Conferences as Conversations

I felt like my writing instruction last year was very cyclical. I would have a period of a few weeks when we were solid writers; I felt like my writing instruction was planned and focused. Then I would have a few weeks where it wasn't focused- we would kind of just be writing. I think that a lot of this has to do with the fact that my conferences weren't strong. "How's It Going?" shares that conferences really drive the writing instruction. Last year, I really found that I was doing what Anderson references on pg. 8- I was getting mesmerized by what students were writing about. I found that I always had endless questions about their story and they loved talking about them. But more often than not, I just didn't have conferences. I felt like I didn't know what to do so honestly avoided it all together. I would have informal ones but wouldn't have an agenda set like I should.

I think one point of chapter one that is helpful for me is that both the teacher and the student need to have identified roles and we should each know what they are. Having conversations with my kids about what writing conferences are and what I expect from them and what they should expect from me will not only help the structure of the workshop but also help keep me accountable for meeting with them.

This year so far, my writing conferences haven't moved past rehearsal conferences. I do have kids that are ready for drafting, revision and editing conferences, however. I honestly just never thought that first graders were writing to publish. EEK! I know. That's awful. I thought they always just would sit down to write a new piece each day or add on to another one. I feel like having a new end goal of always publishing will be incredible to help my kids get excited about writing and sharing their work.

I think that these chapters more so helped me rethink my mindset about my workshop. I never thought about my end goal for writing therefore my kids never really had in mind what we were working towards. I always have kept author's share as a special point in every day of my workshop but left it as that. I am excited to share these new goals with my students!