One of my favorite things to do during the day is talk to my students. Whether it be during small group, in the mornings when they want to tell me what they did the night before, or out on the playground. My kids are so entertaining and teach me so much!
I also LOVE to teach writing. We've been writing since the first day of school! Some of my students could write all day long, others can't write more than two sentences without giving up. I knew I wanted to meet ALL of their needs within writing, so I decided to block off a day and sign them up for writing conferences with me.
We had just completed an expository essay that required a lot of research, drafts, and editing, so we were ALL busted. So, I figured this would be the best time to pull students to talk about their writing.
As I began talking to my students I was amazing with how much I was learning. Each students' needs were different (DUH, MRS. MOORE) and each student told me how I could help them!
It doesn't get much easier than that!
This is how my conferences were set up:
1. First we organized their writing portfolios. We checked to make sure their earliest writing was in the front and their most recent writing was in the back. I also explained how we want to be able to see the entire writing process throughout our portfolio, so we need to put our brainstorming sheets, whatever that may be, in the front, followed by drafts, and so on and so forth until we reach the published piece.
2. Second, we looked at all their published pieces and my students were able to reflect and tell me what part of the writing process they struggled with most.
3. After identifying their weakness, we talked about ways I could help them when our next big writing assignment started. (This is where I love 5th grade!)
4. Finally, we made a plan of action as to what I was going to do -- whether it be give them a transitional phrases sheet, allow for more peer editing sessions, or just allow more writing time. After we made our plan I had them sign and date it
-- from which I got funny looks! Our kids think it's so strange when we allow them to be equal partners in their learning! What a shame!
I learned SO much from these conferences. We are preparing to start Westward Expansion narratives and I just broke out all of our writing conferences to see what my kids asked for! I can't wait to see the progress!
Here's a peak at one of my favorites! (I use the writing conference form from The Daily 5)
We were trying to think of ways to help him add more details to his writing and I said, "Does our feedback & critique sessions not help?" He said, "Yeah, I get lots of ideas, but I don't have any time to write them all down, and then I forget!" HAHA! I love when my kiddos straighten me out!
I am CONSTANTLY making lists and writing things down so I can remember everything. Why would I not allow time for my kiddos to get to do the same?! So, our plan of action was for myself to write down all the great ideas and feedback given to the student who is in the share seat so they can focus on listening to their peers and I can have them a list to take back to their seat when work time starts back up!
Like I said, I LOVE talking to my kiddos, they teach me something new everyday!
What do you do in writing conferences? I'd love to hear your ideas!
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