Conferencing with Students

Hello!

     A few years ago, a great friend and teacher introduced me to the Daily 5.  I was teaching 5th grade at the time and did not realize how it could be applied to this age group.  Quickly and easily, together we modified a few aspects and found that my students enjoyed Language Arts ten times more than they did previously and that I was able to work so much easier with small groups or students one on one.  I immediately fell in love and have been applying the Daily 5 procedure in my classroom ever since.  The creators of the Daily 5, The 2 Sisters named Gail Boushey and Joan Moser, have a great website with tips and tricks that are emailed weekly.  I joined the newsletter and find their passion for teaching inspiring.  
     Recently, their weekly newsletter discussed conferencing with students individually in writing and reading.  This is one of my favorite things to do with my students because I find so much valuable information about their strengths and the challenges that they are having.  The article mentioned even more specifics about how conferring benefits students.

• It builds relationships by giving children our deserved and undivided attention.
• It allows us to differentiate, set goals, monitor progress, and establish the next steps.
• We can collect essential data.

     After reading the article and agreeing wholeheartedly, I continued to scroll and saw that there was a link to The Daily Cafe website.  Here, there is a video which gives a great way to organize data collected from reading and writing workshops and conferences as well as all the sheets they utilized too!  What a wealth of information!  Currently, I use Fontas and Pinnell's conferencing sheet which is helpful but these will certainly be added to my process.  I strongly recommend you clicking HERE to access The Daily Cafe website and gather these treasures for yourself.

(Snapshot taken of the video on The Daily Cafe's website for conferring and the Writer's Notebook)

(Snapshot taken of the Conference Record Form found in Fountas and Pinnell's book Guiding Readers and Writers (Grades 3-6): Teaching Comprehension, Genre and Content Literacy)

     I would love to hear about your conferencing tips and tricks as well as what organizational method works for you.  Why do you love this essential part of the Language Arts block?

     Enjoy using all of these resources during your next reading and writing workshop time!