Conferring with Readers by Jennifer Serravallo & Gravity Goldberg

My Notes:

Reading instruction should

• match the individual reader;
• teach toward independence;
• explicitly teach strategies to access skills
• value time for reading, volume of reading, and variety of reading experiences;
• follow predictable structures and routines. (7)

Richard Allington:  "He wishes all schools had a goal of educating 100% of the students in reading instruction that is appropriate to their needs and development 100% of the time (9)."

Allington advises that students should spend 90 minutes each day in school READING.  Not hearing about reading, not responding to reading, not talking about reading, but actually reading (13).

Outcomes:

• Why have whole class studies?
• expose to different genres and purpose for reading
• acquire different strategies for deeper reading
• focus the class on big goals for the month
• differentiate curricula for different levels/grades
• support students' use of skills all year long in different contexts
• create more sophistication across the course of a year
• Examples: 65, 66-67
• How to create:
• Sit with colleagues and plan out a whole-class study.  Read professional books along with standards documents
• Create strategy overview that list the big goals for the study along with a few possible strategies to go with each goal.
• Use the strategy overview sheet to plan for the kinds of conferences you may have this month.  (see page 93)
• Look at the overview sheet and ask yourself whether there are strategies that represent each level of reader in your classroom.  If not, brainstorm other strategies that match the range of reading levels in your classroom.
• consider how much support your student needs before deciding on a method of instruction.  Keep in mind the reader's history and to what method you think he will best repond.

1.  How do we communicate to the next teacher?  How do we learn from the last teacher? (page 34)

2.  Conferring

Before:  Student must be in "just right" book (C:  clothing that fits) and know how to get themselves out of trouble.

• Research (144-145)
• If - Then:
• If studying fluency or reading rate, have student read to you.
• If  studying word attack strategies, ask student to read a bit aloud and take running record. (find hard word)
• If studying student's comprehension, I start by having a conversation with her about her book.
• If studying student's reading behaviors and habits, observe the student.
• Observation  (observe both near and far!)
• Which goals are the students approximating?
• Which goals are the students ignoring or not attempting?
• Which goals do I want to discuss with the student because I can't tell much from observation alone?
• Running Records (142) - just right
• cuing systems:  meaning, syntax, visual
• intonation and punctuation
• retell and inferential comprehension
• Reading Inventory - interest, habit
• Book logs - look for volume, stamina, rate, consistency
• How does the student's reading rate at home vary from his reading rate at school?
• How long is the strudent reading in achool and at home every day?
• How long was this student in one reading level before moving on to the next?
• Does the student tend to read one book at a time, juggle a few books at once, or abandon books before finishing them?
• What genre is the student reading?
• Does the student ever reread?
• Research - process, strategy - think of your own strategies and ways of using the skill
• Look for patterns
• Goal:  use conference notes to have more informed, goal oriented conferences
• Decide 
•  will this conference introduce something new - press?
• will this conference follow up and build on what the reader learned in the past?
• Teach -  
• coach student with the leanest prompts possible!
• Demonstrate - new skills, more sophisticated strategy, simpler strategy
• Example and Explain - more sophisticated strategy
• Coaching only - same skill - help with independence, skill reader will need, practice
• balance student and teacher talk
• use language that makes the strategy clear
• What indication did the student give me that he was able to try out this strategy independently?
• reuse mentor/anchor text - confer with "text under arm"
• allows it to be somewhat simplistic sot hat the student is able to concentrate on my thinking and application of a strategy, and not on the content of the book.
• Compliments I could give the reader / What I should teach the reader (individual and table - fishbowl with one reader)
• Research the reader through observation and conversation looking for strengths
• Choose the strategy you want to reinforce
• Give a specific example of when the reader used the strategy
• Tell the reader why this strategy is helpful.
• Restate the steps of the strategy in a way that transfers to all books and explain the context of when the strategy will be useful again.  (Generalize) (54)

• Confer about Just Right book:
• Tell me why you decided to choose this book.
• Explain how you are using Post-its/RJ right now.
• Show me what you do at challenging parts.
• Confer about Fluency:
• Reads in meaningful phrases - Can you read to me so that it sounds like talking?
• Reads with intonation - Can you read to me so that our voice matches the feeling of the text?
• Reads the punctuation - Can you pay close atention t the punctuation and read so that your voice matches it?
• Rereads when encouters difficulty - Can you reread any parts that are tricky for you as soon as you figure them out? (71)
• Conferring to move a student up a level:
• Ask, What might pose a challenge to a reader who is new to this level?"
• give instruction about what it takes to read harder text
• how a strategy looks different at different levels
• introduce new strategies for a new level
• content that is new at this level - new points of view, new settings, 
• see page 98
• Follow up Conferences:
• holds students accountable
• support student growth toward greater sophistication within one skill
• offers students multiple opportunities for practice with support
• It helps me prepare for my next conference
• It helps me teach readers to integrate multiple strategies from previous teaching. (103)
• "Can you show me some places where you ....?"
• "How is ... going?"
• "What has been tricky for you with ....?"

3.  Instructional Structures:

MINI-LESSONS ~ Skills vs Strategy:

• Skills are applicable to all reading texts and experiences. (DWI same no matter what.)
• We call the different ways how a reader performs a skill a reading strategy.  A strategy is ONE way a reader can perform a skill.  There are many different strategies for each reading skill, and they are dependent on the kind of texts a person is reading, and the reader's own set of prior experiences and reading processes.
• A strategy explicitly states the steps for how to use the skill. (see page 93)
• Model - Guided Practice - Independent Practice
• Goal:  teach many strategies for the same skill  (see page 93)
• How do you break this down?
• How do I do it?

• Demonstration - thinking aloud (79)
• Student's job is to watch and notice
• Teacher - clearly articulate what the student should have noticed during the demonstration
• Use Demonstrate when... new skills, more sophisticated strategy, simpler strategy
• Example and Explanation Teaching (80)
• Strategy has already been taught
• Remind the reader of the example previously taught
• Explain the strategy in a similar way to the original teaching point
• Ask the readers to try it on.
• Use Example and Explain when moving to more sophisticated strategy
• Shared Reading (81-83)
• Students need support with fluency
• Use familiar text
• Read with a voice that conveys the meaning of the passage
• Read punctuation, dialogue, use phrasing and intonation, and reread
• Coaching (85)
• Reader tries the strategy in his own book
• Teacher gives tips and prompts to the reader as she tries it.  (GENERALIZED prompts)
• The teacher names the strategy for the reader and reminds him to keep using it independently
• the teacher gradually releases the degree of supports.
• Use Coaching only - same skill - when students need help with independence, skill reader will need, practice

4.  Stamina - To encourage stamina from my class, I teach them strategies for what to do when they get distracted or run out of steam.  I teach them strategies like rereading to get back into the book, jotting post-its at the end of each chapter to quickly retell what happened on that page, or even moving to a quieter spot free of distractions.

5.  Reader's notebook:  tool for clarifying their thoughts about they read, preparing for conversations with other readers, and for holding themselves accountable to what they've been taught (24).


6.  Student TALK:

Observing book club/partnership talk (120):

• Are readers making connections between texts?  T:T, T:S?  Are they asking each other to clarify their ideas?
• Are readers simply summarizing the text or forming ideas?  Are they asking each other to provide examples and evidence?
• What are students doing once they formed an idea? Providing evidence? Looking for alternative explanations?  Are they adding on to each other's ideas?
• How are they dealing with parts of the text that do not align with their ideas?  Are readers able to discuss conflicting ideas with respect?
• Are students focusing solely on characters or are they using other story elements?  Are readers using their notes to prepare for the conversation?

When readers are struggling with these conversational skills (121):

• Sticking to one idea
• restate the first idea and then either ask a question, add an example, or ask for more evidence before moving on.
• Ask if anyone has anything else to say about the idea before moving on.
• Make a list of all the ideas they want to discuss and then talk about one at a time.
• Having a conversation that's worth having
• Is it important in the larger context of the book?
• Does it force them to synthesize or put together what they have read so far?
• Will it lead to a deeper interpretation or idea?
• Will it cause them to rethink an idea?
• Advancing an idea:
• Read for evidence that supports or contradicts the idea
• Take ;notes with a focus on just that idea, jotting down all the parts that add to the idea
• Providing evidence for ideas
• Find the part of the book that makes them think that.  Use post-its to keep track of the parts.
• Being able to listen
• wait for the speaker to finish, then add on
• Jot a note to themselves about their ideas while the speaker finished so they won't forget it.

Goal:
"... create a classroom where all readers build relationships with characters, encounter new experiences and emotions, and have conversations with books and other readers...

"Reading conferring is a time you can open up your reading life to children and invite them to take a peek.  You are not only teaching students strategies, but also showing them the power of reading (6)."