This document discusses conferring with students and contains several sections on counterfeit beliefs about conferring, the RIP model for conference structure, instructional aspects of conferring, and what students in the class can be doing while the teacher is conferring with individual students. The key points are that conferring should be done daily in reading and writing, the purpose is to discuss students' reading and writing processes, and effective conferring involves reviewing past work, instruction on strategies, and setting goals for future work.

1. Conferring with Students
 Should be done daily in reading
 Should be done daily in writing
 What is the purpose?

2. Counterfeit Beliefs
 If I meet with small
groups, I don’t
have to meet with
individuals.
 If I don’t meet with
every child every
day, I am not doing
a good job .
 I should do a
running record
every time I meet
with a child.
 I should talk about
all the errors a
student makes
while he or she is
with me.

3. Counterfeit Beliefs (continued)
 I have to take an
expert stance in
each conference.
 I need to focus on
skills and fluency,
comprehension
comes later.
 When I am talking
to a child about his
or her learning, I
am conferencing.
 I’ve tried conferring
suggestions and
they just don’t
work.

4. Counterfeit Beliefs (continued)
 I need to confer
with every student
the same number
of times for the
same amount of
time each week.
 I need to give the
rest of the class
something “to do”
so they’ll stay busy
and leave me alone
so I can confer.

5. Conference Structure RIP Model
 Review, Read Aloud, Record
 Instruction, Insights, Intrigue
 Plan, Progress, Purpose

6. Review, Read Aloud, Record
 Consider learning from a previous
conference or strategy instruction
 Reader can read aloud a short portion
of a text and discuss
 Reader might answer teacher’s
questions or ask one he is trying to
figure out himself

7. Instruction, Insights, Intrigue
 Reader shares his application of
current thinking strategies he is using
 Student will discuss specific
wonderings you are having or he
himself is having
 Discuss something that you both
noticed during the conference

8. Plan, Progress, Purpose
 Reader shares what he will work on
before you meet again
 Reader might consider how a strategy
might stretch him to better understand
his own reading process
 End with a discussion of purpose and
leave the reader thinking about his
next steps as a reader

9. Five Instructional Ashlars
 Defining Trust, Respect, and Tone
 Strengthening Endurance & Stamina
 Discussing Purpose & Audience
 Exploring Gradual Release Model
 Focusing on Workshop Structure

10. Define Rigor, Inquiry & Intimacy
 Cultivate Rigor
Teach the thinker and thinking
 Nurture Inquiry
Using meaningful, documentable data
 Develop Intimacy
Commit to the idea all children can think at high levels

11. What emerges in a conference?
 History
 Teaching
 Processes
 Records
 Experiences
 Rapport
 Goal Setting
 Strategy Knowledge
 Listening
 Patterns
 Talk
 Challenges
 Instructional Points
 Our Own Learning

12. History
 How does this conference compare
with previous conferences?
 Have any negatives transformed into
positives over time?
 What historical perspectives are being
gleaned about the student as a
reader?

13. Teaching
 What is the student’s purpose? Who is
the decision maker?
 What does the student need from you
at that moment?
 What is one thing the student will
leave the conference with and be able
to apply immediately?

14. Processes
 How does the student describe the act
of reading?
 How does the student describe his
reading process or metacognition?
 What does the student’s process say
about his learning style?

15. Records
 Who are the records for? What is the
purpose?
 How will your information you gather
be used? How could it be used?
 How will the records be shared with
the student? How about others?

16. Experiences
 How have conferring experiences
changed over time?
 What characteristics are gleaned
about the student’s previous literacy
experiences?
 What reading experiences has the
student found most rewarding?

17. Rapport
 How do our conferences reflect our
rapport with students?
 How do conferences reflect our
relationship between student and
teacher?
 What issues of trust need to be further
explored or developed?

18. Goal Setting
 What goals is the reader setting for
himself?
 What goals is the teacher setting for
the reader?
 What goals can be set for the entire
class as a result of an individual
conference?

19. Strategy Knowledge
 How is the student explaining his use
of thinking strategies?
 How does the student explain his
metacognitive process as it relates to
a specific strategy?
 What strategies are becoming
engrained and applied? What is the
proof?

20. Listening
 Who does most of the talking?
 When should a teacher jump into the
conversation?
 How does the student explain his
thinking or understanding? What does
the teacher hear?

21. Patterns
 What instructional patterns are being
seen in the conference?
 What is the reader consistently
showing the teacher about ways his
reading is changing over time?
 What growth patterns are noticeable?

22. Talk
 What are the reading “words” or
“sense of language” evident in the
conference?
 Who does most of the talking?
 How can we extend the talk from
individual conferences into the
classroom?

23. Challenges
 How do we handle conferences that
slip away from our intended goals?
 What outlets do we establish for
conferees who struggle?
 What challenges might we expect?
 What might we face when we confer
with students?

24. Instructional Points
 What would help the student progress
most efficaciously?
 What would challenge the student to
stretch his thinking?
 What are the student’s next steps?

25. Our Own Learning
 How does the conference impact the
student’s learning beyond the
conference?
 What is student learning about his
reading process while he’s talking to
others about his reading process?
 What is the student getting better at
doing?

26. Conference Walk-Aways
 Walk-Aways are tools or strategies
used or discovered as students
negotiate text and develop
independence
 What do students walk-away with after
a conference?
 What do you walk-away with as a
teacher?

27. What is the rest of the class doing while I confer?
 Developing stamina
and endurance
 Putting strategy work
into practice
 Conferring with peers
or other adults as
needed
 Responding to reading
experience in a
reader’s or writer’s
notebook
 Improving vocabulary
 Developing
metacognitive skills
 Building fluency
 Solving problems that
arise in their reading
 Evaluating book
choice
 Demonstrating wise
reading behaviors
 Maintaining long-term
thinking and depth