Conferring with Students: Building Confidence and Empowering Writers in Middle School Classroom

1. Conferring with Students in the Middle School Classroom by Nina “I can’t believe Scott made me go first” Samii 6th Grade Writing Teacher, Jefferson Middle School “What are you working on?”

2. Before We Begin... • Please write a short personal narrative. • A personal narrative is a story about yourself. • Please try to include the following elements: • suspense • background • dialogue

3. If you’ve got writer’s block (it is the first day, after all), then try to think of a story about... a significant object a pet an important event Marcus the Pig Pepper the Ugly Dog Our Wedding

4. Contentions • Teaching should be responsive to students’ needs • People learn by talking about their writing, and not just with a teacher! • Conferring makes school-based writing more authentic • Students conferring with each other empowers them and builds their confidence as writers • Anyone can be a good writer...even this guy:

5. The Writing Workshop Model • A typical day in my classroom looked like this: • Mini-Lesson: 5-8 minutes • Independent Writing: 30-35 minutes • Students would draft, revise, or edit while I conferred with them. • Sharing: 5 minutes • Sometimes, if I saw the same issues repeatedly come up, I would have a mid-workshop break to address this with the class. • The Workshop elements could also be switched around as needed, i.e., share, then write, then lesson, then write again.

6. I was afraid of conferring with students.

7. My previous attempts at conferring resulted in classroom management problems. • Students viewed me as the sole provider of knowledge. • Students would interrupt me every 30 seconds while I was trying to hold a conference with one of their classmates.

8. Related Readings • From The Writing Workshop: Working through the Hard Parts (And They’re All Hard Parts) by Katie Wood Ray (2001) • “A conference in a writing workshop occurs when the teacher sits down beside a student...finds out how the student’s writing is going, and then in a very direct but conversational way, teaches (or tries to teach) the student something that makes sense at this time” (156). • Wood Ray validated my fear when she wrote, “Because a conference is teaching we do in response to what individual children tell us and show us, we can’t plan ahead for what we will say and we have to be ready to respond to anything” (155).

9. Related Readings • More from The Writing Workshop by Katie Wood Ray (2001) • “We also need conferences to help us keep our fingers on the pulse of our classrooms” (156). • “Conferring may look like the ‘troubleshooting’ we know from traditional teaching...but it’s not. Not at all. Conferring is a much more deliberate, methodical kind of teaching” (157). • “We don’t want students to become dependent on our help to get them out of binds. As writers, they need to learn that they will encounter difficulties that they have to figure out” (157). • “What makes a conference a powerful teaching interaction ... [is it’s] teaching in direct response to something the student has told us or shown us about his or her work as a writer” (165).

10. Related Readings • From Teaching Middle School Writers by Laura Robb (2010) • “Conferring is the most efficient way to teach and support student writers. This one-on-one work moves a student’s writing forward beautifully because it’s custom tailored to who the student is as a learner and as a person” (199). • “Teacher conferences and peer conferences help everyone involved become responsive learners” (199-200). • “Logistically, teachers will find that including more peer and small-group conferring lightens the load” (201). • “The primary purpose of conferring is to help students explore solutions to writing problems, because when students do the thinking, they begin to develop the skills to confer with themselves, edit and revise their own work, and gain independence” (202).

11. Related Readings • From The Art of Teaching Writing by Lucy Calkins (1994) • “Teacher-student and peer conferences, then are at the heart of teaching writing. Through them students learn to interact with their own writing” (223). • “We are teaching the writer and not the writing. Our decisions must be guided by ‘what might help this writer’ rather than ‘what might help this writing’” (228). • “Our job in a writing conference is to put ourselves out of a job, to interact with students in such a way that they learn how to interact with their own developing drafts” (229).

12. Related Readings • From Writing Workshop: The Essential Guide by Ralph Fletcher and JoAnn Portalupi (2001) • In case you needed to hear it one more time: “The writing conference lies at the heart of the writing workshop” (48). • The conference is “a unique one-on-one interactions between you and a student” (48). • “[The writing workshop] puts kids into an active stance, both when they write and when they confer. This, in turn, requires the teacher to be responsive during a conference” (49). • “You’ve got the best chance to help your student...if you look up from the paper and get a real dialogue going” (57).

13. I was afraid of conferring with students.

14. Conferring and mini-lessons are the main activities teachers are supposed to do while students are writing. • Conferring allows teachers to provide individualized instruction to students. • Conferring allows teachers to be responsive to students’ needs.

15. Enter Cara Gutzmer! Jefferson Middle School’s Instructional Coach and all-around Great Person

16. The Solution! • Cara helped me improve conferring in the following ways: • Step One: The teacher (me) using a framework for student conferences. • Step Two: Teaching students how to confer with each other. We called this “Giving/Getting Feedback.” • Step Three: Implementing a classroom procedure for feedback to occur. • These steps are how my demonstration is organized.

17. Step One: Teacher Framework • I needed a way to know how students were progressing and areas for improvement. • Cara helped me by reminding me of a framework I had previously seen. • The Framework (which I will share) worked well, but I had a hard time keeping track of all that data. • Cara helped me by providing several ways for me to keep track of it! • Cara is a very helpful person.

18. First, ask, “What are you working on?” and listen to how the student responds/student’s concerns. • C: Compliment • Begin each conference with praise. As Greg Kneller says, “There’s always something going right.” • T: Teaching Point • Choose 1 thing you want to the student to work on. JUST ONE! • AI: Active Engagement • Have the student practice what you’d like to see them do. • L: Link • Recap what you discussed and tell the student that you’re going to look for that next time you confer.

19. Basis for Framework • From “The Student-Centered Conference and The Writing Process” by Charles R. Duke. Published in Writing Journal, December 1975. • “The student-centered writing conference can play an important role both in reducing the repetition of mistakes and also in establishing a better environment for developing skills in writing” (44). • Many correlations between Duke’s writing and the framework for conferences: • He recommends a “non-directive lead” (45) for beginning a conference= “What are you working on?” • “Centering the conference around the students’ participation” (46) = Active Engagement • “They attack one problem and solve that before addressing another...[so] the student does not feel overwhelmed” (46-47).

20. Completed Data Tracking Sheet This is what my tracking sheet would typically look like at the end of a unit. Each color represents one day. Each conference should be no more than 5-6 minutes. Nina Fact: The most conferences I ever completed in one day is ELEVEN! The fewest is 1. Just the one.

21. Step Two: Teaching Students to Confer • Students practiced responding to each other about each other’s writing in their notebooks. • The responses usually included something they liked, what they learned, and something they were confused about. • I then transferred this to a “Feedback Form.” • The Feedback Form changed depending on which unit we were studying.

24. Step Three: Implementing a Classroom Procedure for Feedback to Occur • Students would break their writing down into chunks. • For informational text, this was the chapters or sections of their writing. • For Oral Tradition, we broke the writing into steps. • After each chunk, they would get feedback.

25. Step Three: Accountability • Right now, you’re probably thinking to yourself, “Nina, how can you really be sure students were giving valuable feedback, and are you really sure that this feedback was implemented by the writer?” • First of all, your skepticism is entirely understandable. • Second, the answer to your concerns is: I held them accountable.

26. Step Three: Accountability • My system might not work for you, but here’s what I did: • When students finished a section, they would write their name on the board at the back of the room, then wait patiently at their seats revising and whatnot. • Someone else who also needed feedback would check the list, then get a feedback form and meet with the student who was waiting. • They give each other feedback. • Using a different color of ink, students implement the feedback. • Then, students would staple the feedback form to the page they were working on. • Again, you can create a system that works for you. This is what worked for me.

27. My Accountability Board Please Note: • White Board for students’ names • Spreadsheet of names for each class for students to mark when they’ve completed drafting a section • Folder for blank Feedback Forms • Extremely explicit directions

28. Here’s that spreadsheet a little closer up. Please note: • Nothing. It’s just a spreadsheet.

29. Here’s those Extremely Explicit Directions. I’m not saying that my students aren’t very smart. I’m just saying they really benefit from Extremely Explicit Directions. And not explicit like “Explicit Lyrics.” More like “Very direct because they’re easily confused.”

30. This student was writing an informational text about archery. • The black ink is the rough draft of the first chapter.

31. This is the feedback the student received from a classmate. • Again, the Feedback Form depends on each unit.

32. Remember that I held students accountable by having them show that they implemented the feedback in a different color. The part in blue ink was added after feedback was obtained.

33. This is the student’s published chapter. • She felt so strongly about the feedback she received that she made it bold in her published version.

34. This student chose to write about cats. • This chapter is about runts. • Yes, really.

35. Even though the feedback this student received wasn’t very specific, she still understood that she needed to add more.

36. Her revisions are shown in black ink. She easily doubled the size of this chapter and provided important information for her reader.

37. Activity • Switch papers with a partner. • Fill out a Feedback Form about your partner’s writing. • Give your partner their paper and their feedback. • Implement the feedback you received.

38. What did the students have to say? • How did getting feedback from a classmate help you? • What concerns did you have about conferring with a classmate rather than Mrs. Samii? • What didn’t you like about conferring? • What did you like about conferring?

39. What did the students have to say?

40. What did the students have to say? • How did peer feedback help you?

41. What did the students have to say? • How did peer feedback help you?

42. What did the students have to say? • What concerns did you have about conferring with a peer rather than the teacher?

43. What did the students have to say? • What didn’t you like about getting peer feedback?

44. What did the students have to say? • What did you like about peer feedback?

45. Reflection • How were you able to improve your writing based on the feedback you received? • Does conferring with a peer increase or decrease the pressure of conferring? Why? • How can you implement/do you implement conferring in your classroom?

46. Standards • WritingCCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.6.5 With some guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach. (Editing for conventions should demonstrate command of Language standards 1-3 up to and including grade 6 here.) CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.6.10 Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision) and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of discipline-specific tasks, purposes, and audiences. Speaking and Listening CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.6.1 Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade 6 topics, texts, and issues, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.6.1.B Follow rules for collegial discussions, set specific goals and deadlines, and define individual roles as needed.