Conferencing with Students: An Update on My Goal

Heather Zimmerman contributed today's post. Click here for more of Heather's thinking.

Earlier in the school year I wrote about my Professional Practice Goal (PPG) for the school year.  My goal was to work on a conferencing structure within my intervention groups that could also carry into coaching.  I just finished reflecting through my mid-year review for my PPG and wanted to share my progress with all of you.

One part of my goal was to utilize some resources.  I have heard from a lot of people the gist of How’s It Going? by Carl Anderson and hope to explore his book more on my own. My other resource I wanted to investigate was the Two Writing Teachers Blog where they talked about conferring toolkits.  I looked through all the resources on the blog and put together a system from some of their ideas.  I love that blog!

What’s Going Well-

The Format

I like the idea of giving a compliment on student work, a teaching point, and a goal for our next conference.  This keeps the conference focused on all the points I want to highlight during a conference.

Using Google Forms

As I said I was going to use Google forms to track my progress.  I really like the flexibility with Google Forms.  I have all my information in a spreadsheet, which also shares into a separate Google Doc for each student.  (Thanks to my tech coach’s help!)  

What I am Still Working On

Using My Chromebook

I find it difficult to bring my Chromebook with me and try to find a comfortable place to have the Chromebook and type into the Google form.  It is so much easier to conference with my small groups and follow the structure I have in place for a conference and then jot down notes on areas we need to work on in my lesson plan book.  But I know that is not practical for my teachers who have 130 students.  I have tried to use my iPad but it was not working out well with my Google forms. (Also my teachers do not have iPads, but all of them have Chromebooks.)  I will keep working at this- I still feel confident this format is the answer.

Anyone have any tips or thoughts on how to help me out with this?

Conferencing with Students: This Year’s Goal with the Comprehension Focus Group

Heather Zimmerman contributed today's post.

The new year is back in full swing.  My role (part-time coach, part-time interventionist) has stayed the same as last year, and I am at the same school.  I am excited for the consistency, so I can build off what was started last year.

This was the first time I ever cycled with some of my kids.  Some of my 8th graders are students I also worked with as 7th graders.   It was so exciting to see them again, and so interesting starting a year with students who already know me and our classroom routines.  We have had some celebrations together as we began the beginning of the year assessments.  I have noticed many of my students did not experience the dreaded summer slide and took my advice to read over summer.  I strongly believe as they grow as readers and gain skills to be successful through Comprehension Focus Groups (CFGs) and in their other classes, they are then able to apply these strategies on their own.  Therefore, growing as readers!

Some of you may have followed me last year through my journey of implementing CFGs in my middle school classroom for the first year.  Before this school year began, I started to think about what my focus will be this year for professional growth.  I thought about what worked well last year with the CFGs and what I wanted to work on.  

I decided to attempt to tackle putting in a place a conference schedule and method for taking notes.  Conferencing, even small groups, at times seems tricky.  I have yet to find a method I love to track my conferences.  This goal is going to not only be a part of my Professional Practice Goal (PPG), but also learning that I can share with the teachers I work with.  I already shared my goal with some of my colleagues, and they are eager to collaborate.

Here are some resources that are helping guide my thinking:

• How’s It Going? by Carl Anderson
• Two Writing Teachers Blog- https://twowritingteachers.wordpress.com/category/a-peek-inside-conferring-toolkits-blog-series/

I plan to keep track of conferences this year electronically using Google Forms.  I hope if I put the compliment and teaching point into Google forms, I can then use the spreadsheet to sort the data.  With the data, I can sort by student name and also by teaching points for small groups.

I am excited to get started and continue learning.  I have high hopes that I will finally find a method that works for me.

What has worked well for you with conferencing with students?  What advice have you given to your teachers regarding conferences?