During my field experience I have not yet seen a teacher conference with a student about their writing. In fact, I do not remember ever conferencing about my writing at such a young age. The only time I conferenced with my teacher about writing that I can remember was during English 1102 and during my AP Literature class. Other than that I have never seen the act of conferencing played out though I agree that it is quite essential in order for a teacher to build up a student and encourage them in their process of being a writer. I feel like it does not just help with the students learning of writing, but it deepens the teacher student relationship. It gives teachers an opportunity to make their student feel the importance they need to feel while still showing them how to improve. That is the best environment a student can be in to learn as we read about when studying classroom community for EDEC. It is important that conferencing is not just pointing out errors in students writing, but it is providing them a place to explore and develop their writing. Besides benefiting the students conferences allow teachers to evaluate their teaching along with their tactics for teaching certain methods. It is beneficial and will definitely be implemented in my classroom. I can't wait to have experiences with conferences, I know it will tell me a lot about my students.It will be hard with some students at times, but I think it will become easier with practice and as the students feel comfortable opening up to me and sharing.
Share time is an amazing part of a writing workshop that can sometimes be imtemidating. I know that there are often way too many judgements surrounding a group of students which make sharing time difficult. Once the classroom community is already open to sharing during other aspects of the day I feel like this is not much of a burden. If the students are in a welcoming environment they will be open and excited about their work. Sharing is a great way for students to grow as writers and learn from each other. I love seeing students share what they know about any topic! Sharing creates students who support each other in their writing. I think it also creates confidence for normally shy students who don't talk during whole group discussions. Sharing time needs to be structured but there are many ways that can be done, giving students an aboundance of opportunities to share!
I think that sharing fits in with so many of the other values you have in education - open and trusting environment, etc. It is only natural to share and listen to each other with respect.
ReplyDeleteI agree that conferencing also fits in to this model, and encourages those individual relationships with students that are so essential to success.