Architecture of a Conference

Hello Workshop Teachers!

Hopefully you have found yourself getting into a powerful workshop routine with your readers and writers. In thinking about your time with your readers and writers, perhaps the most powerful part of that is the time you can spend conferring with your students. This is a time for you to check in with your readers and writers to monitor their growth and meet them at their instructional level in both academic areas. It is also a time for you to be able to set meaningful goals with your students that are unique to them! Below I have outlined what a reading and writing conference might look like. You will probably notice that the format is very similar to that of the mini-lesson. Just like with the mini-lesson, you will want to make sure you pay attention to how much time you are spending with each child so that you can get to all of your students in a reasonable amount of time. That is easier said than done for sure! You will find that the more you confer, the better your timing and efficiency will be each time you sit down with your students. So as you continue to work on this process, here are just a few tips that you may consider for each of the parts of your conferences. 

Reading Conference

Research: Spend a couple of minutes researching what the student is doing, or not doing, as a reader. This might be “on the spot” research or you may be going into the conference with an idea from a previous assessment or observation of the student’s reading. Here are some research questions you could ask to open-up your conference:

• What are you working on as a reader today?
• What is your plan for reading today?
• Can you take me on a tour of your post-its?
• Last time we met we worked on…How’s that going? Can you show me where you tried that in your book?

Compliment: Give the student an authentic compliment on something you notice they are doing or almost doing. Some things you can compliment include a skill, strategy, or a reading behavior you are noticing. Here are some ways you could frame your compliment:

• One strategy you are trying is…This strategy is helping you get better at…
• One thing you are doing as a reader that is fantastic is…
• I’m noticing that you’re the kind of reader who…

Teaching Point: Now choose and state what it is you are going to show them to do as a reader today. It is important that you are NOT connecting the compliment and the teaching point with the connector word “but”. This sometimes gives kids the impression that what you just observed them doing or what you just complimented them on is not good enough. Instead you could connect these parts by using one of the following statements:

• Another thing I want to teach you that readers do is…
• Another way readers…is to…
• Today I want to teach you that readers…when they read. One way we do this is by….

Teach: Demonstrate what it is you want your reader to be able to do. You can be demonstrating this in a separate text that you bring to the conference or when appropriate in the student’s text. Some language you might use to set you and your student up for some learning might include:

• Be like a detective and study what I’m doing as a reader…
• Do you remember in our read aloud when I…Let’s see if we can try that by…
• Let’s try a bit of this strategy together. First we…Then we…Next we…and finally we…

Coach/Active Engagement: Get your reader to try what it is you just taught them. You can then coach them so that they can be successful. You may want them to try it once in front of you and then you could tell them to continue working and you can then come back to them after you confer with a couple other students to make sure they are still being successful.

Link: As you end this conference make sure you restate what it was that you worked on today as readers. You may want to leave them with a tangible record of their goal. This may be a sticky note with their goal written on it, a sticky note with a process you want the reader to follow, a goal written in their reader’s notebook, etc. You may also want your student to repeat back to you what their plan is or what they learned as a reader today. Then make sure you document what you taught them so when you come back to confer with them again you remember what to check in on! 

Writing Conference

Research: Spend a couple of minutes researching what the student is doing, or not doing, as a writer. This might be “on the spot” research or you may be going into the conference with an idea from a previous assessment or observation of the student’s writing. Take some time to look at the student’s writing to gain a deeper understanding. As you talk with the student try to understand what the student is trying to do as a writer and what they have done as a writer to help figure out where to go next. Here are some research questions you could ask to open-up your conference:

• What are you working on as a writer today?
• What is your plan for writing today?
• Ask the student a question about their writing and then ask them to show you that part in their writing.

Compliment: Give the student an authentic compliment on something you notice they are doing or almost doing. Some things you can compliment include a skill, strategy, or a writing behavior you are noticing. Make sure you are complimenting what they did as a writer, not just their piece of writing. Here are some ways you could frame your compliment:

• One strategy you are trying is…This strategy is helping you get better at…
• One thing you are doing as a writer that is fantastic is…
• I’m noticing that you’re the kind of writer who…
• I’m noticing that you started to try to….here, let’s continue that work together.

Teaching Point: Now choose and state what it is you are going to show them to do as a writer today. It is important that you are not connecting the compliment and the teaching with the connector word “but”. This sometimes gives kids the impression that what you just observed them doing or what you just complimented is not good enough. Instead you can connect these past by using one of the following statements:

• Another thing I want to teach you that writers do is…
• Another way writers…is to…
• Today I want to teach you that writers…when they write. One way we do this is by….

Teach: Demonstrate, offer guided practice, explicitly tell them, or inquire with them about something you want your writer to be able to do. You can be demonstrating this in your own piece of writing that you bring to the conference or when appropriate in the student’s piece of writing. Some language you might use to set you and your student up for some learning might include:

• Be like a detective and study what I’m going to do as a writer to make my piece more powerful…
• Do you remember in our mini-lesson when I did…? Let’s see if we can try that in your writing by…
• Let’s try a bit of this strategy together. First we…Then we…Next we…and finally we…

Coach/Active Engagement: Get your writer to try what it is you just taught them. You can then coach them in this skill/strategy so that they can be successful. You may want them to try it once in front of you and then you could tell them to continue working and you can then come back to them after you confer with a couple other students to make sure they are still being successful.

Link: As you end this conference make sure you restate what it was that you worked on today as a writer. You may want to leave them with a tangible record of their goal. This may be a sticky note with their goal written on it, a sticky note with a process you want the writer to follow, a goal written in their writer’s notebook, an example of what it is you want them to try out in their own writing, etc. You may also want your student to repeat back to you what their plan is or what they learned as a writer today. Then make sure you document what you taught them so when you come back to confer with them again you remember what to check in on! 

Note: There are many different types of conferences and reasons to have a conference with a child. The above format is just one of those ways. There will be times when you will use only parts of a conference. You may want to spend one day circling around your readers and writers for a little while to give compliments or touch base with kids and their goals for a short amount of time before you get into your conferring. You can also spend some time researching your readers and writers and jot a list of possible next steps in mini-lesson, small-group instruction and conferencing. 

Phew! That was a lot…thanks for sticking with me! Most of the information above comes from my experiences at the summer institutes at the Reading and Writing Project. I have had the privilege of attending their training during several summers at Columbia University. Some other resources that I have gained a lot of information from about conferring include:

• How’s it Going? by Carl Anderson
• Assessing Writers by Carl Anderson
• One to One: The Art of Conferring with Young Writers by Lucy Calkins
• Teaching Reading in Small Groups by Jennifer Seravallo
• Conferring With Readers Supporting Each Student’s Growth & Independence by Jennifer Seravallo and Gravity Goldberg

Happy conferring!

Writing About Reading

Hello Busy Workshop Teachers!

Most grade levels are into their character unit in reader’s workshop and are working on a complimentary unit in writers workshop (literary essay, realistic fiction, fiction writing). Both of these units require readers and writers to think deeply about characters as a way to enhance a piece of writing or to enhance their comprehension of a book. It is such critical work that will carry readers and writers through the next units they will embrace this year so it is important to make sure students learn to internalize the skills they are learning each day during workshop time. I thought including some tips on ways to think about characters and tips on ways to push our thinking about characters (in partner talk and in readers notebooks) might be useful in making this learning meaningful.  Most of the information below was compiled from the Teacher’s College character units of study for reading and the above listed Teacher’s College writing units. 

Thinking About Characters (these can be prompts for sticky note work, partner talk, and/or reading notebook responses)

• What kind of person is this character?
• What does the character want?
• What obstacles/problems/struggles does the character face in working to get what they want?
• How does the main character treat other characters?
• How do other characters treat the main character?
• How is the character feeling? Do their feelings change across the book? Why?
• How is the character acting? What do they think, say and do? What does this tell you about the character?
• What motivates the character?
• How does the character react to trouble?

Prompts for Pushing our Thinking About Reading (these can be prompts for sticky note work, partner talk, and/or reading notebook responses)

• I’m noticing…
• For example…
• The reason for this is…
• Maybe the reason for this is…
• I think this is important because…
• This makes me realize…
• There is one thing in the story that doesn’t “fit” to me, and it’s…
• In the beginning…then later…finally…
• Many people think…but I think….because…
• I used to think…but after I read…I now think…

Readers (and Writers) Make Timelines: The picture below is a timeline that was used in a first grade classroom to start to track the different behaviors of a character (Trixie) across a book (Knuffle Bunny Too!). The information gathered can then be used to talk about and retell the story from each lens. With older readers, this same concept can be used to track a character except they may be doing the work in their reading notebooks, although you could also be keeping a timeline for your read aloud as well. Timelines are also a useful planning and rehearsing tool in writer’s workshop especially when the story a student is writing (for example a realistic fiction story) has a main character that has things happen to them in the story.

 

There are so many different ways you can teach your readers and writers to be “wide awake” in their character work. These are just a few options that I hope are helpful!

Happy Workshop Teaching!!