Teachers Learning From One Another

The one thing that I really struggle with as a writing teacher is conferencing with ALL of my students about their writing. I have four sections of fifth graders and about 23 kids in each class. I would often find myself reading their writing at home in google classroom and leaving comments for them about questions that I had. This was one of the only ways I could figure out how to "meet" with all of them. But I still wasn't satisfied with it and felt that I was letting myself down as a writing teacher but more importantly letting my own students down.

At NWP/NCTE this past November I was at a session where Carl Anderson was one of the speakers. If you don't know who Carl Anderson is, I refer to him as the conferencing guru. One of the things he mentioned that really stood out to me is the fact that in his K-12 educational experience, his mother, an English teacher, was the only teacher to ever conference with him about his writing. And it was because he failed an essay assignment. From that point on, she conferenced with him on a regular basis.

This made me sad, and it made me think of my own children. They are 11, 9, and 8.

After the conference I went home and asked them about their own teachers over their short schooling career. They have had wonderful teachers but according to my kids, none of them had ever sat down  and talked to them about their writing.

My school district went on winter break a week before most districts in the area. I took this as an opportunity to observe my friend, Jill's writing workshop. Jill is an MCTE teacher of the year, Red Cedar Writing Project teacher consultant and co-director, and director of  Spartan Writing Camp. She is a phenomenal teacher and one that I look up to.

Jill teaches in a 3/4 classroom at Okemos Public Montessori. Her writing workshop was what I had envisioned, but what I learned from her about conferencing was incredibly valuable. It was simple, and I am embarrassed to say that I should have been conferencing like this all along. I watched as Jill moved around the classroom with a clipboard and pen talking to students. Talking about what they were writing and where in the process they were with their writing. When it was appropriate, she gave suggestions and asked questions.

I was in her room for one hour. On my winter break. But it was more worthwhile than anything else I could have been doing at that time.

Today I put this conferencing into action with my own students during writing workshop. And it was unreal. I was able to talk to six to eight students in each class. I loved listening to what they had to tell me, ask questions, and offer suggestions. I loved being able to connect what they were working on to mini lessons we have done in the past. And I think they loved that I was giving them individual attention and felt safe asking for help without an audience.

But more importantly, I heard them. I heard their story and listened to what they had to say.