How to Have Meaningful Writing Conferences With Your Students

During the writing process, it is important to confer with your students one-on-one to view their writing and be able to give constructive feedback on it. So, the question is: How do you have meaningful writing conferences with your students?

Before the Conference

Before you begin holding writing conferences with students you will want to decide how you want to have them. The actual way in which you hold the conferences can be done in a couple different ways.

You could assign a day of the week to each student, where you might see 4-5 students each day. This is a simple way to make sure you are seeing every student each week at multiple stages of their writing. The problem with this option is if a student is absent on their conference day, you will have to fit them into another day or the student will have to wait until the next week.

Another option is to have a system where students let you know when they are ready to have a conference. This option is more schedule flexible. That way if there is a day students aren’t writing, students don’t miss their conference day. It could be as simple as each student having a clip with their class number on it that they clip onto a sign signaling that student is ready to meet with you. If you select this option, be sure that the procedure is explained and practiced ahead of time. Furthermore, make sure students know what to do while they are in the process of waiting for their turn. It could be sketching illustrations or getting minutes/lessons completed on their adaptive digital program. Having a plan in advance of what you want it to look like will help prevent management issues later.

Another thing, you will want to do before holding writing conferences is have a rubric ready that you will be grading the students on. This rubric should be shared with students before they begin writing. Writing samples for each score on the rubric should be provided as a model for students as they write.

During the Conference

When meeting with each student, you will most likely begin by either reading through their piece or asking them to read it to you. This is grade and skill level dependent on which way you choose. Next, give the student feedback. Start with something positive, such as how much you like their topic, how well they tried to spell a tricky word, if they wrote in complete sentences, etc. Then, give them 1-2 things to work on. (No more than 2, so you don’t overwhelm your students.) These items will come directly from your rubric. You may have to model, again, how to work on those items or work together to get started on them. You can ask the student at the end if they have any questions before sending them back to their seat. Each writing conference should last 10 minutes or less.

After the Conference

If you are finding that multiple students are having the same problems, then you will want to stop everyone from writing and do a quick whole group mini-lesson to correct it. That way you are not wasting time during the individual conferences correcting the same thing over and over.

Also, if you have time, take a quick walk around the classroom and jot down notes on your students’ weak areas in their writing. Use this to inform your writing instruction for the next day or to pull a small group of students before you begin your daily writing conferences. This can help you save time during the individual writing conferences, too.

Closing Thoughts

All of this takes practice, so don’t worry if things don’t go the way you want them to the first couple of times or more. Be patient with yourself and your students. Like with most things, the more you and your class do it, the better you will all get at it. Also, feel free to make tweaks along the way to make it work best for your class.

Now you know how to have meaningful writing conference with your students! However, if you’re unsure about how to create a writing rubric, check back next week for more on that topic. And if you missed last week’s post be sure to check it out: How to Add Authentic Writing Experiences Into the School Day!