Carving Out Time for Consistent IDR Conferring

Alright, I admit it. I need to be held accountable. Although I don’t mind exercising, I am more successful when I know that someone will be there to motivate me, encourage me, and teach me more efficient strategies so that I can see immediate results. Unfortunately, I do not choose to exercise on my own...yet. I require a support system. Someone who will help guide me and make exercise a part of my daily routine. When I think about the readers in my classroom, they are no different than me.

As teachers, we know the inherent value in having our students read self-selected, just-right books, on a daily basis. This practice not only helps increase our students’ reading competence, it also helps instill a love of reading in them.

As a parent, I realize that I am inconsistent when it comes to getting my own child to read, with the competing challenges of after-school sports, homework (both my son’s and my own), dinner, etc. I am lucky to get my family fed and to bed at a decent hour. That is why it is increasingly more important to carve out a time in our school day to have our students read independently, each and every day. This time is critical for both our students and us. It is a time that we as teachers can become their motivator, coach, and mentor.

During Individualized Daily Reading,™ our students are learning how to select just-right books, testing out new genres, reading favorite authors, and learning about themselves as readers. As teachers, this is the time when we can be most effective. This is the time when we can tailor our instruction to meet the needs of each individual child. This is where we confer, or have conversations about what books our students are reading and what strategies they are using.

Reading is a metacognitive process; without conferring with our students, we would not get a true sense of what they are capable of doing as readers. In my mind, Individualized reading and conferring go hand in hand.  We cannot have one, without the other. By meeting with my students on a daily basis, I learn so much about them as readers. So where do I begin? One of the tools that I love about the Making Meaning program is the IDR Record Sheet for Conferences. In order to make sure that I meet with each and every student, I take the following steps:

• I start by writing each child’s name on the IDR Conference Sheet.
• I set a goal to meet with three children daily.
• I conference with my struggling students more often. 
• I then use the conference sheets as a guide, tailoring my conferences as needed.  Later I file them in a conference notes binder. I refer to those student conference sheets consistently as I learn about what each reader is capable of doing and where we need to go next.  During report card conferences these conference sheets function as evidence as to each child’s growth as a reader.

The length of reading conferences varies, depending upon the needs of my students. Some students may need additional support, therefore that conference might last anywhere from five to ten minutes. Other students may only need several minutes. Again, this is differentiation of instruction at its best. It is a time to help struggling students select a just-right book, or a stronger reader think more critically about a problem in the story.

During our conference times, I function as that much-needed coach. I listen to my students read, motivate them to try new genres, and encourage them to practice and refine the reading strategies they have learned. I help to support them and keep them accountable…much like my running coach does for me.

Maria Avila, M.Ed is a National Board Certified Teacher and teaches 4th Grade at Lake Sybelia Elementary School in Maitland, Florida.