Category: Literacy

Confession time; I am terrible at conferring with my students.  This once proud foundation of my elementary classroom is now a crumbling pillar in my 7th grade English class.  Call it a victim of the 45 minute I have to teach everything in.  A victim of the so much to do.  A victim of not quite knowing how to make it productive.  Whatever it is, the conferring that I know I should be doing has simply not been getting done.

Yet a few weeks ago, I realized that the one thing I needed the most (besides more time, more books, more knowledge) was the simple conference.  The one to one interaction with every single one of my students if even for just a few minutes.   Because conferring is the one way I can really reach all students.  Is the one way we can connect the best.  Is the one way that I can really see what each child needs.  Conferring is the best way for me to be a better teacher to all of the needs must of us are faced with.   So even within the 45 minute English class, with almost 120 students spread over 5 classes, there had to be a way.  There had to be tweaks that could be made to make it work so an experiment began.

So what has worked and what have I discovered?

Reading conferring happens within the first 10 minutes of class.  Every day we start with 10 minutes of independent reading.  While nothing new, I now am much more purposeful with how I spend the time. So that 10 minutes is a perfect time for me to confer with students., therefore when the bell rings and the timer starts, so does my mission.

That my individual reading conferences focus on reader identity rather than on typical mini-lessons.  There is no way for me at the moment to do one-on-one lessons and still make it to all of my students within about 2 weeks.  So I instead focus on their reading identity and gather clues for what types of mini-lessons I need to create for small groups.  That being said there are exceptions to the rule if I uncover a particular dire situation where a child is then given the full 10 minutes of time.  This purpose for the conferences allows me to do quick check-ins and get to more kids.

That within those 10 minutes of independent reading I can shoot for meeting with 3 students.  I come to the students, equipped with my binder and pen, ready to ask them questions.  By me moving we save time and they can get as much reading time as possible until we meet.

That I need just one question to start every conference.  I used to prepare for all of my conferences by coming up with several questions aimed at a specific child.  Now every conference starts with, “What are you working on as a reader?”  The direction of the conference then is directed by their answer.

That I need a simple system to keep track of notes.  I used to take a lot of notes during my conferring but now find the need really just for three different things; my observations, their answers, and next steps.  Every student therefore has a sheet with three different conferring boxes on it, each class has its own 1-inch binder for me to keep track and I write down only what I need to better teach the child.  That means I am working on writing down only the essentials, in the moment, and still try to think of what to help them with.

So how has it been?  Pretty amazing actually.  The concentrated 10 minute effort means that I am fully attentive to what the students are saying ant thinking of other things.  The short note-taking sheet means that I am ore focused in what I write down as well as what we need to work on next.  The students seem to like it because they are getting more attention and still getting reading time.  And the things I have uncovered?  They are things I would not have uncovered no matter how many reflections I had students do, no matter how many small group lessons I would have conducted.

So while the 45 minutes of English class will never be ideal, it will never be enough, it will never feel like I can provide each child with the type of learning experience they deserve, it cannot hold us back.  It cannot hold me back.  And I cannot be the only one that is trying to do this.  What has worked for you?

PS:  As far as writing conferring, I use the entire class-time when we write meeting one-on-one with students.  This has proven to be more effective for the students than doing a mini-lesson for the whole class since their needs are so diverse.

If you are wondering why there seems to be a common thread to so many of my posts as of late, it is because I am working on two separate literacy books.  While the task is daunting and intimidating, it is incredible to once again get to share the phenomenal words of my students as they push me to be a better teacher.  Those books will be published in 2017 hopefully, so until then if you like what you read here, consider reading my book Passionate Learners – How to Engage and Empower Your Students.  Also, if you are wondering where I will be in the coming year or would like to have me speak, please see this page.

I think I have finally figured out my hesitance when it comes to the term “Struggling readers.”  It is not that we do not have these types of readers in our midst; children where every word read is a victory in itself, where comprehension is a slow, painful discovery.  Where we count their success not in books, but in pages.  We all have readers who struggle.  Yet, for too long, we have declared all of of our under-performing readers to be struggling.  We have let a label stop us from seeing the whole child.  For too long we have taken this title and applied it to a whole group of students that may not be where they should be.  We have labeled our students and then not gone beyond that, instead sticking to the term and everything it encompasses.  Yet, this is not enough for the very students we teach, for within this term is a myriad of reasons why the students are not reading.  Of why they struggle.   Because the truth is they are not all struggling readers.  There is so much more to them than that.

Some are resistant.  They will fight us every step of the way, not because they can’t read, but because they won’t.  They often start as struggling and in that very struggle is where their new identity comes from; reading is hard and so they will use everything they can to not engage in reading.  They will abandon book after book because they have long since figured out that if they at least look like they are reading, we will not be quite as worried.  They will tell us proudly that they hate reading, offering up the challenge as we start a new year.  Being a kid who dislikes reading is not something they are ashamed of and they wear their hatred with pride daring every teacher to change their mind.

Some are lost.  They used to love reading but lost that love a few years back.  Sometimes through the very choices we have made as teachers, often times through a combination of many factors both within and outside of our control.  It is not that they won’t read, they just don’t know how to fall back into it, how to find a great book that will bring them back to the reading fold.  How to continue to grow as a reader rather than stand still.  How to unslump themselves before their new habits of not reading become a permanent fixture of who they are as a person.

Some are confused.  They think they are doing ok but continue to miss the point of the book.  They struggle with meaning not because they cannot decode but because their mind for some reason cannot hold all of the information needed to make sense of what they are reading.  Some of my most confused readers would tell you they are doing just fine, not because they are trying to trick you but because they truly believe it.  They make as much sense as they can and then move on, wondering why others have not understood the book the same way they have.  They read, even if reading for pleasure makes little sense to them when it is such a tiring process.

Some consider themselves bad readers.  A label they have conjured based on grouping, interventions, or other things that we have used in our classrooms to help them achieve success.  Oftentimes how they self-identify becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy because if you think you are bad at something, well then you become bad at it.  Finding out what is causing them to think this way is a must as we try to help them back to reading.

Some are still a mystery.  We cannot seem to crack the code of why reading is hard and sometimes it is because they do not know themselves.  Sometimes it is because they have so many things working against them that it is hard to know where they start, and yet, we try every trick in our book and we ask as many questions as we can, trying to help them uncover a better reading identity.

There are more facets to reader identity than these, by no means is this an exhaustive list,  because we teach children and children are complicated.  So while I wish there was one direction that could guide my instruction, that could help me make all of the decisions I need to make when I support my readers, there isn’t.  And pretending there is does nothing to help me prepare.  Does nothing to help me create an environment where students have a positive reading experience, no matter their self-identification.

Sure, we could label them all struggling, but it would not be enough to help them, to support them as they have a better reading experience.  We must dig deeper into who they are.  We must ask questions not just about their reading life, but their reading identity.  We must create opportunities where they can re-frame the essence that they carry as a reader.  Our instruction must go past that of “struggling reader” and instead see the bigger reason for why they are where they are.  While our journey to create passionate reading environments sometimes seems like an uphill battle, we must remember this; all children can have a better relationship with reading, all children can become readers.  But they must know themselves first, they must know what helps or hinders, what motivates or what distracts. And so must we.  It is too easy to be satisfied be applying one label to a group of kids, but it is not satisfaction we should be after, we should be after understanding, because through understanding we can teach better.  We owe it to the kids, whether they struggle or not.

If you like what you read here, consider reading my book Passionate Learners – How to Engage and Empower Your Students.  Also, if you are wondering where I will be in the coming year or would like to have me speak, please see this page.