Refining Your Reading Workshop

1. Refining Your Reading Workshop Session #7 – Conferencing

2. Agenda • Finish strategy groups (slide 17) • Conferencing – the What and the Why • Types of conferences and logistics • Using conferencing to inform your instruction • Conferencing records/notebooks • Conferencing Tips

3. One on one meetings are the ultimate confidence builders for students. They are especially effective as follow up to instruction, when students practice a strategy. Your undivided attention to each child makes them feel that you care about their learning and will try to help them improve and understand. (Robb, 1998 7-7)

4. Conferencing is……….Assessing Before Teaching • The prescriptive cookbook nature of many reading programs create the illusion that we can teach without assessing for ourselves what each of our students need and then plan instruction to meet those needs. • We need to realize that teaching must be based on more than a generic, one-size-fits-all program.

5. The What’s and the Why’s of Conferencing

6. What is an independent reading conference? • teacher works one-on-one with a student to teach the reader what s/he needs to learn about reading. • The teacher assesses (researches) what the student needs to learn, decides what to teach the student and then teaches the reader. • Some people think of an Independent reading conference as a “private lesson.”

7. Dual role of reading conferences • Reading Surgery - Teach the reader, not the text • Support Curriculum - Coach student to apply strategy taught in Mini-Lessons

8. What is essential? • Conversational tone • Consistency • Motivation- develop identity as a reader • Research, Decide, Teach (RDT,R) and record • Teach the reader, not the book

9. Conference goals for the teacher • To coach the student to think actively • To assess what the student knows and needs to learn • To teach the reader • To motivate the student to read more and to apply the strategies taught

10. Conferencing goals for the student • To apply reading strategies. • To develop metacognitive skills • To talk about books in a variety of ways, (e.g. author’s craft, character development, preferences).

11. Four Part Conference Structure Research - What does the student know? - What does the student need to learn? Decide - Select 1-2 things the student is ready to learn next. Teach - Explain and model the strategy And Record - Record what you taught and expect student to practice for follow-up at next conference.

12. Research, Decide, Teach and record

13. Research, Decide, Teach and record

14. Conferring with Early Readers

15. Conferring With Early Readers Early readers have an independent/instructional level between Level A and Level F. (Gr.K-1) Early readers: •rely heavily on picture cues • rely on pattern • developing high frequency words

16. Starting a book. What does the student know about self as a reader? • Tell me how you chose this book. • Have you read any ____ books before? • How do you know this is a “just right” book? • What kinds of books do you like to read? • What do you do before you read a book?

17. Middle of the book. Is the student actively engaged and applying strategies as needed? • Read a bit of the story to me. • Do a quick running record to analyze strategy use. • What is happening in the story so far? • What do you think might happen next? • Tell me about the characters.

18. End of the book. Is the student thinking beyond the text? • What do you think about the story? • What was your favorite part? Why? • Did you make any connections to the story? • Retell what happened in the story. • What strategies did you use as a reader? • What was your favorite part of the story? • What will you read next?

19. Video of primary Joy of Conferring - Preston – fluency and rereading - Jack – Decoding and sight words

20. Conferring with Transitional Readers

21. Conferring with Transitional Readers Transitional Readers have an instructional reading levels J-M. (Gr. 1-2) Transitional readers are • beginning to integrate cueing systems. • Developing understanding of plot, characters, simple literary elements.

22. Starting a book. What does the student know about self as a reader? • Tell me how you chose this book. • Have you read any other books by this author, series? • How do you know this is a “just right” book? • What kinds of books and topics do you like to read? • What do you do before you read a book?

23. Middle of a book. Is the student engaged in purposeful reading? Is the student monitoring for meaning and using a variety of strategies? • How did you get back into the story from yesterday? • What is happening in the story now? Earlier? • Tell me about the character. Did the character change? • Take me to that part of the story. • Was there a part of the story that was confusing? • Whatdid you do to help yourself as a reader?

24. End of the book. Is the student thinking beyond the text? • What do you think about the book? • Was it what you expected? Did you want it to be • different? • Did you make any connections? • What did you learn about yourself as a reader? • Would you recommend this book? To whom? • What do you plan to read next? • What goals do you have for yourself as a reader?

25. What Does Retelling Involve? • The teacher asks the child to tell about what he or she has read. • Children who are new to retelling may attempt to retell the entire text. • The teacher needs to explain that they needn’t tell the whole story, just the main things that happened.

26. Difficulty in the Retelling Process • The book may be too hard. • It may have taken too many days to complete. • They may need to learn more comprehension strategies to handle longer text. OR -- they may need a clearer explanation of your expectations.

27. Retellings Can Provide Both Generaland Specific Information • Understanding of the story elements: – Setting – Characters – Main events – Problem – Resolution • Specific details • References to the text • Connections with the text

28. What Does Retelling Involve? • The teacher asks the child to tell about what he or she has read. • Children who are new to retelling may attempt to retell the entire text. • The teacher needs to explain that they needn’t tell the whole story, just the main things that happened.

29. Page by Page Recounts • Sometimes less secure readers “can’t see the forest for the trees.” • They recount what happened page by page because they never really put it all together in their minds.

30. Video – Intermediate Teaching for Comprehending and Fluency • Rosa Parks – Comprehension • Junie B. Jones – Book choices

31. Conference Discussion • What structures do the fourconferences you watched have in common? • What components did you like about the conferences you saw that you plan to implement? • What would you change about the conferences?

32. Types of conferences and Logistics

33. Types of Conferences

34. How long should a conference last? • Conference length can vary – depending on what you are noticing with a student. • Some students may only need a quick reminder of a skill to use. • Others you may feel it is important to spend a little more time with. • In general – they last between 3 -5 minutes for most students.

35. How often should I conference with students? • If you are only doing conferences during the work time, you should be able to see 4-5 students a day. • This would allow you to meet with each student once a week. • If you are doing conferences AFTER small group instruction, you will probably see only 1-2 students each day. • This would allow you to see each student approximately once a month.

36. Conferring or Assessing? • Conference frequently with students. • Use a balanced approach for assessing. • Don’t use a “formal” assessment tool at every conference. • Some conferences should be discussions between two readers: you and the child. • As needed, use a running record or other assessment tool to monitor students’ reading process and progress.

37. Conferring Tips

38. Conferring Tips • Keep a nurturing tone • Give students time to think • Follow up with more questions not answers • Listen carefully for distress signals • Set goals • Keep simple records • Keep the student’s needs driving the conference

39. Tip #1 – Talk about what you see the student doing in the moment. • I see you are laughing. What’s so funny? • I see you have lots of sticky notes in your book. What • are you writing? • I see you’re reading the back of the book. Tell me about that--what kind of information does it give you? • I see you have selected many nonfiction text. What do you like about nonfiction?

40. #2 – Talk about what you discussed at the last conference. • Last time we met, we talked about finding “just right” books. Share with me the books you selected. How do you know they are “just right?” • Last time we met, we worked on reading fluently and paying attention to the punctuation marks. Read this part aloud so I can hear how you’re doing… • Last time we worked on what you can do when you come to a word you don’t know. What can you do to figure out that word?

41. #3 – Talk about the day’s focus lesson topic or unit of study • In the focus lesson we practiced creating sensory images. Show me a place in the book where you could create a strong image. • We are learning about nonfiction. How do you read this page? What part do you read first? • We have been practicing retelling. Retell what you have read so far in the book.

42. #4 Ask one or more open ended questions • How’s your reading going? • Tell me about this book…what’s it about? What’s happening so far in the story? • Tell me about the character in the story? • Why did you select this book? • Can I help you with anything in your reading?

43. #5 – Try an over the shoulder read. • I want you to silently read the rest of this page, and I’m going to sit here beside you and read it silently to myself. • When you’re done, let’s talk about what you’re thinking. Things to Notice • Silent Reading Rate—How long does it take for the student to finish reading that section silently? • Comprehension—Does the student understand the selection? What strategies does the student use? • Oral Reading (optional)--# of errors, fluency & phrasing

44. # 6 – Leave them with a focus. • At the end of the conference – be sure to set a goal for the student. • Give them something specific to work on or try .

45. Discussion points • How are you currently conferencing with your students? • Weekly? Daily? • How many students a day? Week? • How long are your conferences? • How are you keeping records? • How are you using that information?

46. Using your conferencing information for instruction

47. Planning for Strategy Instruction Ongoing Assessments Running Records Conferencing Observations

48. Conferences as the source of information to organize small groups Partner Work • Think about students at your grade level • What are typical patterns of need you find in your students? • Identify patterns for strategy groups.

49. Sample Yearlong Unit of Study for _____

50. Sample Yearlong Unit of Study for _____