Conferring-Traci

This is my second year teaching first grade, previously I taught preschool and was an early childhood special educator, and therefore did not confer with my students about their reading. Last year I did small group guided reading and instruction. I did some conferring with students during these small groups about the strategies for solving hard words, or ways to scoop up more words and increase their fluency. This year I have found that my students are reading longer.  I am able to sit and listen to individual children read.  The handout on conferring is great for guiding me in these conferences.  One thing I have not been good at in the past is having/creating individual student goals. Although in the past I would be prepared for my small groups, knowing what they needed to work on as a group, and providing experiences that supported the group to read and move forward. This year, I will have conferences with all of my students to understand their individual successes and their challenges.I will also work with the students to create individual goals. I hope this will set up clear expectations about what I want them to work on during their independent and partner reading time. One other thing I hope to change is my method of record keeping and documentation.  I found a couple forms online this weekend and I hope to try one out this week. It if works (and even if it does not) I can bring it in to share.