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 tim...
by Andrea Moffatt