The Big Fresh from Choice Literacy December 5, 2009 Conferring Intervals


Home About Contact Us FAQs Tell a Friend Search Buy DVDs Workshops Site Licenses Members Only

The Big Fresh from Choice Literacy
December 5, 2009
Conferring Intervals

Most serious runners swear by interval training - breaking up longer runs with short bursts of faster, harder sprints. Intervals aren't pleasant, but they push the body out of its comfort zone. Intervals are one of the best ways to reach a higher level of performance.

I thought about intervals when putting together this week's newsletter. Teachers are always trying to improve their conferring technique. Some teachers swear the most important thing to remember about reading and writing conferences is to keep them short - by spending no more than a couple minutes with each child, you ensure you reach every student in the class nearly every day, and have your finger on the pulse of the entire group.

Other teachers insist a conference has no value if it isn't long enough to include genuine, natural, and extended conversation with the child. This takes time, and can't be rushed. If this is your belief, it's impossible to see more than a few students during each workshop.

Who is right? Both. Neither. What's right is what works for you. Yet like the disciplined athlete, teachers know they have to mix it up, trying new procedures or protocols every so often just to test the limits of what works. It's how we all move our performance to the next level.

My challenge to you is to do a little interval training with your conferring. If you're convinced only long, meaty, deep conversations work when conferring, push yourself to try a half hour of 1-2 minute check-in conferences with students. If you have those 1-2 minute "touching base" conferences down to an art form, take 30 minutes to confer with no more than 2-3 students. Whether the shift is to long or short conferring, it will be awkward, uncomfortable, and disconcerting. That's what an interval is all about - it's an interlude apart from your normal routine designed to move you into a new and improved routine based on what you learn. Thirty minutes is plenty for a teaching interval - you won't necessarily enjoy it, but you'll end the time with a new perspective on what works when conferring.

We've reposted two articles from the archives to help you think through the value of long and short conferences. Debbie Miller explains the value of slowing down and really taking your time in conferences; "The Sisters" (Gail Boushey and Joan Moser) share procedures and tips for winnowing down the time in conferences to a minimum. We've also posted our annual gift-giving ideas, plus more as always. Enjoy!

Brenda Power
Editor, Choice Literacy

Free for All

Debbie Miller writes that there is all the difference in the world between "conferring" and "touching base," and that difference is time:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/public/419.cfm

Joan Moser and Gail Boushey ("The Two Sisters") advocate a conferring system that allows you to check in with students and set goals within a minute or two. They share their tips in this video:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/public/333.cfm

How about a holiday season that is a little less materialistic and a lot more enjoyable? We've got a trio of features to help with your classroom planning and shopping.

Our 4th Annual Gifts for Literacy Geeks features fun items for the book lovers and avid writers on your personal or professional shopping list:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/public/1046.cfm

Making the Holidays Less Materialistic has lots of ideas that can easily be transferred to the classroom, from discussing marketing messages to emphasizing holiday traditions. It's from the Kids' Health website (part of the Nemours Foundation):

http://kidshealth.org/parent/positive/talk/holidays_materialistic.html#

Kaboose has many excellent suggestions for low-cost classroom craft projects, if you want to encourage your students to make some of their own gifts to give:

http://party.kaboose.com/classroom-party4.html

For Members Only

We've all had the experience of reading a professional book and disagreeing with some of the ideas from the author. It's just a little more surreal when you wrote the book! Aimee Buckner participates in her school's study group reading of Notebook Know-How, and finds some of her thinking about notebooks has changed over the past few years. In the New Notebook Essentials, she summarizes her revised core beliefs about writing notebooks:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/members/1033.cfm

In this week's video, Karen Terlecky's 5th grade students share their learning from their word work homework exploring roots and derivatives from cycl. On a technical note, this is our first video testing our new player which allows full-screen viewing. Give the player a whirl, and let us know if you have any troubles viewing the video:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/members/1042.cfm

Our December New Teacher Digest on connecting assessment and curriculum planning has been posted. It includes three different templates for teachers and students, as well as weblinks to articles with focus questions for study groups and staff meetings:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/members/1044.cfm

From the Mailbag, a member writes:

I'm a literacy coach in Nevada, and I use the resources on your website for all parts of my job. Because our budget is limited, I don't get much in the way of professional development. Your site keeps me up-to-date and full of new ideas to share with teachers. Which leads me to my problem: I need an easy way to store the resources I use. Any way to create a place to house articles, videos, etc.? I'm thinking of my account with Cook's Illustrated where I can log in and then access my list of favorite recipes, articles, and demo videos. It sure saves a lot of time when you're looking for something and need it fast!

If you are looking for a similar time-saving feature at Choice Literacy, it's the "My Favorites" bookmarking and filing system for members. You can view the tutorial and start using it at this link:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/members/846.cfm

That's all for this week!