Skip to main content

Types of Conferences

Image
By


Teachers who are new to workshop often finding themselves teaching a minilesson and then floating around the room re-teaching that same teaching point during conferences. Don't fall into that trap! Minilessons are for teaching one skill that almost everyone needs; conferences are for teaching individuals new skills that they need to become more proficient. This is like a teacher's Prime Time. So keep 'em short (about 4 minutes per conference if you can), take notes (more on that later), and present new skills as clearly as you can. 

There are three basic types of conferences:

Research-decide-teach: An RDT conference is probably comprises most of our conferences (and is most difficult, in my opinion.) We research the child either from afar or by listening in as they read or talk, and we sift through all the possible teaching points. And then we do the hardest thing of all: We decide which teaching point will have the biggest impact with this child, at this time. Once you've made a decision, you need to politely stop the child and teach them a new strategy in almost the same format as a minilesson, except with a compliment. (Compliment & connect, teach, active engagement, link). Use this kind of conference when you're teaching something new OR something you don't think the child has tried. 

Coaching: Just like in basketball, the coach yells from the side-lines with the stuff the player has already been taught (important), but aren't doing at the moment. It's essential to use lean prompts, because remember that our goal for all children is independence. If we coach by interupting them with something their own inner voice will never replicate ("Good readers hop over an unknown word and then come back"), then they won't be able to recreate that voice independently. Instead, we need to use the smallest prompts possible so they'll be able to do it when you're not there ("Hop over it!"). Think: Jump! Shoot! etc...

Use this type of conference when you want to support a student in the midst of reading- it's usually more print-oriented. Or, if you have a student teacher or beginning workshop teacher in your classroom and he/she is anxious about coming up with a teaching point, encourage that person to try a RDT conference, but fall back on a coaching conference if they are unsure of themselves. 


Proficient Partner: This one isn't used very often. While Research-Decide-Teach is for teaching new skills and strategies and Coaching is for scaffolding kids towards independence through known skills and strategies, Proficient Partner is for helping children be able to have a conversation with themselves in their own head. It's about giving them generic prompts so that when they are by themselves, they can be better thinkers. You can do this conference with an individual by acting like a partner and saying what a partner would say, OR you can talk to a partnership and coach them along as far as conversational moves.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Guided Reading Vs. Strategy Group

By
Chances are you've heard both terms. You may be tempted to toss guided reading and embrace the newest "most hip" reading group on the block. But hold your horses- there's room for both in a balanced literacy classroom. Here's some of the main differences: Guided Reading Group Strategy Group Teacher acts like a coach on game day, first setting the group up for the game to come, and then offering words of advice from the sidelines as the players tackle the job of reading the text beginning to end. Teacher acts like a coach during a practice, stating a discreet skill she notices the group needs to work on, teaching it, modeling it, then allowing time for practice of that skill. Teacher is like a safety net under a tightrope walker. She stays with student from the beginning to the end of the experience and coaches the whole time. Teacher teaches just one skill in isolation to tightrope walker and stud
1 comment
Read more

More on Mini's: Skills and Strategies

By
Imagine that in your second life, you decide to learn how to walk a tightrope. Your mentor coaches you by saying, "balance." If that was the extent of their teaching, I'd advise you to run for the hills! Balancing is a skill. But there are plenty of strategies that go into learning how to balance. Balance by holding your arms straight out. Balance by keeping your chin up. Balance by tightening your core.   Teaching reading and writing are the same. Every teaching point in a minilesson needs to have both a skill and a strategy. A skill is something that you teach children because they need it to become proficient readers, and a strategy is a way to achieve it. One skill might have many different strategies, but we only teach one at a time.   Even though we may call determining importance a strategy when we are talking to children, it's really a big umbrella skill. There are many different ways that a reader can determine importance. They can determine impor
1 comment
Read more

"In his listening, his heart opened wide and wider still."

By
“And so.” “And so what?” said Abilene. “What happened then?” No matter the personality of my class on a given year, the bittersweet story of The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane always weaves itself tightly into the fabric of our literate community. The book has this absolutely magical ability to transform a group of children who begin with an “every child for himself” stance to one who is ever so slightly more thoughtful about the position of another. It's the one book all year that I never want to end (and neither do the kids!). We read and reread. One year, I lost count of how many times we reread Chapter 4. When the music of the words surrounds us, all arguments and off-task behaviors are suspended. (Can you blame me, then, for wanting it to never end?) Wisely, even 2nd graders can see past the simple journey motif that works as a container for the deeper story, or inside story, as we refer to it. They realize that with each change Edward undergoes
1 comment
Read more