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for Hilton Head Island Early Childhood Center

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HHIECC Mission Vision  and Belief Statements Poster (2)

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Early Literacy Phonics Instruction

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"Beyond Fiction" -Why primary/elementary students need 50% of time spent on reading for information and 50% of time on literary reading

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"Beyond Fiction" -Why primary/elementary students need 50% of time spent on reading for information and 50% of time on literary reading

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Research supporting reading in all content areas:

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Beyond Fiction-The Importance of Reading for Information-Research Brief

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Beyond Fiction - Summary of Research Brief

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50% Literary Texts
50% Informational Texts
Finding resources to support non-fiction reading...

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Reading Instruction That Works - Richard Allington and Micheal Pressley

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Reading Instruction That Works - Richard Allington and Micheal Pressley

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Richard Allington - The Six T's of Literacy Instruction:

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Richard Allington - The Six T's of Literacy Instruction:

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- Jan Richardson

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Catching Readers Before They Fall: Supporting Readers Who Struggle, K-4 by Pat Johnson and Katie Keier

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Catching Readers Before They Fall: Supporting Readers Who Struggle, K-4 by Pat Johnson and Katie Keier

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Read Chapter 3: Vygotsky Takes a Seat in Our Classroom

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Chapter 3: Vygotsky Takes a Seat in Our Classroom from Catching Readers Before They Fall

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Chapter 3: Vygotsky Takes a Seat in Our Classroom from Catching Readers Before They Fall

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Striving to Thriving: How to Grow Competent, Capable Readers by Stephanie Harvey and Annie Ward

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Striving to Thriving: How to Grow Competent, Capable Readers by Stephanie Harvey and Annie Ward

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Research to Know

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Author

Sometimes when I talk with teachers about creating "the luscious feeling of endless time," they look at me like I've lost my mind. They tell me they love the idea, but with all they have to teach and all their kids need to learn, "There's no way," they say. Luscious feeling? Endless time? Come on girlfriend, get real!"

It's true that teachers have never been under more pressure. We're bombarded by demands and directives deemed by others as necessary and non-negotiable. As a result, teachers everywhere are making Herculean efforts to fit everything in. It's no wonder there's talk by some of hurry-up-and-get-it-done.

But when getting done takes precedence over the doing, when finishing becomes more important than the figuring out, we've lost sight of why we became teachers in the first place; we've lost sight of what we know to be true. In our rush to try and get everything in, we've forgotten that children learn by doing. And learning by doing takes time.

When kids are given time to puzzle through something that's challenging (with just enough support from their teacher to be successful) they're not only learning about the task at hand, but they're learning about who they are and how they go about figuring things out. They're developing those can-do, let-me-have-it attitudes that we want so much for them.

It's hard to teach (and learn) with a timer in your head or one in your hand. It's controlling. It's restrictive. It limits mindfulness, understanding and engagement for students and teachers alike. Just like reading fast isn't always about reading well, teaching fast isn't always about teaching well either.

No matter how fast we teach or how hard we try, it's impossible to do all we're being asked to do when teaching for understanding is our goal. So in the end the choice really is ours ...

Do we race through the day in a frantic sort of way, or do we slow down, determine what's essential, and teach those things deeply and well? Do we talk and tell and talk and tell and talk and tell some more, or do we show kids how and then give them lots of opportunities across the day for sharing in the responsibility for their learning?

Taking Time to Confer

While I touch base with many children in every reader's workshop, I really confer with only a couple each day. Right about now you might be wondering, "How do you justify spending so much time with one child? What about the twenty four others that need your time and attention, too?"

It's true. In the time I spent conferring with one child, listening to them read, asking questions to make sense of their reading, and puzzling over next steps with them, I could have easily touched base with three, four, five, maybe even six more children. But touching base isn't teaching. Touching base with children is a quick hi and bye with a little something in between.

Touching base is a good thing. That "little something in between" might be encouraging a child to keep at it, reminding a child to get back on track or asking a child if she's remembered what she learned in our conference yesterday to help her with her work today. Touching base is all about responding at the surface level to student behaviors. But we don't want to confuse touching base with conferring.

Conferring is something else entirely. When we confer with students, we're not standing above them or even leaning over, we're sitting right beside them, shoulder to shoulder. We're digging deeper now, working hard to individualize our instruction and support children as they apply what we've taught them in large and small group settings.

Richard Allington's research clearly indicates that our most effective teaching occurs when we work with students one on one. I've learned from him, others, and my own experience that it's not about how many children we confer with in a day, but how deeply we teach and touch those we do. When we work with children, they're more likely to work with us.

You might be thinking, "Okay. But did you really need to listen to children read for more than a minute or so?" For me, the answer is yes. When students read to us, they are sharing their growing skills and sense of themselves as readers. It allows us to acknowledge and revel in that for just a moment. We want to build relationships with the children in our charge; we teach and learn best when we know one another well. And besides, don't we all need a little Shel Silverstein or Kate DiCamillo in our lives now and then?

And what about the rest of the kids? Their day will come. Do you know the picture book The Three Questions by Jon Muth? It's a story about a little boy named Nickolai who is seeking the answers to three questions. He wonders:
When is the best time to do things? Who is the most important one? What is the right thing to do?
It's Leo, the wise old turtle, who helps Nickolai understand that the answers were inside him all along by saying...
"Remember then that there is only one important time, and that time is now. The most important one is always the one you are with. And the most important thing is to do good for the one who is standing at your side. For these, my dear boy, are the answers to what is most important in this world. This is why we are here."
I spend time with just a couple individual children in each reading workshop because I want to "do good" for them. I know there are twenty-four others, and I will do the same for each of them time and again in the days, weeks, and months to come. We can't reach everyone all in one day, but we can reach one or two or maybe even three. We reach, touch and teach by being present, putting ourselves in the moment and focusing our full attention on the one sitting by our side.

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The Difference Between Conferring and "Touching Base"

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Author Sometimes when I talk with teachers about creating "the luscious feeling of endless time," they look at me like I've lost my mind. They tell me they love the idea, but with all they have to teach and all their kids need to learn, "There's no way," they say.

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Richard Allington
Marie Clay
John Hattie
Peter Johnston
Lucy Calkins
Ellin Keene

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Select a leader in the field of Literacy (either one of the above or one who we have studied previously) and write how that person has influenced your teaching.

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Challenge Yourself to Grow Professionally...

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Challenge Yourself to Grow Professionally...

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Advice from Stephanie Harvey and Annie Ward

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How Important Is Teaching Literacy in All Content Areas?

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Students do plenty of listening in our classes, but what about reading, writing, and speaking?

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Top 5 Read-Aloud Strategies

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Modeling Academic Language and Think-Alouds

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Modeling Academic Language and Think-Alouds

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..Implications for all Content Areas

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What it looks like...

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INTRODUCTION TO INQUIRY

"For students, this method of learning ends the listen-to-learn paradigm of the classroom and gives them a real and authentic goal [and] challenges to overcome. For the teacher, inquiry-based education ends their paradigm of talking to teach and recasts them in the role of a colleague and mentor engaged in the same quest as the other younger learners around." ( https://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/Cyberia/DVE/FusionDVE/html/
inquiry_based_education.html)

Click here to watch Kindergarten students at Pate Elementary, Darlington, SC, explain what it means to be a researcher.
Facilitator Notes
Interview Transcripts
Characteristics of Inquiry Teaching
Benefits of Inquiry Units
Structure of an Inquiry Unit
Student Preparation
Suggested Readings

CHARACTERISTICS OF INQUIRY TEACHING:

Tabbing down a strict definition of inquiry is probably less important than understanding the characteristics of this approach to learning. Harvey and Daniels (2009) talk about "growing a definition" that includes the following characteristics:

problem or question driven;

encourages collaboration;

makes kids into explorers and discoverers;

requires kids to think;

puts teachers in nonconventional roles.

In this module, we use the terms "research" and "inquiry" interchangeably, while recognizing that distinctions could certainly be made. Harvey and Daniels (2009) explain that with an inquiry approach, research is conducted differently than the traditional "coverage" of information on a topic. Among a longer list of differences between "inquiry approach" and "coverage approach," they include:

student voice and choice

teacher selection and direction

questions, concepts, strategic thinking

required topics, isolated facts, memorization

collaborative work, interaction and talk

solitary work, quiet and listening

student as knowledge creator

student as information receiver

teacher as model and coach

teacher as expert and presenter

cross-disciplinary studies

one subject at a time

multiple resources

reliance on a textbook

real purpose and audience

extrinsic motivators

performance and self-assessments

filling in bubbles and blanks

As expressed in the teacher commentaries above, the teachers you will see in the lessons in this module are clearly undertaking research with their students through inquiry.

BENEFITS OF INQUIRY UNITS: Our emphasis in Nonfiction Inquiry is on organizing instruction through inquiry units to support students in both learning how to comprehend informational text and best learn content in science, social studies, or other areas. The teachers in the videos you will watch have come to recognize that student growth in both areas - building reading capabilities with informational text and building content knowledge - are enhanced when they are combined through inquiry.

Immersed in the study over time, at their own pace, and searching for answers to their own questions through a choice of resources, students are able to develop their thinking and gradually synthesize their understandings in a way that is consistent with how authentic learning happens. This leads to motivation, engagement, and appreciation of learning. Children internalize the reading comprehension strategies we want them to use because they are purposefully applying them to gain knowledge about the topic.

Therefore in these video clips, we see children using text features to help them understand and to communicate their understandings, not simply to identify them for the teacher. We see them stretching out a word to spell it or revisiting the text to verify information so they can hold their new learning on a sticky note. Rather than jumping from one day reading about dinosaurs and the next about the seasons, they have time to build the background knowledge that research shows is critical to comprehension (Cervetti and Hiebert, 2015). They call upon that knowledge to make inferences and draw conclusions, and they think critically to challenge misconceptions they may have brought with them. They acquire literacy skills and strategies because they are applying them for real purposes.

Simultaneously, the inquiry units lead students to a much deeper understanding of the content than they usually attain when the teacher presents tightly sequenced bits of information. The children's exploration of the topic through multiple resources (digital and non-digital) that they have chosen themselves leads them to explore a topic with genuine interest, to spend extended periods of time engaged in reading, viewing, talking and note-taking, and to delight in sharing their discoveries with others. Many teachers find that almost all of the specific information they are expected to teach in a content unit is discovered (with the aid of appropriate conferring) by the children themselves through inquiry units - as well as a great deal more that makes the content meaningful and memorable for them.

As evidenced by the South Carolina Inquiry-Based Literacy Standards, understanding how to conduct their own inquiries is an outcome that children need to deal with the demands of twenty-first century literacy. Living in the digital age, children need to learn to navigate and evaluate the abundance of information that surrounds them. Understanding and using the process of inquiry prepares children to learn in their constantly changing world. Second grade teacher Philippa Haynes puts it this way:

I think [it's] really important for them to understand as well... that information is changing. As scientists keep learning new things, new books are going to be published, and some of them - especially some of the number information they learned, like tornadoes spin at 300mph, may not be like that if there's a tornado in another month or two that spins higher. It just depends. So I think they need to be open and flexible with that. They need to understand that's what research is all about.

STRUCTURE OF AN INQUIRY UNIT
The inquiry units in this module all integrate science and/or social studies content with literacy skills and strategies. In some cases the content is a major topic in the State Standards; in others it is a spin-off that takes an aspect of content to a deeper level.

In planning an inquiry unit, it is important to create an overview of the entire unit before starting, although changes are sure to occur in the process. Teachers examine their content standards and look for big ideas and understandings that can focus the inquiry. Generally, the unit develops in four stages: Immerse, Investigate, Coalesce, and Go Public (Harvey and Daniels, 2009). These phases are helpful for planning purposes. However, there are no hard and fast boundaries between the phases, and they will flow into each other as the unit progresses. Each phase is discussed briefly below.

Immerse: To begin an inquiry unit, students activate and build background knowledge and generate questions. They whet their curiosity about the topic that supports them as they delve deeper into it. Children bring to the table what they think they know, but there is no expectation that the information is correct or complete. Through the process of the inquiry, they will confirm their initial ideas or recognize them as misconceptions. Thus the door is open for every child, regardless of background knowledge, to fully participate and learn. Teachers collect a variety of resources, including trade books, websites, videos, magazines, and photographs so that all children are engaged in wondering and thinking about the topic.

Immersion is also a time to develop or review the structures that will allow students to explore independently and stay engaged and productive for sustained periods of time, (e.g., stations, ways to record thinking.) Because collaboration plays an enormous role in a successful inquiry unit, often teachers review ongoing classroom routines such as turn and talk, working with partners, or speaking, listening and developing conversations while sharing.

Investigate: Investigation is the heart of the inquiry. Students explore multiple resources of their choice on the topic, searching for information to answer their questions or take them to deeper understandings. Having built general knowledge during the Immersion phase, students often break into expert groups to explore specific interests within the overall topic. Utilizing a workshop model, teachers might conduct mini-lessons on an aspect of the inquiry and students spend extended periods of time building their knowledge, individually or with partners. Daily sharing allows children to learn about other aspects of the topic from their peers, and to contribute to the learning of others as well.

Coalesce: Students synthesize their learning, focused on the big questions they are trying to answer. How they synthesize is usually related to how they are going to share their learning with an authentic audience in the Go Public phase, so these two phases are closely linked. It is often in the process of figuring out what they want/should include in their final product that they draw meaningful conclusions and solidify their expertise to explain those conclusions to others. Conversation again plays a crucial role in this phase of the inquiry. Children build from each other's knowledge and piece together how what they've learned leads to deeper understandings of the topic.

Go Public: Knowledge gained through inquiry is not created simply for the teacher's eyes and a grade. It is shared with one another and often with external audiences, such as other students in the school, parents, or online avenues. In the examples in this module, kindergarten students wrote nonfiction books for others to read about their animals. First graders developed posters to teach and persuade others about ways to stop water pollution, some of which were featured on the school's morning news. Second graders created how-to videos about staying safe in a specific type of severe weather that they shared with fourth graders who were also studying weather.

Children use multiple intelligences and collaboration to eagerly design ways to communicate their learning to others. Every child is able to bring something special to the project, which heightens their sense of pride and engagement in the learning.

STUDENT PREPARATION: Learning About Nonfiction

Most teachers find that it is beneficial, before they begin an inquiry unit, for students to be familiar with characteristics of informational text and basic reading strategies to understand information they read, hear, or view. Students will learn a great deal more about informational text as they research, but some background helps the children be much more independent in their inquiry. In the clips below, the teachers share how they have prepared their students earlier in the school year so that they are most productive in the process of research.

See Suggested Readings for general support as well as articles and chapters that complement specific sample lessons.

References:

Cervetti, G. & Hiebert, E.H (2015). Knowledge, literacy, and the Common Core. Language Arts, 92(4), 256-269.
Harvey, S. & Daniels, H. (2009). Comprehension and Collaboration: Inquiry Circles in Action. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann

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"For students, this method of learning ends the listen-to-learn paradigm of the classroom and gives them a real and authentic goal [and] challenges to overcome. For the teacher, inquiry-based education ends their paradigm of talking to teach and recasts them in the role of a colleague and mentor engaged in the same quest as the other younger learners around."

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Inquiry Illuminated: Researchers' Workshop Across the Curriculum by Anne Goudvis, Stephanie and Brad Buhrow

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Inquiry Illuminated: Researchers' Workshop Across the Curriculum by Anne Goudvis, Stephanie and Brad Buhrow

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Kindergarten Units of Study in Writing

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Foundational Skills to Support Reading for Understanding in Kindergarten Through 3rd Grade 

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Foundational Skills to Support Reading for Understanding in Kindergarten Through 3rd Grade 

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National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance
Foundational Skills to Support Reading for Understanding in Kindergarten Through 3rd Grade

https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/Docs/PracticeGuide/wwc_foundationalreading_040717.pdf

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Teaching Elementary School Students to Be Effective Writers

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Teaching Elementary School Students to Be Effective Writers

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Teaching Elementary School Students to Be Effective Writers

National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance

https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/Docs/PracticeGuide/WWC_Elem_Writing_PG_Dec182018.pdf

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Effective Literacy and English Language Instruction for English Learners in the Elementary Grades 

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Effective Literacy and English Language Instruction for English Learners in the Elementary Grades 

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National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance

https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/Docs/PracticeGuide/20074011.pdf

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Teaching Literacy in the Visible Learning Classroom by Douglas Fisher, Nancy Frey, John Hattie

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Teaching Literacy in the Visible Learning Classroom by Douglas Fisher, Nancy Frey, John Hattie

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Teaching Literacy in the Visible Learning Classroom

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Teaching Literacy in the Visible Learning Classroom

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Reader, Come Home: The Reading Brain in a Digital World by Maryanne Wolf

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Reader, Come Home: The Reading Brain in a Digital World by Maryanne Wolf

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Interest Thoughts on Screen Time and the Young Brain...borrow from me if interested!

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No More Independent Reading Without Support: Not This, But That Series by Debbie Miller

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No More Independent Reading Without Support: Not This, But That Series by Debbie Miller

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A Teacher's Guide to Reading Conferences - Jennifer Serravalli

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A Teacher's Guide to Reading Conferences - Jennifer Serravalli

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Kindergarten Book Selection:

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"Conferring..." writes author Jennifer Serravallo, "is where the magic happens."

Today on the Heinemann podcast Jen talks about her latest book: A Teacher's Guide to Reading Conferences, which is part of Heinemann's new Classroom Essentials series.

Jen says that while conferring with readers might seem intimidating or out of reach, it is attainable -and necessary- in every classroom. In A Teacher's Guide to Reading Conferences, Jen shows us the value behind the responsive nature of conferences, how to get started with a conference, and ways to improve your existing reading conferences.

Our conversation begins with Jen's feeling about conferring...
Below is a full transcript of this episode.
Jen: I think conferring is probably the most important thing that I do with children. It gives you a chance to build relationships with them. It helps you get to know them as people and get to know them as readers. I think sometimes when we're in a reading classroom it can be hard to know, is everybody really reading? Is everyone really understanding? Is everyone doing their work? Is everyone working on the goal that we said we were going to work on? I know no better way than to sit next to a child and talk to them about their reading.

I really think that conferring is something any teacher can do and should do if they're teaching reading. If you give your children time to read during the day, sit next to them. See how it's going. Talk to them. Nudge them along. Support them. Give them feedback. How else can you know kids as well as you can when you sit down and talk to them, right?

Brett: One of the things we were talking about was, your hope in writing this book is that this book is that this book on conferring is really for everyone. You don't necessarily have to have that pre-existing workshop knowledge. Anybody can approach conferring when they read this book. Is that right?

Jen: That's right, yeah. Some people might think that conferring is something that's done in a reading workshop structure, and it is. It's a really important part of reading workshop. But I really think it can be done in any kind of classroom. In fact, when I start working with new schools, when I take on a new client for a residency, let's say they're coming from using a Basal reader when I first arrive at their doorstep. The very first thing I focus on is getting kids books. Giving them access to books. Making sure there's interesting books. Books they're going to love to read.

Then the second thing I do is I teach the teachers how to confer. Before we get involved with changing the curriculum, before we talk about mini lessons, before we talk about even the interactive read aloud, my very first step is conferences. Because I believe it's that crucial to developing readers, and it's that important also to developing teachers' knowledge around reading. If you want to become a more expert reading teacher, sitting with kids and seeing how they develop as readers is one of the best ways to do that.

Brett: Speaking of development. Your opening dedication for the book is to Lucy Calkins. You have a really insightful interview with Lucy in this book. Why for you was it important to include Lucy as the dedication?

Jen: I would not be where I am today without Lucy Calkins. That's an understatement in so many ways. My first book which came out over a dozen years ago, which was also about this topic, happened only because Lucy turned to me one day in a meeting and said, "You should write a book about conferring". At the time I thought, "Are you kidding me? I could barely get through a 10 page paper in college". I was the person up all night with cups of coffee trying to write. How could I possibly write an entire book?

But the fact that she saw something in me. If Lucy Calkins tells you to do something, you do it. Right? The fact that she kind of gave me this assignment to write this book, and she believed in me and then gave me the support to make it happen, changed the entire trajectory of my career. Here I am returning to this topic over a dozen years later. Of course I have to dedicate it to Lucy. I'm really excited for people to read the interview I have with her in this book. Because as always, she just brings such insight and wisdom to the topic.

Brett: Really throughout the book you have a lot of call outs. You have mentor call outs. Talk a little bit about what those mentor call outs are.

Jen: Yeah, so the interview with Lucy is one of the mentor spotlights. There's a mentor spotlight in each of the chapters. Some of them are literal mentors like Lucy was. I spent eight years working with Lucy at the Reading and Writing Project. Some of them are just people I've read. I've read so much of their work that they feel like mentors to me. Like John Hattie for example.

Sometimes the spotlights are interviews. John Hattie and Lucy Calkins and Ellin Keene are interviews. Sometimes they're reviews of some of my favorite books by them. For example, let's say Richard Allington is an example there. Sometimes I pull out quotes that are really influential, and I sort of discuss why those quotes are important to me. Marie Clay is someone for whom I chose that format. They appear in each chapter in ways that connect to whatever the main topic of that chapter is.

In the chapter on reinforcing student strengths and providing helpful, positive feedback, my spotlight is Peter Johnston, who's taught me a lot about that. What I'm hoping these do, a really big part of this Classroom Essentials series was making sure that we give shout outs in a major way to the people who have come before us who have influenced our thinking. We're trying to bring, so Katie, Carl, and I who all have the books launching this series, we're trying to bring to everybody these really important researchers and practitioners, and make sure they're all really well known. We all have sort of our own ways of doing that. My way of doing this was to create these, sometimes spreads, sometimes single pages, focusing on these influential teachers and researchers.

Brett: I think one of the other things you've done here perfectly is you've sort of demystified conferring, and you've made it very accessible for anybody. One of the sections that I love is, very early on in the book you have a colorful call out of what conferring is and what it is not. One of the things you specifically mention is that conferring is a conversation. Say a little bit more about that element of conversation, and some of the call outs that you've got there.

Jen: That quote, "I actually think that conferring is a conversation", I think came from Carl Anderson.

Brett: Oh.

Jen: It's possible. I'm pretty sure. I'd have to ask Carl. But when I was a teacher, I was still in the classroom, my school was about 10 blocks from the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project. We used to have these opportunities called leadership groups where we could go after school and learn from someone who was on staff at the project. I signed up to be part of Carl's writing group. He was at the time working on his book, Assessing Writers. We were studying conferring and we were studying assessment. Writing assessment. Every Tuesday I'd walk the 10, 15 blocks up to Teachers College, sit with him for hours with a group of colleagues. Many of whom turned out to work for the Reading and Writing Project at some point, or write books of their own.

Brett: Yeah.

Jen: So much of my thinking around what a conference is or the elements of good conferring I think have their roots with Carl's mentorship around writing conferring. I've sort of applied that here to reading conferring, and of course like I said already, really influenced by Lucy's thinking around the topic as well.

I think there's lots of ways to sit down and have a conversation with a child. But what makes a reading conference stronger is when it is, it's a conversation with a student. It's not just a chance to sit down next to them and just quiz them, making sure they got every right answer in their book. But rather that you really try to develop a rapport. Lucy always told me, "Get down at their eye level. Look them in the eye. Talk reader to reader". Conferring I think when it's done best is a chance to really individualize instruction. While we may have and we probably should have curriculum, something the whole class is learning about, this is our chance to say, "I know we're working on an historical fiction unit. But I know that this individual child still needs some fluency support. This is my time to give this child support with that".

I think that's most helpful rather than just taking your lesson of the day and going around and teaching it individually to each student. It's a chance to offer really clear feedback to kids and guide them with their practice. I try to not spend a lot of time modeling or demonstrating, so it's not like I'm taking a whole class lesson and just doing it with an audience of one. I'm really trying to make the child do the work here. The child's really center stage, and I'm more of a guide nudging them along. Prompting them, giving them feedback.

Brett: One question that tends to come up with conferring is, "What if I don't know the book?".

Jen: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Brett: How do we approach that?

Jen: I actually heard Penny Kittle once say that she's a better conferrer when she doesn't know the book. I totally agree with that. I think when you know the book, you end up getting involved in a very detailed conversation about that book. After the conference is over, the student probably can't apply what you just did there. Although once in a while having that kind of a book based conversation is fine. But what I'm trying to do in a conference is really help give the child strategies that then they can apply to other contexts.

When I don't know the book, what I'm focused on instead are the qualities of the student response. I talk a little bit about this in Understanding Texts and Readers. Looking at the qualities of response with regards to comprehension responses. I'm looking at the quality of the response. I'm looking at the skills the child's using. I'm looking at the strategies they're using. I'm offering them something that's generalizable. I'm going to offer them a strategy and feedback that they can not only apply today in this sitting, but they can apply again and again as they continue throughout the rest of that book, and they can apply to the next book that they're going to read.

Through that repeated practice they're going to transfer and become more automatic with the strategy. Then they're going to be able, it becomes part of their skillset.

Brett: You're right that it's important for us to find a goal early on. Usually through assessment. Can you talk us through sort of the goal finding process?

Jen: Yeah. This idea of targeting goals, I talk a lot about John Hattie's research and how he showed that we can bring huge growth to students within a year if we focus on goals and we provide feedback targeted to those goals. A long time ago this wasn't really how I approached conferences. I would sit down with students. I'd have a conversation. I would usually teach them a strategy. I wasn't teaching the book then. But it was random. If I looked back over my notes for that student over the course of a month, I might teach something about character one day, and then fluency the next day. Then I'd go onto a decoding strategy. It was sort of all over the map.

When I would sit down next to a child four days after having a conference and say, "How's it going? What have you done since the last time I met with you?", they'd look at me like, "What have I done? What are you talking about?". Nothing really stuck, and I felt like all the time spent conferring was just kind of poof going up in the air.

It also I think felt really hard. Because I'd sit down next to a child. I'd feel this panic of, "What am I going to teach this kid today?". I would ask them to read out loud. I'd ask them to tell me about the book. All the while I'm listening, listening, searching, hoping something would become clear. "Where am I going to go today?". When I shifted my thinking to make sure that conferring was more goal focused, it helped the student and it helped me.

Helped the student because they student knew what I was going for, so every strategy that I taught over the course of a month or several weeks all went back to that goal. The child knew why I was doing it. The goal was something we decided together, so they had investment and ownership of the goal. Then it helped me. I knew if I was working with a child who was, let's say, trying to more deeply understand the themes in their books, I wasn't going to start a conference asking them to read out loud to me. That wasn't going to help me learn enough to know where to go next. I would instead ask them about, "What themes do you have in your book? What big ideas are you having?". It helps focus the conversation. It helps make the conference be shorter. It helps it be more purposeful, and more likely that it's going to stick. Then the child will be able to approximate and practice even when I leave them.

Brett: Sometimes one of the hard things that comes up in those conversations is those off the cuff kind of moments. But you've given us a tool in the book to sort of prepare for that. What is that?

Jen: One of the things I developed is a note taking form, or forms. A series of note taking forms that go with each goal. One of the things I've noticed from working with a lot of teachers, in residencies and in workshops, is they watch my conferring. They're like, "Well how did you know to do that? How did you know that was the next step?". Remember, I'm often working with kids I've never met before, so I don't know them well.

Brett: Right, yeah.

Jen: What guides me is really an understanding of a progression of skills within a goal. For example, if I have a student working on a goal of fluency and I'm listening to them read out loud, I might notice that they're reading in two word phrases, pausing after every two words or so. I'm going to decide probably to try to lengthen their phrases rather than move on to expression. That I'm going to work on paying attention to punctuation within the sentence before I talk about punctuation at the end of the sentence.

I've got this sense of what comes first, and so on these note taking forms I share that with teachers. My thinking is that they can put this note taking form in front of them. If they've already figured out a goal for each student, hold in front of them the note taking form that goes with that goal, and get support right on that page with the questions they could ask and what they're looking for. To help make the decision making easier for them.

Brett: One of the other things I think is important for us to mention here is, you also have throughout the call outs, in addition to the mentor call outs, you also have bilingual support as well.

Jen: Yes. I used to teach at a dual language school back in the day, and so I've worked with a lot of students who speak two or more languages. It's very important to me. I'm not a specialist in this, but I've done a lot of reading and a lot of research. I thought, there's a lot of teachers in classrooms today who have students in their class who speak two or more languages. Not just ESL teachers, but teachers probably in every classroom in America. I wanted to make sure that I give them some special attention and some specialized advice for how they might support those readers during conferring.

Brett: The book is written for a K-8 audience. How does conferring change? How does it look different as we go gradually up grade level by grade level?

Jen: I think it's more similar than it is different. I mean one of the things that'll obviously be different is the content. If I'm in a kindergarten classroom I'm teaching strategies, or in a conference around how to read from the pictures. Then maybe more print work, and maybe some fluency by the end of the year. In an eighth grade classroom I'm probably doing much more around themes and ideas, or character analysis and things like that. The content's a little bit different. The structures I think can be the same. They're going to choose structures.

One thing that's maybe a little bit trickier in the upper, even starting in upper elementary school, is that kids are reading novels. We talked already about how sometimes that can panic people. "I haven't read the book. How will I know if they've gotten it right?". To rely instead on what you know about reading. What you know about these progressions of skills. Make sure that your teaching is generalizable. Whereas in a primary classroom you can kind of peak over their shoulder, quickly skim the page, and get a sense for what the book's about.

But no, I think it's actually more similar than it is different. There's videos that are included in the book.

Brett: Yes.

Jen: Online you can watch videos of me working with kindergartners, first graders, fourth graders, eighth graders. I think you'll see if you watch these videos, compare a kindergarten and an eighth grade video, they're not that different. They're not that different, in terms of structure anyway. Content, sure. But not structure.

Brett: What about time? I know time is a question that we often hear. How much time should a teacher give to a student in conferring? Sort of that second question that comes with that is usually, "What is the rest of my class doing while I'm doing that with a student?".

Jen: Different conference types have different amounts of time you might want to devote to them. I offer teachers different structures or types of conferences. Compliment conferences, which are really quick opportunities to check in, give some positive feedback, move on. Those might run about 90 second. More complete research, compliment, teach conferences, more around five minutes. Book club conferences, around five. I do actually talk about strategy lessons, which are kind of group conferences. Those might be more like seven to 10 minutes. It depends on the type of conference. I give advice in the book about generally how long that takes.

The rest of the class ideally is reading. They're reading, which helps you and it helps the kids. It helps the kids because the kids now have time to read a book they've ideally chosen themselves, and to practice the last strategy you taught them in the least conference you had with them. They need time to practice. It helps you because the kids are engaged in an activity that they're going to be engaged with, so that you are freed up to give your undivided attention to one or two or a group of three or four students.

Brett: One of the things that you told me before which I think is really kind of cool is the design for this book, which, if anybody has seen the pages already or some of the stuff that we've shared online, it's a beautifully stunning, colorful ... The layout is just amazing. There's a lot of purple in it. You said you got a little bit of inspiration from a cookbook for the design for this when you set out to write this book.

Jen: Yeah, I did. Well I want to be clear, I didn't design the book really.

Brett: Right, yeah.

Jen: Vita Lane is the designer. She deserves some shout outs for the beautiful aesthetic that she's brought to the book. But people who have read my previous books know I like a good looking book.

Brett: Yes you do.

Jen: I like a book that's not only filled with content that's going to be helpful, but that looks really nice and is fun to hold in your hands and flip the pages. Katie Ray actually invented this series. She came up with the idea for the Classroom Essentials series. She said, "I want them to be slim books with a really stunning visual design, that are really accessible. Whether it's a new teacher or an experienced teacher, that take foundational principles and bring them to the modern age". She sort of described the book, or what she had in mind. At that time none of these books had been created. There wasn't even a designer onboard at Heinemann to do them yet. I was like, "Mm-hmm (affirmative). Mm-hmm (affirmative). Mm-hmm (affirmative). I'm listening". I said, "You know what? I'm thinking cook books".

I went to my town library and I just pulled all these cook books off the shelf, and just put them all out in front of me. I found all of these different interesting design elements in cook books that I wanted to bring to this book. I snapped pictures of pages that I thought were kind of cool. Actually, the idea for a mentor spotlight came from an Italian cook book I read, where the author of the cook book had interviewed famous Italian chefs. I thought, "That was kind of cool", right? I stole that idea.

The opening, you'll see the opening chapter has a huge photograph that spans one and a half pages. That came from a cook book. Some of the ways that tables are formatted came from cook books as well. I love a good cook book. I love a good beautiful engaging photograph. Really clear. Easy to follow. I even talk about cook books in my reading strategies. But I really, you could say I'm really into food. Really into cooking. I borrowed some of those elements and shared them with Katie and shared them with Vita, the designer. Then she just made it beautiful.

Brett: One other thing about this book, Jen. You mentioned it briefly a second ago. But the video support that comes with this book, and there's a lot of online resources with this book too. It's called out beautifully in the book as well. Talk a little bit about that.

Jen: You know, I just got my author copy in the mail, and I brought it to show my dad. He's like, "Oh, another one. This one's kind of thin". That's all he said. Thanks, dad. Yes, it's thinner than my other books. But there's a reason for that. We took anything that didn't need to be in the book out, and we've put a lot of things online so that they're sort of print as you go, and take what you need. You'd mentioned the video. There's video online. In the book you're going to see a little thumbnail of what the video looks like. Then I offer a few options.

The pages are called watch and read. One option is, you watch the video. Another option is, you download the whole transcript from online if you want to read the whole transcript, or maybe study it with a study group and highlight it, or notice things about it. Then the third option is that the video has some call outs in the book that are very brief, and just sort of shout out the essential information. You could do any combination of those, and we've pulled the ... Originally the transcripts were in the book, and the book was very long. Katie kept saying, "We've got to trim. We've got to trim", so we pulled those out. It was actually her idea to have these bullet point look fors in the video.

Brett: Yeah.

Jen: Which I think is both helpful, so that you're not just watching a video. It's almost like you have me as a coach there, showing you, "Here's what you should notice here. Here's what you should notice here". These sort of replicable moves that you want to use in your own conferences as well. You'll see during each video that I'm taking notes. One of the most common questions I get from people who watch videos are, "What are you writing down? What's going in your notes?". I provide online what my notes look like. They're in thumbnail in the book, but they're pretty small. You can download them from the online resources and get a closeup look at what I'm writing down. Compare it to what you've seen in the video or what you've read in the transcript. Or what you've read in the look fors within the book.

Other online resources, we talked about the note taking forms I think are going to be really helpful. There's the 13 that are by each goal, and then there's a kind of conference in the book called an assessment conference where you talk with a student through all the different possible goals. I've provided a note taking form to help you with the kinds of questions and prompts to ask to gather that information. Then there are also, because I introduce these different conference types that I talked about before, like a compliment conference, a research compliment teach conference, strategy lesson. Each of them has a slightly different structure, and so there's these table tents that you can fold and put on the table in front of you.

Brett: Oh wow.

Jen: If you want to follow along with the steps of the process, to follow along with the steps of the conference. Not that you have to follow these steps lockstep, and I don't want people to feel locked into these at all. But I really find that structure helps me to stay focused, and it helps me to stick to a finite period of time. Which then allows me to meet with more kids. These table tents are provided to help people to do that. The idea actually came from some coaches I work with. Their names are Jen and Lisa, that I work with in Connecticut, who used to make these table tents for their teachers when they were learning to confer. Teachers found them really helpful, so Vita made some really beautiful versions of them for this book.

...

Learn more about A Teacher's Guide to Writing Conferences at Heinemann.com

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Jennifer Serravallois the author of New York Times bestsellerThe Reading Strategies Book as well as other popular Heinemann titles, including The Writing Strategies Book; Teaching Reading in Small Groups; Conferring with Readers; and The Literacy Teacher's Playbook, Grades K-2 and Grades 3-6. Her newest book is Understanding Texts & Readers. She is also the author of the On-Demand Course Teaching Reading in Small Groups: Matching Methods to Purposes where you can watch dozens of videos of Jen teaching in real classrooms and engage with other educators in a self-guided course.

Jen began her career in education as a teacher in Title I schools in NYC and later joined the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project at Columbia University. Through TCRWP and now as an independent consultant, she has spent over a decade helping teachers across the country to create literacy classrooms where students are joyfully engaged and the the instruction is meaningfully individualized to students' goals.

Jen holds a BA from Vassar College and an MA from Teachers College, where she has also taught graduate and undergraduate classes on urban education reform and children's literature.

Learn more about Jen and her work at www.jenniferserravallo.com, or connect with her at@jserravallo

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On the Podcast: A Teacher's Guide to Reading Conferences with Jennifer Serravallo

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Today on the Heinemann podcast Jennifer Serravallo introduces A Teacher's Guide to Reading Conferences, which is part of Heinemann's Classroom Essentials series. Jen says that while conferring with readers might seem intimidating or out of reach, it is attainable -and necessary- in every classroom.

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*Write a reflection on how your classroom practice has been influenced by the Balanced Literacy Workshop Model.
*Write a refection on any of the above readings or posts.

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Marzano's 9 High-Yield Instructional Strategies

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Marzano's 9 High-Yield Instructional Strategies

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Model of Gradual Release of Responsibility

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Model of Gradual Release of Responsibility

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Regie Routman

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Gradual Release - What does it look like_

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No More Low Expectations for English Language Learners- Not This, But That Series by Julie Nora and Jana Echevarria

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No More Low Expectations for English Language Learners- Not This, But That Series by Julie Nora and Jana Echevarria

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HHIECC's Summer Reading Assignment!

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from Literacy Essentials by Regie Routman

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The Importance of Early Childhood Educators

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The Importance of Early Childhood Educators

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-Regie Routman

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Excellence in Early Childhood Instruction

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No More Culturally Irrelevant Teaching (Not This but That) by Mariana Souto-Manning

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No More Culturally Irrelevant Teaching (Not This but That) by Mariana Souto-Manning

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A Mindset for Culturally Relevant Teaching

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A Mindset for Culturally Relevant Teaching

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A Mindset for Culturally Relevant Teaching

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Undoing Cultural Assumptions

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Chimamanda Adichie: The Danger of a Single Story

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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: The Danger of a Single Story | TED

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A Framework for Understanding Poverty by Ruby Payne

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A Framework for Understanding Poverty by Ruby Payne

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Teaching Reading in the Content Area: If not me, then who?

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Teaching Reading in the Content Area: If not me, then who?

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An emphasis on reading and literacy skills in the content areas has an exponential effect on learning in every discipline.

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Teaching Reading in the Content Areas as a Specialist

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Teaching Reading in the Content Areas as a Specialist

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In Pictures and In Words: Teaching the Qualities of Good Writing Through Illustration Study by Katie Wood Ray

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In Pictures and In Words: Teaching the Qualities of Good Writing Through Illustration Study by Katie Wood Ray

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Pre-K Book Selection:

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Write a reflection on one (or more) of the above posts.

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Websites to explore:

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Pink= Selected for All
Yellow= Selected for K and ESOL
Green=Selected for Pre-K
Blue= Selected for Specialists

White or Lavender - Additional Reading

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Alabama Attorney born in poverty shares her story...

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Be a game-changer | Liz Huntley | TEDxBirmingham

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*Visualize a new ELL student (or one representing a different background than the one you came from). This child has been assigned to your class.
How can you and your environment support that student in the upcoming year? What accommodations will you make?

* Write a reflection on any of the above posts.

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http://www.jenniferserravallo.com/

Regie Routman:

https://www.regieroutman.org/

Stephanie Harvey:

https://www.stephanieharvey.com/blog/4

Jan Richardson:
http://www.janrichardsonguidedreading.com/home

Peter Johnston:
http://www.judsonu.edu/uploadedFiles/__Judson_Public/Academics/Graduate/Master_of_Education_in_Literacy/Peter%20Johnston.pdf

Debbie Diller:
https://debbiediller.wordpress.com/

Fountas and Pinnell Online Community:
https://www.fountasandpinnell.com/account/register

Heinemann Blog:
https://blog.heinemann.com/

Stenhouse Blog:
http://blog.stenhouse.com/

Corwin Blog:
https://corwin-connect.com/tag/blog-posts/

ASCD Website

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This course at HHIEC addresses the following SC Literacy Competencies for Pre-K - Grade 5:

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This course at HHIEC addresses the following SC Literacy Competencies for Pre-K - Grade 5:

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Standard 2 (Curriculum and Instruction)
Standard 4 (Diversity)
Standard 5 (Literate Environment)
Standard 6 (Professional Learning and Leadership)

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South Carolina Literacy Competencies for Content Course

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South Carolina Literacy Competencies for PreK - 5th Grade Classroom Teachers

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South Carolina Literacy Competencies for PreK - 5th Grade Classroom Teachers

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Literacy Essentials: Engagement, Excellence, and Equity for ALL Learners by Regie Routman

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Literacy Essentials: Engagement, Excellence, and Equity for ALL Learners by Regie Routman

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Embedding Professional Learning from Literacy Essentials: Engagement, Excellence, and Equity for All Learners by Regie Routman

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Embedding Professional Learning from Literacy Essentials: Engagement, Excellence, and Equity for All Learners by Regie Routman

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Great thoughts on a commitment to professional learning...

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The Fountas and Pinnell Literacy Contiuum

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The Fountas and Pinnell Literacy Contiuum

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A Fresh Look at Phonics by Wiley Blevins

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A Fresh Look at Phonics by Wiley Blevins

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....Prior Year's Focus

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No More Teaching a Letter a Week: Not This, But That Series by Rebecca McKay and William Teale

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No More Teaching a Letter a Week: Not This, But That Series by Rebecca McKay and William Teale

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Prior year's Pre-K focus:

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Literacy Beginnings by Fountas and Pinnell

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Literacy Beginnings by Fountas and Pinnell

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Last year's Pre-K focus

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The Next Step Forward in Guided Reading by Jan Richardson

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The Next Step Forward in Guided Reading by Jan Richardson

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Prior Year's Kindergarten focus

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The Reading Strategies Book by Jennifer Serravello

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The Reading Strategies Book by Jennifer Serravello

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Prior year's Kindergarten Focus

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Already Ready: Nurturing Writers in Preshool and Kindergarten by Katie Wood Ray and Matt Glover

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Already Ready: Nurturing Writers in Preshool and Kindergarten by Katie Wood Ray and Matt Glover

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Prior Pre-K book Focus

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Onward: Cultivating Emotional Resilience in Educators by Elena Aguilar

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Onward: Cultivating Emotional Resilience in Educators by Elena Aguilar

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...Learning form our Specialist's Knowledge Base. We will be exploring topics throughout the school year.

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Best Practices in Literacy Instruction by Linda Gambrell and Lesley Mandel Morrow

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Best Practices in Literacy Instruction by Linda Gambrell and Lesley Mandel Morrow

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*How has your professional and personal learning journey influenced your past and current teaching and learning experiences. Reflect upon your journey and how it has shaped your beliefs and practices about teaching and learning. What are deliberate and thoughtful next steps you might commit to taking in your continuing journey?

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Open or Closed Mindset?

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The Curious Classroom: 10 Structures for Teaching with Student-Directed Inquiry by Harvey "Smokey" Daniels

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The Curious Classroom: 10 Structures for Teaching with Student-Directed Inquiry by Harvey "Smokey" Daniels

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...borrow from me if interested!

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 "Specialists Have Their Own 'Special' Skill Set"

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 "Specialists Have Their Own 'Special' Skill Set"

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"What I Want You to Know About My Special Area" Presentations