Conferring and Standards: How Do They Go Together?
My friend Bryan Painter is the principal of a fantastic school in Kirkwood MO. I have always known Bryan to be insightful and thoughtful – a true instructional leader. So when Bryan recently sent me an email outlining some of the issues he and his staff were grappling with, I thought I would re-post it here for our community to help me address. Please post any thoughts you have below. - Peter
Bryan's Email to me:
A little set-up...
My literacy specialist and I meet with first and second year teachers on a monthly basis. My specialist was one of my best classroom teachers and a model for reading/writing/math workshop. The five teachers we meet with now are very thoughtful and understand quality instruction. All missed out on our district's major professional development we pushed for several years ago, mostly around constructivist thinking and reading/writing workshop. They have fully embraced Making Meaning (two are also piloting Being a Writer, which we've since adopted), as it aligns with their philosophy. As new teachers, they love that much of the lesson planning is done for them.
About six years ago our building was humming, as we were in the midst of a writing cadre (Katie Wood Ray and others came in for Professional Development) and about 3/4 of staff were really getting good at conferring. As the district's focus started changing, conferring started losing out to extended flexible, small group instruction and guided reading for every kid. Only those who'd been most successful with conferring and saw the power of conferences made time to continue them on a regular basis.
Making Meaning has brought some of this back, with much interest and curiosity among teachers who've entered the profession without the history of where we've been. An overall emphasis on conferring is cycling back, aided by the adoption of Being a Writer, more time with Making Meaning, and 90-minute reading blocks. When I listen to teachers, however, some seem to have a very different mindset and approach to conferring.
There's the set up. Now the issue...
"In a "standards-based" environment, our teachers are entering conferences looking for evidence of particular skills and the use of particular strategies. New teachers have no sense of the "classic" research-decide-teach conference that is highly student centered. They are walking into a conference not asking "How's it going?" and listening to decide where to go next. They are asking specific questions - some listed on the Making Meaning conference checklist, with the intent of assessing targeted criteria. Last week I asked if they felt there was a difference between a teaching conference and an assessment conference. We had a healthy conversation - after they asked for more information about a teaching conference, and we spent 45 minutes engaged in great dialogue. My sense...they left thinking any conference that started as open-ended as "How's it going?" may be too inefficient, given the time and assessment demands we've put on them (I mean "we" in a general sense.)
So here are my questions:
What are your thoughts about teaching versus assessment conferences, if in fact they are different?
How has standards-based instruction, heightened accountability, and a increased need (perceived or actual) to document evidence of growth impacted reading and writing workshop, much less conferring?
Where should we go next with our young teachers, knowing the conversations with all teachers may follow soon?
Stay connected with us:
Bryan - I think that in a
Bryan - I think that in a conference we are always assessing. Most times I think it is pretty informal. Even asking "How's it going?" is a kind of assessment. I think the problem is that assessment is now quite a loaded word. Assessment has consequences. Every conference, in some way, ought to give us a picture of what is happening for the student. What is problematic however is when teachers make the conference too formal. It might feel like a checklist. Using this time to only see if students have mastered a skill or strategy we have taught then moving on does little for the student. The conference becomes one-sided. Conferring implies a conversation. It is a dialogue where the students get some information and we as teachers get some information. Information useful to us both.
I usually give the guidance that in a conference we are trying first and foremost to understand what is happening with our students. To hear them. To really listen to them. The opportunity to do that in our all too busy day is gift. If we can learn a bit more about what they are struggling with, what they are good at, what makes them laugh, what makes them cry - we can grow with them. This, I think is the skill that is really lost in conference. The ability to truly listen to students.
I think this is where I would work with our young teachers. How to listen and better understand the thinking our students are doing (or not doing...). I have labeled this "the teachers stance" in my recent writing and talks. It is a way of trying to be fully present in our conversations with students. Present in a way that allows better support student thinking and interaction.
I think the middle bullet is interesting. I think reading and writing workshops have been pushed to better document student growth. In some ways this is a very good thing. It has forced us to keep better notes, be more organized, and helped us better support students who need help.
It is 5:00 in the morning. I am waiting for the coffee to kick in. - what do others think?
Bryan, I am impressed with
Bryan,
I am impressed with your "principal's stance" for so many reasons--first, that you cared enough to pose this instructional question to your friend Peter. Second, that you take the time to meet with your new teachers once a month (not just first year teachers, but second year teachers too! Wow!). How incredibly supportive for them! And last, that you not only allow but encourage that kind of professional dialogue with your staff.
I don't have any answers to your questions (answers are hard to come by in our field, aren't they?) but I think you are on the right track. Your questions have certainly made me think and clearly they made your teachers think and isn't that ultimately what we want? Teachers who are thoughtful about issues they are facing in their classrooms; searching to find some solutions to their challenges that support the growth of the children they teach.
Perhaps that is the answer to your last question--Give your young teachers plenty opportunities to question and talk about their educational concerns with your knowledgeable coaching all along the way.
Isabel
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