Suzanne Lee January Blog Post #6 Reading Conferencing Response

Suzanne Lee January Blog Post #6 Reading Conferencing Response

This year I have held reading conferences with my students on a much more regular basis than ever before in my 22 years of teaching.  I have held these conferences as part of my IR time.  I try to conduct at least 4 conferences a day.  When I can keep to this schedule, I meet with all of my students at least once a week during these conferences.  This is not to say that I do not meet with them at other times; however, this is scheduled time.

Honestly, I love this time with my students.  However, I know my conferencing still needs work.  When I first began conferencing with my students during IR this year I usually let them tell me about their reading life, a favorite part of the book they were “reading”, or some other non-lesson specific topic.  I really enjoyed this time and took many notes.   These notes did little to guide my instruction.  Honestly, while I enjoyed the conversations and did get to know my students better, these conferences were not as beneficial as I knew they were to be. 

As I learned more, I began to guide the conferences using minilessons that I teach right before IR time.  Most days I give my students a specific focus.  Then, as we conference we discuss those focuses and I note take.  I am noticing that while my students “grasp” the focus of the lesson, they usually are unable to read the books they choose. It is here that I lose my confidence.  Sometimes I worry that the precious time is being “wasted” because the students cannot read the material.  However, we have learned to give them choice.  I hope that I am doing the right thing.  My plan is to allow them free choice, but try to find some books the kids want to choose that they CAN read.

As mentioned, I am note taking.  When I review the notes, I am seeing that most students are connecting to the texts and using skills we have learned.  However, I need to allow these notes to guide my instruction more. Just like data is only data if we do not use it so too are these conferences.  Perhaps, the main thing that I have learned from the conferences is to use them to help my help my students.