Chapter+6


 * Chapter 6**

**#1** ** Connecting conferences over time ** //Think about the suggestions in the chapter for ways to have our conferences build on one another with individual students over time. Some examples include students setting personal reading goals per month or using running record assessments to make an instructional plan for a reader that is revisited each time you confer. What did you read that you want to try out to create cohesion between conferences? What do you predict will occur from these ongoing conversations? What might be the implications for your instruction, planning, conferring notes, etc.?// Response:

Conferring has not always been my strong area. As I go this online book class, I am beginning to get a vision of how I will be stronger in this area. My research will guide my minilessons. My record keeping will be based on all of my reseach; observation, and listening and notes so I can refer back befor continuing on. The word I want to use is consistency. The management component will be part of my minilessons. Giving the children the tools/strategies to allow me quality time with my confers. It will take time an a concerted effort on my part.

Margaret Fox

Chapter 6 from Bobbi Friend #1 Conferences are a weakness for me. I know how valuable they are, but I had a hard time managing them this year. Part of the difficulty for me was that I did not have the structure and procedures in place effectively when I launched reader’s workshop, and therefore classroom management was often an issue. When I would sit with a student for a conference, I would often be interrupted with something happening in another area of the room. I did see that when I had good conferences and developed goals for students to work on based on their individual needs, there would be a great deal of growth. Using the research, decide, teach method for conferences described on pages 102-103 worked for me when I had effective conferences. Each student is so different, the research part is vital. We cannot make broad based, collective goals for readers because their strengths and needs are so individual. I am going to develop a recording form to use for conferences, especially since I will have so many to monitor in sixth grade.

Like Bobbi, conferences are a harder thing for me to impliment in my classroom. Even with established procedures, in first grade interruptions were numerous and the children had a hard time staying focused on their reading and questions to each other. "Recalling whatever I already know about my readers" I tend to hover around the children that have the hardest time staying on task and need to be refocused often. This makes it harder to get around to the children that are a little more independent. We have recording forms for our writing workshops and will try to develop some forms for reading conferences that will be benificial as I monitor. Ronda

I found this section to be most valuable to me: **__p.108"readers know they will have conferences that yield personal goals and these confrences will direct their reading lives for that month".__** I have had problems focusing my reading lessons myself, and keeping my readers focused. I see setting personal goals with an extended period of time to practice and refine those goals to be very valuable to me as the teacher and to my readers. It sets us both up for success. The second part of that same section,**__p.108"These goals are sent home to parents, and they provide a direction for future conferences. The students know that before the month is over, they will be expected to provide evidence of serious work toward thier goal".__** This speaks directly to accountability for myself, my readers and their parents. When we include ALL the major players into these goals we should expect the highest growth. Like Bobbi and Ronda, I see the value of conferring but I will admit, it is going to be an ongoing work-in-progress. Mike

Conferringthe heart of the work—I like Bobbi did not always do it enough. My system was not the problem—I had studentsbroken into a doable number of students each day—if there are an assembly etc—Icould just pick a “day” that needed more attention. The PROBLEM was not wantingto interrupt students who I now did not read at home—it is difficult for me tointerrupt working students—even for their own good.

NowI love that Mike directed us to 108 the goal setting-- to be at great additionto the many tricks teachers can use to encourage quality reading. KDN

I did conduct running records on students last year, but would like to analyze them more thoroughly than in the past to set a course for the reader, especially the struggling readers. I also worked to try on build on the skills from the previous conferences with a student by reviewing my notes before beginning the conference. Something I implemented near the end of the year and would like to do at the start of this year is record the goal the child has after our conference. I recorded it on a special sticky note so children could place it at the start of the section they were reading each day to remind them of their goal. I would like to record this goal in a corresponding section of their reader’s binders, but may continue to use the stick note strategy as a very visual and daily reminder of their goal. Stephanie Cooper

Running Records and DIBELs Scores were a big part of my assessment systems last year. This Fall I will be implementing Fountas and Pinnell as an assessment system. F & P, as we call it, is a much more in-depth assessment of a students reading and comprehending abilities and I'm excited to learn how to administer the assessments. My daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly assessments definitely drove my conferences and conferring appointments with my students. I LOVED conferring with my students. The Reading Workshop allowed me to do one-on-one conferring and reading with my students. It was so "free-ing" and I enjoyed the individual connections I made with my students as a result. The conversations we had about the stories they were reading were better than I had ever had when I would conduct "reading groups." My downfall with conferring is two-fold. The first difficult thing for me was all the record keeping. I took the checklists provided and then modified them, created my own, so I could have a record keeping system that worked for me. The other difficult thing for me was to do conferring with two or more kids. It's almost like I was at one end of the spectrum when I was ONLY conducting reading groups with my basal program and then last year I swung completely the opposite direction and ONLY conducted one-on-one conferences. This was probably NOT the best use of my time...but.... This coming year I will strive to find the happy medium that will give me and my students the biggest bang for our buck! In addition to all of the above, I really liked the quick prompts shared on pages 114 adn 115. I will refer to these often. I will probably photocopy them and have them with me in my conferring notebook as a quick and handy reference. Keri Cooper

I like your idea Stephanie C. about recording the child’s goal on a sticky note to remind the student of his/her goal every day. I’m interested in learning more about Calkins version of a “child’s reading log” (page 108) and how that looks in first grade. I do have a tool that I created with some colleagues last year and I want to be better with using it. It has visual prompts with a caption under to remind the student what is important to do at that reading level. For example, on a level A prompt sheet, it has a picture of a finger pointing under words (along with about 5-6 other strategies the reader should be using). This tool helps me when I’m conferring. I give the children a sheet with prompts for the level they’re at and working into. The sheet is in a plastic page protector. I can put a sticky note on the picture that I conferred with the student about and record tally points if needed to reinforce/motivate. I’m thinking that I can make a copy of that sheet once a month or so and send it home to parents so they know what their child is working on, similar to what Calkins suggested on page 108. This sheet would serve as a great way for kids to communicate with parents and serve as a tool in future conferences (both with the child and during parent/teacher conferences). Sara Sabourin

I have several goals for myself next year, the main one being to keep usable, organized conferring notes. I need to be accurate in taking notes so that I have a record of previous strategies taught and goals made with the student. I need to be able to keep a student at his just right level to maximise his reading and I need to also use this along with my research in order to decide what to teach. I am in the process of making my conferring notebook in which I will keep prompts for myself as I am becoming stronger at conferring. I plan to copy pages 114 and 115 which has some quick prompts to help scaffold a child's reading. When I coach my main thought will be in phrasing that will keep it short and not make it a huge conversation. I like the examples Lucy gives which are short phrases, single words, or even pointing to the picture. In writer's workshop conferrinf was the most difficult [art for me but now that I have a few year's experience I think it will come more quickly in reader's workshop. --Jodee Tuttle

**#2**

**lecture vs. slight intervention**
//In the first full paragraph of p. 112 the goal of conferring is described as intervening “just enough to scaffold the reading work we hope will happen.” We don’t want to stop them to have “Long, reflective conversations.” How does that resonate with you? Sometimes we educator types find it tough to hold our tongues and keep our words as few as possible. While conferring will it be a challenge for you to be a quiet coach vs. an orator?// Response:

I love to talk, yes holding my tongue will take practice. Pg. 117 opened with "Coaching and conferring take courage". I need to come with my notes but start with a connection/compliment. Give the child time to share what is going on in their reading world. Again it is my preparation that will make or break this chat. The more I practice, the better for me and the child(ren).

Margaret Fox

In that same paragraph on p. 112, it says "the goal of coaching is partly to help readers develop unconscious habits". I see that when you are coaching, it is a more natural, gentle approach. I love that it is called "coaching". And yes, it is sometimes hard to not talk "all the time", but if we simply talk about reading strategies, it is not reading (also from p. 112). I am excited to try to do more coaching and less talking. Kari

Chapter 6 from Bobbi Friend #2 When I went to this page in the book, I found that I had highlighted the statement about, “In coaching, we intervene as lightly as we can while readers continue to move through the text…The goal of coaching is partly to help readers develop unconscious habits.” It is sometimes hard not to say too much, but I find it even more difficult to interrupt the reader who is so engaged in their text. It does take courage to conference effectively because we want to make sure our individual teaching points are useful, valuable, and transferrable for the reader to use on their own as they develop better reading habits. Teachers do tend to what to hit the point home, so we think that the more we say the better. In conferencing, however, less seems to be more especially if our teaching points are valuable for our individual readers.

As on page 112, "I don't want to call their reading to a halt and have big conversations about strategies their might use when comes to a tricky part." First grades will lose interest fast and will forget what they have been reading about if a teacher tries to intervene and correct everything. A coach should try to "have a reader walk-the-walk and don't worry whether they can talk-the- talk." They simply need to use sources of information and not have to talk about the "sources" of the information. Ronda

I highlighted many of the same areas of p.112 as Kari, Bobbi, and Ronda. I wonder how long it takes to be a better "coach" than an instructor(talker). I did see a piece on **__p.113"When I coach young readers in this way, I aim not only to intervene efficiently and lightly so that they continue processing extended text, but also to coach toward one major goal over and over so they aren't being pulled in five directions at once".__** Again, this speaks to me as a way to remain focused and to simplify my thoughts and lessons. Mike

Like Kari, Bobbie, and Mike I too highlighted from page 112, and it seems I can add to the above mentioned discussions. I agree with the author in that “**the goal is to intervene just enough to scaffold the reading work we hope will happen.”** We teachers may offer some quick prompts during reading, **“But** **in the end, children need to read as best they can without our presence to** **hold them up”** (pg.114). I have worked with students with special needs for ten years and have learned to be QUIET, LISTEN, OBSERVE, and show no reaction(s) to any and all situations. I will definitely be a ‘quiet Coach.’ However, transferring ‘Quiet Coaching’ to my IA’s will be my biggest challenge!

M.J.

On the subject of being an Orator vs. a quality conference—I like what we did at Roosevelt in our Lucy Calkin’s writing project—We had a sheet in their writing folderswhich teachers made a notation on what they are currently doing well and then theygave us what they need to work on—because of the mini lessons they where moreon then we could be. I had students rate themselves on a rubric I had forindependent reading—this could go a little further to set the goals that are based on the mini lessons. KDN

My goal this year is to model conferring for teachers while their independent reading is taking place—If we did it like we did during writing twice as much will get done and it energizes everyone in the room. KDN

The quotes other selected from this chapter were ones I noticed as well. My favorite being on page 112: …”don’t want to call his reading to a halt and have a big conversation about the strategies he might use when he comes to a tricky part.” Students need to have time to practice reading, not chunks of time listening to us explain strategies. I don’t think I will have too much of a challenge being a quiet coach and plan to copy the quick prompts listed on pages 114-115 to guide me in my coaching journey. They are laid out in a way that makes it easy to choose a prompt based on what skill or strategy you are teaching to a child. Stephanie Cooper Yes, holding back my own thoughts and ideas was the hardest part last year, and I'm sure it will be difficult this year as well. Learning how to ask more questions instead of giving more answers or putting thoughts in the students heads before I've heard what their thoughts are needs to be a huge goal for me this year. I referred to pages 114 and 155 in my comment on the previous question, and again, those are some wonderful prompts that I will utilize. I like how Stephanie puts it so well when she states that those very prompts will "guide me in my coaching journey." I totally agree! Keri Cooper I’ve found that conferring during writing workshop over the past 4-5 years has really helped me avoid having “long, reflective conversations” as I confer during writing and reading workshop. I’m finding it easier to be a “quiet coach.” As Calkins explained on page 112, It’s more important to "have that reader walk-the-walk” rather than to “talk-the- talk." I want them to internalize those habits of skilled readers in the midst of reading while I coach from the side. Like you mentioned Stephanie, I, too, want children to have as much time reading as they can during which I can give them a lean prompt or teaching point to keep them going as needed. Sara Sabourin

**#3** ** Courage to Confer ** //“Coaching and conferring take courage.” (p. 117) What about conferring with (and/or coaching) readers requires you to be your “bravest self”? What are you still wondering about conferring? Could you turn that uncertainty into a goal for yourself for this year, to revisit mid-way through the year and again in June? How would you word that goal specifically?// Response: When I taught first grade, I had a few students who came in to first grade at the beginning of the year, as very fluent, expressive readers. In those cases, I really did have to be "my bravest self". They had already met and far exceeded the reading objectives of the year. I had to find ways to help them grow other than in the areas that most typical first graders struggle. We worked on expanded vocabulary, comprehension, and prediction skills. A goal that I have for myself for Kindergarten this year is to use the words "show me how you...". Most of the students are emergent and beginner readers and I want to encourage them to keep learning and growing in their reading. I also have another goal of being more organized and writing down my comments each time I meet with a student, so that the next time I can follow up on the previous conference. Kari

After reading this chapter, I realize that I have been conferring all along without even realizing it. Yes, I do worry that I may be **“doing more harm than good”** (pg.117). Finally, after reading in earlier chapters of the importance of reading a book that a student can read comfortably, I will do a more thorough job of doing assessments and keeping an accurate running record of all students. This assessment piece will help in choosing appropriate reading levels and leveled books for my students. ** Goal: ** Conduct running records on students 2-3 times per school year to determine appropriate reading levels. M.J.

== **//I really loved the following passage from page114, " Conferring is about helping learners become independent. . . .I steer them to work on manageable endeavors that are within their reach and if, bit by bit, I coach and nudge them, I model and demonstrateways to develop the thinking muscles and habits they'll need to read well." That just was a huge AHA! for me. It brought to my attention again the importance of being prepared when conferring so that I am ready with a quick teaching point so that I can be brief and let the reader continue on. My record keeping plan could make or break my conferring sessions. I need to know where a student is headed next at all times and have a plan in place. --Jodee Tuttle//** ==
 * // In addition to the questions and thoughts above, here is a place to post other ideas and burning questions from chapter six, if any.. //**