The Structure of a Conference

A few weeks ago, I presented an hour-long workshop to our district's elementary special education para-professionals. These are the people who work with our most struggling students, frequently in a one-to-one or small group setting. These people do intense and critically important work for our district, and, more importantly, for children.

One of the greatest challenges of their work is building independence with a population that tends to be dependent. As a district, we assign one-to-one para support only when a student is so impaired that he/she needs constant support. Therefore, talking to them about ways to build independence with their students seems almost like an impossibility--a foray into an oxymoron. That being said, I have been in classrooms since this workshop, and I have tried to help some of the paras figure out ways that they can move away from students, but have those students continue to get some writing done.

To have students, at any level, work successfully on their own, educators at all levels should understand the four components of an effective writing conference. The Teachers College Reading and Writing Project has an incredible collection of videos of instruction, including one of Jennifer Serravallo conferring with a fifth-grader about considering audience. While the skill may not be relevant for all elementary students, this short clip is a powerful example of the structure of a writing conference.

1. Research: Ask the student questions-

• "What are you working on?"
• "How is it going?"

During the research part of the conference, the student should be doing most of the talking. This is also an important time to remember that the teaching is about the student and not about the writing piece. If there are flaws in the writing piece (and there will be), we are not trying to make the piece better; we are trying to teach the student how to make this piece and future pieces better. 

2. Compliment: Find something specific to tell the student that he/she is doing well. I have found it extra effective to do this step loudly enough so that other students working in the immediate vicinity hear it and are reminded by it. Really effective comments can incorporate some of the teaching points from recent workshops.

• "You are working so hard to use proper capitalization rules! Look at how you have capitalized....!"
• "Look at the amount of writing you have done! You really have worked on our lesson of keeping your pencil moving--wow!"
• "Love that you are trying out different beginnings in your writing!"

If there's any step that is going to be forgotten by experienced conferrers, this is the one. However, especially as a guest teacher in the room, I can attest to the fact that the compliment is what makes the student malleable and receptive to the teaching point. When you watch the conference that Jennifer Serravallo gives in this video, you can watch the student absorb her compliment and become readier for her teaching. 

3. Teaching point: Both student and educator should walk away from the conference knowing the explicit learning that has happened  that will help not only the current piece of writing, but also future pieces of writing. This is a responsive moment in the conference, and an incredible opportunity for differentiation. It's not about the minilesson--it's about what that student needs at that time. Some examples, thinking across different grades and genres are:

• "I want to show you how writers stretch out words so that readers can read their pieces."
• "Let's take a bit of a challenge here. Sometimes writers slip in word for word quotes from books in order to make their points stronger."
• "When we write stories, sometimes writers slip in background information about characters within the action."

Whatever you decide to teach should be clear to the student and will be most effective if there are opportunities to practice the skill, if it within the zone of proximal development for the students, and if there is some kind of system for accountability.

4. Next Steps: Speaking of accountability, this is folded into next steps.

•  I love the line "I'll be back and I want to see the evidence of my great teaching." Students laugh at this one. 
• "Moving forward in your writing, you have a new challenge--here's what it is..."
• "I have a post-it and I'm writing down what you are working on so that you remember on this piece of writing and on future writing pieces, as well."

For students at any level, this is the point where the conference ends, the student has responsibility as a learner, and the educator steps away from the student. So often, especially with struggling students, educators stay with them throughout independent writing time, believing that these students won't write without them there and teaching the students that they can't write without them there. 

I created a chart that could help remembering the steps of a conference and I could even see teaching students with it. It is important for students, as well as educators, to know their responsibilities in a conference.

Conferring is a wonderful tool to use in order to build independent writers, and each step is so important to the end goal of stepping away from the student with a mutual understanding of purpose and intent.

Happy conferring,

Writing Partner Conversation Table

This summer, I wrote a post about A Quick Guide to Reviving Disengaged Writers by Chris Lehman and shared some ideas that I wanted to implement in my classroom this year.  One of the many ideas I have tried so far is creating a "Partner Conversation Table".  This is a designated spot where writing partners can meet to talk during writing workshop while others are writing.  In chapter 3 of the book, Chris Lehman shares ways to set up this routine and area in your classroom as well as a recording sheet partnerships can fill out if they use the partner spot during writing workshop. 

 In my classroom, writing partners have always met at the end of writing workshop to share and talk with one another, but they sometimes wanted to talk during writing workshop too.  So I had writing partners sit near one another while writing in case they needed advice or had a question for their partner.  However, some writing partnerships took advantage of this privilege and did more chatting than writing.  Some writers who needed a quiet space to write, were distracted by nearby conversations.  So when I read the idea that Chris Lehman shared about having a specific spot in the classroom for writing partners to meet while writing, I loved it. 

So this summer, I went on a hunt for the "perfect" partner conversation table and stools and found them at Ikea (I love that store by the way for classroom furniture!).  I set up the table, stools, clipboard with recording sheet, a timer, and sign that says "partner conversation table".  So now, in writing workshop, if a partnership wants to confer with one another, they go to this partner spot to have brief five minute conversation.  They set the timer for five minutes and begin their conversation.  Before leaving the "partner conversation table", they complete the recording sheet on the clipboard where they write their name, date, purpose of conversation, and where I can see benefits of the conversation.  This recording sheet holds the students accountable for their conference and also helps me form small groups and/or plan for conferences based on similar needs students have.  This "partner conversation table" has cut down on the chattiness throughout the room during writing workshop when students are independently writing, reinforces the purpose of a partner conference, helps students who need a quiet space to write, and holds partnerships accountable for purposeful talk.  The students love using this table to talk with their writing partners and feel "grown-up" when they ask their partner if they can confer with them at the table.  They also love using the table at other times during the day, other than writing workshop to work with partners.  

Partner Conversation Table 

Recording Sheet at Partner Conversation Table

Happy Writing and Conferring! :)

Teach the Writer, Not the Writing

In many of the classroom visits, I have had questions about conferring with students. Since one of the CCSS has to do with strengthening student writing, this is an important aspect of instruction since one of the Common Core anchor standards states that students will “develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach.”

An important point that I hear TC people say over and over and I think is incredibly important is “teach the writer, not the writing.”  I wrote this chart and I think that you will get the idea quickly.

Instead of …	Try…
What did you say, what did you hear?	Writers add details to help their readers share their experience. Is there a part where you could try this strategy out?
Have you described the setting? Where were you?	Writers let their readers know where their story is taking place. As a writer, how can you do that in your piece?
How did you feel during that time?	Writers include feelings in their writing. I’m wondering if there is a place where you can include some of the feelings that you had.
Right here is a good place for an anecdote.	We just had a mini-lesson on weaving stories into your writing. Is there a place where you could use this skill?

The difference is subtle but I think that the right side empowers students in important ways. First, it holds students accountable for the lessons that teachers are giving in their classrooms. At a recent Teachers College Reading and Writing Project workshop, Natalie Louis shared the line, “Where in your writing can I see the evidence of my teaching?” What a great line for making students aware that the teaching points are for them to use!  Additionally, the right side of the chart lets students know that these strategies should show up in future pieces, and not just in the current one because the teacher is suggesting it.

Independence and repertoire have been buzzwords from out TC staff developers. Talking to students about what writers do during conferences is a way to build repertoire. I’d love to hear other ways that you are building independence and repertoire in your writing classrooms.

Thursday is App Day: Using Confer app

For about the past 10 years, I have tweaked or created a whole new note-taking system each year to keep track of all my conference notes from my reading and writing workshops. I have used notebooks with a tab for each student, a binder with double spread pages displaying a box for each student to view whole class at one time, a binder with a tabbed section for each student with blank pages to stick the labels I used to write my conference notes, and the list goes on. Regardless of the system I used, I always used the same template of recording the "Compliment/Strength, Teaching Point, and Next Steps."   Last year, I was intrigued by the iPad so I finally went out and purchased my own when I discovered the Confer App existed that had the same template that I have been using on paper all these years!  After going on YouTube to view one of the Confer app tutorials of a teacher demonstrating step by step how to use the app to take notes on individual students and small groups, I was even more enticed and the decision to purchase an iPad was final. 

Although the Confer app now costs $14.99 (I paid $10.00 when I bought it last year) it is worth every penny! The Confer app enables you to import your class list multiple times so you can make a section for each subject area where you take notes on students (i.e. reading workshop, writing workshop, math, behavior, etc.).  You can take notes on individual students using the template of "Tag, Strength, Teaching Point, and Next Step" or you can take general notes without a template.  It also lets you view your students by name, date, reading level, tag, strength, teaching point, or next step. This allows you to easily see who you haven't conferred with in awhile, help plan instruction based on similar needs, and form small groups based on common next steps. 

When I used to use a paper and pen system, I always had difficulty finding an efficient way to take notes on my small groups because I found myself writing the same teaching point and information four different times (once for each student in the small group).  This is a non-issue now with the Confer app because you can check off the box in front of the four students you are meeting with in a small group and when you hit "add note" in the top right corner of the screen, it brings you to a small group page.  This small group page has the same template used for individual conferences, but this time all the notes you type in automatically goes into each individual students section so you only type it once!  This is such a timesaver and makes my notetaking more efficient and effective. 

The confer app also lets you email the data to yourself or to another colleague which makes sharing data with others much easier.  You can also upload your data now to a gmail account so you can make a spreadsheet of your notes too.  I absolutely love using the Confer app and am very grateful to David Lowe who developed it! If you haven't checked out this app yet, I highly recommend watching the YouTube videos or the tutorials and description of the app in the App Store. 

Happy Conferring! :)

Using Quick Assessments to Help Form Small Groups

Years ago, I met Jennifer Serravallo through the pages of her book, Conferring With Readers which gave me new insights into conferring.  It also helped me coach other teachers on their own conferring.  I’ve attended many of Jen’s workshop sessions at Teachers College over the years on conferring and small groups so I was thrilled when I heard she was writing a new book on Teaching Reading in Small Groups.  Of course I bought it as soon as it came out last year and tagged parts with multiple post-its and notes.  This year, our school is focusing on strengthening our small group instruction across grades and subjects and are reading Teaching Reading in Small Groups as a school book club.  So when I saw that Jen Serravallo was presenting a session at the TC Saturday Reunion titled:  Using Quick Assessments to be sure our small group work in reading has traction, I added it to my list of sessions! 

In addition to her two professional books, Jen Serravallo recently published  Independent Reading Assessment which is a new assessment resource through Scholastic. 

During this session, Jen talked about the many different forms of assessments that can be more powerful and informative than formative pencil and paper tests.

Some of the assessment examples she talked about are:

·        Reading logs

·        Engagement Inventory

·        Writing about reading (post-its and readers notebooks)

·        Conversations (partners, whole class, book clubs)

·        Comprehension continuums

Importance of Reading Logs:

Both teachers and students need to ask questions about the logs and notice patterns so they are purposeful, inform instruction, and are reflective tools.  Some possible questions and noticings are:

·    What is it about this series or author that you like so much?

·    Hmmm…I’m noticing that you are reading more when you are home than in school. Why do you think this is?

Engagement Inventory:

Jen developed this idea when she realized one day that her students were quiet during reading workshop, but doing everything they could to avoid reading.  She created an engagement inventory to document her observations of what kids were doing in 10 minute increments.  The engagement inventory is a class list document with 10 minute increments across the top and an abbreviation note-taking key on the bottom.  For example:

·   a check mark = engaged

·   W = looking out window

·   T = looking at teacher

·   NB = writing in notebook or on post-its

I began using this inventory in my classroom when I read about it in her book, Teaching Reading in Small Groups and it is very informative! Once you notice and make note of the avoidance behaviors, you can create and pull small groups to teach them strategies that can help strengthen their stamina and engagement as readers. 

Having Students Create Portfolio Pages of Post-its from Read Aloud:

One of Jen’s ideas is to have students create a portfolio page of post-its for each marking period to show their individual comprehension continuum and growth in specific comprehension skills.  Three times a year (beginning, middle, end of year), give students four specific prompts to jot down their thinking while you are reading aloud.  They jot down their thinking on individual post-its that you will collect at the end of the read aloud. 

Some comprehension skills that you can assess through the prompts are:

·    Visualization (Imagine what the character’s home is like and describe it OR Describe this scene using all of your senses)

·    Developing theories about characters (Describe what kind of person _____is OR What’s an idea you are having about _____)

·    Determining Themes/Lessons (Even though we aren’t at the end of the story, jot down what you are thinking so far about the theme/lesson/author’s message that you are learning)

·    Making Connections (What does this story remind you of?)

·    Questioning (What are you wondering right now?)

·    Predictions (Based on what you know about the character so far, what do you think s/he will do next or how will they react?)

·    Synthesis (Now that we finished the story, what are you left thinking about the characters? OR How has_____changed from the beginning to the end of this book? )

·    Empathy (Put yourself in the characters shoes and explain how s/he is feeling right now)

·    Interpretation (Why do you think the character acted or reacted in this way? What’s motivating or causing their behavior/actions? OR What is the story really about? )

After you collect all the students’ post-its, you can sort them into three piles for each skill based on their level (low, medium, high level of understanding of the skill).  So if you ask four prompts, you will have three piles of post-its for each of those prompts.  Once you have your sorted piles, you can begin to form small groups based on the similar needs you notice for each skill.  My next couple of posts will talk more about small groups and what to do next with these piles so stay tuned! J

When you are finished sorting and forming the small groups, you can give the post-its back to the students so they can tape the four post-its onto a sheet of paper with the title of the book, date, and each post-it labeled with the skill (i.e. prediction, question, theory, etc.).  These papers go into their reading portfolios and by the end of the year, you will have three examples to help see the students’ growth in comprehension skills. 

Happy Reading! :)