One of the teachers I'm working alongside is really focused on honing her conferring skills. So we are hunkering down beside students and listening intently to their work. She leads the conference and I listen. We've been considering the two parts of a conference. In a nutshell, these parts are: Part One: Figure out what… Continue reading Learning how to confer with student writers
Category: conferring
Mr. Stowlkey and Mr. Smith
Mr. Stowlkey and Mr. Smith were the teachers in one of the kindergarten writing workshops I was in today. They are incredible teachers. They are both six. (Normally I don't refer to students as Mr. or Miss...but since they were acting as teachers today, they wanted to go with this form of their names. I'll… Continue reading Mr. Stowlkey and Mr. Smith
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Digital Conferring Notebook
A Note from Stacey: A little over a year ago Amy Platt, who is a sixth grade teacher at Melissa Ridge Intermediate School in Melissa, Texas, contacted me with a question about something I had written in Day by Day. One thing led to another and we landed up writing back and forth about conferring. … Continue reading Digital Conferring Notebook
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A Seminar About Conferring
I'll be leading a seminar, "Conferring in Writing Workshop," on Wednesday, February 22nd at Penn State - Harrisburg. I'll be talking about conferring basics, as well as sharing strategies for implementing peer conferring in the classroom, and information about goal setting for each of the writers in one's class. If you find yourself in the… Continue reading A Seminar About Conferring
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Review Mentor Texts
I'm excited to share this with you. It was one of those times when things just worked out in writing workshop. In one of the third grade classes studying reviews, we began talking about using details to support your opinion. I try to avoid the word details as much as possible. I think it's an… Continue reading Review Mentor Texts
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Verbal Cues — Pilates & Writing Series: Part 5 of 5
When I started working with Lauren, my Pilates instructor here in Pennsylvania almost two and a half years ago, she gave me a lot of verbal cues. The ones I heard the most were "keep your shoulders down" and "relax your neck and shoulders." It didn't matter if I was working on an upper or… Continue reading Verbal Cues — Pilates & Writing Series: Part 5 of 5
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Just Listen. Just Listen. Just Listen.
These two words cycle through my mind every, oh I don't know, maybe, every five seconds during writing workshop (and other times of the day, but I'll keep focused on being a teacher of writers). Just listen. Just listen. Just listen. It's a mantra that I'm trying to program into myself. I've been saying these… Continue reading Just Listen. Just Listen. Just Listen.
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Conference Roles
I like to think of a writing conference as a conversation. Just like many common conversations, there is a predictable structure to the writing conference. I think it's important for us to teach students about their role and our role in a conference. Tomorrow I have plan to do this in second grade (as I… Continue reading Conference Roles
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How to Write
This past week I've had several conversations with young writers about how to write something. Not the logistics of making letters or spelling words, but how to craft their writing in order to make the reader feel or know something. With our youngest writers this conversation has centered around illustrations. With intermediate writers it has… Continue reading How to Write
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Record-Keeping Forms
Ever since I took Carl Anderson's course, "Assessment-Based Writing Instruction: Use a study of Student Work to Generate Goals and Systems for Recording Progress Towards Those Goals," I've been thinking a lot about student goals for writing and record-keeping. While everyone (likely) has writing goals for their students, I wonder how often we use two… Continue reading Record-Keeping Forms
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Summer Writing “Blogstitute” Starts Today
Stenhouse's Summer Writing "Blogstitute" starts today. My post on student-initiated writing conferences kicks of the Blogstitute today. Ruth's piece on celebrating student writers will follow on Monday, July 18th. Later in the summer you'll hear from other Stenhouse authors. Here's a look at who else will be sharing fresh ideas about the teaching of writing… Continue reading Summer Writing “Blogstitute” Starts Today
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Confer Like a Doctor
I'm taking Carl Anderson's week-long class, Assessment-Based Writing Instruction: Use a study of Student Work to Generate Goals and systems for Recording Progress Towards Those Goals, at the July Writing Institute this week. Carl delivered an overview of our class on Tuesday, June 28th when he delivered the Keynote Address, Conferring with a Vision, to… Continue reading Confer Like a Doctor
