Salach and Marino

The article I read was actually a compilation of 3 other short articles written by different writing teachers. The first teacher shared her belief that conferences are an essential part of writing workshops and shouldn’t be avoided no matter how challenging they might be. He also lists 15 guidelines that should be kept in mind to have a successful conference such as “find specific things to praise, keep them short, etc.” The second teacher prefers to think of the conferences as “conversations” that mimic the personal talk he has with friends and colleagues. He wanted to stress the importance of remembering that the point of writing conferences is to teach writers strategies that they can use even the next day when their conference is over. Our goal is to help them become better writers on their own. He said “we are also writers, talking to writers” and that our personal experiences with writing are important to share with students. He also suggested that even though the goal is not perfectly constructed, errorless writing, conferences themselves should have a predictable two part structure consisting of 1-talking with students about the “work” they’ve done and 2-how to be better writers. The final teacher focused on the fact that beginning writers need to learn from teachers to value their own experiences and voice, but that this can be a long process and doesn’t come with step by step instructions. She brings up the point that too often when students are having trouble thinking of a topic to write about frustrated/busy teachers find themselves saying “just go sit down and think,” which only leads to more wandering and complaining from students sighing, “ I don’t have anything to write about.” Instead she suggests: talking! She calls this “rehearsal” where by simply talking to your students and finding out what they do know, they too hear out loud what they know and therefore could write about. The idea is that they get to “rehearse” what they will write. She too concluded with 3 underlying principles to consider: 1-“talk is important in rehearsal,” 2-“be the learner,” and 3-“put yourself in situations where you are writing and getting response.” The common theme between the three was that as teachers we need to remember that the goal of conferences is to “teach the writer, not the writing.” This exact phrase was actually quoted in each!

In my classroom we use the Lucy Calkins which is actually a writer’s workshop curriculum. A major component of Lucy Calkins is writing conferences that we carry out on an individual bases as we walk around the classroom. Since the beginning of the year I have already been doing a version of a writing conference with the students, but I know realize that maybe I have been focusing too much on the “writing” and not the “writer.” Mt CT and I never actually discussed what to talk about with the students during the conferences, just to try and check in with them to see if they were accomplishing and understanding the tasks given to them in the beginning mini-lesson that day. With the tips from these articles it seems like I was helping them solve the small short term issues the students were having at the time , such as sounding out a word, or mechanics, when in reality it would be better to talk to them about experiences and the process of writing so that they build their confidence as a writer.

As a professional I need to really sit down and take the time to reflect on myself as a writer. Its been so long time since I’ve actually written creatively or thought about what I enjoy or struggle with as a writer, that right now I fear it might be difficult to connect with my students “writer to writer.” These articles really prove how important that is, so that even as I put on my teacher shoes I can continue to grow as a professional by remembering being a student.

Even though my unit will mostly be focused on comprehension, the module made me realize how comprehension and writing can be very tied to each other. Generally, we assess the students’ comprehension orally and informally, but I could ask them to write in their journal about what they took away from a story. That would then require me to have an understanding of their writing ability and preferences as well. Some students share their ideas better verbally and some better through writing and others may struggle just the opposite. As I plan my instruction I think it’s important that I provide my students with a variety and “jigsaw” of assessments of sorts.