Conferring in the reading workshop is no easy task. No matter how many conferences I sit down to have with students, I never seem to feel as if I have accomplished it all in the art of a reading conference nor do I think I ever will, and that’s ok. I get that feeling because like all educators I am always looking for ways to improve my workshop teaching and my workshop conferring. I am looking for ways to make my teaching more “sticky”. Fellow workshop teachers, as you continue to make your reading workshop more “sticky” for your students, I thought I would post something about different kinds of reading conferences you may want to try. Sometimes I find trying something new can be energizing to my conferring. A new approach can also help you find new ways to address the ever-pressing question of “How do I possibly meet all my readers’ needs with only an hour of reading workshop time!” So here are a few to consider…try a couple out…talk to colleagues about how it goes…make some tweaks…try them again!Find what “sticks” for you!
Research-Compliment-Decide-Teach Conference: In this type of conference the teacher researches what the student is doing as a reader, stops the student and then teaches them a new strategy, or reinforces or tunes-up a strategy that the student has already been introduced to, that will not only influence their reading today but across their reading lives. This type of conference might sound like this: “Ava, I love the way you are using the pictures in your book to infer what this character is feeling. Today I want to teach you that another way readers infer what a character is feeling is by (present strategy). Watch me as I try this in my book…Did you see how I…? Now you try…”
Coaching Conference: This kind of a conference is meant to help the student in the midst of their reading rather than stopping them to teach them a specific strategy. This type of conference is especially helpful for beginning readers who need that extra support in order to internalize strategies they have learned. This type of conference may sound like this: (while the student is reading teacher could say…) “Run your finger under the word… Check the picture… Does that make sense? Go back and check… OR the teacher may also use gestures to remind students of strategies such as pointing to the picture or pointing under the beginning of the word.
Proficient Partner Conferences: During this type of a conference the teacher researches what the student or partnership is doing and then assumes the role of a “proficient partner” to lift the level of the student’s work. At the end of the conference the teacher may name the strategies or qualities of good reading and good book talks that were demonstrated so the student or students can work to continue this work on their own. This type of a conference is helpful in supporting student to have thoughts about their texts and support those thoughts with strong evidence, or to have stronger talks about their books. This type of conference may sound like this: (teacher says)”I was also thinking….an example of that from the book is… OR We are talking about…but I am also wondering…”
Inquiry Conference: This type of conference is more apt to be used with older students and involves them in studying something (like a post-it note, watching a partnership talk, a notebook entry…) and then working with the teacher to identify what was done and then work to apply that same principle to their own work in order to lift the level of it. This type of conference ends with the reader making a plan for what they will do next in their reading work. This type of conference may sound like this: “Lets’ study a few of your prediction post-its and compare them to our mentor post-its. What are you noticing? OR “Let’s watch these reading partners and see what we can learn from the way they discuss their book.”
Happy Conferring!!
(All these types of conferences are described more in depth in many different resources….most of what I have posted above comes from The Art of Teaching Reading by Lucy Calkins)
The Life of a Workshop Teacher 