Conferring and Goal Setting

Why conferences and goals?

Why do we need to conference and set individual goals?

“…the more effective classrooms have a distribution of whole-class, small-group, and side-by-side instruction. The more whole-class teaching offered, the lower the academic achievement in any school.” (The CAFÉ book, pg 9-10)

In other words, the more you get down to working with individuals, the higher your classroom achievement.

“In order for learners to develop heuristic, or goal-directed, strategies, they must have clear goals.” (The CAFÉ book, pg 10)

In other words, each student deserves goals that fits their needs.

Creating Individual Reading Goals

Individual goals for students should be discovered while benchmarking.

·    Look for the most common error.

·    Identify a goal; comprehension, accuracy, fluency, or vocabulary

·    Identify a specific skill based on the goal; inferring, synthesis…

·    Find specific strategies to accomplish the goal.

Once you decide what goal the student will be working on, based on the benchmarking, hold a “goal-setting conference.” During this conference refer back to the benchmark, letting the student see their most common errors. You may point out the error, or see what the student notices on their own. Sometimes the student will know what to work on and when the student sets their goal it is more motivating for them to work on it. This conference will take longer.

It is important to not spend too much time teaching to allow for guided practice while in the conference. Students are often ready to start as soon as you tell them the strategy. First attempts by students should be guided, prompted, coached, and given feedback by the teacher. A typical conference should take 2 minutes.

Remember, don’t stick with the skills for too long. If the touch points are in the 3 to 4 range for 3 conferences in a row, it is time to move on. Also, if the touch points are in the 1 to 2 range for more than a few weeks it is time to change something. Change the strategy, the visual, or the way it is being taught in some way.

Selecting Similar Students for Strategy Groups

Do you plan to give multiple students the same strategy? Then it may be time for a strategy group. These groups are typically made of 2 to 5 students. The focus of the time together is introducing and working on strategies, and guided practice in order to reach their goal. A strategy group meeting may last about 5 minutes.

Make A Plan- Make it Consistent

Let’s review the corporation guidelines for Pensieve:

Teachers will conduct reading conferences with students continuously and frequently using the following chart as guidance.

Above Grade Level Readers	At or Near Grade Level Readers	Below Grade Level Readers
At Least Once Per Every Week	At Least Twice Per Week	At Least Three Times per Week

In order to reach this goal, you need to make a plan. Schedules can be extremely helpful in meeting with all your students. The Sisters schedule as they go, if this system is working for you then please continue to use it. If you are the type of person who needs more control, a set weekly schedule may be best for you.

For many classes, strategy groups will need to be put in place to meet the needs of the class. These small, strategy groups count as a conference with the student. If you need help creating groups in Pensieve please let your instructional coach know and we will set a meeting with you.

Helpful Tips

How do I get it all done?

If you behavior plan in your room is working, your students are already independent. Once students are independent, you have more time to get out and conference.

During the reading block, whole class mini-lessons must remain short. Remember that students don’t get better in the lesson, they get better with practice. Here is some review information from an earlier post on brain research:

·        Four to eight minutes of content when you are teaching items which students have less background knowledge and the complexity is greater.

·        Eight to fifteen minutes of content when teaching items in which the students have greater background knowledge and less complexity.

·        Longer than fifteen minutes of content is proven to be ineffective.

How do I show interest in the students when I am busy with the computer/Pensieve account?

Before walking over to a student, take a minute; log into your account, read the last conference information you have with the student, get your goal and strategy filled in, then walk over to the student. As soon as you sit down you should be ready to go. Don’t interrupt the student and then make them wait on you. During your conference, engage the student(s), state the strategy they will use, guide their practice, and set a goal for the next meeting. When the conference is over, tell the student you will sit with them for another minute while they practice. During this minute, type your notes from the conference, pull up the next student you will be meeting with, read the notes from the last conference, fill in the goal and strategy, then walk over to the student. If you use this method you will be engaged with the student you are with and prepared for the next student when you arrive.

How do I keep all the goals straight?

To better manage the goals in the classroom, visual reminders for individuals and strategy groups can be made. This will help remind individuals to continue to work on their own when the teacher is not with them. It can also help visitors to the room know what each student’s goal is.

On-Demand Reading and Writing

On Demand Reading and Writing--It's real world.

Think about the type of writing you do every day. Much of what we do is short on-demand types of reading and writing: surfing the Internet, emails, notes, teacher newsletters, teacher lessons, etc. Students need opportunities to read and write on-demand as much as possible.

It's not all stories--It's unique formats.

Students will see both literature and informational texts on the typical reading test. To help students learn about and understand different formats, consider routinely exposing students to a variety of text types in both fiction and nonfiction on a routine basis.

It's not just a text--It's multiple texts.

Along with varying the text types, you will need to ask your students to read multiple texts in one sitting. This, again, is a real-world reader habit. Here is an example of what we might do with multiple texts. When a snow storm comes to our area, we might:

• View a weather report on television.
• Surf the Internet for the latest information. 
• Read the newspaper.

We tend to seek information from multiple texts about a single topic, and we do this all in one sitting, so it is important for students to have these experience routinely in the classroom.

The traits are important--It's Ideas and Organization

For on-demand writing, students have to start and finish their written responses to standardized prompts/questions all in a single draft. For that reason, the traits of Ideas and Organization are essential for students to practice when completing on-demand writing.

The students are expected to write with coherence and cohesiveness. "Coherence," meaning that it's on topic, well thought out, and easy to follow. "Cohesive," meaning that it's complete, with all parts of the prompt addressed in a beginning, middle, and end. The traits of Ideas and Organization encompass these expectations. If students are strong with their Ideas and Organization traits, they will perform better on standardized writing prompts and with other similar writing tasks.

Since on-demand writing doesn't allow time for major revision and editing, students may not always have time to incorporate the traits of voice, word choice, sentence fluency, and conventions completely. Their first priority should be to get their ideas down with strong organization then go back and for revision and editing when time allows. 

It's a yearlong expectation.

If we truly believe that on-demand reading and writing skills are essential for real-world literacy, then weaving opportunities for on-demand activities is a must during the entire school year.

(Smekens, 2015)

Instructional Charts

“Instructional charts may not be rocket science, but they use brain science to create high-impact aids for young readers, writers, mathematicians, scientists, and social scientists.” “Charts take abstract content and represent it in a concrete way to support independence.” (Kristine Mraz and Marjorie Martinelli; ChartChums)

A Chart Should:

• Reflect instruction by stating explicit strategies; process, routine, concept, or repertoire
•  Show the process of how to do something
• Give examples (student work is best)

The Heading Should:

•         Be written large and legibly
•         Invite thinkers in
•         Name a big skill
•         Set students up for utilizing the chart
•         Grab the reader’s attention with a strong statement or a question

The Language Should:

•         Be appropriate for the grade level
•         Use less to get the point across

The Drawings Should:

•         Be simple
•          Communicate the information (especially for young students)
•         Define new concepts or new words
•           Make the chart engaging and enhance its meaning
•       Photography and Clip Art can also be used

Remember that color coding can help items stick in the memory making the strategies clear, and distinct.

Think About Your Lessons: "Start With Why"

Think about your lessons. Think about one that the students were engaged and excited about learning. These are the lessons that remind you why you chose education as your profession. Educators are always trying to find a way to help their students connect to lessons.

We often look at the learning styles, engagement strategies, and classroom modifications to help. We try the latest new curriculum or find a new inspiring idea from another teacher. We sometimes find that despite out efforts students can be distracted or just going through the motions. How can educators solve this problem?

The answer may be to think about Simon Sinek's principals of the Golden Circle. Although the Golden Circle refers to the marketing world, it can also be applied to education. Mr. Sinek explains that the inside of the circle is the WHY portion. This portion is the process of our Limbic brain that control emotion and feeling (why we do things). The next circle is the HOW. This section is made up of the decisions that control our ability to get things done. The outside circle is the WHAT section. In this section what we do is controlled by the Neocortex and involves rational thought. This information helps educators think about what motivates students' decision making. If we can tap into the part of the brain that makes decisions, we can get our students to find a need to be a part of what is happening in the classroom. Teachers need to give students a reason to participate. Many times as educators we go about teaching starting with the outside of the circle and work inward, rather than starting with the inner part of the circle, the WHY.

In order for teachers to create this in your classrooms, we need to stay focused on WHY the lesson or content is so important. Evaluate the purpose of your lesson. How does the lesson bring them to WHY they are learning. Students will begin to take charge of their own learning, because they understand WHY it is important, HOW it needs to be completed, and WHAT the results should look like.

Stay Positive

Words we use can shape the world of the classroom, and the future of a child. Think of words as lenses, and the way you use words as a way that changes the lenses. New worlds can be opened to students just by choosing positive lenses.

Which do you believe; the ways of the world are fixed and unchangeable or dynamic and pliable?

The way we teach can make students feel that all things are fixed; their future, ability, IQ, personality traits. All can be viewed as fixed competences. Kids in the fixed frame fear making errors, or taking on new challenges in order to protect themselves and their fixed path. When we judge students we can push them into the fixed frame.

We move kids to a more dynamic change by showing that things can change. We need to show them processes. Each process we teach them helps them to achieve, making the process of learning available to all. When we articulate what learners do, all students can access the process of learning. Then, students take power in their own learning.

Next time you are working with your class, think about your words. You might try to say things like:

-I like the way you figured that out, have you ever thought…

-How did you figure that out?

- What problems did you come across?

-How are you planning to go about fixing the problems?

-Which part are you sure about and which part are you unsure about?

-Why did you make that choice?

Also, use the word “we” as often as possible, to give ownership of the thinking happening in the room back to the class and the students.

Based on Opening Minds and Choice Words by Peter Johnston