"writing allows us to pull back and ask questions of our thoughts." (Calkins)
I had to stop after I read this quote because this is how writing helps me refine and analyze my thoughts.
Calkins addressed how to conference in chapters 13 & 14. As I read I thought to myself about the different types of conferences. Confer with self, peers, and experts (the teacher in some cases). The biggest take away for me was: students should walk away from the conference wanting to write.
Writing is about the content and the process. Hear the content the student shares and think about what the student needs to hear after sharing the story, which is a little piece of themselves. They are humans, sharing a human experience, and sometimes that means emotional support or excitement. Then help the process, maybe by asking them to, "Help me imagine how this feels."
"Making Students into Better Writers" with Ms. N (pseudonym)
Teacher Talk- There is just too much teacher talk! She says great things, but I want to hear the student owning her work, walking me through her work, and telling me her own thoughts about her work! In addition, all this Teacher Talk (which I capitalize for importance) goes against what Calkins says about students being the owners of their own work. The teacher makes many suggestions, reads the piece aloud to the student. What would I change? I would ask more questions instead of making suggestions, unless I know the student needs that support, and I would have the student read their piece aloud to me.
As she was running the conference, I asked myself, "How could she use this conference to teach independence and self-correcting skills?"
Precision Teaching Video
As I watched this video I was extremely distracted by the lack of student involvement.
-Get on student level
-Doesn't monitor behavior or student attention besides mentioning one expectation at the beginning
-Texts on board are too small to see, probably even for the students
-I like how she had the students read aloud to each other
-The kids held a great peer conference with each other
When conferring, teachers must:
Listen
Think
Teach
Try
Listening to the student comes first, then thinking about what the student needs, then teaching, then having the student try the new skill. I agree with this student-centered approach to developing authors in our classrooms.
I had to stop after I read this quote because this is how writing helps me refine and analyze my thoughts.
Calkins addressed how to conference in chapters 13 & 14. As I read I thought to myself about the different types of conferences. Confer with self, peers, and experts (the teacher in some cases). The biggest take away for me was: students should walk away from the conference wanting to write.
Writing is about the content and the process. Hear the content the student shares and think about what the student needs to hear after sharing the story, which is a little piece of themselves. They are humans, sharing a human experience, and sometimes that means emotional support or excitement. Then help the process, maybe by asking them to, "Help me imagine how this feels."
"Making Students into Better Writers" with Ms. N (pseudonym)
Teacher Talk- There is just too much teacher talk! She says great things, but I want to hear the student owning her work, walking me through her work, and telling me her own thoughts about her work! In addition, all this Teacher Talk (which I capitalize for importance) goes against what Calkins says about students being the owners of their own work. The teacher makes many suggestions, reads the piece aloud to the student. What would I change? I would ask more questions instead of making suggestions, unless I know the student needs that support, and I would have the student read their piece aloud to me.
As she was running the conference, I asked myself, "How could she use this conference to teach independence and self-correcting skills?"
Precision Teaching Video
As I watched this video I was extremely distracted by the lack of student involvement.
-Get on student level
-Doesn't monitor behavior or student attention besides mentioning one expectation at the beginning
-Texts on board are too small to see, probably even for the students
-I like how she had the students read aloud to each other
-The kids held a great peer conference with each other
When conferring, teachers must:
Listen
Think
Teach
Try
Listening to the student comes first, then thinking about what the student needs, then teaching, then having the student try the new skill. I agree with this student-centered approach to developing authors in our classrooms.
"The biggest take away for me was: students should walk away from the conference wanting to write." This is a great point--conferences, above all else, should inspire and motivate our students to keep going.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your post!
Thanks for your post, Victoria. I also loved your opening quote. So important! The videos were quite a learning experience for, too! What a great opportunity to view some good (and not so good) teaching tactics.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing!
Victoria,
ReplyDeleteI see what your saying about the teaching videos. As I reflect back on when I was watching the videos, there were some things that I didn't think were examples of good teaching. But, I think the most important thing is to remember that the teachers are trying to put the students in the driver's seat and letting them be the directors of their own work (at least in the videos I was watching)! Its also important for us to reflect on the not so good teaching strategies so that we can see how we would handle them when were in the classroom. I really appreciated hearing your viewpoint and seeing that you were really looking for examples of good teaching strategies that are supported by our readings.