I implemented teacher-student writing conferences, that followed a distinct structure and flow, in my classroom. This structure was based on research and is described in detail above. The strategies I utilized required students to reflect on their writing by doing two things. First, students set the agenda by completing a pre-conference reflection form. The pre-conference reflection form, shown to the left, guided students to select two items, within the categories of ideas and focus, organization, and word choice, that they would like to improve on as a writer instead of having students come up with areas of improvement on their own. The items on the reflection form were based on the district assessment scoring rubric. Research suggests that it is important to give students a voice by asking what they would like to improve on; therefore, the pre-conference reflection form prepared students to answer the question, what would you like to improve on as a writer, asked during each conference. The ultimate goal of a writing conference is to get students to think about how to improve on their writing independently without always getting direction from the teacher. Research also declared that the teacher does not have to take what the student suggests as the teaching point of the conference.
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Second, at the beginning of each conference, I asked each student to rate themselves by how well they were meeting their prior writing goal. Each conference I have with a student, we set a writing goal that they are supposed to think about and practice until their next conference. After the first round of writing conferences with my students, they then began reflecting and rating themselves on their implementation of their writing goal in future pieces. They rated themselves with a one, two or three. One being they did not think about their goal. Two being they thought about their goal but did not implement it into their writing, and three that they implemented their goal into their writing. This helped students be accountable for their learning and to constantly be thinking about meeting and practicing their set goal. To the right is the form I used to record this information.
I also intentionally scheduled conferences for all students. Every day I had four to five student names listed on the board, which were the students I would conference with during independent writing time. Scheduling conferences helped my students to be prepared as to when I was sitting down to talk with them. It also helped me to manage my time. One of the greatest challenges for me as a writing teacher prior to research was meeting with all my students. With a schedule, I kept myself on track to meet with each student. |
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Finally, I implemented taking records of each students' conferences. For each conference I recorded the date, a writing strength or compliment, the teaching point of the conference, and finally the student goal. To the left is the form I used to keep these records. My students also recorded their writing goals from each conference. They included the date of the conference as well as their individual writing goal. This form was kept in their writing folder so the students could look back at their goals while writing. The student goal sheet is shown on the left. Research described the importance of taking data during writing assessment as it can be used as a formative assessment to drive writing instruction.
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