Crafting a system for conferring notes can be a catch-all of sorts, a strategy for ensuring that teammates engage in the highest leverage instructional conversations before the unit begins—even if they haven’t had extended time to unit plan together.
I am so grateful to have this resource available to me as an educator at no cost. Maybe someday, I’ll get to thank whoever is behind the Google Curtain in person. In the meantime, I’ll share what’s been working and I’ll look forward to hearing about how some of you end up doing it even better!
Want to keep (better) conferring records, but don’t know where to begin? This post will help you discover analog and digital record-keeping systems.
Read all the way through since there will are lots of downloadable templates to help you get started.
Sometimes in a busy and chaotic schedule, we inadvertently miss attending to some of our students who like to “fly under the radar.” Being systematic and intentionally positive can make a big difference for some of our writers.
Do your on-demand writing samples go into a folder or do they help you plan your next steps?
Handwritten vs. Digital? How do you keep records of your conferences?
Lucy Calkins, author of many books on teaching writing, often says that conferring is the heart of writing workshop. I once heard her say to a group of graduate students that she wished… Continue reading
Today’s guest blog post by Cathy Mere will help you jump on the electronic record-keeping bandwagon. Learn how to use Evernote to keep conferring notes on all of your students.
There are a variety of record-keeping apps, which make it possible to monitor your students’ writing progress. Confer, DailyNotes, Evernote, and Notability are four popular apps that promise to make it easier, dare-I-say… Continue reading
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… Continue reading
Outside of a dog, a book is man’s best friend. Inside of a dog it’s too dark to read. — Attributed to Groucho Marx And make sure to check out these FREE SUMMER… Continue reading
Our Stenhouse Facebook Event concludes today with a final downloadable and printable writing tip is entitled “Record-Keeping Systems That Make Sense for You.” You can find this tip on our Facebook Event. Here’s… Continue reading
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… Continue reading
I recently tweaked some of the record-keeping forms I disseminate when I consult with teachers about conferring. Some of the forms now have space to record the mentor text a teacher studies in… Continue reading
Ruth and I are putting the finishing touches on the Conferring Section of our book just as I’m starting to work on presentations for two separate school districts about conferring in the Writing… Continue reading
Strategy Lesson Record Sheet Originally uploaded by teachergal It’s always been tedious recording the teaching point from strategy lessons on three – five kids’ conference record sheets every time I conduct a strategy… Continue reading
I created the Slice of Life Story Challenge Tracker and posted it above my desk, which is oddly located in my classroom’s meeting area, this afternoon. I cannot wait to see how many… Continue reading
Need a quick record-keeping form to use to track your students’ Slice of Life Stories in March? If so, click here for a spreadsheet I created and published as a Google Document for… Continue reading
Angela Redden got me thinking about all of my goals for the upcoming school year. I thought this would be a brilliant place for me to articulate my writerly goals, so here goes.… Continue reading
