Learning Opportunities

It seems impossible. How, in a class of twenty-five or thirty students, can I make time to talk with each reader or writer? Tricky, isn’t it?

Well, we might argue that we don’t have time NOT to talk to each reader or writer.  But how can we do this effectively while ensuring that the rest of the class doesn’t lapse into chaos?

If you ever felt that you wanted to know more about your readers or didn’t really understand a student’s piece of writing at home while you poured over it late at night, consider joining us for this interactive workshop about conferring with readers and writers.

We’ll provide you with conferring questions for a variety of genres, skills, and strategies for both the reading and writing classroom. We’ll help you discover how to “follow the writer” during a writing conference so that you can improve just one thing for each writer each time you meet.

Let’s also discuss what quality conferences look like for your strategy groups, guided reading groups, and guided writing groups. Conversations with readers and writers are highly effective in groupings, too.

Our conferring questions, mini-lessons, and assessment approaches are pulled from the work of Carl Anderson, Fountas & Pinnell, Lucy Calkins, Debbie Miller, and others.

Target Audience

Classroom Teachers Grades 1-6, Resource Teachers, Special Education Teachers Grades 1-12, Literacy Leaders, School Administrators