Day One of Conferencing

So, the journey begins.  Day one of the new grading process.

The students had an online Screencastify created by me, notes to complete, an activity to finish - simple stuff, ethos, pathos, and logos, they were then tasked to find examples of each in magazine advertisements, cut them out and create a collage.  Simple stuff that last year had me twiddling my thumbs as the kids got to work.  The perfect opportunity for me to conference while they worked.

Essays have been written. ✏️

Feedback has been given.  📖

No grade assigned.

Time to get conferencing! 

My first emotion at the end of period one:  “Oh my goodness, I’m never going to get through this. I hope I do.  I hope I find a way.  These kids will graduate high school before I get this done. I only achieved two kids in a class period. TWO!” 🤦‍♀️

 It really didn’t get any better, the most conferences I accomplished in a class period was three. 🤷‍♀️

So, back to regrouping.

How I do this? Because here’s the thing, now that I’ve tried it, oh my goodness. So many benefits. 

• People worry that without grades, kids won’t work. Well, I’m not so sure about that.  It might still be extrinsic, but there is no doubt that I have more students completing work so that they can conference.  Between the consistent reminder during class as I call kids up, and the visible fact should he/she has to respond that the work not been completed … it has been noticeable that students who typically aren’t motivated to get assignments completed are pushing on and making appointments to conference.  SCORE!  It doesn’t hurt that they all want the attention of the one-on-one time.
• The students can see the benefits. And I really mean that - I can’t even believe I’m thinking about some of the kids, but even the ones that I would say where typically the least open to having me look at their work, are excited about this opportunity. Could it be a reflection of John Spencer’s excellent podcast about struggling students - could it be that this takes away the ‘fear’ of struggling?  There is no threat here, nothing has a final grade, this is about learning and having an opportunity to improve.  No threat. Just help.  Wow. ❤️

Let’s Look at Specifics

So what’s really so great about it? 

The Rubric:  Well, first of all just the fact that instead of just using the rubric as a tool to support the writing and clearly share the goals, they had an entire period to focus on their own writing, along with my feedback, to go through the rubric with a fine tooth comb. I was surprised how hard some of them found it.  The students themselves were continuously amazed by what they had missed. Comments such as, “I really should use spellcheck”, “Man, I can’t believe that you have to read these essays Mrs. Bryson, this must be torture!” 😂 Or, “I really need to re-read my work before submitting it.” Even despite the Walk’N Talk strategy, kids were finding errors that they couldn’t believe they had missed. I can’t say that it wasn’t amusing to hear the students shriek across the room, “How come I have no evidence in here? I know I put evidence in here!” So yes, just that was satisfying. 

The Reflection Slide:  This took a lot longer than anticipated.  My vision of a quick rubric check followed by a reflection, all within a class period, turned out to be wildly unrealistic.  But that will change.  As the format becomes more familiar, the process will speed up.  The students were fascinated by my questions.  It really helped to focus them beyond the checklist of the rubric to, “What did I miss?”  “What did I do well?” It made them think. The answers have been solid. Even those who didn’t finish their slides talked through the answers while we conferenced.  It was powerful stuff.  Really.  And it is only going to get better as those who struggled with the process become more comfortable, and those already at ease find themselves dig deeper.  Cool. ✔️

DBQ Reflection Slide

The Conference:

So they came to me with their rubric, one by one.  I’ve found it hard to keep up with their reading logs, so they brought them too.  Bonus. So far almost all of them have given themselves a higher grade than I have. Which was interesting, I didn’t expect that. The last time I did anything like this the kids slammed their work!  But what was cool was, they may have given themselves more points, but almost always it was somewhere I had given them credit, but only partial - thus allowing me to truly demonstrate what I was looking for. That was helpful. As we discussed I typed comments for them to use as they edit. How much more powerful than me sitting at home for endless hours, typing out advice that might never be read. This face-to-face feedback, alternated with video feedback, is so much stronger and more useful - never mind a far better use of my time!  The other thing that’s been really awesome, is I’ve already found misconceptions out there. “Oh, that’s what you mean Mrs. Bryson.” What fantastic learning for me!  What a great opportunity to get feedback about my teaching. Where are my weak spots, what have I not explained properly?  What a great way for me to add to thoughts for gaps to fill in the future as well as planning for next year. So what else? Well, there’s the fact that I’m sitting there, one-on-one with each student, giving him/her my full undivided attention. This is what’s been missing.

But….

That’s OK. So this is all great. What about the rest of the kids in the room.  

That is a problem.  As mentioned, I created a self-guided learning activity, which went really well for my advanced class, who are good at independent learning,  They were focused and attentive to their work while I conferenced.  They want to achieve. Most of them anyway, and the rest influenced the silence. Then came my next class, my rowdy bunch. I would say about 50% of the class really have far more interest in socializing than learning, and honestly, who can blame them?  So now I’ve apparently given them this perfect opportunity to behave immaturely while my attention is elsewhere. 😱 My typical method of redirecting by telling a story, or dramatically standing on a desk, or doing a group sharing activity….. none an option if I am going to conference.  So, I learn from this. I will find out what others have done.  I will consider better methods  Maybe, rather than introducing the activity and focusing on conferencing, I will divide the activity up and conference with breaks.  There has to be a better way. Perhaps as the expectations, and the individualized feedback continues, there will be more of an understanding about the purpose behind getting work done. Because yes, that’s my final point. I realized, that I truly believe this conferencing could be so much more valuable than those grades. The focus is on mastering skills, the motivation of one-on-one feedback is far more intense than the isolation of computerized feedback.

Ideas for the Future

• Reduce the build-up time at the beginning of class - focus on getting to conferencing more quickly.
• Think about conferencing 2 kids, then breaking things up with the class to keep management at the forefront and not allowing things to spiral.  
• With less detailed work than an essay, feedback in groups.
• I got a great idea from the 40-hour Teacher Work Week Club of having the kids fill out a pre-made slip when work has not been completed, keeping it on file for future conferences, even sending home with report cards.  Not only having a record, but also the aspect of the students needing to fill out the paper while with me, taking ownership of behavior and ramifications. So they still conference, I can still touch on misconceptions, but consequences are still in place.  Just not a failing grade that doesn’t help anyone!
• Always be willing to take the time to allow for students to check their own work and reflect upon it before we conference.  Because it works.