The most important part of conferring is RESEARCH–we want to learn where our readers are and where they need to go. Listening is the key. We did a demo workshop in my classroom the other day for all the teachers in the school who teach language arts. Yes, we did a short read aloud and a short mini-lesson, but we really wanted to focus on conferring and how flexible and important they are. We set up three conferring tables, with three teachers, students called up at random during independent reading, and observing teachers. First, we research:
- How’s it going?
- Show me how you chose this book? Is it living up to your expectations?
- Are you able to understand the book you’re reading? (Sometimes this leads to an impromptu running record as I count out 100 words in the book and have the students read to me.)
- How do you get started in a book? What strategies do you use in the first chapter?
- Last time we talked about (book choice/breaking hard words into syllables/etc.) . . . How’s it going?
- I noticed you were ……Can you talk to me about that?
- When you clunk are you using Dr. Goodreader to help you figure out what to do? Show me.
In our demo, my conferring went in totally different directions with different students.
One of my students is reading a book about the war in Iraq. I recommended a book for his reading plan that would give the opposite viewpoint.
I did a short running record with a student in a book I thought would be too difficult for her. She did great and is continuing with her book.
Another student and I worked on multi-syllabic words and how to break them down to understand them.
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