The Powerful Practice of Conferencing with Students in the Classroom
What would it be like to see improvement in your students' writing? To have students who take ownership of their writing and progress? Join me today as we explore the magic of writing conferences.
A routine will help students know what to expect and create an environment to ensure the success of conferencing. The routine is what works for your classroom and your students. Although there is a flow for successful conferences, the predictability will help students focus on their writing rather than what is happening in the conference.
The real magic is in the relationships and community that will flourish through writing conferences. Writing conferences can create the same magic in your classroom!
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Melissa Burch 0:00
Hey, hey, hey, welcome to another episode of annotated ELA. I'm so excited that you are joining me today. We are going to talk about writing conferences, what they are, what I think the elements are that make a successful writing conference, why you should do them, and the real magic that is writing conferences. I am so excited that you're joining me today, so we can talk about all things writing conferences.
Melissa Burch 0:27
But, before we jump into the episode, if you want more on all the writing conference goodness, go ahead and download the writing conference guide at annotated ela.com/confer.
Melissa Burch 0:39
All right, let's get into it. You might be thinking, Melissa, I'm a secondary or middle school ELA teacher, I don't have time for writing conferences. And there's barely time just for writing with all of the standards that we have to teach. Let me tell you that I hear you; I hear you. My first two years teaching, I was lucky enough just to teach writing, and I didn't even do writing conferences. I was skeptical. I'm not gonna lie. I was skeptical, because who has time for that? I'm teaching writing, I'm teaching the whole class. And we're plowing forward. But there's nothing I love more than teaching writing, and writing conferences have been a game changer. And so I want to share with you why it's important to find the time and take the time to do them.
Melissa Burch 1:25
So let's get into the first thing about writing conferences and what they are. So what is a writing conference? First of all, let me start by saying that it is not a curriculum or a program, it's just a strategy or a method for teaching writing. You could make it fit your needs for your classroom, for yourself, for your students, that's the beautiful thing about it; it's just a strategy. So make it work for you and your students. I think that there are elements that help a writing conference, and I'm going to get to those in a minute. But, I also want to say that a writing conference is just a conversation between you and a student or between you and a group of students, you're just writers who are talking about writing. And I think that when some of that pressure comes off, when we take away that it has to be this way or that way; and that when we look at it, it's just another strategy that we can use to make our own - it makes writing conferences doable.
Melissa Burch 2:22
So let's talk about some of those elements that I think help make a writing conference successful - the flow of what's worked. So the first thing I do is I explore what my writers or my students are doing with their writing. In the beginning, I do not think I was very good at this because they would come and I'd be like, how's your writing going? What's going on with your writing? And we kind of looked at each other because we weren't skilled at talking about the writing. So students would often jump into what their topic was. I always just go to narrative, but we could have been writing an argumentative, they could be persuading, maybe they were persuading their parents to get their favorite video game. Iinstead of talking about the actual skills or strategies they were using, they would give me the reasons why. Here's the reasons my parents should get me that video game. But were they really using transitions? Or were those reasons even supporting the claim they had made? Did they even have a claim? Did they explain how those reasons support the claim? Were they really following the elements, the skills and the strategies of a persuasive piece of writing? I wasn't very good at guiding the conversation in that way. And it took lots of practice. Practice makes it better. So just jump in and do it.
You want to explore what they're doing as a writer with their writing. Once they have talked about what they're doing with their writing, maybe they've said, Oh, I tried a new type of hook, or I'm not sure that my reasons are strong enough to persuade. Or if they're writing a narrative, and it's a memoir piece about a favorite memory, and it's a day at the beach, maybe they need to narrow the topic to not every single detail that happened at the beach, but picking one of the most memorable moments from that day at the beach. Or maybe their transitions aren't showcasing transitions of time. You really want to look at those standards, and then what's the skills? And if they're using those skills well in their writing and talking about those skills, that's a shift for everyone. It was for me anyway. So I think that having those standards and knowing what skills you want the students to get is a great place to start when you're exploring what they're doing as a writer.
Melissa Burch 4:42
Next, you'll evaluate how well they're doing what they say they're doing. So are they using transitions? Well, is the topic narrowed or is the persuasive piece persuasive? What elements are they using ethos, pathos, logos, all of those things? So you evaluate how well they're doing what they intend to do, and what you think they need, but also hearing what they think they need. Let them evaluate how well they're doing. Because again, this is a conversation, you are just two writers giving each other feedback on writing, and what is being discussed.
After you've explored and evaluated, it's time to decide what to teach or what you're going to guide the student to do. Here's the tricky part, the student might think they need one thing, and you may not agree with that. So it can be a tricky line to walk on, when a student thinks they need or want help with one thing, but you're seeing something else and you can't get behind them. That's a whole other episode on how to walk that line. But usually, I think that I can get behind what my students are wanting to try.
Melissa Burch 5:46
So once we've decided what to teach, or what to work on, then I teach it. I also want to point out that when you're deciding what to teach, it should be a skill or a strategy that's going to help that student in all future writing. Again, we're working on what makes writing better for all writing. And so it should be something that they can use the next time they write another persuasive piece, argumentative piece, narrative piece, informational piece, compare, contrast, whatever it is you're working on, it should flow between their next writing piece. And it could be a skill that crosses all those genres of writing. Once you've taught it, have them practice it, and have some way for them to take that with them. This is why I believe in writing notebooks, I like to have all of their drafts in the writing notebook. But I also like a section as their toolbox where we put strategies and skills that we've talked about in conferences, or that we've learned as a whole class or a mini lesson, because I want to send them on their way to then use that strategy in their writing. And I want them to have a way to reference it when they need to. So teach it, model it, send them on their way to use it. So let's recap really quickly what those elements are, explore what they're doing, as a writer, evaluate how well they're doing what they say they're doing, decide what to teach, and then teach it, model it, practice it and send them on their way.
Melissa Burch 7:09
With all of that being said, Why do I take my precious, precious instructional time, because I know it's precious. Those of you who are teaching 45 minute classes, 56 minute classes, 90 minute, 100 minute, it all seems like it's not enough time. Again, do what works for you. I currently have 56 minute periods on Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays, and then Wednesday and Thursday are block days. So I do spend a lot of our block time in writing conferences. However, Fridays are always a writing time for us, whatever we're working on, even if it's free writing, we spend time writing and talking about what we're working on. And that's just something that I've made on Fridays. So do what works for you, again, you know, your students, you know, your schedule, that's a whole other conversation. But I do them, and I spend that precious class time for several reasons.
Melissa Burch 8:06
One is that it's built in differentiation. It is a way for me to not just always teach the whole class, which I am guilty of, it's so much easier just to teach that whole strategy. If they need it or not, I'm teaching it. And that is fine. It works. But this is a way for me to make sure that each of my students are getting what they need, if I can, if we're working on writing Friday, and I have 15 minutes where I can go plop down next to five kids and talk to them for about three minutes each. I have done a writing conference, and I've made it happen. And that's a beautiful thing, even three minutes, how's your writing going? What are you doing? Ooh, this looks like something you could do. And I move on. That's a writing conference, it was that simple. So I get that chance to individually provide what each student needs.
Melissa Burch 8:54
It also puts the students in the driver's seat, they have to take ownership of what they're doing. And this is so important. It also focuses on process over product. So those kind of go together for me. And this is a whole other episode how I grade writing. But their final draft for me is worth one point, because we really focus on that rubric score. The process is so important. Great writing doesn't just come out of thin air. It's hard work. And I want them to take control of that. And I want them to act on the feedback. I'm giving them in their moment. Because I don't know about you. But when I have 100 essays to grade and I'm grading them and I'm leaving feedback - they're not using it. They often make the same mistake over and over again. Also, let me be clear; writing conferences are not a magic bullet, just because I've taught them one thing and provided that feedback and they've acted on it. It might also be that they'll make that mistake again. I can tell you though, that with writing conferences I have found that my students make that same mistake less often. And when they do, I'm not as frustrated, because the comment is not a long drawn out explanation of what to do. I can reference what we discussed in writing conference, check your notebook as a reference, I can remind them more easily. And that reduced grading time is huge and significant. For me.
Melissa Burch 10:17
It also guides my instruction. If I'm sitting with those five kids on that Friday, and I'm finding that all five of them are struggling, I might do a quick check in with some others. And then I can pull a small group or if it needs to be a whole class mini lesson or review. So it's just really valuable time that is not wasted. And it's not one more thing to do, because it's eliminating the need for so many other things that I was doing before.
Melissa Burch 10:44
And finally, for me, writing conferences are a way to really make a connection with my students. And I think I'm pretty good at connecting and creating a culture and a community in my classroom, that is one of respect, motivation and progress. However, sitting down together as two writers talking about writing creates a relationship on a different level with those students. And it also alleviates when I'm laying in bed at night, wondering, I didn't really talk to so and so or did I make sure so and so was noticed today, with writing conferences, I'm almost tracking that time. And I make sure that every student gets it. And that's really upped my game. As far as classroom culture, writing culture, and relationships with my students, I think they also feel more respected and on the level of an equal that I see them as a writer, and they see me as a writer, and not just as their teacher. And that's just something special that writing conferences can bring to your classroom, on the warm and fuzzy side of things.
Melissa Burch 11:47
So let's recap writing conferences, and why I think you should give them a try if you're not. First of all, writing conferences are not a curriculum or a program. It's just a strategy that you can use to mold and fit your needs, your students needs and your scheduling needs. Writing conferences are just a conversation about writing between two writers. The elements that make a writing conference successful are to explore what the writer is doing, evaluate how well they're doing it, decide what to teach, and then teach it and give them away to take it with them to practice the news and other future writing. I think writing conferences are the best thing ever, because it's built in differentiation. It puts students in the driver's seat, they own that writing process. And they are acting on feedback at the moment. It guides my instruction, it puts the emphasis on that process over the product. And can I get a hallelujah, it reduces my grading and feedback time on that back end. I'm not spending as many hours as I used to. And the real magic in writing conferences is that connection, culture and community that it builds. And I didn't mention this, but I want to build it between the students. They begin talking to each other like writers and talk about a magical moment when they can take that and run with it. You've done your job as a teacher, we've all had that feeling in those moments, when we think “This is why I do it.” I think writing conferences, as hard and as tricky as they can be in the beginning, practice makes better, and it just creates magic in the classroom.
Melissa Burch 13:26
So I hope that I have given you something to think about and you are going to rush out and give writing conferences a go. I would really love it, if you enjoyed this episode, take a screenshot and share it on your socials and tag me at Annotated ELA so that you can share the goodness with all of your teacher friends. Until next time, bye for now.
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