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 ended up having two conferences with one student two separate times. This particular student has not enjoyed writing in quite some time and while the original intent of the conference was to discuss the writing task, it took quite a turn when we ended up discussing why she does not like writing. This particular student is in sixth grade and has an intellectual disability but is aware enough to realize that her third grade sister has an easier time with her schoolwork – especially writing. This has led to her feeling discouraged and giving up. During our conference (which ended up lasting for about 10 minutes), we talked about how work will probably always be more challenging for her than her sister (and it is one of those “life isn’t fair” things we have to deal with). We also came up with a plan for an incentive program so that she can maintain motivation, even when it is hard. She found some stickers that she really likes and we decided that if she puts forth good effort during our writing time, she will earn one of the stickers. After this conference, I had high hopes for how it would impact her writing instruction. She has lacked intrinsic motivation for writing and the stickers will provide extrinsic motivation for her, which will hopefully help avoid her shutting down and refusing to work.
ReplyDeleteThe second conference was several days after the first conference. We have been celebrating Dr. Seuss and are studying poems. I had written a couplet in front of the class and the class had worked on a couplet together. The students were writing their own and I conferenced with this student because she wasn’t ready to write a couplet on her own. She was getting stuck on what to write about and so we talked about some of the things she likes. At first, she was very resistant and was saying that she so I tossed out some ideas. She likes Katy Perry’s music so I suggested that she write about Katy Perry. She liked that idea and began thinking of words that rhyme with Perry. She wrote those on her own (though she needed some encouragement with regards to spelling). She had some ideas for the lines of the poem and we worked together (I wrote on sticky notes!) to come up with the lines that worked and fit her syllable count. It was exciting to see her get excited about writing. She said several times that she “wanted it to be funny” and was excited about coming up with silly rhymes. I ended up writing much of it on the sticky note, but she eagerly copied it onto her worksheet, which is a huge turnaround from when she used to refuse to write anything on her paper! Upon completion of her poem, she earned her sticker, something she was very proud of. These two conferences have already impacted her instruction as she is participating and not refusing or acting out. This, in turn, has impacted my classroom instruction because it has allowed me to work with other students instead of dealing with her behavior.
Meg,
ReplyDeleteThis is awesome! Thanks so much for sharing. Isn't it wonderful what a few minutes does for our students??? She just needed someone to listen to her and validate how she was feeling and to help her come up with a plan! YEAH! :D
In my first one-on-one conference, I was meeting with a student who struggles with writing and reading. She has a host of behaviors to avoid writing and even conferencing with me. For our conference, we were discussing her story about her birthday party at a bowling alley. When I first met with her, she didn’t have anything on the page and was insistant that she couldn’t do the writing. I asked her to tell me about the birthday party. At first I just listened and asked for clarifying details (questions to establish the setting, who else was there, was there cake, etc.) When she finished sharing the story, I repeated her beginning and asked if that was how she wanted to begin her written story. We tried out a few lines and then I jotted down her choice on a sticky note (thank Regie!) When she realized I was giving her some help with the actual writing, she sort of switched gears and then recited 3 very boring sentences - I won the game. It was fun – I tried to encourage her to incorporate the interesting language in her oral storytelling, but in order to do that, I continued to use sticky notes to jot down sentences and tricky words. Once we had most of it down, we organized the sticky notes and re-told the story to “lock it in” for her. This took a little longer, but she really needs a lot of scaffolding and, in the end, she was able to write the story and, just as importantly, read it back to me and to a classmate.
ReplyDeleteA recent quick conference with another student, a more enthusiastic writer, was actually focused on sense-making and spelling. This student writes a lot, but doesn’t really re-read or attend to details. In this conference, I asked her to read her story aloud and then I guided her through fixing up some parts that were repeating and in a confusing order. I asked a some questions and then helped her decide what to cross out and reminded her of how to use a caret. Then, channeling Regie, we tackled a couple of high frequency words that she should have (went and was.) As soon as I pointed them out, she knew exactly what she needed to do to fix them (vowel sound for both) and so I told her that from now on she needed to spell those correctly in all her writing because she and I both knew she could do it. We’ll see how that goes!
Sounds like two successful conferences. Jackie and I really work at keeping our conferences short. So going over and starting to build that trusting relationship with your first student is time well spent. Eventually, you'll be able to avoid the battle in the beginning and just get down to the business of writing. :D
ReplyDelete