ELLEN
BERG
Diary #36
The Power
of
Conferencing with Students
We continued this week with the poetry unit. Everything continues to go well: students are writing, exploring new forms, and gaining confidence in their ability to write well.
During share time and conferences this week I have had the pleasure of reading poems that tricked me, used rhythm and rhyme effectively, and even explored "middle school" topics quite effectively. (One boy, after our trip outdoors to collect sensory details, wrote an excellent Japanese Lantern poem about the boy who passed gas next to him. After he eagerly shared it with the class, I told him it was the best poem on flatulence I'd ever heard.)
I am quite pleased. But the most important thing I learned this week was the importance of conferences.
Revisiting the writing conference
I had tried writing conferences early in my career and quickly concluded I just could not do them because the kids were unable to manage themselves when I was not breathing down their necks.
What I did not understand was the source of my trouble -- my own lack of planning, classroom management skills, and a real understanding of what to do during conferencesm. I am thankful I decided to try conferences again during this unit.
How do conferences benefit our classrooms? I am sure that many people would immediately grasp the impact conferences have on student's achievement levels; after all, I believe conferences were set up with student achievement in mind. What I did not realize until this week was that conferences also improve student-teacher relationships.
I hate that I am learning this only now. How might my year -- and my students' year -- have been different if I had used conferences from the start? It hurts to think of it. But better late than never, right?
Before conferences could ever work, I had to change my mindset about what I would be doing in them. I guess I had always hoped my students would come to me, knowing what questions to ask and what they should be doing during conferences. I finally realized I had to teach them just why they had to sit down with Mrs. Berg to talk about their writing.
Helping students ask good questions
This year I handled that piece of instruction conference by conference, but next year I will present a series of mini-lessons to teach students how to set a purpose for their conferences before they ever even come to me. I know now students need a lot of prompting early on before they can learn how to be reflective and purposely critical about their own writing.
I prompted my students by asking them if there was a particular part or technique they were struggling with or particularly proud of. "How can I help you make this a better piece of writing?" I asked them. "What do you need from me?" Some students had very specific pieces they wanted me to look at while others were happy with their work and wanted me to help them edit.
I tried to ask them why they were satisfied with their work so they could make those techniques known to themselves for future writing. As much as possible I tried to guide them without telling them what to do, something we as teachers often struggle with. All in all I saw writing grow stronger through conferences.
I found an unexpected gain in the conversations I had with my students during those conferences. Sharing our writing is tough stuff. Writing is so deeply personal, such a part of us, and it is risky to show it to others and teachers especially, for fear of criticism or the red pen. "I want to know if I did this right," was a comment I heard far too often.
I told them they were the creators, so it only mattered if it was "right" to them. Some believed me, but others seemed doubtful. They are the products of years of schooling where the answers are right or wrong, with no gray area in between. The system has crippled their self-confidence and trust in their instincts. I see conferences as a way to help them regain those essential skills.
Conferencing with the "cards"
During conferences I got to see a different side of students who were my troublemakers. In whole class sessions, these students are disruptive, reluctant to work, and seem to sabotage every class with some behavior. Subtly, over time, these students cease to be dynamic characters and become static representations of their chosen behaviors.
Though I never consciously act on those prejudices, I am sure that my subconscious beliefs affected my interactions with these students. I never developed deeper relationships with them because of my belief that they were disinterested in what we were doing. I could not have been more wrong.
Take for instance "Gary." Gary is in trouble everywhere he goes. He's subtle with it most of the time; he whistles during class, whispers ugly things to others, play-fights constantly in the hallway. He has been suspended more times than I can count. Despite his behavior, I knew he was able to do the work and was puzzled why he was not doing the work. His father is very supportive and extremely harsh with Gary. He puzzled me, but I was at a loss about how to help him.May 23, 2002 (a day that will live in memory!), the answer finally came.
Gary showed me his work, three poems which he had obviously sweated over. He was shy, timid, not at all the child I was used to seeing. He explained to me why he decided to use certain images, pointed out parts he was proud of, and asked me for help on particular parts.
To his credit, the poems were excellent. Not only did they make sense, they were unique and creative and challenging. He used rhythm and rhyme masterfully, understanding he could use close sounds for rhyming poems instead of exact ones to make the meaning work. I told him I was very impressed with his ability to rhyme, something I am not particularly good at myself. He responded, "Yeah, my dad is always telling me I am creative. I think I am too. There are drawings I've done all over the house, on the refrigerator, everywhere."
I told Gary I had seen his creativity all year long in other ways, but I had not seen it in his classwork until now. We had a very frank conversation about his behavior, and I tried to help him understand that I did not like his behavior but that I admired him greatly. I shared with him how I felt I had failed him this year because I could not figure out how to reach him.
At that point I saw something different in Gary, and I could only regret we had not had this conversation long ago. How would his year have been different?
Respect transforms the conversation
In one-on-one conversations, talk about a student's work can easily shift into talk about the student -- his beliefs, values, and behaviors. When we conference with a student and show respect for her work, the student can see our respect for what they have to say, and they are more open to conversations about even more deeply personal issues.
We cannot expect students to open up to us or share even accidentally those attitudes that keep them from achieving or behaving appropriately if we do not show them we are trustworthy. Demonstrating to them that they can trust us with their academic efforts may transition into trust for other things, especially with repeated conferences where we prove again and again we are worthy of their confidences. We have to earn it; we are not entitled to anything.
Spotting trends in their writing
Beyond the impact on personal relationships and individual student achievement, I also saw how conferences could be used to drive instruction for the whole group. I took notes on the strengths and weaknesses of each student, and I quickly identified trends.
My students are doing very well on creating images for their readers and writing poems that say something, but they are struggling with the concept of lines and arrangement of words. I have seen trends in spelling errors, beliefs about what poems should be and sound like, and how to use punctuation effectively.
If I had been using conferences all year long, I could have better instructed them in what they needed to know right then when it could have been internalized more effectively. I could have helped them set class and individual goals for writing, and I know they would have progressed much further than they did this year with my hit-or-miss instruction. Next year will be different.
It occurred to me as I was thinking about my entry this week that conferences, while traditionally associated with language arts, would be an effective strategy for all content areas. We all bemoan large class sizes and our inability to work with each student individually. Conferences would allow us to give some time to each student on a regular basis while pushing our students to set manageable goals for themselves within each subject. It would keep us more in touch with the strengths and weaknesses of each child, providing us with more data than any summative assessment ever could. And so, conferences now join my list of "Strategies That Work," along with jigsaw and gallery walks. I cannot wait to see the effects over an entire school year.
