an effective writing workshop!
ReplyDeleteKarrie – How awesome that your “non-writer” finally saw himself as a writer…and how cool that it only took a gimmick like bordered paper to start moving his gears (and maybe a bit of prior writing instruction and encouragement from you :)! ). I’m very glad that you are finding success with Regie’s conference protocol, and that both you and your students continue to be motivated during your writing conferences!
Tracy – You also seemed to have great success with during your conference with a more struggling writer. I love that you are having students set their writing goals so they have their job until you are able to confer again. I am so glad that you are experiencing the tremendous value that writing conferences hold! I have two additional suggestions to add to your repertoire of resources to go along with “My Heart” lessons. The first is a picture book by Sara Fanelli titled, My Map Book. In non-narrative form, the author challenges the concept of "map" as she earnestly demonstrates that places aren't the only things that can be charted. Exploring everyday aspects of a child's world, the author mixes the expected, such as "Map of My Neighborhood," with more conceptual subjects: "Map of My Family," "Map of My Day," "Map of My Heart" and even "Map of My Dog." The second resource is Awakening the Heart: Exploring Poetry in Elementary and Middle School by Georgia Heard. In this book she as a wonderful series of lessons that use the same concept as Regie to encourage children to write poetry about things they love.
Ann – I was so glad to notice that you started your conference with Lexy out with a compliment. Doing this allowed her to focus in on your teaching point of sentence fluency and conventions. I also think it is completely appropriate to set the expectation that she is not allowed to misspell the three common words you chose at this grade level. Great way to piggyback on her success with “juicy” words towards her goal of working on “juicy” sentences!
Lisa – You mentioned your motivated vs. struggling student writers, which led me to think about the reality of what we are all dealing with across the country…RTI. Goal setting for your struggling writers is as effective as the following motto or saying: “Fair is not always equal”. Our strugglers in all areas will need to meet with us more consistently than some of our other students to ensure that they continue to strive towards those goals.
Kelly – There are a couple of ways to try and meet with every student during conferences. As you suggested, having a conference during share is a good idea. One of the hardest things to do is to keep those conferences with students brief!!! I’ve even brought timers into classrooms as I work with teachers on conferring with their students. It definitely helps to prevent teachers from taking over and talking during the entire conference, and allows you to focus more on what the child is sharing when you are conscientious of the time. One other way to be effective is to actually pull a small group “conference” to work on a skill or strategy when more than 1 student would benefit from the instruction.
Kristin – It was definitely obvious that your conference with your student was motivating for her. Best of luck as you continue to confer as we move into spring…and you are totally right: it should be simple…it could be spacing or writing paragraphs depending on individual needs!
After reading all Regie’s ideas and suggestions about conferring with students, I found myself very enthusiastic to conduct conferences with students. The student I chose to have a conference with for this assignment often has good ideas, but struggles to organize her writing so it makes sense. Spelling has also a significant impact on her writing. I used the format that was provided and found it very helpful. We have been working on writing legends and students were to a point that they were writing a second copy that was their “final” piece. Several of the students still had MANY errors, so this provided me with the opportunity to teach a mini-lesson about the importance of editing for your audience (writing for a purpose!). I met with Brooke as she was going back through her work to make changes. She read through her story, but did struggle to read some words because of the spelling, and I complimented her on how clever her idea for her legend was, as well as some of the great detail she provided. From watching Reggie confer with students, I made sure to point out specific lines on Brooke’s writing that stood out to me. We then read back through her story and together we identified certain phrases and sentences that might not make sense where they were. By just asking Brooke questions and identifying areas that were confusing to the reader, she was able to remove and change her story so it made sense, with very little help from me! We set a goal for next time to focus specifically on her spelling, and I left her with a reminder to use her dictionary to check spelling before our next conference, and reminded her of what a great story she had written.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading other people’s posts, it sounds like many of us do very informal conferences and don’t always record our conversations with students. I do the same thing, so it was helpful to use this template, and it is something that I will continue to use when I conference with my students. This will also help me to have documentation I can refer to, to guide my mini-lessons, whether they are whole class or small group.
I was really excited to put all I have learned to practical use. I was prepared, motivated, and encouraged. Now came the conference. I choose an ELL student who struggles (didn't want to go easy on myself) with writing. Although I have many ELL students in my class who are doing exceptionally well, he lacks confidence and shuts down when it comes to writing. I decided that we would write thank you notes to a presenter who came to our class for a dental presentation. I modeled on the overhead, we reviewed vocabulary (w/pictures) and brainstormed some things to say. I basically wanted the kids to write what they could along with our model or draw a picture and label aspects of it - trying to appeal to all levels and abilities. I went over to him and he had one word down but was drawing. I encouraged him by asking him what his picture was saying and then got my sticky notes out and helped him with his thoughts. It was just a simple sentence but he beamed!!! I think that in kindergarten kids really need to feel that we aren't just going to leave them hanging. This is my first year teaching kinder (I taught 4th and 5th previously) and I think in the beginning my expectations were unrealistic. I DO have high expectations, but age and developmentally appropriate expectations. The TP I made and focused on with him was using the resources available in the classroom when writing. The word wall, the particular vocabulary list we came up with as a class (dental vocabulary). He lacks confidence but I don't want that to translate to lack of ability for him. What I did for FNT and goal setting was using the high frequency words he knows and where to find them (word wall), invented spelling so as to not lose him thoughts (I don't think I called it invented spelling though). I kept the conference short. The other kids were writing as I was conferencing and thankfully didn't interrupt which they frequently do (we are working on that!!). I liked the format you provided. It is easy to follow, is concise, and addresses key elements of the kids writing.
ReplyDeleteThank you for reading.
Erin Dugan
Assignment #7
ReplyDeleteAs a substitute I don’t currently have a regular class so I visited the third grade where I had been a long-term sub from September to December. The class has been working on imaginative stories in writing. It was a real treat to conference with several students. I used the format that you suggested along with a two helpful pages that I copied from Regie’s book: p.223 “What Makes A Productive Conference?” and p. 227 “Use the Language of Helpful Response.”
One conference was with a boy who has struggled with writing and in the past has found it hard to get his ideas onto paper. I could see that he has made progress. His story was very creative and I found it easy to compliment his ideas and his use of descriptive words. He didn’t have a title so we thought about it for a while and he came up with a good one. I was so grateful to just focus on a few points and not go overboard with trying to teach too much. He was very pleased with his progress.
I conducted two more conferences with students and I felt that I was much more comfortable knowing how to get the most out of our time together. The conference sheets were so valuable. I helped one student work on her closing and the other student needed more help with editing and spelling. I used the sticky notes and didn’t write on anyone’s paper! Thank you for that suggestion, because I had a bad habit of writing on student papers.
I had wonderful teaching experience just this week as a substitute for another third grade. The teacher had to leave “emergency” sub plans. The writing lesson was a bit vague and I felt free to teach a lesson of my own. In the morning for whole class reading we read a story with the theme “A Place Of Your Own,” which spoke of the desire to have a special place to be by one’s self or to have a room of one’s own. The teacher only requested that the class write something with this theme. When we were reading the story I told the kids to be thinking of their own stories because we would be writing later with this theme in mind. Right before the writing period the students were at PE, so I had the time to prepare for the lesson. I decided to write a short story about my own experience as a child sharing a room with my little sister and wishing for a room of my own. When the students came back from PE I had the first sentence written on the white board and shared it with the class. I asked them what they thought of it. I continued with my next sentence and asked for their thoughts. The students were very engaged and had plenty of ideas to share. I asked several different students to re-read what we had written together. We continued this way until the story was complete. Then I gave the class some time to brainstorm with a neighbor about their own experiences and ideas for what they might write about. They immediately began to talk to one another. Then I gave them about 12-15 minutes of individual writing time. Most of them eagerly got started and the room became quiet. There were only a few students who didn’t start to write so I spent a little time with each one and helped them get their ideas flowing. The writing lesson was only supposed to be about a half hour but it was so productive that I continued for an hour. The time just flew by. Lastly we had time for sharing and it was such a delight! I was even able to do a few informal conferences. Most of the kids still needed more time to complete their stories and I left a note for the teacher about what we had accomplished and that they would need to continue the next day. It was a very rewarding day and I look forward to more opportunities to put my new knowledge into practice in the classroom.
ReplyDeleteAfter watching Regie’s DVD I was eager to try both conference styles but I am still a little intimidated with doing one in front of the whole class. I decided to compromise and do a one-on-one and after writing time we shared writing. As students read what they wrote we celebrated their writing and I pointed out different positives from the students writing. I am still working on adding the mini lessons as we read students papers.
ReplyDeleteI told my students we were starting something new, one-on-one writing conferences where they would get to read their writing to me and we would talk about it. I remembered Regie talking about modeling student behavior for conference time, so I did this a little, but perhaps not enough. Students still came to ask me questions and talked, however Regie does say a first grade class may have trouble writing quietly. My students were very eager and all wanted a chance to come share their writing with me so I had to stop and tell the class everyone would have a chance to meet with me at some point, just not that day.
For my one-on-one conference I chose one of my more confident writers, Alyssa, which I thought would help make the first one-on-one go easier. I started the conference by asking her what she had written about. She started telling me her whole story, so I had her stop and begin reading what she wrote. After Alyssa read her writing to me, I continued with compliments. She had written a short story about her baby brother and did a great job of letting her personality shine through in her writing. She is quite a character in person and listening to her read, I really heard her voice! I then chose to work on a closing with her as the teaching point /focus of our conference. It was nice having this one-on-one time with her because I was able to work on a skill at her level. It helped to individualize the lesson to a students need. She is also an easily distractable student who loves attention, so she was excited to get one-on-one attention from me and was able to stay focused on the lesson, where as in so many whole group lessons she is distracted.
I feel I still need to do a lot of the work Regie talks about to set up a strong foundation for writing and conferences. I have begun this process, but I need to do more demonstration of writing as well as demonstrating and talking about expected student behaviors.
I definitely will incorporate one-on-one conferences into our writing time. This is a great opportunity for me to meet the personal needs of my students and differentiate instruction. Since my class has such a range in abilities this will be very helpful. I am also trying to put mini-lessons into the celebration portion of group share. I plan to use my students’ writing to guide my whole group instruction as well, instead of just the mandated curriculum from the district. Perhaps if whole group lessons (like the spelling lesson Regie did with Derek) are too difficult to keep all students engaged, I will switch formats to small group conferences based upon students’ needs and skills.
Thanks Nicole, Erin, Beth & Jennifer for sharing your reflections about your writing conferences.
ReplyDeleteNicole – Helping a student at the 2nd/3rd grade level successfully revise their piece for organization is a huge accomplishment! It’s great that you constantly brought it back to “the reader” and was very complimentary of the work she had done well! I think that with the way education has changed over the last decade, teachers have to have evidence that supports their teaching. Documenting during your conferences with students is the perfect way to provide data, especially for students who may be deficient!
Erin – I’m glad you jumped right in there with a challenge :) You also seemed to have a very successful conference. I love the purpose that the writing had for the students, I definitely think that it provided your writer with the extra motivation he may have needed to put in the extra effort. I love that your expectations are high in K, they can and WILL rise to the occasion if you believe they can. Choosing the TP of how to use resources available in the room is perfect for a child like you describe.
Beth – I’m sure your “students” were very happy to have you back in their classroom. It sounds as though you also had some very effective and enjoyable conferences. Students love to have the 1:1 time with you and will work hard during that time. “High Five” on jumping right in there and whipping up a super writing lesson during your emergency subbing position. Thanks for sharing about your perfect writing workshop experience….I hope some school/district is lucky enough to grab you next year! Fingers are crossed!!!
Jennifer – I’m not sure that I absolutely love the whole class conferences either. I love the 1:1, and when I’m feeling stressed about time, or I truly see children who would benefit from similar strategy instruction, I will have a group conference. I do think it’s too much to expect a 1st grade class to be quiet during a writing workshop, but I do believe that they can follow guidelines. I always launch with a class created “T chart” that we write what workshop should “look” and “sound” like. Also, having a large monthly calendar displayed where either you can write down when you plan to confer with students OR they can sign up, this might help whittle down the interruptions. You can tell that both you and Alyssa had some great bonding time during your conference, nice job!
I chose two students to conference with. One was a girl who wrote very formulaically(sp?) at the beginning of the school year, but did it well. After she finished her first draft, I noted that there were many spelling errors in her piece. I asked her originally what she thought about the prompt and she was pretty indifferent. It was very general so that all students could write on the topic. I then told her that I like how focused she was with her ideas on the topic. I also felt that there was good organization with a sharp opening. Then I started to talk to her about her spelling, choosing a couple of words and asking her about them. Then I attempted to relate the words to things she had read and sounds she knew. We made lists of words with the same sound. I told her that she needs to think of words with similar patterns next time she hears the same sound. I also asked her how she was doing in general and discovered that she was very tired (I knew she was dealing with a recent divorce). Sometimes it seems that the other stuff keeps students from seeing what they know is there.
ReplyDeleteThe second student I just quickly talked with at his seat. He rushes through everything and never sees his own errors (the anti-DOL). I talked to him about how well he was doing with five paragraph essays. He could barely write one paragraph at the beginning of the year! I thien asked him if he was positive that he was ready turn this paper in. Then we started looking at letters. He struggles with capitals and lowercase still. So I asked when we use capitals and then pointed out a couple spots where they were overused. Then I pointed out the lowercase i's. Then I allowed him to go through and find those mistakes and fix them. Having had him go through this with me has caused him to focus on his writing more. This may also have to do with hating to rewrite!
Assignment 7 - Thanks Scott! Your conferences seemed like they went really well. The first conference with the young girl with formulaic writing sounds as though she's probably had several years with a writing program that trains them to write to a prompt. It was a good teaching point to help her with spelling connect the words she struggled with with our word patterns she knew. One of the best things of having one to one conferences is being able to really get to know them as individuals on both a personal and educational level! It was also great the way you had the student in your second conference hold himself accountable for his errors...especially when the are non-negotiables such as capitalization and punctuation at the beginning and end of sentences.
ReplyDelete