Hi Donna,
Welcome to the Mosaic listserv! I know Nancy personally and know that she is
an awesome teacher. You are fortunate to have her for a professor.
Now, about your question. Time is always a difficult issue for a teacher to
tackle.
There never seems to be enough of it. However, what has worked for me in the
past is to do quick (2 - 3 min checkins) with as many kids as I can at the
beginning
of the reading workshop time. I allow myself about 15 - 20 minutes to do this.
Before
I do this however, I take a quick look around the room to see if there are any
kids who
might need some redirecting. Then I start my round of quick conferences. I
model them
around my writing workshop conferences and ask the same three questions: what
are you
reading? How is it going? Or, tell me about what you just read. And, do you
need any help
with reading your book? Or something to that effect. Sometimes, you'll spend
a few extra
minutes with some kids and sometimes you will whiz right by because they don't
need you
at that moment. If you anticipate to the kids that you will be doing these
quick conferences
at the beginning of the reading workshop then they will be ready for you and
will plan to have
an area where they need help. It's funny how this happens but it's absolutely
true. Then, I also
have a list of kids that I see almost every day. These are the children who
have a difficult
time choosing books, comprehending, etc. I do a longer conference with them
and try to
target specific learning during this time. I also have a chart in my room
where kids can
sign up for conferences. This didn't work as well this year for me and I
finally figured out why.
I was not being respectful of the chart and kids would come up to me whose
names were
not on the chart and demand a conference right at that moment. Most of the
time they just
wanted to read to me but it took up a lot of time that I could have used for
more focused conferencing.
I think I wasn't explicit enough (that's always the case) in my directions and
expectations. And,
one last thing. I always have a conferencing sheet so that I can keep track of
the children that
I've conferenced with. That way I don't miss anybody. You'd be surprised how
often that happens
when you're not checking.
I hope this helps. Feel free to ask if you have any more questions.
Elisa Waingort
Calgary, Canada
HI, Im one of the Wayne State students you were warned about. This is my
last class, I do my student teaching this fall. My question is: Reading
conferences with students seem to be a very valuable tool for the teacher
and the student, how (when) do you find time to do this with every student?
Thats it, Thank You in advance for your help
Donna
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