Confer

The goal of a conference is not to ask questions, it is to understand our students as writers.
Conferences are designed to give students time to ask questions and clarify their thinking, and it gives teachers the opportunity to shape instruction to meet students’ individual and collective needs.  The goal of a writing conference is not [...]

Who cares? Why did you write this?

“No surprise for the writer, no surprise for the reader.” Robert Frost
Donald Murray about Writing and Teaching For Surprise in his book, expecting the unexpected Teaching Myself – and Others - to Read and Write.  Don writes that his students become writers when they first write what they do not expect to write. 
My niece Abby and I [...]

Reading Student Work

Donald Murray warns us not to do the student’s work.  Many teachers become experts at grammar and punctuation rules.  The longer we teach, the better we become at our craft.  The problem is that the student’s are not internalizing what we know.  When we are red penning the corrections and we are marking up the [...]

Writing Conference

As I reflect on the writing conference, I realize that I have two parts to mine: Research and Teach. I figure out what is the writer doing and what can I teach this writer.

While researching, the teacher is noticing these strengths about the writing:

Content/Ideas
This writer knows to stay on topic (several things she [...]

Writing asking questions to drive a writing conference

Doe this sound like something you have tried? I have! I know that when I ask my students questions, then they revisit a piece of writing, this piece of writing improves. Adding details to a piece of writing is a typical goal on all state tests. How do we help bridge the gap between adding [...]

Including the Exact Words That People Say Conference / Lesson

As I thought about writing about my favorite conference, the Writing “What Are the Exact Words That People Say” Conference or Minilesson pops in my head. Sometimes when students are writing, they write bland stories, but when they talk to us, they tell us the cutest stories. I grab a sticky note or scrap paper [...]