Life the Level of Your Small Groups and One-to-One Conferring in Reading and Writing - Lucy Calkins
(The notes I took were really focused on writing but much of this could be tweaked for reading as well.)
Day two of the CRA conference began with Lucy Calkins as the Keynote Speaker. This is the breakout session that followed her keynote. I chose to write about this because conferring, to me, is such an integral part of teaching our students.
“Conferring is the supreme thing and the hardest thing,” Lucy Calkins shared with us on October 24th.
We can be the most successful with conferring when there is a structure in place. Here is a Google Doc - Conferring, I use when working with students and something I give teachers who may be new to conferring or want to create an expected structure for students.
When conferring you can do some research by asking some of the questions that follow:
- What are you working on as a writer?
If the writer responds by telling you about their story, follow up with:
- What are doing today as a writer to make this the best piece ever?
- What were you just about to do before I walked up?
- What would you do if you were to make it better?
Tip: We want to set the tone of importance when conferring. Be generally interested and invested in this conversation you are having with the writer.
Then, lead into a compliment - make this a big deal. We want to build up the writer so they are ready to hear a way they can make their writing even better.
Next, determine a teach point - something that is going to make a huge a difference in student writing.
Tip: Be thinking to yourself, what kind of piece is this trying to be? Then we can more easily compliment and determine a teach point.
Be sure to ask permission before offering a teach point. It gives the writer an illusion of control by asking permission.
Be direct with the teach point - make sure the teach point applies to all narrative or informational, or ______ writing, not just the piece you are discussing with the writer.
“Whenever you write a __________, you want to…
Then have the student try out it verbally with you. Have the student show you where in the writing he/she sees that strategy working in their piece.
Link: Be sure to restate the teach point before you leave so that the writer can hear it one final time before adding the strategy to their piece of writing.
When you find a system to keep track of the compliments and teach points you give writers, look for students who can be placed in a small group because they have the same need (teach point).
Small group is a great way to confer with a few students who need support applying the same strategy.
Tip: Carry around a mentor text that has teach point samples read to go. I use post-it notes in my mentor texts so that I can easily use when conferring one-on-one or in a small group to show how authors do just that strategy I am asking students to apply to their writing.
“I am not ready yet to begin conferring…”
Start with what you feel most comfortable with and know that if you are nervous or feel overwhelmed by the idea of conferring - begin by asking the students questions mentioned in this post or seen in the Architecture of a Conference Sheet.
Then, when you find an opportunity to offer a teach point - try it - we only get more comfortable with something new if we continue to try.
Two Writing Teachers have amazing blog posts and here are some I have collected that focus on conferring:
~ CW
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