Conferences and consultation

I really appreciated the two articles in this weeks reading. They answered a lot of questions I have been pondering over the last few weeks about how to talk to students about their writing. Atwell's article on classroom conferences basically just laid out exactly how to verbally address questions or concerns you have about a student's writing. I love that she gives several different approaches to each issue, so the teacher doesn't sound like a robot spewing out a script every time someone has an unclear conclusion. It is also nice to have a range of approaches to talk to different students, because they're different! I am already finding that half the task of motivating my students is to build the language bridge between the two of us, kill the awkward troll underneath, and pay the comfort toll. Taking a knee, as so many classes as well as Atwell have brought up, is so effective. I just cannot emphasize it enough, even with bolded, italicized text. I find that taking a knee with students helps keep the conversation volume low because you are getting close to the student, and it is an intimate space, so the volume does not go above a loud whisper. What Atwell says about f(conference volume)=orclassroom volume is absolutely true. I printed this article off and plan on taping the discussion prompt chart on the inside of my desk drawer when I have my own classroom (my desk now doesn't have a drawer).

I also really appreciated the Van De Weghe article. I have to admit, I am very skeptical of peer editing groups. It seems like a quick time killing exercise, and this is probably due to the fact that I have never experienced a successful classroom peer edit where I walked away thinking, "Yeah, that really helped." Instead I usually walked away thinking, "Clearly he did not read the book and plans on committing most of what I wrote to memory for the quiz. This was a waste of my time." I understand now that my class was having trouble due to the same assumptions the teachers at the beginning of the article were having trouble. We never spoke about how to proof read for content. So, unless I got a grammar whiz as a reading partner, I usually checked out for those classes. Another piece I would add for those who are interested is giving students a chance, before turning in a draft, to read through their draft and pencil correct any mistakes they catch. These mistakes would not be marked, and it taught us how frustrating and kind of embarrassing it is to not proofread before handing something in to be graded.

Here is my link to UW Madison's student writing conference handbook: