Conferences in Writing

It's the time of year when I really take a close look at my students as writers and figure out who needs help with what.  Of course I do this all year long, but now it's crunch time!  I really zone in on very specific needs and confer with my students accordingly.

Here's how I do it:  Every few weeks, I take my students' writing home.  I go through it and see how they are doing.  I sort their work into piles based on need/skills.  Once I have 5 groups, I create a conference schedule.  I print the schedule on card stock and place it in a plastic sleeve or laminate it. I leave it at my small group table and each day after my writing mini-lesson, I pull my group.  The rest of the students know they may only interrupt if they need a staple {even then, they are trained to bring me another blank paper and hand it to me with their first sheet so I can staple without distracting my group}.  I share the things I feel the kids need to work on with them.  I think it's important for them to know why I've pulled them.  Conferencing with students in a rotation has the following benefits:

-it ensures I am meeting with all my students each week
-it ensures I am helping students with skills they actually need to work on
-it gives the students accountability for areas of improvement
-it leaves less students at their seats for independent writing time, which equals less kids to manage {bonus!}

To grab the conferencing schedule, click the cover below.  It's included in my "Writing Workshop Resources" pack, which is 150+ pages!  To see all of my Writing products, click here.  

xo
Megan