I decided to read this article because of the title and wanted to know more about conferring in the writer’s workshop. As I was reading I became rather engaged because the authors began talking about how they never felt totally confident in conferring in the writer’s workshop and I am feeling the same exact way. The article explained how there is no one way to conference with students during writer’s workshop no matter how many experts offer tips on how to. It explained how no matter how much you read about conferring and talk about it; you never get the feeling of confidence in conferring. There is no template for a good conference but after reading about the three writing teacher’s suggestions, I am a bit more aware of how to confer with my students. The authors talk about how to learn from the children. It is important to learn from and about our students by listening to them. “Finding out what children know is important, for this informs our teaching” (page 4). Overall, there are three underlying principles to consider. These consist of how talk is important in rehearsal, be the learner as the teacher, and put yourself in situations where you are writing and getting response (page 6).
We already make use of conferring in our classroom during reader’s and writer’s workshop. I would most definitely use the principles to this approach. Since it is already in our language arts curriculum in our classroom I could just make use of the principles to help me better to understand and feel more confident with conferencing with students about their writing. These three principles of conferring with students during writer’s workshop would enrich my writing instruction by giving me more instruction to work with. This way I would not be unsure of what to conference with the students and they would get more out of the conference altogether. What I need to learn to do as a profession in order to use this approach well with my students is to look at all the suggestions and ideas that other teachers have used with conferring in writer’s workshop and make it my own. Now that I know these three guiding principles I feel that I will already be much more able to use this approach well with my students.
The ideas from this module have helped me think about the types of assessment necessary for informing my unit development by getting me more instructional tips that do not only work in writer’s workshop, but can help in reader’s workshop as well. We do a lot more conferring with the students during reader’s workshop – which is my guided lead teaching focal area – and so this module has not only informed me more about assessments and analyzing student work in these areas, but also provided me with instructional tips to do so. Since my unit is not focused on writing, what I might need to consider about my students as writers goes hand in hand with considering my students as readers. Reading and writing compliment each other in a way that if the students can sound out words to write them, then they can sound out words to read them and vise versa. When looking at my students writing I can gain a good sense of how they are forming the words and what sounds they hear when say those words. If my students are having a difficult time with sounding out particular sounds, then when it comes to reading, they may have the same difficulty. Knowing this, I can plan according prior to reader’s workshop and make it so that during conferring with them, these issues or problem areas can be addressed.
I agree with you. I was feeling the same way about conferring with my students during writers workshop. I felt as though I was helping students to write their words and hear what their stories are about. I also felt like I was trying to get around to more students so that everyone would get a chance to tell their story. After reading this article, I felt like I needed to really work with students for a little bit longer so that I can really get to know them and their work. It is important to focus on students and then make sure to get around to other students during the week. I feel fortunate that both my CT and I get around to students as often as we do. I agree with you that both reading and writing does go hand in hand especially when conferring with students. I still though am unsure about how to confer with students during reader’s workshop. I feel like with look books, it is hard to focus on one learning point with students. I guess though, you could ask students what their book is about to see if they are using the pictures to help them tell the story. Eventually students will be reading the words and connecting the pictures and words together. For me, it is easier to see something in motion first before I can truly see how to conference or understand. I like that you are focusing on reading during your guided lead teaching. Let me know how it goes! I am focusing on shared reading, however for readers workshop ,I am still trying to become comfortable on getting students to learn strategies. I think with more practice though, this is something that may change as I go. I will be interested to see how conferring looks like in our readers workshop because so far, we have left students to do their reading without interrupting them. We also were going to start giving students sharing tickets to students so that they can share after they read their books. I wonder though, what students will share about their books at this point in the class.
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