Reading Conferences

Overview

Through one-on-one conferences, teachers can provide individual support to each student to deepen comprehension and interest in reading. Reading conferences are an opportunity for students to demonstrate to their teachers their understanding and thinking processes when reading, promoting Verbal Reasoning and Metacognition.

Use It in the Classroom

Watch how this fourth grade teacher conducts one-on-one conferences while students read independently. Students read books at their level independently, while she confers with individual students asking them questions, providing feedback, and practicing comprehension strategies to improve their Genre Knowledge.

Teachers can confer with their students as part of reading workshops or during independent reading time. During the conference teachers can listen to students read aloud for fluency and accuracy, ask students questions to deepen comprehension, delve deeper into concepts or strategies they are practicing, and review their reading lists and make suggestions. Reading conferences can also be opportunities for teachers to conduct formative assessment and provide extra support to address each student's specific needs.

Design It into Your Product

Videos are chosen as examples of strategies in action. These choices are not endorsements of the products or evidence of use of research to develop the feature.

Learn how Whooo's Reading uses open-ended questions and exercises to provide opportunities for individual support much like reading conferences. Through student answers that show how they are thinking and organizing their thoughts, the app identifies the strengths and learning gaps for individual students and the whole class. Along with insights and actual data for assessment, this app also provides exercises as next steps to remedy learning gaps, allowing learners to practice skills in authentic contexts.

Product developers can build in structured conference time and data collection methods into their products, offering a framework for conversation and systematic ways of recording feedback for teachers and students.

View References

Resources

Below are additional examples, research, and professional development. These resources are possible representations of this strategy, not endorsements.

Examples

Art of the Reading Workshop

Workshop-based approach to teaching reading

Examples

Conferencing

Strategies and resources for reading and writing conferences with students

Examples

Independent Reading Conferences

Guide to start conducting reading conferences

Examples

One-on-One Conferencing

Resource on The Learning Accelerator