Conferring Form

Conferring has always been one of those areas in the workshop that intimidates me.  The logistics of balancing management and instruction can be baffling at the beginning of the process (or even years into for that matter!).  I've tried many different systems over the years...stickers with kids' names and the conferring form printed on them...clipboards with sheets for each kid...notebooks....composition books...the list might just be endless.  However, I can usually get a management system down and stick to it for a while and it works for the time being.  That doesn't seem to be the hardest part for me.  The most difficult part is knowing exactly what to teach the student that is appropriate for their level and their current zone of proximal development.  Coming from a reading background, I usually can find something to work on with each child.  But as I work with higher readers, I often find myself saying, "Wow!  They read that pretty well.  Hmmm...Now what?"  I can use Fountas and Pinnell's continuum to help me, but I feel like I would be better prepared if I had it right in front of me and could use it if needed.

After seeing another Literacy Coach from our district present her google doc for conferring, I thought that this might be the perfect way to put together these two areas of concern for me when it comes to conferring.  I tweaked what she had done in order to make it a little less duplicated in the process and a little less scrolling.  Thus, my conferring form(s) were born!

The form starts out with a drop down menu of student names, a place to enter the book title they are working on, and their current level.  Each of these options will help with being able to sort the information later.

Next, each level has its own section.  It starts with a quick list of behaviors to notice for that level.  I found this document from the Warsaw Public Schools website.  This list does have a lot of repetition as you move from one level to the next, but it also has the appropriate changes as you move along the continuum.   The next section is a box to write in your compliment.  You could use the behaviors to notice list above to come up with an appropriate compliment if needed.  Below that are two sections that look exactly the same.  The teaching point and future teaching point (not shown in the picture below) gives you a list of options of possible teaching points to use.  You may have something in mind specific to your current unit of study that you want to use, in which case, you can select other and write in your teaching point.  You will only select ONE option here because we know that good conferring only addresses one point at a time.  The future teaching point section gives you the chance to select a few (or add your own) teaching points that you know you need to address in the near future.

The best part about this form is the spreadsheet that it gives you once you are done.  In the example below, I was able to sort the spreadsheet by level and see all of my students reading at an M at the same time.  When I looked at the results of my conference, I am able to see that both Duane and David need to work on their fluency and that they will be able to do this better if they have just right books.  I can easily do this as a small group or if I find that many of my students need this, I know that I can do this as a mini-lesson or as a teaching share at the end of the workshop if needed.

If you'd like this, please email me and I will share the document with you.  It will be a view only document.  You will need to open it and then "save a copy" for yourself under the file tab.  Then you can customize it to fit your class and your needs.

Please give me any feedback that you have--positive or negative.  I have tried this in many classrooms and made adjustments as I see fit.  I am hoping to create something similar for writing conferences too based on the TC levels.  I'll let you know when that is ready.

Happy Conferring!!