Vimeo- Teachers College Reading and Writing Project

Have you ever searched for videos on components of Balanced Literacy on the internet?
Mini-Lessons...
Conferences...
Small group lessons...
Share time...

Have you ever been a little disappointed with what you found?
Well the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project has decided to do something about that.

Do you know about Vimeo?
It's sort of like YouTube...
You can upload, share, and view videos.
The best part about Vimeo, in my opinion, is that on this site, Lucy Calkins and the Teachers College are uploading and sharing videos for teachers all over the country to view.
Oh yah, and it's free to view!

When you are in Vimeo, do a search for TCRWP (Teachers College Reading and Writing Project) to find their videos.
Or click on the image below to go straight there!

The video below is one we watched in my training.  The little boy is absolutely adorable and there is so much to learn from this conference.

Have you ever used Vimeo?

Antoinette

Teachers College, Writing Conferences, and a New Look For Me

I am EXTREMELY lucky to be a participant in training with the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project from New York!
Of course I would rather be in New York, but spending the week with Natalie Louis (one of the kindergarten co-writers of Lucy Calkin's new units of study) is definitely a privilege.

Natalie is quite the presenter.
She has made us laugh.
She had made us cry.
Not a bad cry of course...
A touching cry.

Click the image below to learn more about the Teachers College

One topic that we spent a lot of time on was conferring.
I loved it when Natalie said that even Lucy Calkins says you can spend your entire life learning how to confer.
It isn't easy!
And it definitely makes me feel better to hear Lucy say the same.

We discussed, in depth, the components of a conference.
Research
Compliment
Decide
Teach
Link

Research:
In Lucy's words, "All the power to get a person to learn something is in the research."
The key points to remember during the research component are to connect with the learner and ask more than one question.
Sample questions:
What are you trying as a writer?
Can you show what your trying in your writing?
Is there another place in your writing where you tried that?

Compliments:
Give genuine compliments.
Don't say things like...
You're a good writer!
This is a great piece!
Key points to remember in the compliment component are to name the specific thing you notice the student doing well, tell where you noticed it in the writing, and tell why it matters.

Decide:
Based on the research, it is time to make a decision about what to teach during the conference as well as how to teach it.
Key points to remember during the decide component are to think about area of growth which you noticed during the research or stretch a strength that you mentioned during the compliment.
"A student's growth is in the stretch." - Natalie Louis
Quick jump from Teachers College to Matt Glover-
Think of one thing to nudge the writer.  Yes we know there are many things we can teach, but choose one thing which the writer will most benefit from.

Teach:
Teach the writer what the can and should do.
Teach the writer not the writing.
Key points to remember during the teach are to one way or another, demonstrate or show a good quality of writing and then give the student a chance to try it out in front of you.
Also, take notes.
In Natalie's words, "There is no expectation for how good your notes need to be.  They are for you!"
You are the one who needs to use these notes to help stretch your students' writing.  So write down whatever you need to help your students grow from conference to conference.

Link:
This is what you leave the learner with, based on your teach.  The goal the student will work on independently as a writer.  What you will watch for as you monitor and assess the student in the day-to-day writing.  You could do this in a variety of ways.  You could ask the student what they think their goal should be.  You could jot it down for them on a post-it note.  The students can write it down in their journals.
Whatever way you decide to go with, the key points in the link component are to keep track of the goal in your notes and monitor the students progress toward mastering the goal.

My goal this year as a Teaching and Learning Coach is to confer with students more when I am observing in a classroom.
I want to give the teachers the opportunity to watch and learn from my conferences (the good and the bad).


Now on to a COMPLETELY different topic!
Me!!! LOL
I have been itching to chop my hair off and finally took the plunge!
After 10 inches which will be donated, here is a pic of my new look!

Hope you found this information useful!  I am loving all the learning I am receiving from the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project.

What does your conference look like?  Let's learn from each other!

Antoinette :)

Updated Conference Form, Conferring Freebies and a Much Loved Quote

Updated Conference Form

Back in an earlier post, I had asked for feedback from our amazing followers on a conferring document I was putting together for my new buildings.  Click here to view that post.  Two presentations down and my schools will officially begin their journeys, today, into the world of conferring.  I am so excited to help them along this path.  I am also hoping all of you experts out there will help us.  See what I did there??  Recruiting all of you to help out! lol ;)  Hey that's what teaching is all about, right?

Thanks to the wonderful followers who posted a comment with feedback, I have an updated form.  It is a freebie for you.  Download it if you want and tweak it to fit your needs.

Click on the image below to download.

Included, as well, in this download, is a basic conferring form which would be good for beginners.  I also included a guide to using this form and information about each category under the teaching point.

Another document I created for my teachers is a cheat sheet for the metacognitive strategies.  In this form, I included a definition as well as discussion starters which could be used during conferring.  I'd like to claim I came up with all of the information on my own, but I am a firm believer in "Why recreate the wheel?".  So, Click here to go to the website where some of the verbiage came from.  Some of it IS actually mine. lol :)  The website is an amazing resource for reading and writing workshop.  It's a MUST CHECK OUT!!!

Click the image below to download the cheat sheet!

I remember when I first learned about conferring.  It was 14 years ago and I was a brand new teacher.  I had NO clue where to start or what to say.  I am trying to make this transition much smoother for the teachers I work with so I wanted to provided them with as many resources as possible.

I would LOVE to hear any feedback and/or tips about conferring.  How do you track your conferences?  How often do you confer with students in a week?  Any info would be appreciated. :)

I want to leave you all with a FAV quote of mine.  I had this exact poster hanging in my classroom for the last few years.  It is so true!!!

LOVE THIS!!!!!

Feedback, PLEASE!!! :)

So I realize this is a second post in one day, but I REALLY need you all's expertise!  As I have posted before, I have taken on a new job this year.  I am a Teaching and Learning Coach and will be working as an instructional resource to teachers grades K-5.  Starting this school year, my district is using a Balanced Literacy structure to teach reading and writing.  My schools are fairly new to this style of teaching so I want to provide them with as many resources as I can to help ease the process of this transition.

My district is providing all K-5 teachers with the units of study to teach throughout the year.  So their teaching points will be provided for them.  Suggested resources, instructional ideas, and student activities will be provided as well.

The piece of reading and writing workshop that appears to be the most difficult and/or intimidating is conferring.  So after talking with one of my principals, we decided that in the beginning it would be helpful to provide them with a conference form.  As they gain experience, they can tweak it to best fit their needs.

So I created a form at work today and want feedback from all of you.  PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE help me out with this.  I am always open to suggestions.

Here is the form I created!  You will notice I included the TAG acronym from my earlier post.  Click here to read that post.  I thought if all else fails, they could at least remember that. :)  My principal wanted it short and sweet at first!  So here it goes...

Click here to access the document.

For some reason Google Docs separated the book title and focus lesson into 3 cells.  The original document looks like the image above. 

Thank you so much for your help with this!  :)