Hi all- I think this book is entertaining so far (Chapter 2 is really LONG, but not boring). I especially liked the idea in chapter 1 about having a point (one point, not many) to the conference. I think it is time-efficient to structure the conferences the way he has with the teacher listening to the student and asking questions to get a "line of thinking", and then teaching one point along that line of thought. This way the teacher doesn't have to read the whole piece ahead of the conference, and doesn't even have to have the student go through the entire piece during the conference. Time-wise that seems manageable to me. Otherwise-I don't see how realistically you can see 4-5 students in a writing time period for conferences.
So I feel inspired a bit more to start up workshop and be more open with conferencing. I love how Murry discusses how conference not as a mini lectures but the working talk of fellow writers sharing their experience with the writing process. I was also reminded that it iis about teaching the WRITER not the writing. Sometimes I get too hyper focused on making the piece perfect for publishication. I need to support my students in becoming more reflective about there writing (often they are very passive) I need to ask the write questions. It is my job to make students feel inspired, smart, and interesting. Encouragement will stretch them to take risks.
Chapter 2 In this long chapter we find some good stuff. Anderson goes over the importance of conference and our role in it. I was reminded again that it is about the writer NOT the writing per say. This is important to remember in the research phase of the conference. I should not be “asking leading questions that inadvertently direct students to development content or arrive at means that are ours not necessarily theirs” I sort of agree and disagree with this statement. I believe it a delicate balance but in my case at least… I do think there are times when I do have help guide students to building upon their weaknesses. I like how Anderson warns to not get too scripted on rely on generic list of questions but it will vary. The second part of the conversation includes how to become a better writer. We AREN’T fixing up their piece; rather, we are giving them ownership in corrections/ revisions. (Oyyy this is a HARD pill for me to swallow. I know it is important but it is hard. Because it know revision and editing tends to be so difficult for my kiddoes I will be stretched this year too!!). When choosing your teaching point. You should think of good writing and writing process. It helps to put yourself in the writer’s shoes and think about what would you do? It is important to remember that it will get easier over time and that there isn’t always one teaching point that there may be several worthwhile things to teach, and whichever one we pick with help them. At this time we can remind them of our mini-lessons. DO rather than just hear. Have students “give it a go”. Hopefully they will use it in the future pieces too. Link the work to ongoing work. Give expectations and follow up. (I will try this) Always be planning for the next conference, group lesson, or mini lesson. The end of the chapter is packed with GOOD advice to deal with a tricky but yet common conference.
I liked the idea in Chapter 2 that the student sets the agenda, but that at times you can change the agenda if you see that the direction they have chosen is not where they are ready to go. That situation seems to give the teacher some good wiggle room if the student really is off base. I like Anderson's idea of "get on a line of thinking" about a student's piece. This idea will help me to focus on what part of writing crafrt the student might be able to concentrate on in the conference. I also have some of that "fix up" mindset when it comes to writing. I think a "line of thinking" will help me to remember to look at the craft, not the piece. I am really learning alot from this book! I worry that I will not remember enough of his suggestions when it comes time to conference with a real person. I like the idea that we are helping a student (and me too) have a way to talk about the craft of writing. I like his idea of a "writing conversation". That makes me feel like I have to be less of an "expert". I like his open-ended question suggestions. I am glad for older students that he builds in the idea of accountability. It seems to me to be a good idea to check back in with students after you have asked them to try out an idea, just to let them know that you WILL be looking for them to try whatever you suggested. Good record keeping seems to be key in this process too. He usually references what he talked about in a pervious conference.
I hear you about forgetting. I have been teaching writing durning ESY and I had a bad conference today where I asked lots of probing questions and I got I don't know everything great. This conference reminded me that we must do modeling and teaching of what taking of ownership in writing and a conference looks like. Students are not used to being part of the conference time rather used to the teacher fixing it up. I froze I did reflect about what I will do differently next time. Hope it goes better tomorrow.
I just spent two days teaching in the Young Readers and Writers program for kids at the West Chester U. site. I was substituting for a teacher who is teaching the 8th and 9th grade class. Wow, Jill, talented writers, but they did not know how to talk about their writing AT ALL. You would have laughed to see me ask my "probing" questions during their free write time, and see their little blank faces as I asked them what writer's craft they were using! (Honestly some of the boys were only trying to figure out how they could get the girls to notice them!!) I needed Carl at my elbow. After two days though, they were able to croak out that they were trying to use "good descriptive adjectives, or strong verbs". Another favorite was, "I am trying dialogue to make my piece more real". After I did the two days though, I am more convinced that teaching students good ways to talk about their writing will help them become better writers. These students are also having the same trouble with writing in small moments as our elementary students are. They definitely want to write too big of a topic. Interestingly enough, all the boys were writing Sci Fi war stories. Some things never change... So along with the idea of mentor texts for writing and some of the ideas in Chapter 4, I tried reading parts of books by Isaac Asimov and Ray Bradbury. I left the books out for them to use. Reading the excerpts went over well, but I can't say that any of them referenced the books for writing! I did, however, bring in some of the books I had in my conferencing toolkit from class, and when the kids were "blocked", I let them read the picture books. They did love that. Are your ESY students getting the hang of it all by now?
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Hi all- I think this book is entertaining so far (Chapter 2 is really LONG, but not boring). I especially liked the idea in chapter 1 about having a point (one point, not many) to the conference. I think it is time-efficient to structure the conferences the way he has with the teacher listening to the student and asking questions to get a "line of thinking", and then teaching one point along that line of thought. This way the teacher doesn't have to read the whole piece ahead of the conference, and doesn't even have to have the student go through the entire piece during the conference. Time-wise that seems manageable to me. Otherwise-I don't see how realistically you can see 4-5 students in a writing time period for conferences.
Test to see if this works for me.
So I feel inspired a bit more to start up workshop and be more open with conferencing. I love how Murry discusses how conference not as a mini lectures but the working talk of fellow writers sharing their experience with the writing process. I was also reminded that it iis about teaching the WRITER not the writing. Sometimes I get too hyper focused on making the piece perfect for publishication. I need to support my students in becoming more reflective about there writing (often they are very passive) I need to ask the write questions. It is my job to make students feel inspired, smart, and interesting. Encouragement will stretch them to take risks.
Chapter 2
In this long chapter we find some good stuff. Anderson goes over the importance of conference and our role in it. I was reminded again that it is about the writer NOT the writing per say. This is important to remember in the research phase of the conference. I should not be “asking leading questions that inadvertently direct students to development content or arrive at means that are ours not necessarily theirs” I sort of agree and disagree with this statement. I believe it a delicate balance but in my case at least… I do think there are times when I do have help guide students to building upon their weaknesses. I like how Anderson warns to not get too scripted on rely on generic list of questions but it will vary. The second part of the conversation includes how to become a better writer. We AREN’T fixing up their piece; rather, we are giving them ownership in corrections/ revisions. (Oyyy this is a HARD pill for me to swallow. I know it is important but it is hard. Because it know revision and editing tends to be so difficult for my kiddoes I will be stretched this year too!!). When choosing your teaching point. You should think of good writing and writing process. It helps to put yourself in the writer’s shoes and think about what would you do? It is important to remember that it will get easier over time and that there isn’t always one teaching point that there may be several worthwhile things to teach, and whichever one we pick with help them. At this time we can remind them of our mini-lessons. DO rather than just hear. Have students “give it a go”. Hopefully they will use it in the future pieces too. Link the work to ongoing work. Give expectations and follow up. (I will try this) Always be planning for the next conference, group lesson, or mini lesson. The end of the chapter is packed with GOOD advice to deal with a tricky but yet common conference.
I liked the idea in Chapter 2 that the student sets the agenda, but that at times you can change the agenda if you see that the direction they have chosen is not where they are ready to go. That situation seems to give the teacher some good wiggle room if the student really is off base. I like Anderson's idea of "get on a line of thinking" about a student's piece. This idea will help me to focus on what part of writing crafrt the student might be able to concentrate on in the conference. I also have some of that "fix up" mindset when it comes to writing. I think a "line of thinking" will help me to remember to look at the craft, not the piece. I am really learning alot from this book! I worry that I will not remember enough of his suggestions when it comes time to conference with a real person. I like the idea that we are helping a student (and me too) have a way to talk about the craft of writing. I like his idea of a "writing conversation". That makes me feel like I have to be less of an "expert". I like his open-ended question suggestions. I am glad for older students that he builds in the idea of accountability. It seems to me to be a good idea to check back in with students after you have asked them to try out an idea, just to let them know that you WILL be looking for them to try whatever you suggested. Good record keeping seems to be key in this process too. He usually references what he talked about in a pervious conference.
I hear you about forgetting. I have been teaching writing durning ESY and I had a bad conference today where I asked lots of probing questions and I got I don't know everything great. This conference reminded me that we must do modeling and teaching of what taking of ownership in writing and a conference looks like. Students are not used to being part of the conference time rather used to the teacher fixing it up. I froze I did reflect about what I will do differently next time. Hope it goes better tomorrow.
I just spent two days teaching in the Young Readers and Writers program for kids at the West Chester U. site. I was substituting for a teacher who is teaching the 8th and 9th grade class. Wow, Jill, talented writers, but they did not know how to talk about their writing AT ALL. You would have laughed to see me ask my "probing" questions during their free write time, and see their little blank faces as I asked them what writer's craft they were using! (Honestly some of the boys were only trying to figure out how they could get the girls to notice them!!) I needed Carl at my elbow. After two days though, they were able to croak out that they were trying to use "good descriptive adjectives, or strong verbs". Another favorite was, "I am trying dialogue to make my piece more real". After I did the two days though, I am more convinced that teaching students good ways to talk about their writing will help them become better writers. These students are also having the same trouble with writing in small moments as our elementary students are. They definitely want to write too big of a topic. Interestingly enough, all the boys were writing Sci Fi war stories. Some things never change... So along with the idea of mentor texts for writing and some of the ideas in Chapter 4, I tried reading parts of books by Isaac Asimov and Ray Bradbury. I left the books out for them to use. Reading the excerpts went over well, but I can't say that any of them referenced the books for writing! I did, however, bring in some of the books I had in my conferencing toolkit from class, and when the kids were "blocked", I let them read the picture books. They did love that. Are your ESY students getting the hang of it all by now?
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