One on One conferencing

When going over this video, I really was happy that I asked her WHY she added what she did to her sentence. That was specific and made her think about it and have to explain her choice, rather than just add it, me comment, and move on. I wonder if that was innate in me to do that? I don't remember making a conscious effort to think about my questions. It just came out. That's good!!! I still remember how to have conferences with kids!! Yeah Me!!!! (OK, I watch too much Disney Channel)

I liked how I made eye contact with her while she was talking and kept my focus on her and her words. This is important to show students that you really WANT to hear about their work and the choices they made into it. It holds them accountable for their work and makes them think about it rather than just doing it and moving on and never thinking about it again. This was good. I'm proud of this!

Then again, in the other conferences I did that afternoon, the girls hadn't really added a lot to their sentences. I tried to get more out of one girl, but she said she really liked it the way it was and didn't want to change it. I had to respect that and couldn't think fast enough how to turn that around a little and make it a teachable moment. A couple of the girls just added adjectives, like I stated earlier. This wasn't the point of the lesson; it was to expand the work they had to make it more clear. I think in the future, I would address this problem. How is it different to add just adjectives and adverbs, versus adding whole phrases to the sentences? That's a good mini-lesson in itself. I'll put that in my notes for future reference.