Reading and Writing Workshop Schedule 6-Step Recipe for Conferring
Hey, teacher friend! Let’s talk about baking for a sec. My favorite thing to bake is my grandma’s famous sweet potato pie. Hmmm…so good! But without her recipe, I’m in trouble. Because just like in any recipe, if you don’t follow all the steps to a tee…it just doesn’t turn out quite right. You with me? I don’t know how many times I’ve baked that sweet potato pie. And if I don’t put nutmeg, or cinnamon, or lemon extract in there…even though it’s a tiny amount…it just doesn’t taste the same.
Well…the same goes for your weekly conferring schedule for reading and writing workshop. There are 6 ingredients you’ll need to include every week if you want to reach EVERY student consistently. Like my sweet potato pie, I want it to come out delicious. The outcome of your conferring schedule is that you will be able to meet with every student at least twice per week. That should be your goal.
So, let’s cut to the chase and get right to it. You can either watch the video below where I share the 6-Step Recipe or scroll down and continue reading. I’ll let you decide.
Put Small Groups First in Your Reading and Writing Workshop Conferring Schedule.
The very first ingredient is small group instruction. You will want to put these on your weekly conferring schedule FIRST. Why? Well… when you put small groups on your schedule first, then you’ll know it’s going to happen. What I love about small groups is that it allows you to significantly increase the amount of meetings you have every week.
Because instead of teaching one strategy to one student; now you can teach one strategy to 2-4 students at a time. The more often you confer with students, the more strategies you can teach them. The more strategies you teach, the more skills they learn; which will nudge them closer to their reading and writing goals so much faster.
Here’s TWO small group types you can add to your reading workshop schedule:
- Guided reading
- Shared reading
And we can’t leave out small groups for a writers workshop schedule:
- Guided writing
- Shared writing
- Interactive writing
If you looking for types of small group instruction you can use in both reading and writing workshop; here you go:
- Strategy lessons
- Reflection
- Partnerships
- Clubs
- Inquiry
Reading and Writing Workshop Conferences are an intimate way to really get to know your readers and writers quickly.
The third ingredient to add to your weekly conferring schedule are individual conferences with students. These types of conferences are so intimate and you can really get to know what your readers and writers need on a whole different level. You want to get to know what their strengths are, what they already know, and what they don’t know how to do yet.
Here’s a list of individual conferences you can add to your weekly conferring schedule:
- Compliment
- Coaching
- Research-Compliment-Teach
- Follow Up
- Inquiry
- Assessment
- Sneak Peek
- Goal Setting
Support Your Students' Conversations and Collaboration with Partnerships and Clubs.
The fourth ingredient to add to your weekly conferring schedule is partnerships and clubs. Clubs and partnerships offer students the chance to meet with peers and make reading and writing more social. Students can increase their stamina, when, after reading independently for a while, meet with a friend or friends. They support each other’s print and fluency strategies or practice strategies that require another person like… acting out scenes by pretending to be the characters. That is so much fun to watch!
In conversations, students use valuable speaking and listening skills to deepen their understanding about texts, correct misunderstandings, and see new perspectives. So what is the difference between partnerships and clubs?
Partnerships are pairs of students who work together to support one another as they practice reading and writing strategies.
Clubs are student run and are usually student initiated. Clubs are often formed from a common interest. They often form when children are interested in working on side projects that are independent and outside of the class unit in a different direction.
If you would like a few tips on how to manage partnerships and clubs, I have a quick video you can watch right here.
Hold Your Students Accountable for Past Teaching and Check in on their Progress Towards a Goal with Follow Up Conferences.
I’m sure you know the importance of following up with students. But oftentimes we lose track of this goal during the day to day business of classroom life. This is one of the most important conferences. The main purpose of this conference is to follow up with your students to see what reading and writing strategies they are working on.
There are so many benefits to Follow Up conferences?
- Hold students accountable for past teaching.
- Allow you to check in on their progress towards a goal
- Support student's growth towards greater sophistication with one skill
- Help teach students to integrate multiple strategies from previous teaching.
Trust me, I totally get it. We can be so focused on trying to meet with every student and get through our conferring schedules as quickly as possible… that following up with students might not be on our minds.
But when I consistently used Follow up conferences in my conferring schedule every week…my students got used to it and came to expect that I would be checking in with them. And you know what’s so funny? The students that were unproductive and refused to get any reading or writing done…all of sudden…was like “Shoot, I gotta do this cuz Mrs. Greene is coming for me sometime this week.”
Take a Moment Out of your Busy Conferring Week, Pause Instruction, Just Watch and Take Notes.
Have you ever thought about including intentional observations into your weekly conferring schedule? Well…it’s the fifth ingredient you’ll need to reach EVERY student. What are intentional observations? It’s when you take a moment out of your busy conferring week, pause instruction, and just watch and take notes. So what kinds of things can you observe during reading and writing workshop?
- Engagement
- Stamina
- Anchor chart usage
- Reading and writing materials
- Independence
- Voice level
- Transitions
- Reader’s & writer’s notebooks
- Partnerships and clubs
Leave Buffer Time in your Weekly Conferring Schedule for makeups, conferences that run longer than anticipated, or time to sweep the room and give compliments.
Last but certainly not least, the final ingredient for your weekly conferring schedule is…BUFFER TIME. What is buffer time? It is when you carve out a chunk of time intentionally and don’t put any conferring activity in the schedule. Meaning you don’t put any small groups, conferences, partnership or clubs, follow up conferences, or any intentional observations. This chunk of time is just BLANK. This allows you to schedule in any re-teach lessons, makeups due to absences, conferences that run longer than anticipated, or time to sweep the room and give compliments.
Well…there you have it, teacher friend! The 6-Step Recipe for Reading and Writing Workshop Conferring Schedules. I would love to hear which step you’re going to implement in your schedule first.
DM on Instagram or hop on into the Literacy Teacher Greatness Facebook Community to show me your weekly conferring schedule. We’re all in this together!
And if you’re like, Desiree, I don’t have any of these conferring schedule templates. No worries, I’ve got plenty of them for you inside my Conferring All-Star Teacher™ Programs.
Looking for even more FREE training, strategies, and resources on reading and writing workshop conferring schedules? Come on over to my Facebook page and grab my Launch & Run a Successful Reading and Writing Workshop Guide. This guide will give you the exact steps you’ll need to get your workshop and conferring classroom ready for next school year.
Have an awesome year, teacher friend!!!
Dream BIG, and let’s grow into our literacy teacher greatness together!
