Conferencing

As I read Routman's Chapter 9 yesterday, I was immediately reminded of both my mentor teachers. In my dyad, my teacher's last two periods of the day are a reading/writing block. The students have a task most nights that involve them writing in their writer's notebook (the task usually aligns with the novel they're reading at the time). For the first thirty minutes of class, the students work on MSP stems and complete AR reading while my teacher goes around the room and assesses their writer's notebooks. She often uses this time to talk with the students about their writing. Sometimes, a student is on the computers taking an AR test, and she will ask, "Suzy, when you finish up the test will you come back to your desk so that we can have a conference?" Conferencing about writing is a norm in this class, and I feel that many students look forward to the opportunity to work with her.

Conferencing is also done by my mentor teacher in my main placement. As she hands out the stories that the students are currently working on, she will talk with them about what they've written so far, what she is excited to read about, etc. The students recently began working on developing stories with beginning, middle, and endings. I was blown away by some of the work when I went back this week for conferences. First graders are completely capable of engaging in the writing process. If established norms are set in place, the students will live up to them.

It's been exciting for me to see some of the practices Routman describes in "real life," out in classrooms.