Conferring is an essential component of my classroom, as seen in my Argument Writing II seminar with 9th grade students. The students have worked on argumentative structure throughout this seminar, and I am getting to the point where conferring with each student feels like second nature. The students know that this is a time when I will be discussing certain aspects of their writing, so they are usually willing to work on suggestions in order to show growth. For example, I worked with a small group of writers on outlining today during class. Although this was a struggle for some of the students, they worked diligently, took suggestions, and finished the outline in its entirety. I was impressed with what I saw! It is my goal that these students will have the same success when we confer about reading more next trimester.
One area where I am still struggling a bit is keeping all of the students on task when I am conferring with an individual student. Although I am bouncing around the classroom, it seems like many have questions while I am conferring with other individuals. I may work on establishing even more expectations around writing workshop next week in order to keep the momentum moving forward. Overall, I am impressed with the conferring process this school year.
I agree with you that using the conferring format promotes a sense of understanding for them that you are there to offer new material to help them grow as readers/writers. As well as letting them know this a time for them to try something new. I think the more that I confer and provide compliments and feedback, they will understand this even better.
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