The Top 10 Rules for Teachers to Remember

While Conferring with Writers

10. A conference should be more of a CONVERSATION with the student. He
or she should talk as much as you do. To facilitate this, sit side by side. The
child should hold the work in between the two of you.
9. Your goal for EVERY conference should be to teach a strategy or
technique that will help THIS WRITER improve, rather than one that will just
improve this piece of writing.
8. Have the student READ THE PIECE OR A SECTION OF THE PIECE
ALOUD FIRST (when applicable). Dont look at the words. This will help you
FOCUS ON THE CONTENT of the piece and not get hung up on conventions.
7. Always begin with something POSITIVE. Focus on what the student has
done well.
Examples:
I love the way your first sentence hooked me into your story.
You skipped lines so you could easily add details. Thats great.
I saw you look at the word wall to figure out a word. Good for you.
I love how you put a lot of information into your picture.
I like the way you used conversation to let the reader know exactly how
you felt. It seemed as if I were right there in the room with you.
Tips on Compliments
React as a reader
Name the strategy the child used that is transferable
Use clear and consistent language
Say and point to the exact place where the child used the strategy
Make the compliment in the edge of proximal development
See students work in fresh new ways; allow yourself to see something
other that what you just taught.
6. Follow these guidelines for the format of the conference:
RESEARCH-observe and discuss the piece with the student. Try to figure out
what the child is trying to do as a writer. Consider the audience and
purpose.
DECIDE- What strategy will help this writer to improve what he or she is
already trying to do? Explicitly state ONE strategy or technique that you are
going to teach.
TEACH- ONE strategy or technique to help this WRITER
Examples:
Writers sometimes represent a story or an idea in pictures
Writers share markers during writing workshop

Writers sometimes model their writing after great texts

Writers leave spaces between words to make their writing easier to read

LINK- Ask the student to restate the strategy or technique that you taught
and encourage him or her to use it in the future
5. Use LANGUAGE that will be helpful to the student. Speak in terms of
writer to writer or author to author. Consider what you know and do as a
writer. Deliberately monitor the words you choose.
4. CONNECT your teaching point to the mini-lesson ONLY if that is the
strategy or technique the student is already trying to use.
3. Keep some kind of RECORD of your teaching points with each student.
After the conference, REFLECT. Can you state what you taught the writer?
Observe the writer and re-evaluate the message you sent. Be sure to revisit
the strategy in the future to see if further instruction is necessary.
Have notes!
Have a system of recording your conferences that is quick and easy. You
dont want to waste time between conferences trying to write a lot down. It
should take you a maximum of 30 seconds per child.
Your notes need to be portable. Keep prior weeks notes with you so you
can refer to them.
2. Involve students in a VARIETY OF CONFERENCES:
One-to-One Conferences (teacher and student)
Whole-Class Shares (class observes you in a one-to-one conference)
Quick Shares (celebrations)
On-the-Run Conferences (1-2 minutes, teach the student something so he
or she can quickly move forward)
Peer Conferences (groups of students)
1. PAY RAPT ATTENTION TO THE WRITER. Let the writer know you care
and are genuinely interested in him or her both as an individual and as a
writer.
Management that Makes One-to-One Conferring Possible
It works well to move among the children, conferring with them at their
work places, dotting around the room with our presence
Conferring with 5-6 children a day allows us to work with at least one child
from every section of the room
We can make our presence matter more if, when talking with one child, we
encourage nearby children to listen in. However, we deliberately ignore
these listeners, looking intently into the face of the one child.
We teach children that when we confer, we dont expect other children to
interrupt the conference. Another child can come close and listen in, but

he/she must wait until we have finished conferring to ask a question.

Limit the length of each conference to 5 minutes.
When children come to us hoping for solutions to problems they could have
resolved on their own, we are wiser to take the time to put ourselves out of
this job. Ask the child, What do you think? So why dont you do that
and next time, I think you could solve a problem like this on your own.
Pull together a small group of writers who might benefit from the same sort
of help. Small group strategy lessons lasts for 10 minutes.
Remember that strategy lessons should not always take the place of
individual conferences. All writers benefit from one-on-one attention.
Marking your conference notes with an SL beside those that have had a
strategy lesson that week can help assure that those children get a one-toone conference the next week.
If a child is always zeroing in on your conferences instead of working, hold
him/her accountable for those teaching points as well.
Be determined. Dont say, I try to confer with each child every week.
Make it a priority, and make it happen.
Adapted from The Nuts and Bolts of Teaching Writing by Lucy Calkins
Hold the kids accountable for what youve taught
At the beginning of a conference, remind the student of the last strategy
you taught, and ask how its going.
No magic happens in a conference until the child speaks.
Push yourself to ask open- ended questions

***Adapted form Nuts and Bolts of Workshop-Lucy Calkins