Wrapping Up Semester One

As I finished "How's It Going?" I realized that there are a lot of mechanics of conferencing that I needed to work on. For example, it was very helpful for me to think about how long my conferences were lasting. I think that I was having these last too long. Rather, they should be quick- and last roughly 6 minutes. Additionally, I, like Anderson in his first few years of teaching, initiate my conferences. I had the same concerns he had about meeting with each student equally across the week and year. However, Anderson speaks about the importance of developing independent writers and that occasionally students should be able to seek out a conference or request that teacher and student conference at a later time. I think that this is an important point missing in my writing block now. An underlying facet of this option is that students deeply understand the reason for a conference. I think that this is a revisit I need to have happen in the beginning of next year. I don't feel as though my students are looking at conferences as a time to work together on their writing as much as they're looking at it as a special time working with Ms. Dantzler.

I also really appreciated the management piece of these chapters. What are the other students supposed to be doing? What does developing independence look like with 6 year olds? Anderson layed a great point when he talked about the importance of envisioning the workshop. It is vital that I have a vision for what I want the workshop to be! I have found this really important in a lot of aspects of my practice in my second year. It's really important that I know exactly what I want to have happen.

I found it really helpful reflecting on the independence level of my students in a writing period. I think that it will be really important to review these strategies in the beginning of next semester, as well as working on sustained writing. Independent writing stamina is vital for being able to conference with other students.

I think that "How's It Going?" will be a text that I will revisit frequently based off the current need in my classroom.

Laura

I really liked how Anderson helped us wrap up all the content of what it means to confer with students to help them become better writers.

Before the end of the book, I still had a roaming question- How do I get there? How do I teach them about the different writing strategies? what are my mini-lesson going to be on? -knowing that Common Core only talks about three types of writing, but nothing in specific.

Although Anderson could not asked to all of my questions, he did a pretty good job at guiding me towards the right places.

For me Chapter 5 and Chapter 6 were the most knowledge revealing, I learned a lot of things from Chapter 7, but luckily there is already a culture of respect and love in my classroom, and I hope when conferring it does not get too out of control. I will def. review constantly the steps, rules, and guidelines of the classroom when there is conferring time, and will make sure students practice and model the correct behavior constantly, explaining the why of our attitudes.

The most revealing and helpful topic to me, was mini-lessons. I learned that it is extremely important that our decisions about what to teach in mini-lessons are based on our assessment of student’s needs as writers:

According to Lucy Calkins mini-lesson are all about context. In mini-lessons, we teach into our students’ intentions. "Our students are first deeply engaged in their self-sponsored work, and then we bring them together to learn what they need to know in order to do that work. This way they stand a chance of being active meaning-makers, even during this bit of formal instruction."

Students tend to develop their agendas for their writing in response to whole-class teaching- mini-lessons.

Mini-lessons give us opportunities not only to give students information about different kinds of writing work, but to persuade students to adopt our agendas for them as writers as their own, and equip them to try out what we teach in their independent writing.

Mini-lessons are effective when students are inspired to constantly try what they were taught.

Effective mini-lessons have an enormous impact on conferences. We don’t spend our conference time teaching about new kinds of writing work, because we’ve already done that teaching in mini-lessons.

Teachers who give effective mini-lessons plan not only what they are going to teach, but how they are going to teach in a mini-lesson. The way they structure the mini-lesson remains constant.

Suggested structure of mini-lesson: we begin with a connection in which we tell students what we will be teaching them and why, next, we teach students about a kind of writing work or by helping them gather information about that work, after we teach, we let students try what they have learned, finally, we end the mini-lesson by linking the lesson to students’ independent writing.- ask who is using the strategy.

Make sure that at the end of each workshop there is a share portion. This will help students see what writing is really for. As teachers are duty is not only to teach about content, but also to make sure that our students are making those bigger connections to skills and real life applications. Are our students asking themselves why do we write? why is it important? where does this fall in my literacy language development? how does writing empower me to be what I want to be? 

 Chapter 6 made me reflect on those questions that I need to be asking myself to have successful conferences. 

“I see that teachers talking with students about their writing. It seems that conferring takes a lot less planning than teaching a lesson to an entire class.” Pg 155

This quote really resonates with me, I identify completely with this when I get observed. Most of the observes do not seem to understand the value of having a conversation with the students about their writing, and they assess me with negative comments saying that I do not follow the curriculum, nor use data to drive my instruction, and do not follow the curriculum guidelines such as tiering vocabulary, or unpacking the standard.

Just looking at a teacher confer may seem deceptively simple, but it is NOT. It takes a lot of thoughtful choreography before we confer in order for conferences to go well.

I love how Anderson guides us through questions we need to ask ourselves so that we can plan for a smooth process of conferring with each of our students. Some of the questions that I really need to think about are:

-where should we conducte conferences?

- what tools do we need to help us confer?

- what do students need to have with them during their conferences?

- at what point in the writing process should we confer with students?

- who will initiate conferences?

- how much time should we devote to each conference?

These are crucial questions that we need to have answers to. It will not be ok if we make this decisions arbitrarily. This will make us be prepared to help our students in their writing process, to have everything handy and ready, and to know when is the right time to intervene.

A decision as simple as were does the conference take place, is so important that it influences students’ willingness to talk with us, as well as the tone of our conversation with them.

I have been making a conscious effort for position myself as a peer, as a friend. To usually lean down, and be at the same height and posture of my students. Even when I am giving instructions, or simply reprimanding for bad behavior.  I don’t want to impose myself in a commanding way, and I don’t want my students to feel fear out of our interactions.

Anderson explains that conferring is not a conversation between equals, but that students seem more relaxed when we meet them at the place in which they feel most comfortable.

Calling students up to the desk put a damper in the conversation, they seem to freeze the moment they arrive there, given that desks are usually a sign of power and authority as a teacher…although I purposefully removed my desk from my room, specifically to take away anything that would represent me as an authorative and unreachable teacher. I placed myself as reachable to my students. I still have a table I use constantly, and I need to make the effort of going to my students, even though this may seem to take a little bit more time. – same with having a special conferring table.

We need conscious effort to develop a conference voice- sometimes even when my voice is lower, I can see myself getting aggravated with those students that are not paying attention to what they are doing, or simply don’t know how to answer to the questions asked.

Tools that we need as writing teachers:

Record keeping forms – this records helps us keep track of when we conferred with our students, what we talked about, and what we learned about students as writers.

I will definitely have a conference folder in which I have a space for each of my students, notes about our conferences, goals, and progress.

Keeping conferences records is worth the effort, you might get confused about what student you were conferring with and what was the conference about. It is also easy to overlook some students, and to think that you have conferred with them when in reality you have not.

A good form could be having  a weekly/monthly calendar with the name of the child you are conferring with under the specific day of the conference, and then write notes below it. I really like this, because it would help me to  keep track of my conferring schedule and to not overlook any student. 

When students are conferring with us, they also need to have their materials ready: Writing notebooks, their most recent drafts, all previous drafts, any piece of literature they as individuals or the class as a whole is using as a model- tell and practice the expectations of having these out

When to have conferences?

We have conferences at all points in time of their writing: - brainstorming, drafting, revising, and editing.

It is important that we let them know how valuable the time of conferring is for each student, and that they need to honor and respect it by not interrupting it, just like they would not like to be interrupted by other students in the middle of their conference.

It is ok that after students understand what a conference looks like, and how it is highly regarded in the classroom, that they can request conferences depending on their needs, but prior to that they have to have had a peer conference, and have a specific mini-lesson strategy, or a text read in class that they could make reference from.

So it is ok to do both, to initiate conferences, and allow students to initiate conferences as well. But make sure that you have a schedule in which you give equal opportunity to all students to meet with the teacher.

Anderson suggests to confer with about 4 to 5 students in a 30 minute period, This would be conferring with each student every 6 to 8 days, and is more than enough to help develop the student as a writer.  This way our conversations will not be rushed, neither extremely lengthy that there will be no time to see any students in reasonable periods of time. 

Keeping Mini-Lessons "Mini" by Allaisia

This truly is the book that keeps giving!  I love the way Anderson sequences the chapters in this book to parallel a teacher's likely thought process as they attempt to create or improve their Writer's Workshop.  At the beginning of the book, Anderson focuses on how to lay the groundwork for Writer's Workshop.  I appreciate the way that at the end, he focuses on specific ways to make important decisions that help to facilitate things.   He also helps to break down how a mini-lesson should be structured, which was something i really needed guidance on.  I also took a lot from his advice on managing the classroom during Writer's Workshop.

On making decisions, it was especially helpful to read that Carl Anderson advises teachers to spend 5 minutes on conferences on average.  I have read that about 4-6 minute is best, and I've also read about some shorter and longer time frames being used on conferences.  When I am actually in my classroom during Writer's Workshop, I often find that I get nervous that I'm not facilitating conferences correctly or not seeing enough students and I begin to rush my conferences.  Sometimes I start out really devoting my time and attention to conference but as I grow anxious over timing issues, I begin to cut them short or I pay less attention because I'm busy obsessing over how little time I have.  It helps to find that an expert suggests 5 minutes, and I loved reading about how committed he is to making sure students get that time.  It helps me to be calmer in my approach, and more confident that I am doing things in a way that is truly beneficial for my students and is the best use of our small window of time.

Anderson's writing on how to conduct mini-lessons was probably the most helpful part of this reading for me!  In the section on keeping mini-lessons "mini" he runs down all of the things that keep us from giving true mini-lessons.  I was surprised and a bit tickled to realize that I regularly do ALL of the things he advises teachers not to do in order to keep mini-lessons short!  I invite way too much student talk--ofen not wanting to cut them off or wanting to make sure their comments or thoughts are valued.  I never quite realized that I don't have this problem of cutting kids off if I never invite them to say anything.  I phrase things in a very inviting way during my mini-lesson, and since our learning in all other subjects has become so discussion-heavy, it's no wonder they have so many things to say!

Also, I make it a point to read a piece of literature for the first time when I am giving certain mini-lessons.  It's so helpful to realize I can use texts that have already been read, and just go back to parts that really help us to understand the skill.  And, I repeat myself!  I seem to need constant validation from my students so if they seem unenthusiastic or if they aren;t giving me the feedback I crave, I assume they dont get it and go back to square one.

Lastly, Anderson's section on how to manage the classroom during writing gave me some great ideas.  I have come a long way with classroom management, but things will be so much better now that I've read about identifying the main things that kids need to be able to do to work independently.  Classroom management is about so much more than making sure students are on task.  It also involves making sure students are using their time in the best way possible.  How can they do that if they spend an entire block trying to think of a new idea because they aren't sure how writers do this?

Ashley

There were several things that stuck out for me in these last few chapters of the book. I found the layout for the architecture of a mini lesson to be very helpful. The layout of focusing on a connection, teach, have-a-go and linking will help me to stay on track with my mini lesson. Through mini lessons I’m able to teach new kinds of writing work and through conferencing I’m able to confer with students to deepen their understanding of that work and to extend their thinking. Two strategies that stuck out for me were Students say something to Neighboring Students and Students Look at their Writing and Make Plans. I’ve never considered letting students turn and talk to their neighbors about the mini lesson and discussing how they can use it in their writing or examining their own writing and thinking about how they can utilize what was taught in their writing sample (using post-it notes is also a really useful tool to use for this step).

                Chapter six answered one of the questions that I had about writing conferences which was…when do we confer with students? I conferred mostly during revising and editing stage (which the author points out as a common misconception of when to confer). I learned that we can confer at any stage as long as it helps to improve their writing.  “We have to keep in mind that our goal in conferences is to help students become better writers. If we confer with a first grader about how to find a topic to write about, we’ve helped him become a better writer” (p.166)

                Lastly, the toughest thing about teaching writing to my students is having them become really fluent independent writers. Some of my students are very dependent on me to help me move them through the writing process. I realized that I should have spent more time building writing stamina and how to help them find ideas to write about. The strategies listed on page 176 were very useful as I think about how I can help my students develop their independence. Strategies like: making a sketch, using objects and people to spark ideas, free-writing, and thinking about previous readings for ideas are all great ways to help my students become more independent.

                This book was very helpful in how I teach writing.   As I wrapped up the book of How’s it Going? I have to say that this book has really helped me to evaluate how I conduct writer’s workshop in my class. Although I’m not teaching ELA explicitly, I’m thinking about ways I can help students improve their writing and become better at writing like mathematicians and historians.

 This resource has been SO helpful. I'm looking forward to implementing some of these strategies next semester and incorporating more writing in math and social studies. 

Writers, it's time for you to get started with your work for today. -Kelsey Ferguson

I love the practical guidance that this book provides for writer's workshop.  Reading these last three chapters made me feel a little bit like Carl Anderson was reading my mind on the questions that I still have circling with my writing block.  In these chapters, I was drawn most to the theme of independence in the development of strong writers. Creating an environment where my students can truly thrive without my help has been something that I have worked to foster this year. I always encourage my students to solve their own problems when it comes to spelling words or needing supplies.  I have given them the resource and the words to use when they need these things.  I am here for the problems when they truly need to guidance of the teacher.  This has also worked to create a sense of teamwork in the classroom where they are working together to come a solutions for their own problems.

This is evident through writing block in several ways.  First, through the discussion of writers who can speak from their own experiences.  Our students are able to engage in discussions about the strategies that they are trying and how they are going through both mini-lessons and peer conferences.  When students know the strategies that they are using and are able to articulate them to the teacher and to their peers, that is powerful (Anderson, p. 147).  There is power in knowing what you are doing, why you are doing it, and how that practice affects your writing.  Peer editing and conferences also creates a sense of independence in writer's workshop.  These provide a space for students to come together with one another and talk about their work, their strategies, and share their ideas.  I think that the thing that I have learned most from writing block this year is the power of sharing ideas. My students love to share what they are writing with one another and with me as frequently as possible.  It is motivating. It helps give students ideas.  It works as a way for the students to be teaching skills to one another without the teacher's voice.

In "Decisions, Decisions," Anderson discusses the need for development of strategies to foster independence. This is something that I want to work on in writing block.  While we are at a place where my students can work independently on their writing for extended amounts of time, they still call on me far too often when they are experiencing a difficulty in determining a strategy to use.  I want to teach a mini-lesson this week on using strategies such as peer conferring, recalling a mini-lesson, or studying a mentor text can help to solve writing problems before you need to reach out to the teacher (Anderson, 167).  These strategies enable students to know when they need conferences with the teacher rather than the teacher always being the initiator.  Independent problem solving gives agency to students while freeing up the teacher's time to move about the room conducting conferences.

The final thing that Anderson pointed out to foster more independence in my writing block is changing some of the structural aspects.  I had never really considered how some of these were wasting my conferencing time and it was a good reminder and pointer for increasing my ability to maximize time with my writers.  Anderson outlined three pointers specifically (p.174):

• "Students could have a peer conference whenever they needed one provided that the corners of the room designated for that purpose was empty."
• We have two designated tables for peer editing in the classroom.  This allows me to keep track of where the students are in their writing process.  It also helps me to manage the classroom noise.  I know that the students at the table are working on their writing when they are chatting with one another.  Having them move to and from these spots independently frees me up to work with other students.
• "Students could go to the writing center if there were no more than two students already there."
• We do not have a writing center in my classroom but I love the idea of having a space where all of the writing supplies - mentor texts, writing notebooks, papers, pencils, etc. are located.  This will keep students from coming to me with small problems and give them the ability to provide for their needs during work time.
• "Students could visit the bathroom as needed if the bathroom pass was hanging on the hook by the door."
• This makes so much sense. WHY have I not done this so far this year?  My students are old enough to be completely independent when it comes to using the bathroom.  They know that one person is out of the classroom at a time.  They can manage this themselves and not waste my instructional time begging the question "Can I use it?"

These chapters also made me think of my students more as WRITERS.  They need to be referred to as such regularly so that they are seeing themselves as writers and creators rather than simply students working at a task in a classroom.

So, writers, let's begin.

Teaching young writers-Tenagne Turner

I am so appreciative of having this amazing resource to strengthen writing workshop in my classroom. This book has truly given me ways to reflect and build upon what is currently going on during this time. These last few chapters of the book were very helpful in really grounding my understanding of how to motivate the young writers in my class.

Reading through these last couple chapters has led to me the understanding that the key to a powerful writing conference lies in understanding that it is a conversation with a clear purpose and a predictable structure. I am learning that this is the best lens through which to view the task of holding writing conferences with my students. The book shows us how we can take what we already know about having effective conversations and use that knowledge to improve our writing conversations. 

Usually, we begin our writing workshop with a short mini lesson (a whole group lesson), then students work independently on their writing for 20-30 minutes. During this independent writing time, I usually circulate around the classroom and confer with students. Chapter 5 really allowed me focus on the art of crafting mini-lessons that are effective and helpful to my students. The components of an effective mini-lesson include the connection, the teaching, and the have-a-go.

I know that I have a habit of inviting too much student talk during whole group instruction. I  love to see the way new learning is shaping and changing the way my student's think. When they are engaged in conversation, it is easy for me to see the connections they are making on their own. I want to aim for fifteen minute (or less) mini lessons.  I believe that learning comes by doing not by listening to someone else talk about the doing. Therefore, I need to leave the bulk of Writing Workshop time for students to work. The simplest way to keep lessons short is by adhering to that one key point and committing to ending the lesson when time is up.

I love the idea of focusing on NOT being a GateKeeper when it comes to controlling how our students move through the writing process. Earlier this year, I made a huge writing pencil where students can move a clothespin with their name on it up and down the stages of the writing process. I want to begin to let students move through the process when they decide instead of having to always check in with me. This will give them a sense of ownership, responsibility, and accountability. 

As I move forward next semester, I want to be able to revisit and reflect on our progress in writing workshop in my classroom. Too often do we have an amazing resource, read it, reflect, and then put it down. I love how our program forces us to revisit these resources to help strengthen and improve our practice. 

Making the most of our writing time

By Joy Harrison

The last two chapters helped fill in all of the gaps that I had been wondering about while reading the beginning of the work. They brought everything together and made me feel more comfortable with the structure and purpose of writing conferences. I especially enjoyed the chapter on mini-lessons, because sometimes this is the hardest part of teaching writing -- making sure that the mini-lessons are indeed mini, and that they are contextualized and intentional so that students can relate to them and grow because of them. Sometimes I feel like the planning of mini-lessons is a mystery because I'm never quite sure what I should be doing/saying so that I can really teach to my students' intentions. Chapter 5 demystified the structure and components of effective mini-lessons, so I feel more comfortable leading them during Writer's Workshop.

I love the advice that Anderson gives to start off our mini-lesson with noticing: "In the first part of the mini-lesson, we let students know what we've noticed about them as writers, and what we're going to teach them to help them be better writers" (144). I have done this without even thinking about it but I think that I need to be more intentional about it. I also have to make sure that I'm not just saying "we're working on editing because I realized that no one truly knows what editing is in this classroom." Not that I've said exactly that to my students, but sometimes my noticing is framed as somewhat negative. Now of course I need to be responsive to my students' needs but the noticing part of my mini-lesson should not be discouraging.

I rarely plan the "have-a-go" (p. 147) part of the conference and I think this is what is missing in my mini-lessons. I remember writing in one of my daily connections about feeling frustrated that my students are not actually doing any of the things that I have been teaching them in my mini-lessons. I have struggled empowering my students to practice and implement the skills that I teach during my writing mini-lessons. Anderson gives some very practical and helpful solutions to this problem -- the "have-a-go" and the link to the students' independent writing. These are two important steps that I am missing and without them, my mini-lessons will be useless.

Chapter 6 helped me revisit the structure of my mini-lessons. When I first started doing writing conferences, I had students come to my small table, and I recorded conferences notes in my binder. I thought it was going fairly well, especially because I felt as though my note-taking strategy was helping me build upon the previous time that I had worked with that child, but after reading Anderson's ideas about positionality and the importance of coming to the writer instead of the writer coming to me, everything changed. One of the downfalls of having students come to me was that I was majorly interrupting their writing, the conferences were going too long, and I wasn't able to see enough students during my writing time. A few weeks ago, I started holding conferences around the room. I bought a conferring chair at Ikea (I'm serious -- it's a little stool that's very portable) so that I can walk around the room and sit down next to a child to get on their level. I have been able to meet with 6-10 people in one Writer's Workshop, which is so much better than before when I was only able to see 3-4 students a day. My students and I are still getting used to this new structure, so I am excited about getting to see more of my writers each day which will hopefully lead to their growth. One of my other goals is for my students to have peer conferences, but we're not there yet.

The last chapter helped remind me of the things that I can do to make sure that my writers are making the most of their writing time. I have always wanted my students to get into a "writing zone" where they are not distracted and they can work independently without me giving them a reminder every 5 minutes. I have recently started playing classical music in our Writer's Workshop -- it helps me focus (hopefully it helps the students too -- most of my students have said that they like it) and it also helps keep the tone very calm and serene. I like the idea in Chapter 7 about there being "no talking, no walking time" (p. 173)  for the first few minutes of independent writing. I think that starting off the independent writing time with the right tone is so important. When students get up to go the bathroom or sharpen their pencil in those first few minutes, it definitely affects the tone and flow of the writing time. I want my students to understand that independent writing time is not about just staring at your Writer's Notebook and waiting for Ms. Harrison to confer with me -- I want my students to take responsibility for their writing and be motivated to write independently. In this chapter I also enjoyed the reminders that students need to be "invested" in their writing if they are expected to continually and independently write during Writer's Workshop (p. 178). I want my students to be publishing more frequently (but not too frequently) so that they have a sense of purpose for their writing. Sharing and celebrating is an invaluable part of Writer's Workshop -- without this, students will start to dislike writing and will not grow as writers.

I'm so glad that we read this book together. It was so helpful and practical. Thank you all for challenging me as a writing teacher! My writing instruction has improved so much from last year.

Putting it all together - Kelsey Mitman

The end of this book really helped me put everything together. It answered a lot of questions and allowed me to see everything from a broader perspective. I love the idea of  using writing notebooks to get ideas of places where students can use the new techniques and strategies we taught them. My students often times have a difficult time keeping track of things but by allowing them to have one notebook completely dedicated to their writing would be helpful rather than trying to combine their writing samples with their science and math notes. 

I also have to admit that I have been known to pass over those students who I know already have a concrete understanding of some material and move on to those students who I know are struggling. The idea of making sure we still take the time to confer with those students who do already have an understanding of what is being taught in the mini-lesson and who are already doing the work is just as important as taking the time to confer with those who don't. 

  

I also really appreciate the idea of really making sure you are having conferences with the students in a space that allows them to feel comfortable and making sure that we as teachers are speaking with the students rather than speaking at them. One thing that I realize I need to improve on is keeping the information and records about our writing conferences readily available so I can make sure I am remembering all of our key points of discussion and meeting my student where he or she really needs to be met. I have tried a variety of different ways of doing this but what I realize is that I really need to create one that makes sense to me and that works for me. I also like the idea of bringing around resources with you. Anderson states “these investigations can give students new images of what’s possible in their writing.” Pg. 164.

I love the idea of making the students feel famous about their writing. It creates a time for them to shine and to show and share their accomplishments with the entire class which I think is really powerful to all of the students in the room. The idea of having a share session at the end of each writing period is something I have tried to do but definitely need to focus more on. It is a great way to highlight all of the hard work my students have put forth. 

I also took away the idea of really making sure you are conferencing with the students while they are writing rather than going back and attempting to edit their paper through a conference after they have established that they are done with their writing. Have conferences with them while they are writing not just after they have already edited and revised their writing. If I take the initiative to start a conference with a student during their writing in a comfortable area for the student, I am setting both of us up for success during our conference rather than trying to break down walls or back pedal what has already been done.  

I think what really stood out to me more than anything was the idea that students have to be invested in their writing and have the ability to work independently in order for these writing conferences to work. A huge concern and problem of mine has been making sure behavior problems and off task habits are not occurring during this time. As Anderson states “during my first two years of workshop teaching, there were days where I found it nearly impossible to confer with students. A minute or two after I began a conference, the noise level in the room would become so loud that I couldn't hear the student I was conferring with. A quick glance around the room would reveal that most of my students were doing a great deal of talking but little writing.” Pg 171. I have felt like this on more than one occasion for sure. Overall I think that reading this book not only helped me to see the bigger picture and where all of our writing conferences should ultimately be headed but it also allowed me to realize that I am on the right track and although not everyday or every time is going to be perfect, it is a learning curve that all teachers much go through and that is ok. 

How to confer and how to guide students into thinking as writers by Laura Arce

Even though there are lots of extremely important points in this reading, I decided to focus in the one I need immediate improvement, and this is conferring, helping students understand what a conference is, what are our roles in a conference are, and how to think as a writer, and to explicitly talk about their writing process instead of their content.  

I completely agree with Anderson when he mentions that it is very important for us to still confer with the students, even if it is the first day of a Writer’s Workshop and even if they are not ready. He mentions how we start talking to humans even when they are inside the womb, and how children don’t start talking until after a couple of years. It would be ridiculous if we start talking to babies.. “By starting to confer the day we launch or worshops, we let our students know that they are in a different kind of classroom, one in which they will be required to talk with us about their writing.”

He also mentions how important is for us as teachers to go talk to our students, and for us to move around the classroom to reach them, instead of the conventional classroom, in which students usually need to come up to their teacher. This not also helps the students you are conferring with, but it helps those that are around it to get more familiar and comfortable with the conferring process. I catch myself sometimes asking students to come to my chair, but I will make an effort to reach my students instead of telling them to come over. 

When students listen to others' conferences, Anderson suggests to let the eavesdropping happen, what they learn through listening to others’ conferences is worth the time lost in writing.  It is good to encourage kids sitting around to pay attention to the conference, they might need to  learn something similar to what I am discussing. You can do this especially when you are about to start conferring, and most of your students are unsure about what conferences look like. He also suggests that sometimes, it is adequate to start the whole class and ask them to pay attention to that first conference, so that you can talk about it with everyone after that.

This way you can be sure that the students know what to expect when you are conferring with them, instead of feeling judged or critiqued. They will know that first you are asking them what are they doing, and then you will also teach them something so that they can become better writers. - (this pretty much sums up what conferring is all about)

Students pick up the new words that we use in conference because they are completely necessary for the new communication that will be happening in the classroom. “the average child already knows  ten thousand words at age four. By the time she finished school, her vocabulary grows to at least fifty thousand words, just by hearing words used naturally and in context, and from reading them”

It is good that we highlight every time our students are talking like writers, either by just saying it or by putting examples on a bulletin board of how students are beginning to act like writers.  It is extremely important to show students how we value their use of writing discourse, and this will make it more likely they will use this discourse when we confer with them.

A mini lesson that will help students understand their conference role would be the best way to go to help us make that big shift from talking what the stories were about to what they were doing as writers. 

“our conferences are time for me to come around and help you individually. We may be working on stuff as a class, but each of us is different and has different needs as writers, so our conference time is time for us to work together to give you more tools as a writer” Simply beautifully said. I need to keep this in mind so that I can explain to my students what the real purpose of a conference is. 

Another ways of teaching about conferences: 

Fishbowl- You confer with a child while the rest of the class observes and takes notes about what they notice the teacher and students are doing in the conference.

It is important that we don’t diverge into content, but stay focus on writing work.  The most helpful question to always get back on track is: “Can you tell me what you are doing as a writer today?” It will be normal for my students to answer this question by once again talking about what they are going to write about, but they need to have been exposed to different examples of how to express about their writing. This Is why is so important to confer in front of other children, so that they get a better idea of how to think and talk as writers. 

It is important to stop the conference when necessary, but equally as important to re-start the conference to give a chance to the students to revise their responses. This is really important for me to keep in mind, since I have caught myself sending students back to work on their writing when I see something is not correct, instead of questioning them, so that they can think about what they are doing, and give them another opportunity to verbally express their thoughts.

My only lingering question is if it is more important to give the students the vocabulary to talk during conferences and to talk as writers, or to help them develop better pieces of writing with better content. Or does becoming aware of how to revise your work as a writer leads you to writer better pieces that have good content? 

- I had this on a word document, and had completely forgotten about posting on the blog. shame on me :(