ASSIGNMENT SEVEN: Student Writing Conference - Choose one or two children (classroom students, relatives, neighbors...) 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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Writing Conferences: Sacrament Poems
ReplyDeleteInstead of giving my religion students a multiple-choice test on the seven Catholic sacraments, I had them use their notes to create a poem of 8-12 lines with the purpose of showing what was most important from the chapter. The first step was for each student to look through his/her notes to find (a) main ideas and (b) poetic language. In order to do this, I reviewed with them some basic poetic elements (like alliteration). Once students located pertinent words/phrases, they strung them together as best they could for a rough draft. After taking the rough drafts home to look them over, I asked each student to come up for a mini-conference. With 30 students in the class, I did not have time to meet with each student on the first day. [Students were asked to confer with one another for comments and/or suggestions for their poems and revise/edit while I was working with individuals.]
I like to have the student take the reins in writing conference, so I usually start by asking where they are in a piece, to walk me through it, what they like, what they are having difficulty with, etc. Based on their analysis (and additionally from my reading), I give compliments and suggestions to help move them along. The goal is always to incorporate these changes into the next draft of a piece. As is the case with most conferences, I have a difficult time restraining myself. As a trained editor, I usually provide more suggestions than compliments. This is helpful for their writing development; however, it is not always so easy on them emotionally as students are usually emotionally attached to a piece, even a sacrament poem, as they are the author.
Overall, my conferences went well. Students, for the most part, appreciate the approach and the assistance. We both enjoy having the opportunity to share our thoughts on the meaning and process. Individual conferences are nothing new to my students, and they sometimes take advantage of that. For example, knowing that I am tied up working one-on-one with a student, others may not focus on the task at hand, preferring to enjoy social time with their neighbors instead. Any suggestions?
Hi Jennifer,
ReplyDeleteI would speak directly to the class about your expectations and that you are noticing students aren't staying on task. I'd explain how this keeps you from giving your full attention to the student you are conferring with. I would model, again, and role play and ask the students for suggestions for the students who continue to drift off task. (Sometimes students have great ideas.) Then I would also consider moving your chronic drifters to an area close to you. Maybe a special desk or even the same table if need be. (I would think after a couple of days of modeling and role playing you would only have one or two who continue to drift off task.) If need be and it continues even past your reminders and redirection, maybe a buddy class or work time in the office might help the student to focus and set their priorities.
As we said, even with older students, teachers will need to remind, redirect and practice as the year goes on and after breaks and vacations.
Hi Jennifer,
ReplyDeleteIt's hard for me to hear that your students(I know they are much older than my Second Graders) talking during this time. I always talk about how important it is to be quiet during writing so we can all hear our thoughts. I thought I was training them for the future but I guess it never ends!
Eileen Wali
ReplyDeleteI have a Somalian girl in my class that I have chosen to share a few of my conferences with because I am the most proud of her writing. First Grade was her first school experience and she comes from a large family so I know help at home is not happening. At the beginning of the school year she could barely write a sentence without struggling. I have spent many hours next to her painfully prodding her to write. If I didn’t I would have nothing from her. I am not kidding, she is stubborn.
We have been working on a poetry book for the past two weeks. My goal was to publish five different types of poems in two weeks. We wrote a limerick, shape, diamond, I am, and an acrostic poem. I would be happy if my struggling students published 3. I saved the limerick for last because I knew they would have trouble rhyming and writing a mini story all in one. We started out with a shape poem and I knew she would enjoy this because she likes to draw and it’s pretty easy to write a few sentences about something you like. I let her work and walked over when I knew she had something and I saw that she had drawn and colored a beautiful strawberry and had great sentences about how much she loved strawberries. I praised her for writing a great poem and she glowed. The next poem was an acrostic poem and she again wrote one on her own about her friend. She had clever words and sentences and I told her I loved it and thought it was very sweet that she wrote a poem about her friend. Our next one was a diamond poem and I had mapped out the poem for them on the board. For example line 2, 2 adjectives describing the noun, line 3 has 3 verbs etc. I saw Naima struggling so I asked her to think of two simple nouns that she likes. She wanted to do dog, cat so I had to sit with her the entire time and help her but not give her words on each line. It was difficult but I was happy she was working. She finished and I told her I was amazed that she found great adjectives and verbs. I gave her many high fives. I was nervous for her to write a limerick but I let her try on her own. I came to her after about 30 minutes (the whole class was struggling). She had already completed her poem and wrote a darn good one! All of the correct lines rhymed. She did it and we jumped up together and high fived! I secretly told her I thought it was one of the best poems in the class. It really was. I am hoping she continues to make progress and I can see when I praise her she becomes so confident.
Assignment #7: Student Writing Conference
ReplyDeleteI conferenced with my “short story” students (9 high schoolers) about the first drafts of their short stories. I met with each of them one-on-one outside my classroom door. The door has a window so I can keep an eye on the class and meet with students without the rest of the class overhearing. The students in the classroom were working on their revised drafts and/or beginning another story.
I decided to begin each conference by summarizing what I understand each story to be about. I asked questions about the story next. Basically, we begin by clarifying anything that needs to be clarified. I asked students to tell me what they like about their story. I gave them feedback about what I especially like. For example, one student did a great job with realistic dialogue and with a “grabber” opening line; another wrote in the third person, which is challenging (most students write in the first person). I tried to communicate what I felt when I read certain scenes or the overall story; sometimes this was difficult because I didn’t genuinely feel affected.
I noticed that many of my students did not include enough descriptive language. Some got hung up on describing setting, but most left too much to be inferred. I tried to let students show me places where they could add more detail. I decided to go back to descriptive writing for a whole-class lesson.
I think it is important to identify patterns when conferencing with individual students. I tried to notice recurring errors in conventions that I could turn into mini lessons. Quite a few of my students were not writing dialogue in the conventional way, with new paragraphs for each new speaker and proper punctuation. I am glad that they all included dialogue, but it was obvious that we needed to spend more time formatting it.
I tried revising leads with a two of my students. I asked them to experiment with another lead, just to see what might happen. This was a successful suggestion and I think posing it as simply an “experiment” is a good way to lessen the stakes.
One student was resistant to any suggestions. He did not want to make any changes to his content. He was okay with making changes to format, but he felt very attached to his words on the page exactly as they are. I asked him to clarify what he meant by certain phrases and paragraphs and I suggested (gently) what he might try in order to make his story more understandable and more powerful. I think maybe he felt on the spot having a one-on-one with me, and so he put up his guard (he is a pretty guarded, defensive personality to begin with; he resists change and has Aspberger’s). I gave him lots of positive feedback and encouragement, and I tried to give three clear suggestions that I wanted him to work on. We’ll see if it worked!
Eileen,
ReplyDeleteIt is so exciting as an educator to see the growth in our students, especially ones that struggle and may not have support at home. It sounds like your student is on her way to becoming a more successful writer and student. (By the way I am no good at writing limericks but have seen my students create such clever ones. ;))
Jordia,
I’m sure your students appreciated the privacy of their conference with you. It’s great you can view your class while conferring from the hall. We also feel that part of the benefit of conferences is that teachers are able to see trends in the class and can easily pull a strategy group or decide to do a mini or whole group lesson. Students do tend to become very attached to their work, but it sounds like you handled this situation just right. First by praising and then by offering ways the author could make the writing even more powerful and clear for the audience so their meaning and intention come clearly come across to the reader.
For the conferencing assignment I worked with two of my third graders on a fictional narrative. I followed the above agenda and it went very well. They both responded to my questions and suggestions very well. When I was working with one of my students I realized that he had a character whose name was Thomas and a narrator. The only problem was that sometimes he would make Thomas the narrator and then start using dialogue for Thomas as well. I offered the suggestion that he make Thomas just a character and stick with just the one narrator. He was very receptive to this advice and it really helped his story. I often think that kids get so excited while writing that they often forget or overlook the simple mistakes. From working this student I was able to then teach a mini lesson on dialogue. I was so surprised with how many of my students were struggling in this area.
ReplyDeleteThe second student that I worked with needed quite a bit of help. Her story had great ideas but it sounded like a shopping list. I read her story aloud to her and then offered the suggestion of breaking up the list into different important parts. She tends to just write facts but never use the detail that’s needed to develop a story. She liked that suggestion and went through and picked the three most important areas to her. This allowed us to also work on paragraphs and details that support the topic. I was very impressed with how her story changed after out work together.
I really enjoyed this assignment and it let me see how truly easy conferencing with students can be. Not only is it easy but it is so effective. I can’t wait to continue implementing this practice into my everyday teaching! Conferencing will impact my whole group instruction because I can work with students individually and see the areas that they need work on. After seeing where they may need some help I can take it back to the whole class and teach a mini lesson. This will be extremely effective and it doesn’t put any students on the spot. I also would like to try conferencing with a couple students at a time. I think it would be less intimidating and would be a great way for the kids to learn from their peers. Have you found this effective? I would love to hear other ideas or strategies.
For this conference, I met with our 14 year-old son, Connor.
ReplyDeleteQuestion: What are you working on?
“For my game design class, I had to write an essay about one of the characters in the game I’m creating. I have to describe all of the physical and mental attributes and talk about how the character may evolve throughout the game when a player levels up or gains experience points.”
(I asked Connor to read aloud to me his work. He reluctantly complied.)
Compliment:
As Connor read I was really impressed with his word choice. He used great descriptive words that left me with a deep understanding of the character he was describing. I highlighted some of the most memorable language and told him the impact it had on me, the reader. As I pointed things out, he shared some of his reasons behind various choices. It was interesting to see the level of thought that went into this particular piece. Without a conference, I’m not sure I would have known that he was so thoughtful about his choices.
Teaching Point:
I’ve been noticing that Connor has been dabbling in the use of sarcasm and satire in his writing. He’s pretty knowledgeable about, and interested in, politics and World events, so I can understand why he’s working to incorporate these things into his writing; but I have seen it, at times, become more of a distraction in his writing rather than something that is enhancing his writing. One particular line in this piece was really distracting and seemingly out of place. So I pointed it out and talked with him about maintaining his credibility with a wide audience by being very judicious in how he uses sarcasm or political satire. From there, we worked together to revise the sentence in question so that his general idea was still in tact, but in a way that was not distracting to potential audiences. I felt confident that he understood my point.
For Next Time:
Connor has been reluctant to read aloud his own work. As he read to me during this conference, he was able to hear a few areas of his writing that needed some work. We decided to set a goal to have him make this a regular part of his writing process.
I definitely see the value in conferencing with students about their writing. It’s an opportunity for the student to learn something about writing, but, perhaps more importantly for me in this case, it’s also an opportunity for the teacher to learn something about the writer and how they work.
Assignment 7 – The Writing Conference
ReplyDeleteI have done quite a few writing conferences this week as we are working on sending our next batch of pen pal letters. As students were ready to turn in their letter, they came to me a the back table where I was meeting for short conferences with each student, quickly going over what they had written. I started out with at least one compliment. This was an especially useful thing to keep in my head around the couple of students who are just trying to rush through their work and thus not producing the best product. I get frustrated with them so I know that starting out with a compliment left us both in a better frame of mind to communicate during the rest of the conference. With some of the students, I left them with two goals but I noted where they needed to make the corrections. These were all either using lowercase letters appropriately or spelling word wall words correctly. I made a little dot to show them what to fix and we talked about what they needed to do. With most of the kids, this worked great. I noticed with some of the kids that this was a great time to do some shared writing. We were able to look at some of their sentences and “fix them up” together. We were able to really work on punctuation together too where I would read their work and they would be noticing where and what kind of punctuation needed to be included. I really enjoyed these conferences. I told the kids that after we conferenced they could get a nice piece of paper to do a picture so I made sure that I met with everyone before they turned in their final product. The kids that had finished their assigned letters were working on other stories etc. so when they finished those, I didn’t conference with them but just had them turn in to my in-box. Those are ones I can just review but generally don’t seem to need to make comments on as they have already gotten feedback from me on their other assignments. My plan is when I have given a specific assignment that will be “published” I will maintain my quick conferences at the back table as kids are finishing. When they are just doing their own writing, I will wander the classroom and jump in to quick conferences as they are writing.
Hi Brittany,
ReplyDeleteDialogue is a tricky thing for students. We’re so glad that you found conferring easy and informative. (This is one reason we require all students to do this assignment, even in the summer or if they aren’t currently teaching…we want everyone to see how easy it is and that teachers can learn so much in such a brief amount of time. Plus students just love the one-on-one time with the teacher.) I haven’t tried conferring with more than one student at a time because I know how much children love the individual attention of their teacher, but it is very powerful for other students to hear the conference because they pick up on the teaching points and often apply them to their own work. This also happens as the teacher roams the room and has a mini conference with students as they are working.
Sarah,
We’re so glad you were able to have the opportunity to work with your son on one of his pieces. Your teaching points were excellent. We also see conferring as an opportunity for the teacher to learn about the student, which is so important.
Hello Ann,
We’re glad you and your students enjoyed the conferences. I find it is useful to have a format (like the conferring one) especially for those students who can push our buttons. They deserve to have compliments as much as the rest of the class and may, in fact, need them more.