Conferencing

This week I learned about conferencing with my students during writing.  In the past I knew that I needed to conference with students, but I didn't know what to say to the students when we were conferencing with me.  I wasn't confident in my abilities as a writing teacher to effectively give students feedback and offer suggestions.  Chapter 9 in Regie Routman's book, "Writing Essentials" was a wonderful resource in conferencing with students. 

In the book, I learned about the different types of conferences teachers can have with students throughout the writing lessons.  One of the conferences that I hadn't thought about what Whole-Class conferencing where the teacher conferences with a student while the other students are listening and watching.  This is helpful because the other students can see what the teacher expects and may get some ideas for their own writing. This would probably take a lot of time, but it certainly worth it because students need to see exactly what you expect. 

The second type of conference is Roving Conferences. This is the type of conference that I used most often in my classroom.  I would use the time to move throughout the room and stop to talk with a student for a minute or two about their writing.  During these roving conferences, I should take notes about what the students are doing well at and what I could offer support on. With the advice from Regie Routman, I created this table in which I can write notes about my students and their individual needs for writing.  I will put student names in the table next year when I know my complete class list. 

Lastly, I learned more about formal one-on-one conferences.  This was great because I feel that I now have a direction for how to conduct conferences with my students.  I love that Regie Routman gave students a praise about the content of the writing first and then offered suggestions about how to get the piece of writing organized so that the reader knows exactly what the writer is trying to say.  There are many different checklists that I would encourage you to look at and use in your conferences, if you have a chance to get a copy of "Writing Essentials."