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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Assignment 7-
ReplyDeleteI reached outside a bit outside my comfort zone for this activity. I am not currently in contact with my 7th and 8th grade students as they are on summer break. I borrowed an avid reader and writer from a good friend. His son, Soren, is in second grade and goes to Spanish immersion daycare when he is not in school. The conference date was 8-6-12. I asked Soren to write a story about his summer. This was fairly a fairly engaging and easy task for Soren. He clearly enjoys writing.
The conference part went well. It felt a little bit forced because I think he was trying to perform well for his dads’ friend and he was doing it in front of his parents. I would imagine that Soren would serve as a good model conference. I think I would start with a student like Soren because he seems like he has confidedence. He responded really well to the positive comments and the teaching point. I tried to teach him to share more with the parts of the summer vacation that he liked best. He got a little bogged down in listing everything that he did. I think this message also applies to middle school students as well. Middle school kids will try and get away with writing “filler” rather than writing a clever and descriptive piece. They seem to think that teachers are grading on the number of words.
I think that student conferences are a good way to do efficient instruction. It seems that it is also helpful to do it this way because it is focused on student need. After the instructor reads a handful of writing, he or she could then decide on a mini-lesson that fits what the kids need to work on. I look forward to trying this out in my classroom.
I met with Rowan, I former student and first grader, on August 8th. I had her do a writing piece about something she’s done so far this summer.
ReplyDeleteAfter talking with her about some ideas (as I will with my students), and giving her some independent time to write, I met with her to start a conference. After engaging her about what she’d written and complimenting her on starting with a very interesting beginning that a reader would be curious to learn more about, I dove into the Teaching Point. For Rowan, it was making her writing more clear. She had written, “Mom and me and Zach were at home then we bought toothpaste and at camp we were pirates.” I helped her turn these into three separate sentences, clean up the language on the first, clarify the “where” on the second, and include details on the third. Now, as I reflect, this was quite a bit to do for one little girl in one conference, and I wonder if I’ll even have that 10 minutes to spend on each student during our 20 minutes of writing time.
I was curious when I got to the “FNT” and I’d like some help on this point. Is this my last message to her about what I’ll be checking on next time (i.e. “Rowan, next time I want you to read it to yourself out loud to see if it makes sense”) or if it’s a note to myself re: what to check on when I come around to her again?
Overall, I appreciated the format of four points, because I tend to get to the first three, but ignore the second. I’ll be much more effective as a teacher if I use all four steps.
This assignment was a little different for me as I am not currently teaching students because of summer break. I also discovered that all the kids I really know and see on a regular basis are 4 years old and under which is younger than writing age. However, my sister-in-law and her kids came to visit us from Wisconsin for a couple of weeks and I seized the opportunity to have my 9 year old nephew Isaac write a story for me. Since they had just taken a road trip across the country he chose to write about that.
ReplyDeleteThe conference started out a little awkward because I think it was weird for Isaac to see me acting like a teacher and not just Aunt Julie but he did a great job playing along with me. I realized that I was much more aware of what I was saying during this conference. When Isaac was telling me about his writing and also reading it to me I was much more focused on the story rather than the structure. I really wanted to make sure to celebrate his writing wherever possible. I quickly found my teaching point for Isaac. He had absolutely listed we did this, then this, after that we went here. I told him that good writers include details that make the story interesting for the reader. I asked him if he enjoyed his road trip and he said, "yes!" Then I asked him what made the trip so fun? Once he heard that he started telling me about all the little things he and his siblings did to stay entertained on the way. We talked about his real story being about the trip and his time he had with his siblings, not just a list on where they went. We worked on putting some of his own thoughts and language into his writing, I used the post it idea and found it to work well. I sent him off to work at the other items in his story to see if any of them had a story in them that could be developed.
The big thing that stood out for me in this conference was I really paid attention to the story he was trying to tell and celebrated him as a writer. This conference felt much more productive than most of the conferences I have had and I could tell Isaac was excited to tell me about his trip. I am going to really switch my focus to the story as a whole this up coming year rather than focusing on a structure. I am really excited to try this "new" type of conference in my classroom setting with 30 plus students.
Glad everyone had a successful experience with conferring. It is a great way to focus on student's needs.
ReplyDeleteJackie uses FNT as a note for herself for what she wants to check in with the student about at the next conference. But you can use it to note what goal you and the student decided they would be working on. There’s not just one way to use it. Use whatever modification or way that works best for you.
Assignment 7
ReplyDeleteThis was a fun assignment! Since I am not in my classroom I had to drum up a student. Luckily, my kiddos and the neighbor kiddos are having a writing group this summer. They are going on small adventures and then writing about them. My daughter, who is 12 years old, goes through and edits their work. I knew immediately when I read this assignment I could use this to my advantage.
I used my son to conference with. He is 7 years old, almost 8, and going into 3rd grade. He went to dinner with the neighbors and then wrote about it. He had written this piece in a spiral my daughter provided for each of the kids. He had written it about 4 days before. I began by having him read it aloud to me. I told him he wrote a nice conclusion that let the reader know the piece was over (compliment). I then I asked him to clarify a few sentences and to give me some more information about a few things he wrote about (teaching point – adding details). He readily gave me lots of details that he hadn’t included in the piece. I wrote the ideas on note cards exactly as he said them. He then went through the story and decided where the details he had told me should be put. We put numbers where he wanted to insert the details. Then we numbered the note cards to match. He then read through the whole piece and inserted the details where the numbers were. He was very pleased with the end result. At this point, I also noticed that he didn’t have smooth transitions and that could be the next step for him (For Next Time). We did brainstorm some transition words and played around with where to add them.
This was a great practice session for me! I love that the conference focused on the content of the story and did not even touch on the editing aspect. My son was so much more engaged and willing to make changes because he realized that we were not correcting but making his writing more interesting for the reader. I made that the focus and he was engaged in that process. When I think back to my classroom I always focus on the editing aspect and then if time get to the revision piece. This will make my conferences so much more interesting and appropriate for my students.
I will try to conference with one of the neighbor kids and add that later…
Ps. In the instructions for this assignment it mentions Attachment 1 and Attachment 2. I am not sure where these are?
This assignment was a little tricky for me as it is summer break and I don't have a lot of access to school aged kids. We did go visit my nieces however and so I decided to conference with them. One of them is almost 8 and going into second grade. The other is 5 and going into Kindergarten. We all sat down together and talked about their Uncles wedding they were just flower girls in. They were both very excited about writing about it. Bree's (7) was the writing I really wanted to focus on and Brooke (5) decided that she was going to make a list about things that she liked about being in a wedding.
ReplyDeleteAfter the girls wrote they were both very excited to share. I let Brooke share her list first. It contained words and pictures of the words that she didn't know how to spell. She wanted to write about her pretty dress that she got to wear and instead of writing the words she decided to draw a picture. She also wrote “cak” and “dans.” She liked the cake and dancing. At the bottom was a picture of the hotel they got to stay in. Brooke and I talked about how she included very important details about the wedding on her list. Brooke and I also talked about other things that she liked about the day and I added them to a post it for her. On a separate post it Brooke wanted to some ideas of other things she could make a list about. We brainstormed together and she came up with 14 other things she could make lists about and went to work on another one. I was very impressed and entertained by the great ideas she was able to come up with.
Bree is quite the little writer, she wrote seven sentences about the day. She read her piece to me and we talked about what great details she included. She talked about how long the wedding was (ceremony) and how it was hard to wait the whole time. She also said that she was nervous. Then she proceeded to talk about how much fun the reception was. Her and I talked about why was she nervous and I wrote the reasons she told me on post its. I also asked her why the reception was so much fun. I also wrote these down for her. When we finished conferencing she was off to add more details to her piece. We talked about why I asked her about why she was nervous and what was so much fun about the reception. As her reader, I was very interested in learning more about why she felt these things and that is why details are so important.
These conferences were a lot of fun for me. They let me do something with my nieces that I would never normally do. I am very excited about trying these with my students. I am a little concerned about how long I spent with each of them and getting through 30 kids but I also think with practice I will get faster/more efficient.
That is so cute that they have a writing group! Kristian we're so glad that you enjoyed this assignment. Yes, it makes a huge difference when the children see us as helping them improve the writing and not nit-picking about the mechanics.
ReplyDeleteAttachment 1 & 2 should be on the link to the course material that TINT sent you. These are just examples of what Jackie uses when she confers. If you can't find them let me know and I'll send you the links.
Oh MacKenzie,
I can just picture Brooke during the conference. 14 things to make lists about... Excellent! Glad you enjoyed the assignment as well. Don't be overly concerned with the time at first, get your feet wet and get comfortable. As you said with time and practice you will get faster.
Since I don’t have any school aged children in my life, I did this exercise with a bright 5-year-old girl named Elise who is starting kindergarten in the spring. While I think I definitely would have gotten more out of the exercise by doing it with a child who is a little older, it was still enjoyable and just enough illustrative of how the technique works that I could extrapolate its impact on an older child.
ReplyDeleteElise and I were coloring together and writing a story about a bear. Since her writing skills are minimal, it mostly involved pre-writing and talking out loud about her story (somewhat like the example of Mikaela on page 208). Elise is very articulate for her age and was able to include lots of details about what the bear was thinking and feeling and his environment (the mountains and river). We had a lot of fun “rawring” like bears together. I was still able to compliment her on details in her story, her letters, and early attempts at spelling. Even though she is very comfortable with me, I see that she is sometimes adverse to taking risks or afraid of “doing it wrong” which was a surprise coming from such a normally adventurous and experimental child. It was a reminder about how much these little growing spirits need encouragement. I ended up saying something like, “That’s okay. Sometimes I don’t know how to write things too, but that’s why we practice” when she was struggling with the word “bear.” I always made sure to compliment her efforts. Because of her young age, one of the teaching points I made had to do with writing words. I had to remind her (on words she didn’t know) to write her letters across the page rather than down. For setting goals, I just asked that she practice her new words “baby” and “bear” so that I could see her write them again next time we were together.
I checked my email and all of the attachments and could not find Attachment 1 & 2. Sorry! I would love it if you could forward it to me. Thanks and sorry for the inconvenience!
ReplyDeleteTiah,
ReplyDeletePerhaps you'll have an opportunity to try conferring with some older students this year. Sounds like this one went well.
Kristian,
I looked and you are right. It's not there. Sometimes the website is modified so I'm guessing the link was left off. I've let TINT know and hopefully they'll be back up soon. Sorry about that.