Reading+and+Writing+Workshop+Conferences

toc Welcome to one of six of interconnected pages devoted to exploring the facets of reading and writing workshops in adolescent classrooms. This page is provides an overview of conferring in reading and writing workshop. Follow the links below to explore other elements of reading and writing workshop:
 * = **Materials ** ||= **Home** ||= **Resources ** ||
 * = **Conferring ** ||= **Grammar ** ||= **Assessment ** ||

In the workshop approach to teaching reading and writing, conferring is at the heart teacher-student interaction. Lucy Calkins states that, "Teacher-student and peer conferences... are at the heart of teaching writing. Through them, students learn to interact with their own writing" (Calkins, 223). These daily conversations (Anderson, 6) are the key to a successful workshop classroom. Conferring usually occurs after the teacher-delivered minilesson, during independent reading or writing time (Fountas & Pinnell, 17). Rather than working to correct specific mistakes in a piece of writing or focusing on perfecting the pronunciation of a specific word in reading conference, "our decisions [on what to teach] must be guided by 'what might help this //writer//' rather than 'what might help this //writing.//' If the piece of writing gets better but the writer has learned nothing that will help him or her another day on another piece, then the conference was a waste of everyone's time" (Calkins, 228). Anderson recommends that conferences can help students improve in three ways: by teaching students strategies and techniques that more experienced writers use, by teaching students to teach themselves, and by teaching students to become reflective (9).

In his book How's It Going, Carl Anderson recommends that teachers approach conferring with students much like having a conversation. He takes time to outline several shared characteristics between conferences and conversations. Those shared characteristics are, as he writes in his book (Anderson, 7):
 * Conferences have a point to them.
 * Conferences have a predictable structure.
 * In conferences, we pursue lines of thinking with students.
 * Teachers and students have conversational roles in conferences.
 * In conferences, we show students we care about them.

He then provides this basic structure for a conference: first, have a conversation about the work the child is doing as a writer; second have a conversation about how the child can become a better writer (17). In this simple structure both student and teacher have roles to play. The following sections discuss these roles.

=The role of the student=

During the initial part of the conference, the student leads the conversation. The student is in charge of describing their writing work and "set[ting] the agenda" for the conference through this (Anderson, 83). The student is also responsible for "respond[ing] to her teacher's research questions by describing her writing work more deeply" (Anderson, 83). After this initial part of the conference, the teacher will take the lead, but the student is still active. She must: listen to feedback, ask clarifying questions, "have-a-go," and "commit to trying what her teacher taught her after the conference" (Anderson, 83). Students need to be taught their role in the conference during minilessons, discussions, fishbowl demonstrations, and conference themselves (Anderson, 82-94).

=The role of the teacher=

Research decide teach One thing teachers need to be aware of is how to redirect students from talking about their content to talking about their work as a writer (Anderson, 98). Calkins addresses this in her chapter dedicated to conferring by recommending teachers research, decide, then teach (224), and Anderson expands on this in his book. Anderson describes the first part of the conversation (the research portion for Calkins) as a time when the teacher "invite[s] the student to set an agenda for the conference" (26). During this first part, the teacher needs to decide, based on the research they've done in conversation with the student, what to teach. In the second part of the conference, the teacher takes the lead. According to Anderson, the teacher should: "give the student critical feedback, teach the student, nudge the student to have-a-go, [and] link the conference to the student's independent work" (26). In the way that it allows for direct instruction or modeling, practice together, and independent practice, the conference is like a very mini minilesson. After the student commits to working on what the teacher taught her in the lesson, the teacher leaves the student to work. However, the teacher checks back in later to see how the student's work ended up.

=Useful forms=

Part of effective conferring is finding a record-keeping system that works for you. These are several variations.

This is adapted from Robin Johnson's book Time to Write. This is a simple blank table with a box for each student. This is adapted from Carl Anderson's form in How's It Going.

=References=

Anderson, C. (2001). //How’s it going: A practical guide to conferring with student writers.// Portsmouth: Heinemann. Calkins, L. (1994). //The Art of Teaching Writing // (2nd ed.). Portsmouth: Heinemann. Fountas, I. C., & Pinnell, G. S. (2001). //Guiding Readers and Writers: Teaching Comprehension, Genre, and Content Literacy // (1st ed.). Portsmouth: Heinemann.

=Resources for further reading=

Allen, P.A. (2009). Conferring: The keystone of reader's workshop. Portland: Stenhouse.