Conferring in Writing Workshop

This year I've been lucky enough to work with writing guru Carl Anderson. He's taught me how to not dread the conferring part of writing workshop. Let's face it, writing is just plain hard for some students and they dread the conference as much as you do. I had to take a step back and figure out why I had that dreadful feeling some days. The problem was me. I tried to do too much with a struggling student and I was the one overwhelming them making them dread me! I reorganized my teaching notes to have a clear teaching point for that day. I already knew where my students struggled so I knew to pick the most important area, whether it was focus, detail, conventions or structure. For one of my students I made her goal to improve her use of conventions in her writing (e.g. capitals, punctuation, and finger spacing). This is what we've been working on all year and boy have I seen improvements. She doesn't wince when it's time to conference anymore. I'd say all of my students now understand they have one clear goal to focus on in there writing. I think what we as educators need to understand is that our students already feel bombarded with information we throw out at them all day. Having a clear teaching point makes for an effective conference between teacher and student.

Qualities of Effective Teaching Points

1. We give clear, precise feedback to the student.
2. We should start the conference off by saying, "Something good writers do is....."
3. We name what we are teaching the student. For example: five finger rule in writing.
4. We give an explanation of what we are teaching (what is it? why are we teaching it?)
5. We give clear example of what we want the student to do by using mentor texts and our own writing samples.
6. We have the student give it a go by talking it out and telling them, "I'd like you to try this right now..."
7. We end the conference by linking the conference to the student’s work and reminding them to keep trying it in future writings.