Conducting writing conferences

How's It Going: A Practical Guide to Conferring with Student Writers
by Carl Anderson

available at Heinemann




Because I'm looking into helping students become more reflective learners, I've begun requiring my students to come to me for a writing conference for every formal writing assignment.  I have written about this topic before and got some great advice - the best of which was to get students to talk more.

That is easier said than done.

So, I looked towards professional readings and found this great book by Carl Anderson.  I read the first two chapters one night earlier this week.  The next day I held a few conferences and the results were amazing.  Anderson looks at conferences more like conversations.  He also suggests that our focus be on making students better writers, rather than just improving the piece of writing in front of us during the conference.  (A theme I heard repeated at this year's NCTE conference in Pittsburgh.)

He also suggests picking up on students' lines of thought about their writing.  This prompted me to begin asking the question "Is there anything here you would like my help with?" as one of the first questions I ask.  There were many students - more than I expected, to be frank - who did want help with something.  I never would have gotten this out of them if I hadn't asked the question.

Trying to help students with every single mistake they make is also bad news in Anderson's point of view - and I agree completely.  We really need to be focussed with students on what they need to work on.  Having them work on everything that's wrong is too overwhelming.  Anderson says that it is up to us, as professionals, to decide what our students can work on next.  Many times, we should help them with their own line of thought, but he does say that there are times when we need to re-direct students.

What I like most about this book is that writing conferences in Anderson's eyes still belong to the student writer.  It is about what the student writer is doing and how the student writer can get better.  I think many teachers and tutors approach conferences thinking that they have to correct everything about a piece and then they make suggestions about what they would do to the piece, instead of helping students have ownership of them.  When we do this, students do not write the papers - we do.

I've turned into a big fan of writing conferences for the first drafts of writing.  They tend to take not that much more time than commenting (if you include all the procrastinating and "breaks", they actual take less time than written comments) and they are much more productive.  I always felt that students never read my comments - mostly because I never saw my "suggestions" materialize in the next draft.  But I see my students taking what we talk about in the conferences and incorporating them into the next drafts.  The pieces I've gotten so far this year are heads above the past years' - and I attribute it all to the power of conferences.

Comments

[Mrs. English]

I am a big believer in student conferences, though I'm also a big commenter as well. I haven't required students to meet with me for brief conferences during writing workshops for their drafts, but I'm going to start requiring it. It really helps them to be able to talk about their topic and what they see as their challenges. I try to remain in responsive mode and resist giving suggestions of "what I would do." Sometimes that's a challenge in itself!

[graycie]

Sometimes in a conference, I will tell a student, "I'm going to read your paper to you. I'm going to read exactly what is on the page so that you can make sure that what you wrote is what you meant." When I read, I pronounce their spellings, follow their punctuation exactly. The student hears errors that would go right by without hte oral reading. They are quick to fix mistakes that they hear. This is especially effective with auditory leaners.

I can also ask questions about the parts that don't always connect so that they can see how to explain more thoroughly or more clearly for the reader.

One other thing that has been helpful for students in "hearing" their grammatical mistakes is a PVC elbow. We call it our "editing phone"...it looks like a big piece of elbow macaroni. The kids read their writing into the phone (which allows them to read it over to themselves before bringing it to a peer or teacher) and it's amazing how much their ears pick up errors that their eyes did not see! They are available in the plumbing section of any hardware store or Home Depot, usually for less than 2 dollars each!