Juli
Kendall's
2004-05
READING/WRITING
WORKSHOP JOURNAL
Entry #09
Where's
the Beef?
Student-Led Conferences!
Remember the Wendy's commercial where the little old lady keeps looking at a tiny hamburger patty and yelling, "Where's the beef?" That's the phrase my friend uses as a secret code. If we're sitting in a professional development meeting and there's no content or the content is weak and doesn't pertain to us, she'll turn to me and whisper, "Where's the beef?"
I think it's a sign of the times. So much of what we do as teachers in school right now has to do with paper work. From time to time when I get a chance to reflect, I find myself thinking, "Where's the beef?" So how can we make sure that our students stay at the center of our instruction with all that's going on around us? While it may sound a little off-topic, I think that Student Led Conferences are one way to "keep the beef" in our instructional programs. Last year I wrote a Reading/Writing Journal entry about our conferences and how we organized them. Our purpose was to create more opportunities for two-way communication with families about school. This year, it's even better. That's because we figured out that these conferences are also a good way to keep students at the center of the curriculum. Everything that we are teaching, and they are learning, is explained by the students during their conferences. As a result, students have a clearer understanding of what the expectations are and how they are measuring up to the standards. It's like the old adage: "You learn something better by teaching it to someone else". In addition, to help students understand and be able to explain their work and the standards, we, as teachers, had to dig deeper and understand our instruction better. First, we took a look at everything we were asking students to do: all the whole-class lessons, writing workshop activities, reading opportunities, small group lessons, etc. Then we made up a list of standards and matched what we were teaching to the standards for each subject. We found that we had done a good job of organizing our instruction around the standards, but this process of reflection helped us better understand the purpose — why we were doing things. Just like the kids, being able to explain why we were doing our teaching helped us understand it better. This year as a part of the conferences, we're also asking kids to work with their families to set three goals for reading and writing, not just one or two like last year. We found goal-setting during the conferences was a great way to motivate students. Something about sitting with your family and explaining the work in your portfolio really helps you see what it is you need to do next to improve. It was Daniel's comment last year that really hit home for me. "I'm going to follow my goal because my mom is counting on me and I don't want to let her down." And he sure did! Some of our students' reading goals for this year:I'm going to read at home every night for 30 minutes.
I'm going to be lost in my book and not get distracted.
I'm going to always have a book to read at home.
I need to get interested in reading and find some books I want to read.
I'm going to read to my little sister.
I'm going to find a good place to read at home.
I'm going to talk to my family about the book I am reading at home.
I'm going to keep a list of all the books I read and how many pages I read every night.
I'm going to take back all the books I checked out from the library and pay them the money I owe them.
I'm going to read all The Series of Unfortunate Events books; there are eleven.
I'm going to read all three of the Shiloh books.
I'm going to read all the Judy Blume books about Fudge.
So I guess, the thing I learned this year about Student Led Conferences is that they're an important part of the answer to the question: "Where's the beef in our instructional programs?"
Fries with
that?
Resources page for our Reading/Writing Project
