Tackling the Writing Conference

From the desk of Carol C…

Tackling the writing conference is one of the most rewarding and unrewarding parts of the writing workshop.  It’s rewarding because you can see the fruits of your labor.  You can see the progress that the writer has made.  You can pat yourself on the back and say “job well done”.  On the other hand (and there’s always another hand) conferencing can take you to the valley of shadows. You may not see the fruits of your labor as often as you would like.  You may not see the progress you expected, and you may ask yourself, “Now why is it that I’m wasting my time with conferences?  Do I really need more proof that I’m not an effective writing teacher?”

Give yourself a break.  We’ve all felt this way and will feel this way again at times.  Effective conferencing is hard!  Figuring out what the writer needs, how to help the writer with it, modeling for the writer, and setting a goal for the writer in a few short minutes can frustrate anyone.  How then do you reach the point of feeling like you’re O.K. at conferencing with students?  The answer is…the same way you get to Carnegie Hall.  Practice, practice, practice.  We ask this of our writers all the time.  We have to be willing to do the same to improve our skills.  Following are some rules to help you get started on the right foot with writing conferences.

Fact 1:  Your goal is to give the writer a set of tools, one tool at a time, to use on any piece of writing.

Support:  OMG is this hard!  After years of teaching writing I still check myself on this one.  Most of us have the idea that we should help the writer “fix” her writing piece.  Then she will be able to apply what she learned to other writing pieces.  If only it worked that way.  It may sound like it does, but it doesn’t.  If I am conferencing with Mr. Grimm about his tale of Cinderella, and he has trouble with deciding how to get the shoe back to Cinderella, I would be unwise to suggest to him that he have the prince take the shoe to lots of different houses.  Mr. Grimm may try the idea, love it, and write a tale that lasts for centuries.  However, Mr. Grimm had a wise writing teacher who didn’t tell him this.  She wanted him to have a long successful career as an author.  Instead, his teacher taught him about the author’s craft of using repetition to create suspense.    She modeled several “for instance you could” for him, and asked him to try it on his own.  His teacher then scurried over to another writer to work her magic again.  Why is this second scenario better?  It’s better because the teacher has given her student a tool to use and not just an idea for that particular story.  The writer comes away from the conference with a firmer understanding of how repetition can be used to enhance writing.  This is much more important than Mr. Grimm coming away from the conference simply knowing that the prince will try the shoe on every maiden in the country.  Now it will take more attempts and time for Mr. Grimm to be proficient at using the repetition tool, but he is on his way.

Fact 2:  Before each conference ask the writer, “What are you working on?” and then teach him how to answer.

Support:  When you ask the writer “What are you working on?”, you are giving her the responsibility of figuring out where she needs help.  She takes more ownership of her work.  Also, this enables you to see what she thinks about her own writing.  It gives you a starting place for your conference.  Of course before all of this you must teach your writers what types of information you are looking for when you ask the essential question, “What are you working on?”  You don’t want to hear “the time I broke my arm”.  The content doesn’t matter.  It’s the skill or strategy they are using that you want them to zero in on.  So what you might want the broken arm writer to say is “I’m trying to write about how much my arm hurt.”  Or “I’m trying to make my story more interesting before I break my arm.”  Or “I’m lost in my story.”  Your writers must be able to put into words what their stumbling block is at the time of the conference.

Fact 3:  As soon as your writer identifies the problem, you must go into your quick thinking action mode.

Support:  Conferences with each writer last a limited amount of time.  You have to be ready to make the most of it…less than five minutes.  When the writer identifies the problem, you and the writer look at the section(s) of the piece where the problem lies.  Have the writer read that section to you or quickly scan it.  Decide (pretty much) immediately what skill or strategy you want to teach your writer. Let’s take the example above of the broken arm with the writer telling you “I’m trying to write about how much my arm hurt.”  Show not tell comes to your mind first, but what would this look like?  Since this particular writer struggles, you choose to teach him how to use font size to convey the sense of his pain.  As you teach the writer this strategy,  you show him the familiar mentor text Wemberly Worried by Kevin Henkes and point out how he used different font sizes to convey his message.   Leave the conference telling the writer to try using the strategy.  Oh, and leave the mentor text with him.

Fact 4:  Keep records of your conferences with each writer.

Support:  I cannot imagine trying to keep in my head all of the conferences I had with writers during a period of time.  I thought that I could do it.  I was stubborn and wouldn’t relent for a while, but then I admitted it.  I needed help.  I looked online for a form and found lots of different ones that would fit my style with some tweaking.  Which form you use doesn’t really matter.  The most effective ones seem to include the date and genre, what the writer is working on, and what you taught.  If you use a form for individual writers, you’ll need to have some kind of form to show you quickly who you have conferenced with and who you have not.

Fact 5: There are some loose ends that I still need to tie up.

Support:  Most writing conferences follow a standard format.  This helps the writers and you to develop a consistent method of interaction.  Format:

• Question the writer and read the section of writing she indicates
• Compliment the writer from a reader’s point of view (I like how you used this simile to create a clear picture in my mind.)
• Choose what you will teach and decide on the strategy.  Start with the phrase “Good writers…”  Model and use a mentor text if appropriate.
• Rename the strategy taught.  Remind the writer that any time she is writing she should remember (the strategy or skill taught).  Leave her with the expectation that she will try using the strategy on her own now.

Conferences are the heart of Writing Workshop.  They provide a time for you to give individual instruction to a writer on his level.  This is the key to providing writers the means to grow as learners in their reading, writing, and critical thinking abilities. Talk about a key to my heart!

For more information about writing conferences check out How’s It Going?: A Practical Guide to Conferring with Student Writers by Carl Anderson