Workshop Overview

Individual student conferences are at the heart of both reading and writing workshop. They provide a window into the specific strengths and needs of each learner and are a teacher’s best opportunity to target instruction to the individual child. There are many avenues for a teacher to convey information to a student; a conference is one place the student may convey information to a teacher. 

There have been books and workshops about individual writing conferences, and there have been books and workshops about individual reading conferences. Certainly there are differences between the two. For one thing, a writing conference typically involves something visible, a piece of student work a teacher can look at to gauge understanding; reading comprehension happens inside a student’s head, and is invisible.  In the day to day life of a classroom however, most teachers are doing both, with the same group of students. 

Learning Outcomes

By the end of the workshop, participants will: 

• learn a concrete, practical, step-wise approach to conferring in both reading and writing;

• be provided with strategies for formative assessment in literacy;

• develop a repertoire of “go-to” conferences in reading and writing;

• generate concrete, classroom-ready organizational systems for keeping track of student work in conferences;

• leave with practical tips for helping students make reading-writing connections through conferring.