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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I do not really have a writer’s workshop set up this year, and so my students are working on an assigned research project on an endangered animal. Currently, the girls are writing their own reports.
ReplyDeleteI conferenced, ala Regie Routman, with two girls: Rula and Zaynah. I started with Rula, and first I asked what she had written so far. She had written 4 paragraphs already. I had her read her work, and she was able to read it pretty easily, mainly because she had not made any changes to her draft at all. She did, however, very much follow the Step-Up to Writing format (Green = topic sentence, yellow = detail/fact, red = elaborations/examples/explanations), so that is what I complimented her on. She was very proud. Then I asked Rula if she thought her reader would be satisfied with the information she had shared about her animals feeding habits. [She had just shared what it ate, but no details such as how it hunted. Since her animal was the red wolf, I felt she was missing some interesting stuff!] I asked her to go back and check her notes and see what else she had found when researching. She had made a really short note about hunting, and when I asked her about that, she had to really think back! But eventually she did remember some of what she had read and so I asked her if her reader might want to know that. Rula thought that she should add it. I then had her read her other two body paragraphs again, because they were just as spartan as her first. We agreed that a good goal for her was to reread her paragraphs again, and add some more interesting examples or elaboration. She would also be careful to do the same with her remaining paragraphs. I probably spent too much time with her. Okay, I did spend too much time with her! It was hard to cut our conversation short. I will have to work on that.
The second conference was with Zaynah. I pretty much followed the same format, complimenting, discussing something that she needed to work on, and setting a goal. She is not, however, writing a traditional report. I wanted to offer her a challenge by way of differentiation, and so she is attempting to share her facts about the sea otter in a story (similar to Diary of a Worm by Doreen Cronin). She had incorporated some humor into her story, so that is what I complimented, but she was not writing the diary entries in the first person. So we talked about diaries/journals, and how they usually sound. She laughed when she realized she knew they should be written in first person, and we set the goal for her to change all of her diary entries. She was concerned about not being able to share some of the information she had gathered in her diary entries, and asked if she could do drawings with little captions, like in Diary of a Worm. I agreed that would be a great idea.
I have to say, that even though I have met with my students before about their writing, these conferences felt really good. Maybe there is something about just being really intentional, knowing what the format for the conference will be. I also know that tomorrow during writing time, I will have a mini-lesson on rereading what we have written and checking to see if we are telling the interesting stuff or just the boring facts. I will also continue to meet with students one-on-one. Not sure if I am going to do one in front of the class yet. That may have to wait for poetry!
YEAH! We are always so excited when teachers share that they liked the conferencing format. I said it before, Jackie and I also struggle with time and it will get easier the more you do it. So I wouldn't worry so much about spending more time with the students. They are learning the format as well as you are. Over time you'll be able to get faster and keep it shorter, right now just get comfortable with the process.
ReplyDeleteStudents absolutely love this one on one time with the teacher and as you pointed out, it is so informative for the teacher. Conferring quickly and easily lets the teacher know where the students are and if a minilesson is needed or a strategy group needs to be pulled for support.
:D Glad the assignment was worthwhile for you!
Oh, I also meant to say that I LOVE that Zaynah wanted to add pictures and captions to fit more information into her story. You should be sure to keep a copy of it for your records! :D If you can share her finished story with the other students I'm sure they would be inspired to try it out as well.
ReplyDeleteThank you ~ I really loved her enthusiasm as well. She and Zeinab were the only two girls who took me up on the challenge of writing their facts in a story (even though I opened it up to several). They both were very proud, and the other girls loved their books, too. We just finished up the Reading Buddy Share with these, and I would not be surprised in the next couple of weeks if someone else tries out a book format for her animal facts! :)
ReplyDeleteI am writing a bit out of order, our school year ended a week earlier than usual due to budget constraints... Oh the ups and downs of teaching!
ReplyDeleteI try to make myself very available and approachable for students to ask questions, share writing, seek help, etc. during our writing time. Most want me to simply tell them what is spelled incorrectly and put commas in the right places for them. I usually ask students to give me their best spelling attempt before I help them spell things or bring a piece of paper with their correction for me to check. As far as the conferencing in the Regie style, I greatly appreciated the simplicity of the design.
I talked with one student, Madelynn, this week (amidst closing down the classroom and final assessments...) about a piece that she had been working on off and on for a couple weeks as she had information to add. The piece was sort of narrative about her adventures getting and raising a pig for her 4H group and county fair. I had read the first half of the piece a week previous, but she had added some piggy updates and recent stories! I complimented her on great use of humor and voice to really keep the reader engaged and entertained by her work. She definitely had me wanting to know what happened after she tripped and landed in the poo pile! Then we talked about her next steps and I suggested that she take time to read her piece aloud to herself because I noticed some words that were accidentally left out and hearing the piece would likely help her fill those gaps. We also talked about organizing her piece, which was generally in a chronological format, but also the importance of making transitions in time clear to the reader. I explained that adjusting some of her paragraphs would probably lend themselves to a more comfortable reading experience for the audience. If we had more school year left, her goal we decided mutually was to work on reorganizing some of her sentences and getting all of her words on the paper!
As a whole take away, future planning, I thought that small group lessons or even whole class lessons on methods of organizing (especially depending on the purpose of your writing or the assignments) would be beneficial for students. We could even do a shared writing experience following the lessons to showcase what we talked about.
Overall, I enjoyed the conference format. Like Kathy mentioned, the conference seemed easier and more streamlined knowing what I intended to address or at least what to be thinking about. The conference lasted about 5 minutes, both of us talking in quickly and excitedly about the piece! Madelynn seemed nervous at first because I was open with her and told her I wanted to try a new conferencing style from the class I was taking, but she was game and by the time we ended, she had a smile and I could tell she was proud of the work she was accomplishing. Now to just visit the county fair to see the piggy in person! :)
Melissa ~ I would love to come see that little piggy myself! I couldn't help but smile about the poo pile! At the same time, I was sad to hear about your school having to close early. Oh, what kind of world would it be when closing schools due to a lack of funds would be unthinkable....
DeleteIt sounds like you are doing a great job with your students. I loved to hear (but was a little envious) that your students have so many on-going stories. *sigh, maybe next year for me! I will share one tool that my girls love, and that really has helped them with revision. It's the little 'telephone' that some teachers make out of short pieces of PVC pipe and two curved pieces (one on each end). You can also buy them in some teacher stores. As I said, these have really helped my girls 'hear' their work better than simply reading to a friend or out loud to themselves.
Since my school isn't out until June 26,I have to say, shock aside, I am a teensy, weensy bit jealous! ;)
Oh yes! The little phones, we have them in our Title/Reading room, but since we are only Title 1 K-3 our students don't receive the benefit of those funds. It may just have to be a summer project to construct my own on the cheap! I have talked with other teachers that are big fans of these little devices so I am excited to give them a try!
DeleteAlthough it is nice to be on summer break officially, we both know that teachers count down more than kids, but yes the shorter year is a bummer for student learning and perhaps selfishly our wallets... You only have 3 weeks left! Countdowns can begin! :)
Melissa,
DeleteSo glad that the conference went well. That's the beauty of conferring, you gain so much knowledge in such a short time that can direct your instruction. From deciding if you need to pull strategy groups or whole group lessons, conferring not only is so informative but students love the one on one time with their teacher.
And I also enjoyed hearing about the piggy and the poo. :D
I also am finishing up my year so my conferences were a little different due to the fact we were writing speeches. So with that format I had told them that were focusing on the content of their speech and not as much on the conventions. I had a similar format to Regie’s, but I didn’t write anything down. I usually just conferenced by talking with the student about what they were working on, then had them read the part they were working on that day, and then give them a compliment and a tip. So this time I tried to use the whole conference template. I made my own little sheets that I could use and give to them as feedback, just like the one on the assignment sheet. I worked with one girl named Emma. Emma is a TAG student, and I didn’t choose her because of that, I chose her because she has a different writing style and has trouble staying focused on her writing and not just writing whatever she thought of at that moment, or writing like she was in a conversation.
ReplyDeleteI asked her what she was working on and that morning and she said that she was working on making her introduction interesting and also including a topic sentence. I complimented her on her topic sentence being very clear and to the point. I told her that it told me exactly what she was going to be talking about in her speech. As I had her read me back her introduction I asked her if it was ok if I read the intro to her. She agreed and as I read it she frowned at me and then said that she didn’t like it. I asked her why and she said because it was boring and wasn’t interested in her own writing and then laughed at herself. We talked about what she could do to make it more interesting and about what she could do for next time. I really liked this conference because it showed me the growth from this student. At the beginning of the year, conferencing with her was a lot harder. As I tried to read things back to her or give her tips, she would say “No I like it my way.” Even though her way was excruciatingly preteen girl writing. With lots of like’s, text speak, and no focus. So now that she is finally opening up to safe criticism, she really is getting to be a better writer. I am really proud of her overall writing improvement, but most of all her ability to have a successful conference and get something out of it.
Hi Jessie,
ReplyDeleteDo you think keeping some notes on your conferences would be beneficial for you now that you tried it? I know unless I write things down, I forget them.
I'm sure you may all know this but I felt it was an ah-ha the first time I heard it. Leah Mermelstein shared that when she took notes during writers and readers workshops that she only wrote down things that surprised her or were new or unusual for the student. So if little Betty always uses descriptive sentences or has great leads, you don't need to note this. You already know this. Then this way your notes can all fit on one sheet because you are writing less. (Hopefully this makes sense. If not just let me know and I'll try to re-state it.)