Dawn Mitchell's Conferencing Experiences and Regie Routman's Chapter 7 – Make Assessment Instruction’s Working Partner
During the month of November our application of formative assessments such as analysis of miscues, conferencing, kidwatching, reading response and more to guide our instruction and provide valuable feedback to our students.
In November’s blendspace you will find a variety of resources including examples of using msv to analyze running records, yyn to analyze miscues, conferencing questions to guide both peer and teacher- student conferencing, excerpts of articles, suggestions for strategies to use with students after analysis, and relevant activities to help you to apply authentic reading assessments with your students.
This month I worked to apply the informal conferencing strategies that I learned about from Routman’s chapter 7 Make Assessment Instruction’s Working Partner. In last month’s blog post I shared Routman’s Framework for informal reading conferences she outlined on page 104. I loved how she began by asking students to bring her a book that they could read pretty well.
Last week I met with my focus group of second grade students before school and we had a group reading conference. I wanted to share that transcript with you and then share what I learned about my students from it.
Favorite Book Conferencing
11/5/2015
7:15-8:15
Student I:
Book chosen: “Miss Fox’s Class Goes Green by Eileen Spinelli”
Why did you choose this book: “Because her whole class had to take care of the school.
What did they do: “They helped pick up trash.”
What else did they do? Can you give me some more details?: “They all saw the principal and the teacher riding a bicycle. Then they tried to ride a bicycle too.”
Would you recommend this book to someone: “Because it’s helpful.”
What did you learn: “Always try to help your school.”
Can you point to your favorite part and tell us a little bit about it?: (Turns to page 26 and 27). “They pick up trash without the teachers telling them to and they have a surprise party for the teacher because it is her birthday.”
Will you read this favorite part for us? “Yes.”
*reads with accuracy and fluency
Would you like to write a book review?: “No, I want to write my best friend a letter about this book instead. She will want to read it then.”
Okay, Let’s talk about what you could put into your letter?: “I want to tell her how this book will make you want to take care of your school!”
Student K:
Book Chosen: “Meekats by Kari Schuetz”
Why did you choose this book: “Because they stand on two legs.”
What did you want to learn about Meerkats: “They dig holes.”
Why did they dig holes? “They need homes.”
What did Meerkats make you think about: “They have black eyes.”
Okay, I want to model/show you how to do a nonfiction book talk.
*I modeled how to do a book talk on Sharks. Student P engaged and discussed what he learned about sharks and student I chimed in and we had a shark talk.
What did I do in my book talk about sharks that you could do in your book talk about Meerkats?:
“You told us cool things about sharks and you told us that Eli used to be scared of sharks and wouldn’t get in the water but now that he has learned about them he likes learning about them and he knows they probably want eat him in the ocean because they like fat seals.”
Okay, so can you try out looking through your Meerkat book and decide what you want to tell us about Meerkats?” “Yes!”
*After Student P shared with us about Henry and Mudge, Student K said he was ready to share with us about Meerkats.
“Meerkats live in groups of mobs. One mob can have 40 meerkats.” He asked, “What is a mob?” We talked about how a mob is a large group and how meerkats live together in big families.
Next, student K said, “They eat scorpions and insects, and bird eggs!” Student C said, “What! That’s crazy!”
Student K shows us a grasshopper! Student C says, “They have a stinger in it and they could sting the meerkats!”
“How do you think the meerkat keeps from getting stung?” Palmer said, “I think they bite the tail off.” Student C says, “I think they use their teeth to crunch it up.”
Student C said he could learn more about them on direct tv on called Nat Geo Wild! “I watch it with my dad sometimes! They show us about meerkats sometimes.”
Who do you want to recommend your book to a friend?: “Yes!”
Student P said, “Pick me! I want to read this one. I want to learn about animals and I like that scorpion page!”
Student K began writing his letter of recommendation to Palmer.
Student P:
What book did you choose:? “Henry and Mudge and the Best Day of All by Cynthia Rylant
Why did you choose this book: “Because the dog is so big and he jumps all around and he licks a little boy.”
What is the little boy’s name: “Henry, but what I don’t like about it is that they don’t they don’t tell you Henry’s mom and dad’s name. They just tell us Henry’s mom and Henry’s dad.”
Student P can you give us a book talk?” “Henry has a birthday and they have a piñata and they have it outside. They bring a fish birthday cake! (He shows us the picture! Student K laughs and says, I love this book too). They have these three games that they made. They had ring toss, go fishing, and a potato sack race. The winner got rings and baby goldfish. The winner of the potato sack race got potato chips.
Who would you recommend this book to?: “My friend Will B.”
Why: “He’s your friend and he goes to my church and he was in first grade with me last year.”
Why do you think he would love this book?: “He has animals at his house too. I think he has a kitty.”
What is your favorite part that you want to read to us?” “He chooses page 24 -26 where they hit the piñata.
He read fluently and Student K began reading with him. They both proceeded to read together through page 29.
Student K asked, “What is taffy?” (Taffy was in the piñata) We discussed what taffy is.
Student P began writing a letter like Student I to his friend Will to recommend this Henry and Mudge book.
Student C:
What book did you choose?: “Big Max by Kin Platt
Why did you choose this book?: “Because it’s about a detective who is helping people find their missing stuff.”
Can you do a book talk on this book and tell me your favorite parts?” Student C begins to read it out loud.
*One thing I noticed is that Student C substituted cell phone for telephone in the text. J
Student C said, “I already took an A.R. test on this and I made a 100 on it.”
What is your favorite part?: “My favorite part is when the elephants dance.” He turns to page 54 and begins to read with expression. He paused for punctuation.
Tell me why you loved this part?” “I loved this part because it’s about a birthday cake and my birthday just passed. I turned 8. I had birthday cake too.”
Student C would you recommend this book to someone?: “Yes, I think they might like it because they might like detectives too.”
Who do you think would like it?: “Haden because he probably likes detectives like me.”
Would you like to write him a letter too?: “Yes.”
On page 107 Routman reminds us to teach intentionally. She says, “Any time we spend with a child is an opportunity to teach. If we make an assessment and don’t use it to move teaching and learning forward, the assessment is largely a waste of time. Use your informal reading evaluations to do need-based teaching. Ask yourself “What’s most important to teach in this moment for this child to move him forward?”
In conferencing with my small group I noticed that our students were re-telling their books or starting from the beginning to read the book without really engaging in a conversation. After “I”s conference I asked her if she wanted to do a book review because she seemed to really love her book and she said that she’d like to write a letter to her friend K instead. We went with this and I saw it as a teachable moment. While she was starting on her letter, student “K” began his conference and while he told us random facts he really struggled to engage us in the book or to cohesively really explain why he chose the text and what he got out of it. I saw this as an opportunity to introduce the concept of a book talk.
The book talk mini-lesson provided students with a model for talking about their books and it served to inspire the rest of our focus group to consider writing a letter to a friend to recommend a book. After modeling a book talk about an animal Eli and I loved learning about, “sharks”, we discussed how a book talk allows you to really share not only what you read but what you learned, why you loved it, and how to engage others in wanting to read it to, kind of like “I”’s letter only in person. It worked and inspired “P”’s book talk, “K”s book talk, and “C”’s and it led us to want to use the same language and purpose in our book talks in our letters to our friends recommending the book to them.
I enjoyed my conferencing time with my small focus group this past week. That time was valuable for us to share books of choice that we’d read about topics or characters that we were interested in. I learned a lot about my students which by itself was a valuable outcome of our time. Having the opportunity to connect a real world experience of sharing our love of a good book with our peers through a letter (which wasn’t even my idea but “I’s”!) made me thankful for the reciprocity of reading and writing and for the teachable moments our students provide us.
Sincerely,
Dawn
