I chose to read this article because I feel inadequately prepared to confer with my students in reading and writing workshop. The big ideas I got from this article are that it is important to "teach the writer, not the writing," and "conferring is as much about being a good listener as it is about knowing what to say."
It is important to show students how a particular strategy can be used in all other pieces of writing. This may be silly but I like to relate this idea to the Chinese Proverb, "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime." By focusing on that particular piece of writing rather than the writer as a whole, we are only hindering that student in the long run, "when we finish a conference, we should be able to name what it is we did to help a student become a better writer."
One of the worst things we can do when conferring is to walk away feeling like we could have learned more about that student's ideas if only we had talked a little less. "By truly listening as we confer, we let students know that the work they're doing as writers matters."
I would definitely use these ideas in my classroom. I have not yet observed my CT confer with students, however it is something that needs to take place and after reading this article I feel more confident that I can do that. We do writing workshop every day, giving me ample opportunities to confer with them on what they are writing. There are some students who seem unmotivated to write anything, some who talk the entire time, and some who just need to build their confidence. By showing an interest in what they are writing about (or would write about/are thinking about), hopefully that would translate into them actually writing. The article mentions that some students have trouble putting into written words what they are thinking, so by conferring with them they would have the confidence they need to write.
Because "there is no template for a good conference," I feel the best way to learn is to just do. As long as I keep in mind to teach the writer and be a listener, I think this approach would be beneficial to my students.
My unit is about paragraph conventions, so by conferring with students during writing workshop and collecting their writing samples, I will have a good basis as to their abilities in this area. Not every student will need help in the same area, so I will be able to gear my lessons toward where the majority need help, and I can keep in mind those who the lesson may not apply directly to and confer with them individually. I will be sure to incorporate modeling into my unit plan (as I learned from the writing workshop videos I watched).
I did not read this article, so I thought the points you made were very interesting and helpful! I thought it was a very interesting idea to teach the writer and not the writing. I have never thought of conferencing with students like this, but it really makes sense. Our job is to teach the students and help them develop as writers. I love the analogy you use! This is so perfect and a good way to remember to teach the students as writers. I have started conferring with students during reading and writing workshop, and a lot of the points you make will help me do this better. I will definitely take into consideration the idea of listening. I think it's so important that we let the students lead the conversations so we can learn as much from them as possible and ultimately help them develop as writers.
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