Conferring Walk-Aways Useful Data

Data has become a huge area of focus in my school, as it has in so many schools in this age of high-stakes testing. I loved the way that Allen mentioned ways to specifically use information gathered from conferences to use as valuable data. He emphasizes that by keeping anecdotal records of each conference, teachers are able to analyze notes to see emerging trends and notice what we learn about our students as readers over time (15). Without records that anecdotal notes provide, it would be easy to not have a specific trend or aha moment about a student click with a teacher. It is powerful to reflect on notes and skim over the last conference before beginning a new one. It helps teachers be more intentional and also confirms other forms of more standardized data or helps us to dig deeper if results do not match up with what we have observed on a day to day basis.

There was a very powerful excerpt where Allen reflects on data and programs from his point of view as a parent. "When I sit down with my child's teacher, I do not want to see a number on a piece of paper about her being in the ninety-eighth percentile for this or that, unless the teacher can explain how that affects my daughter's interactions with text. I do not want to see a graph showing me that my child reads a passage quickly and moves along a continuum, unless the teacher can explain how she varies her rate and prosody when she is reading aloud and how the miscues she is making may be interfering with her comprehension. [...] I want my child's teacher to tell me what strategy she is working on in reading or what writer's craft she is studying. I want to know what she is thinking about when she's doing it, and how she is sharing that learning with her teacher and the rest of her classmates" (139). These are two of my most favorite paragraphs out of the whole book. I highly recommend that anyone pondering data specifically linked to workshops should get a copy of the book to read the full two paragraphs. Afterward, Allen shifts back to himself as a teacher and how we must also use standardized measures to demonstrate growth.

Toward the end of the book Allen reiterates different ways that anecdotal notes from conferences can be powerful for teachers (184-185). Through his comments I have been able to better define the importance of conferring and how it will help me with a wide variety of purposes: getting to know my students as readers, recognizing trends over time, helping me to better communicate with parents, provide the necessary piece to triangulate data and know readers from different angles.

Even though I feel like I am just barely getting the hang of conferring and it is starting to feel more natural, I can already see how rich the data that I am recording about my students is. I am excited for the way that conferring is going to impact how I know my students as readers and the information it is providing to be a more mindful teacher.

Celebrations

I have so many posts rolling around in my head and just need to find the time to type them up! Until then, here is a quick glimpse into reasons for excitement this week...

1) I started weekly book response letters. It was a great feeling to respond to my students and to have that individualized interaction with them. It is going to be a great record of their growth as readers. At first I found the idea of responding to all 50 of my students on a weekly basis daunting. However, I figured out a system that works for me.
*I looked at my 6th and 7th grade class lists side by side and figured out how I could break up the alphabet in order to have a manageable amount of students hand in their reader's notebooks. Looking at the lists helped me to tailer it specifically to my students this year, rather than choosing arbitrary points in the alphabet.
*Rather than writing my responses to my students, I decided to type them notes. This is not only more time efficient but it also helps students to understand my comments better. They have often said that they can not read my handwriting since they are not as familiar with cursive writing. I have tried printing before, but it is hard to print for an extended length. Typing the responses will work out great. I staple them to their letter page.
*If students are participating in a book club for the week, they will not write me a book response letter. The letters are the same format as their book club book responses, so I will give them credit for their weekly response letters based on their book club response. This is both fair for students and again helps it to be manageable time-wise for me.

2) I am quickly gaining confidence with conferring. I will be posting a lot more about this with my Conferring Walk-Aways posts. The mixture of conferring and book response letters is going to provide me with such valuable information about my students as readers, in order to better communicate to parents and help move them along to the next level to extend their reading abilities.

3) I started my first ever on-line book club this week. Everything went fairly smoothly, and I am excited about the possibilities with this new piece. I will be relflecting on this in more detail later as well.

Conferring Walk-Aways Practice, Practice, Practice

I always tell myself that I need to have patience along this journey of classroom improvement. I know that implementing new ideas and the process of continual improvement always takes time; however, it is easy to still have those creeping thoughts of wanting to get there a little bit faster. Ironically, when having conversations with a new teacher at my school, I often mention that she needs to remember that everything will not fall into place and be perfect all at once and to not be too hard on herself. Yet, I sometimes fall into the temporary trap of feeling overwhelmed with all I want to do.

It is nice to have seasoned teachers such as Allen who have more than 20 years experience working on refining and improving say it is okay to work through the process. Even though I already know that and have read it in various other books, it is still refreshing to hear it one more time. Throughout Conferring: The Keystone of Reader's Workshop Allen has recurring comments about the patience, practice, and time it takes to be a good conferrer.

From the beginning he commented on a common reaction he has with teachers who feel like they could not confer like he does, "Yes, you can. Take it slowly. Experiment. Get your hands dirty. Strengthen your foundation" (13). This reminder helps put it into perspective for me to celebrate the beginning of my journey and that I have started the process of building a foundation, rather than worrying too much on how far I have to go until I too am a master conferrer.

The following are more quotes from the book that I will revisit often, especially any time that I feel myself forgetting to focus on those small celebrations:

"Conferring takes time to explore, time to practice, and time to reflect upon as a conferrer [...] but when you spend time and intention on an instructional practice the benefits are well worth the effort" (19).

"I don't specifically remember learning to confer. [...] I do know it has taken hard work, practice, and reflection" (29).

"So, it is through hard work and practice that we get better at conferring--managing our time, gathering information about readers, knowing which path a conference will take--and doing it well" (180).

Keeping Allen's words of encouragement in mind, as well as his candid comments about his own beginnings with conferring, including ideas that did not work out too well, will help me maintain my focus on the spirit of being a life-long learner, always striving to improve. Most importantly, he reminded me that even though my earliest efforts are not where I eventually want to be, they are still valuable from his comment about his own early experiences, "What I saw on videotape was not horrible, but it was proof that my conferences today are much more engaging and certainly much more intimate than they were in the past" (149). Finally, Allen reminded me to never be afraid to try again, "And if need be... start again" (115).

Conferring Walk-Aways Introduction

It has been so exciting having the opportunity and flexibility to have a workshop model in my classroom this year. While in previous years I had components of workshop I never felt like I could consider it a true workshop because of various factors that limited my ability to have the full structure. One of my common themes that I have mentioned multiple times this year is that it is always a great feeling to be able to implement ideas that I have read about. However, as with anything new, I have a lot to adjust and improve. After working out some of the initial kinks, conferring is my current largest area of focus. That is why I was so excited for the release of Patrick Allen’s Conferring: The Keystone of Reader’s Workshop.

I had already read general ideas about reading and writing conferences, but I was ready for books specifically addressing conferring in each area to deepen my knowledge in the area. Reading Allen’s book fulfilled that need, and I feel much more confident and capable to successfully confer with intention in my classroom. As I read, I realized that I have already started doing some of his suggestions; however, I had stumbled upon them and now I have a stronger sense of why and how to do it even better. Allen talked a lot about walk-aways, learning teachers/students walk away with after conferences. In the spirit of this concept I will be doing a series of posts on my personal walk-aways from the book, ways that I will be a better teacher and conferrer because of Conferring: The Keystone of Reader’s Workshop. However, my posts will just be a glimpse into all that I took away from the book because in doing initial reflecting on walk-aways I could include the list was getting pretty long and many of the topics had many sub areas to develop.

Workshop Reflections: Assessments

This year has been going by so quickly and I have spent a lot of energy trying to get my workshop to run smoothly and the way I imagine it should be based on resources about workshops. It has been fun getting different components to work for me, as well as challenging to work through so many different pieces. I always want my classroom to be the way it "should" be from the start, but getting some major new components, such as workshops, in place takes time. Lately I have been starting to see glimpses of what is to come in the future, and that is what keeps me going, knowing that I am making progress. I will be reflecting about what I have been learning this year about workshop, starting with assessment.

ASSESSMENTS
Assessments was one of my biggest challenges first quarter. Students were required to hand in four published pieces for the first quarter (two in English and two in Spanish) that I assessed using our state writing rubric, and I felt comfortable with that. However, I was not as pleased with other grades that I was putting in the grade book. At the start of the year I knew that I wanted a system that would allow for flexibility since students would not always be at the same place at the same time. I came up with a rubric outlining the expectations for workshop and different grades according to how they performed in workshop. From the beginning I was not 100% sure about this being the best way to go, but I did not have any better ideas. Over time it seemed like the grades did not necessarily demonstrate what I wanted them to. Improving in this area moved to the forefront of my reflections.

With the start of second quarter I am much more comfortable with the direction I am moving with assessment in workshop. Toward the end of last quarter I finally started implementing status of the class. It has been great to have a written record of students' reading and writing behaviors. Reading Mark Overmeyer's What Student Writing Teaches Us and reading his responses to some of my questions got the gears turning to start looking at assessment from new angles. Being exposed to his thoughts came at a perfect time. I was ready for the information since I had already worked through some of the start-up challenges with workshop in general.

From the time I read Overmeyer's book, I knew that I wanted my gradebook to be more standards based, rather than a huge chunk of the grades reflecting effort/participation that my workshop grade ended up being. I just needed time to process and consider how to make this happen. I knew right away that the grade for the published pieces based on the state writing rubric needed to carry more weight in their grades.

In his Q&A with me Overmeyer mentioned that he gives points for generating ideas for personal narratives. A couple of weeks after I first read this, the way I could implement his comments finally sunk in. I realized how I want to set up my gradebook this quarter. Now, rather than trying to assign workshop grade, I will give grades based on completing specific steps in the workshop process that are directly related to the standard that we are focusing on at the time. I have the same expectations for workshop that I previously watched for in order to evaluate and assign a workshop grades, but now I have more specific requirements that I will assess. For example, we are focusing on Ideas and Content right now because I observed that it was an area that many of my students need to continue developing. In a two week block of time students are required to complete a high/low chart that we did together, gather ideas about two of the events from their charts, and then write two rough drafts. If they finish everything, then they will continue gathering ideas or writing drafts. They can either work on more personal narratives or they can write slice of life stories or articles, the two genres that we have already worked on this year. Expectations such as these will make it clearer for the students of the minimum of what they should accomplish during a time frame.

I am still processing how I can improve in the way that I am assessing in reading workshop, and I am still considering ideas from Donalyn Miller's book when thinking about that area. Her reply to my questions on her book discussion were also very helpful. I also noticed another reply that she did to a teacher stating that she only uses status of the class at the beginning, and I can see how I may move in that direction as well. In writing I think that I am almost to the point where I can make that transition.

I am excited for the way that my workshop practices are improving and know that I still have many more discoveries awaiting me the rest of this year. Every year I will always be looking for some other way to improve, but I feel like I will have so much more figured out by the start of next year that I will be fine-tuning rather than figuring out the basic design.

Catching My Breath

The school year is in full swing, and October was a particularly busy month at school. We have a couple of annual committments that we sign up for at the start of the year, and mine ended up both being in October. When I signed up for them I did not think about how it was also the same month as the end of the first quarter and the start of a block of time at our school called language development where we mix our 4th-7th graders into proficiency levels in either Spanish or English for 40 minutes. I also did not think about how I would still have so much to adjust and improve as I am implementing a workshop approach for the first time, as well as a new social studies curriculum. Needless to say, at the end of September I realized how I would need to gear up for a stressful month.

Now I am looking forward to a hopefully calmer November. I feel much more confident about my workshop approach and the set-up that I have created and adjusted throughout the first quarter. I have also made additional adaptions to accomodate the special education pull out schedule at different times throughout the day that will be a lot smoother than last quarter.

The TOSA at our school who will be meeting with small groups of students to provide additional reading support will be starting on Monday. I am very excited because this year she will be able to do a push-in model, rather than a pull-out. She was able to accomodate my schedule so that she will provide her support during reading workshop, so it will be a seamless integration. There will still be a little bit of time for me to check in with those students as well. In addition, that group will also be flexible so as we identify the need for adjustments in grouping throughout the year we will be able to make the changes. While it will not be as flexible as my groups because they will not change as frequently, it is nice to know that they are not set for the whole year. I am so excited for this new set-up and the collaboration that we will be able to do in order to better support our readers.

Although October was stressful, there was so much to celebrate with first quarter. I have noticed so many gains in my 7th graders that I had last year, as well as improvements in my 6th graders in just one quarter. Seeing student growth always reminds me of why I wanted to become a teacher.

There is a lot to look forward to in November. I am excited to move into this time of the year with more tranquility. Later I will post on the changes that I made in my workshop block for this quarter and how they are going. My goal area for improvement for this quarter is to improve with my conferring. I just received Carl Anderson's How's It Going? I have heard so much about this book/author when conferring comes up. I am also excited for a forethcoming book from Stenhouse called Conferring: The Keystone of Reader's Workshop, which is already available on line. I feel so lucky to have access to quality books that focus on conferring in both reading and writing.

A Place for Wonder

Although I often read books that are from younger age groups, knowing that I can adapt ideas to older grades, they are typically k-5 books. The last time (maybe even the only time) I remember reading a book targeted at the primary grades was because it was a required text for my reading endorsement coursework a couple of years ago. However, when I saw information about Georgia Heard and Jennifer McDonough's new book, A Place for Wonder: Reading and Writing Nonfiction in the Primary Grades, my interest was piqued.

I loved Georgia Heard's Awakening the Heart, and my students just finished making their own heart maps. I was eager to read more from her. Also, my oldest daughter is in first grade now, so I thought it would be fun to see insights into her literacy learning and stage of development. The book gave me plenty of inspiring ideas on how I can continue to foster and nurture the curiosity that is characteristic of my daughter's age.

In addition, I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of ideas that would also positively impact my 6th and 7th graders. My margins are filled with notes intermixing ideas to use with my daughter and with my students. At home I now have fresh ideas on how to connect literacy and her love of nature. Each spring birds come to build nests in our porch, and we have always watched with curiosity as a family as the bird prepares, takes care of her babies, and when they are ready to fly off on their own. The nest is right in front of a big window in our door which can serve as a perfect observation window. In addition, she loves to look outside the front window to see animals such as squirrels. At school this quarter we will be working more on developing ideas. Last quarter we talked about the benefits of using sensory details but it is an area where my students could use more support. So many of the activities in the book will help foster this sense of tuning in to the senses as well as everyday details.

In addition, the book sparked more ideas on helping students develop research writing and the sense of wonder reminded me of Cris Tovani's lessons about wonder from her book I Read It But I Don't Get It. This led me to think about how the elements of wonder in Heard's book could also benefit reading comprehension.

I am excited to see the endless possibilities that Heard & McDonough's book offer with my daughter and students. I also look forward to sharing the book with my daughter's teacher, as I can imagine that she would be excited to see the ideas specifically targeted to her class. They ideas match the philosophy of our school and I can picture them being seemlessly integrated into her classroom set-up.