Conferring With Readers and Writers

Ahh, I have still been searching for the best way to confer with readers and writers.  I was surfing on different teacher blogs and came across a great idea of using labels to keep the notes.  I wish I could find her blog now. :( 

When I confer with a student my job is to teach a min-lesson within that moment that will go with him as a reader or writer.   

Conferring is a time to do the following

1) Build rapport.
2) Research the teaching point.
3) Compliment
4)Teach
5)Send to read or write.

 I am really loving my lables.  They fit Avery 8660 .

Conferring Labels

Conferring With My Writers

Conferring time has become one of my favorite pieces of the writer's workshop.  It's taken me a few years, but I've finally figured out what works for me.  I make appointments with all my kids M-TH.  Each day I meet with 5-6 students.  These are the same each week.  Before I begin conferecing I ask if anyone would like to sign up for a conference. If I have a list, I will try to get to them after I finish with my scheduled appointments.  Typically at the beginning of the year not many students request one, but by the end of the year it can get quite long. The format I use when keeping notes is below.

Basic Conference Form for a Student

During my conferences, I stick with teaching one thing. This one thing will need to be something that will make them grow in their writing craft.  We discuss their writing goal and look for evidence that they are working on it withing the piece they share with me.

This time is something that I have grown to cherish. What is your favorite time in writer's workshop?

Literacy Workshop is up and running....

My students have completed their first piece for me which I use as a baseline to create the rest of the nine weeks lessons. This year my focus is on making my conferring sessions count. Last year I felt so rushed trying to get to all the writers who wanted to meet with me, so I thought it through and came up with a schedule for my writers. I meet with six-seven writers a day Monday-Thursday. Then another six-seven students have an opportunity to visit with a "Guest Conferrer." Many times it is a parent who has volunteered to come in. I wrote a letter to the helper with their own conferring sheet and they meet with a writer also. So on a typical day 12 of my students (roughly 1/2 the class) talk about their writing with an adult. I love it!!! This week was my first week to start the "Guest Conferrer" and it has been a huge success. I highly recommend it. In fact, one day my principal was the guest conferrer and I called Student A up to confer with me and she said, "Well, actually Ms. S, I would prefer to meet with Ms. Sumner!" I giggled and explained while she was welcome to visit with Ms. Sumner, if there was time, I needed to meet with her because I had a special lesson in mind that was just for her.

If you would like to get this started feel free to adapt my letter and conferring records. The conferring record template was from Stacy and Two Writing Teachers and I tweaked it for my needs in the classroom.


Guest Conferrer Record for Meeting With Student

Classroom Helper

Parent Letter Asking for Volunteers
Parent Letter for Conferring

Conversations With a Writing Partner

On Friday, my afternoon class and I were looking at Antwone Fischer's poems as mentor text to write a poem that day. We talked about the significance of the repetitive line in the poem. I hadn't written my poem yet and I brainstormed from my heart topics that we had done earlier that day. "Ms. Snow, I think you should write about being a mother. You talk alot about that," said D. He and I talked for a couple of more minutes about the "meaning" for my poem. The first repetitive line he gave me~"Who thought being a mother could be so hard." As a result of us conferring the poem below bloomed.

Motherhood

Mothers are fearless,
They never doubt,
What do I do for her?
Tiny hands, tiny feet,
Will I be a good mother?

Mothers know the answers,
They never doubt.
Will I know what to do when she is sick?
Wheezing, fevers at midnight,
Am I a good mother?

Mothers are all knowing,
They never doubt.
What will I say when she is asked out for her first date?
First kisses, first heartbreaks,
Am I a good mother?

Questions aren't always answered,
Mistakes are made,
Listening to your heart,
Trusting your child,

I am a mother.

~LYS~

Strategic Mini-lessons

Today students responded to a simple statement by writing their name where they felt they belonged. They had two choices: I have written at least 1 story to support each topic sentence and I am still writing stories to support each topic sentence. Yesterday's lesson was on revising so I sent the first group to continue and I will confer with them tomorrow. The second group continued working on the importance of writing specific stories to support our topic sentences. I was able to confer with all 12 of the students in the morning group. In the afternoon, I was only able to confer with six of my kids, but was able to reteach the importance of specific stories to support our topic sentences.

Tomorrow we will have a whole group lesson involving using other sources to gain examples to support our topic sentences!

Love Lucy's Units of Study. I just found out today that one of Lucy's developers is coming to our site at our professional day on Feb. 16. I am so excited. After seeing Lucy in November and in my second year of the Units of Study...I can't wait to see what other exciting things they have to offer.

Great Conferences

What a fantastic Monday! My conferences were fantastic as I visited with over half of my class. I had one other teacher come in to help, so that all who wanted to talk with a teacher today could. I really tried to keep in mind the points Ruth and Stacey made last week. I made sure that each student received what I liked best and the teaching point. Most students were still not restating their topic sentence at the end of their mini-stories. I don't believe anyone felt deflated...all kept writing even after I left.

One funny story...one of my young ladies was writing about her favorite pet and that you can't leave them alone. Only in my classroom would you hear about a dog peeing on the carpet, but that being said...I wish you could have heard her voice in the piece and it was an essay piece. It just goes to show you can have great writing even within an essay. Genre does not matter; creating great writers matters.

Flooding with Teachers

On Monday, my classroom will be trying something relatively new. I noticed last week there was not enough of me to go around during conferring time. They were excited about their essays and wanted to confer, but I wasn't able to get to them. So on Monday I am "flooding" my classroom with teachers for my students to confer with. Three other teachers will be coming into my room to confer with students. I have identified some that I was not able to meet with last week and those that need to meet again. We will be looking for the following

1. Are the thesis statement and topic sentences clear and concise?
2. Are the mini-stories supporting the topic sentences?
3. Does each story end with a restatement of the topic sentence?
4. What other ways do you feel you can grow your essay?
   

My students loved being able to talk with their writing partner and with me and I found this time was very valuable. I hated to not provide everyone an opportunity to visit with a teacher and hopefully my solution will help identify any problems they are still having with building the frame of their essays.

Big Picture Series: Response Day 1

From the Two Writing Teachers

Challenge:

Today take note of the body language of each student you confer with. As the conference continues are they becoming lifeless or engaged? Is their pencil itching to continue working on the page or do they begin fiddling inside their desks, looking for a pencil sharpener or an extra eraser or anything else to avoid the writing? Record your observations before moving to your next conference.



Reflective Journal:

What did you notice about your students’ demeanors after they had a conversation with you about their writing? If there were different reactions, what do you think
made the difference? Consider if you taught writers or writing today. Which did you teach yesterday? How can you ensure that tomorrow (and everyday after for-the-rest-of-your-life) you will teach writers, not the writing?

To me conferring isn't about "correcting" their writing. When I was in Dallas at a writing conference that Lucy Calkins presented she said something very profound and I heard several other teachers comment also. If the student's published piece is significantly more advanced than their entries in their notebooks you wrote the piece during the conferring session. Several of my colleagues have now been looking at Carl Andersons work and restructuring this time.

One of things that really helps me is to think of them as a person or my own writing partner. How do I want them to feel after they leave this session? My answer...empowered as a writer. To continue to write; not give up.

Tomorrow as I work with students on their thesis statements I plan to take note of their body language as we progress into the drafting process of a genre that makes some of them uncomfortable.

Hopefully, when conferring with students they feel we are in this together and not the teacher pointing out all of the mistakes. This may be a good survey question to ask the kids.