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The Difference Between Conferring and Touching Base

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The Difference Between Conferring and Touching Base

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Debbie Miller

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Choice Literacy - Articles & Videos - Full Article

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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.

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Carl Anderson

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Nurturing Intrinsic Motivation and Growth Mindset in Writing

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Nurturing Intrinsic Motivation and Growth Mindset in Writing

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Amy Conley

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It's the first writing conference, four weeks into the year, with this blond senior. He stiffly leans back from me as far as the metal desk will allow, exuding cynicism, too cool for meeting with teachers about his writing. I can see he doesn't trust me yet or know why we conference, and he's afraid. He says, "So, what is this meeting about then?" And we begin.

The Power of Teacher Enthusiasm

Conferencing and portfolios work for me. Over the last 13 years of teaching English, I've developed a system of folders for work, held regular quarterly conferences with every student, and instituted cover letters in which students introduce, explain, and critique their writing at the end of the year. I also teach California State University's Expository Reading and Writing Course, a curriculum for high school seniors that encourages teachers to coach writing and students to write for real audiences. After the course, students report growth in their writing -- new confidence, success in their next-year college classes, higher EPT scores, and perhaps most importantly, ownership of their writing. Scholarship from the 1980s to the present supports my own findings and reiterates that portfolios and writing conferences can sometimes be very successful.

But I wish the research would point to these systems as consistent and universal means of student growth. It does not. The research suggests that these practices improve student writing only along with the qualifier of enthusiastic teachers who create meaningful systems for their own classrooms. It worked in my classroom, but I was bothered that the research was so tepid. I kept doing portfolios and conferences in my classroom, noting anecdotal and statistical success for my students.

Then, two years ago, I read Daniel Pink's Drive and Carol Dweck's Mindset, and I realized that a system of portfolios and conferences was not enough to change student engagement on its own. The way I thought and talked with my students about their writing and learning had also changed. The words out of my mouth in the classroom changed the way students thought about their writing even more than portfolios and conferencing.

Intrinsic Motivation

Pink's argues that employees -- and students -- after their basic needs are met, are motivated by autonomy, purpose, and mastery. Humans want some control over our tasks, we want real tasks that connect to our world, and we want the opportunity to improve. Extrinsic motivation (grades, bonuses, stickers, prizes) actually inhibit students from succeeding on cognitively difficult tasks like, say, writing. I'd been teaching writing all wrong! I'd dangled the carrots of prizes and threatened with the sticks of docked points for misplaced modifiers.

But sometimes, I also got it right. Before, I'd let students choose prompts and readings as much as possible, providing autonomy. After reading Pink, I learned to unbend myself, make deadlines more flexible, and shape the writing process more to fit the student. Now, my students feel more control over their process.

Before, I'd encouraged my students to write for real audiences as summative assessments. Now, I encourage students to write to real people for real purposes throughout the school year -- their own blogs, each other, me, their principal, their Congressional representatives, and the world.

Before, I'd embedded grammar instruction in writing process and had students keep their work to casually notice their progress once a year. Now, I conference four times a year with students about portfolios of their work -- an ongoing conversation about writing goals of their choosing. I explicitly teach metacognition, or how to talk and write about their writing.

Growth Mindset

Carol Dweck's also made me question the feedback I was giving. Dweck found that praising students for intelligence actually made kids less likely to take academic risks because, on some level, they feared losing the label of "smart" if they did poorly. And since avoiding academic risks means avoiding learning, praising students' intelligence eventually impaired their success in school (and life happiness as well, since they felt intelligence was out of their own control). Students praised for working through difficult material wanted to show they could do so again, with the cumulative effects of long-term academic success, confidence in trying situations, and happier outlooks. Dweck called these mindsets fixed and growth, and started a movement to instill growth mindset in students. She has also talked about the amazing power of yet. She argues that we do a disservice to students by giving them only positive feedback on their writing. Although we don't want to crush their dreams, they can handle -- and even need -- room for growth and mastery. Hence the power of yet: "Your sentence structure does not yet match the tone you are trying to achieve." Yet allows negative feedback while also transmitting trust that they will get there.

I had a realization several years ago that my goal is not a good essay from Student A, but rather for Student A to know that she's in charge of her progress as a writer and feel confident to keep writing for the rest of her life. To that end, I must teach writing process, self-confidence through intrinsic motivation, metacognition, and the willingness to write badly, much more than I need to teach themes, metaphor, or prepositional phrases.

Reading the Common Core Language Arts documents and support, one notices the words "choice," "audience," "purpose," "metacognition," and "growth" throughout. Recently, I presented nurturing intrinsic motivation in writing to a classroom of other educators. They had no problem brainstorming ways to improve intrinsic motivation and growth mindset in our classrooms. Students want the same freedom in writing that we do, and teachers know how to provide it when given the opportunity.

The Payoff: Engagement and Ownership

It's the fifth meeting since September with that blond senior. Now his knees are tucked under him so he can arch across the desk and dissect the same sentence a foot away from me. We have gone from a distant "What is this meeting about then?" to an eager "Can I schedule a conference right now? I think I've smoothed the transitions, but I need to play with the syntax in the conclusion. Hear me out." Perhaps more importantly, I didn't schedule it, and I'm not doing most of the talking. He's found his voice and his reason to write.

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Nurturing Intrinsic Motivation and Growth Mindset in Writing | Edutopia

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It's the first writing conference, four weeks into the year, with this blond senior. He stiffly leans back from me as far as the metal desk will allow, exuding cynicism, too cool for meeting with teachers about his writing. I can see he doesn't trust me yet or know why we conference, and he's afraid.

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Quick Tip Tuesday: Counterfeit beliefs about conferring blog

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Quick Tip Tuesday: Counterfeit beliefs about conferring blog

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Patrick Allen

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In this week's Quick Tip, Patrick Allen tackles some of the myths about conferring. In his new book, Conferring: The Keystone of Reader's Workshop, Patrick maintains that the benefits of conferring with readers are worth the effort of learning to do it well. He sets out to reveal how teachers can overcome their perceived obstacles and make the somewhat intangible aspect of conferring with readers tangible.

I remember when my friend and colleague Lori Conrad and I met to plan a presentation on conferring with readers. Scones and lattes in hand, we set to work (we always do our best thinking over coffee, it seems). We had our conferring notebooks, anecdotal records, professional texts, and favorite conferring quotes spread out on the table. We were hoping to synthesize years of conferring work into a two-hour presentation.

When we spent time in others' classrooms, Lori and I noticed that many teachers were conferring with writers, but fewer were having similar interactions with readers. Teachers were talking to children about their writing, but not always taking the time to have the short, meaningful types of reading conferences we were having with the children in our classrooms.

Why were we seeing so few regularly occurring reading conferences?

As we started to outline our presentation, Lori said to me, "There are a lot of misconceptions out there about conferring with readers. I hear them pop up when I talk to teachers about the power of conferring."

I nodded in agreement and added, " I don't have time; I don't know what questions to ask; It's too hard; I don't know what to write in my notes; I don't even take notes; I don't know how to go deep . . . These excuses are myths that have developed about such an important instructional construct. Teachers have internalized lists of reasons about why conferring can't or won't work.

There has been such a focus on small groups of late. Reading conferences are less tangible, but not less important. I think people just think they're too hard. The lists of 'can'ts' or 'won'ts' are the things people need help sorting and understanding. We know conferring is effective, but there's so much to learn."

"You're right," Lori said. "There's a difference between legitimate wanting to learn and making excuses."

"Learning to confer is an art; we know that. It's not easy; it takes practice," I said. "But it's one of the most important and beneficial instructional moves I use with my students." Then a lightbulb went off . "That's how we should start," we said together.

Lori said, "Let's start out by sharing some of the conferring myths we've uncovered in our work with students and adults."

"Should we call them myths? A myth is more like a legend or a tall tale," I said.

We both laughed. We'd heard plenty of reasons why conferring takes a backseat to other instructional practices. "What about counterfeit beliefs?" Lori suggested.

"Counterfeit beliefs. I like that."

We started talking about the film A Private Universe. You remember it, don't you? Many of us saw the fi lm in one of our college methods courses. If you didn't, it is an interesting commentary on what happens when learners develop and maintain long-held beliefs that lead to misconceptions in their understandings of a concept. In the fi lm, graduating Ivy League seniors were asked to explain what causes the seasons. The graduates thought that "eccentricity in Earth's orbit" made it warmer when it was closest to the sun and that the moon's phases were caused by Earth's shadow. And when ninth graders at a nearby school were asked the same questions, they had similar misconceptions.

Then students had an opportunity to test their ideas and justify their reasoning. The results? If students saw their ideas proven wrong they would do one of three things: (1) immediately let go of their old ideas and accept the new ones, (2) try to blend the old and new, or (3) revert to their previous learning.

In college, before we became classroom teachers, we may have found the film a bit humorous, but our humorous reaction changed to a state of being flabbergasted. We started asking, "Why don't students grasp these concepts?" Even the brightest students have long-standing misconceptions that endure despite what they were taught by their teachers. And, in our methods classes we had conversations about instruction and assessment, trying to identify the causes of having students leave our classrooms with mistaken thoughts, ideas, or notions about their learning.

In our experiences, Lori and I saw the misconceptions about the power of conferring running rampant. The very definition of conferring-discourse, consultation, discussion, comparison, viewpoints, deliberation, talk-was somehow getting lost in translation.

If confer means to bestow a gift, we hoped that participants would better understand conferring as a result of our workshop. Jeff Wilhelm says that many teachers still rely on an "information-transmission" approach, focusing mainly on the what, which he believes is insufficient for powerful understanding (2007, 9). Wilhelm contends that if we focus on only the what of learning, it leads to "shallow learning and even misconceptions" (2007, 9). Educational psychologists know that "if misconceptions exist, meaningful classroom learning requires experiences that help to restructure existing knowledge" (Murphy and Mason 2006, 307).

Perhaps teachers were doing the same thing with the notion of conferring with readers. The misguided concepts Lori and I noticed about reading conferences needed to be restructured.

Murphy and Mason point out that " Conceptual change refers to revisions in personal mental representations; revisions that are often precipitated by purposeful educational experiences" (2006, 307). Lori and I felt that nudging teachers to revise their misconceptions was our best option. So what did we come up with? Here is our list of counterfeit beliefs. Which ones do you believe? Which ones have you actually said, or thought, at one point or another?
Counterfeit Beliefs About Conferring
1. If I meet with small groups, I don't have to meet with individuals. It's easier to meet with small groups.

2. If I don't meet with every student every day, I'm not doing a good job.

3. If I don't do a running record during each and every reading conference, I'm not really assessing my students' reading ability.

4. If I don't talk about all the errors a student is making while he or she is with me, I'm not being diligent.

5. I have to take an expert stance in each conference.

6. I need to focus on skills and fluency; comprehension comes later.

7. When I'm talking to a child about his or her learning, I'm conferencing.

8. I need to confer with every student the same number of times for the same amount of time each week.

9. 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.

10. I've tried _____'s conferring suggestions and recommendations and they just didn't work out.

Now before you close the book and say, "Wait a minute, I agree with number nine or number two," let the statement weigh on your mind a bit. Think about each statement carefully. Spend some time pondering. Can you see why these ideas might be considered misguided?

Read the rest of Chapter 1 and the entire book online now!

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In this week's Quick Tip, Patrick Allen tackles some of the myths about conferring. In his new book, Conferring: The Keystone of Reader's Workshop, Patrick maintains that the benefits of conferring with readers are worth the effort of learning to do it well.

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Katy Wood Ray

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Halfway point blog

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At the halfway point of my school year I am asking my students to reflect today in their Writer's Notebooks--list the moments, decisions, experiences that have had made a significant difference for you (as learner, person, friend, family member, musician, athlete, artist...) --write about some.

Today will be a long stretch of writing--force them to develop that writing and reflection muscle. I'll use the time to take advantage and continue conferences. I began them on Monday but only got to a 1/3 of each class as I sat down at a table and spent 3-5 minutes with each student. Today I will do it by walking to the students at their desks with their most recent drafts in hand. This will keep me moving, but will give me an opportunity to touch base with many more students today.

At the bottom is my list of reflections (in no particular order) about my teaching year thus far--I extracted conferring as the one topic that I just wanted to spill my guts about:

Ten Things That Have Made a Significant Difference in my Teaching just this year

Conferring

Finding the willingness to seek help over the past three years has enabled me to incorporate conferring in the classroom. In the form of reading and trusting the research and reflections, and through workshops and collaboration with the NWP and our local affiliate PAWLP, I have resuscitated teacher-student conferencing as a regular event.

By finding my own willingness, that same attitude had rubbed off onto the tenor of my class and the attitudes of my students. I used to wonder why kids never came to see me for help with their writing--after all, I spent hours writing pithy comments and suggestions along the borders of their pages. Didn't anyone want to ask for help? Didn't anyone need help?

Sometimes I think we'd rather drown than ask for help--teachers and students.

This summer, I heard colleagues from other districts wonder how people had time for conferring. Over the years I've questioned how it is possible for one teacher to possibly confer a lot. Before I landed a full-time teaching job I worked as a theme-reader for a local high school--I was paid to read and confer.

While training in the PAWLP (NWP) Writer's Workshop, we read again and again that the research, pedagogy, and reflections recognize conferring as a valuable tool, but I fear that it may be one of the weakest instructed and supported skills for teachers coming out of universities and perhaps even supported through professional development in the nation. That is my assumption.

Conferring with students (and parents) takes confidence and it takes having something to say something meaningful beyond the surface errors. Specifically, conferring about writing can backfire if all we are doing is pointing out every mechanical and grammatical error--doing that is a also a time chewer and would dissuade teachers from going back to it. I could simply mark all the errors on a paper and it is up to the student to look at them and make the corrections, right? Honestly, teachers could conference for 15 minutes or more over one paper and one student--and that is just with the teacher talking and lecturing over each sentence.

The difference for me came when I learned to ask the student writer to reflect on aspects of the piece, or to talk me through their struggles and breakthroughs as if I were a reader. Asking them to read a section of it, to lead a discussion about an error or area of improvement (something that confuses me as a reader/listener...something I want to know more about as a reader/listener) made more students make more improvements faster. I see the changes:

a) conferring contributed to a shift my relationship from grammar cop to mentor
b) conferring built confidence as students understood I was willing to listen to them talk about their writing
c) conferring places a value on the piece of writing as more than just an assignment or means to a grade
d) frustration has dwindled--no longer are students gnawing through their thirteen year-old understanding to try and figure out what I want, how to please this teacher in this environment this time...rather, they are seeing themselves as capable and that everyone can improve
e) I know my kid's work and I know my lowest are rising...I can name three low scoring students (on state testing) and three very different deficiencies in their writing and how they have specifically grown (by leaps and bounds)
f) those in the middle and those on top demonstrate a desire to write and see the revisions through to a satisfying result, not an end; in other words, the perspective of my students has shifted from writing assignments are isolated to writing is a recursive process that I can get better at...and I know how.

The hurdle for me was understanding how to make conferring happen--where is the time? I can't create more time--how do I find it?

Conferring stikes me as similar to exercise and weight loss--we identify and universally agree that each is healthy and go hand in hand--but in order to achieve the end result many of us need to make lifestyle changes, alter our schedule, think differently...we need to change.

Conferring is the same thing as those commitments in that it probably will not fit as neat little package into what we currently do as teachers (assuming many follow the traditional teaching model of instruction and use of time). In order for a change we must first make that decision to change....and commit to it.

In order to use conferencing as an ongoing supplement to classroom instruction we have to be willing to break and redefine the traditional mold of how we were taught and the habits we've acquired since we left student teaching.

How many student teachers have come in ready, willing, and planning to confer with students one-on-one as a matter frequent classroom practice? I've had six student teachers over 17 years and none have--furthermore, I did not do it as a student teacher. (In that respect I'm lucky that I got to cut my teeth on conferencing as a theme reader). It would be great to see more student teachers ready and willing to take that leap--you can't get good at it unless you do it, but it would be even better for all of us interested in conferring to read contemporary educational pioneers such as Penny Kittle, Nancy Atwell, Kelly Gallagher...the list goes on...discuss it with colleagues, seek training and professional development in it, and come to the understanding of how to make it work.

I heard a colleague lament this week that he/she would love to confer with his/her students, but doesn't have the time in the schedule--there is just so much to teach. That is the universal critique of conferring from Maine to Florida, New Jersey to Oregon.

Finding the confidence and understanding how to manipulate time in the classroom, so that I can confer better and more often, has been one piece of a positive transition for me as a teacher this year. As I recently told a colleague in the National Writing Project, now that I understand how to make conferring work in my classroom, I want my first 15 years of teaching back.

Other topics on my list that I may write about in the near future:
Writing alongside of my students

Rethinking myself as a mentor of skills as opposed to a judge of skills

Vocabulary quizzes built on context

Mentor texts

Being Positive

Independent Reading of Self-Selected Texts

Alternative Seating Arrangements

Reading and Writing Online

Reading and Trusting Education Research & Reflections

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At the halfway point of my school year I am asking my students to reflect today in their Writer's Notebooks--list the moments, decisions, experiences that have had made a significant difference for you (as learner, person, friend, family member, musician, athlete, artist...) --write about some.

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A More Beautiful Question: An Interview with Warren Berger

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A More Beautiful Question: An Interview with Warren Berger

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Education Week - Classroom Q&A With Larry Ferlazzo

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This summer, I'll be alternating between publishing thematic collections of past posts (ones on Student Motivation, Implementing The Common Core, and Teaching Reading & Writing have already been published) and sharing interviews with authors of recent books I consider important and useful for us educators ( Meenoo Rami was the first, and co-authors Carmen Fariña & Laura Kotch were the second).

Warren Berger, the author of A More Beautiful Question: The Power of Inquiry To Spark Breakthrough Ideas has agreed to answer a few questions about his book. I've written elsewhere about how my colleagues and I use his work with our students.

LF: How would you define a "beautiful" or "powerful" question and the reasoning behind that definition?
Warren Berger: At the root of A More Beautiful Question is the idea that great things come from asking ambitious questions. I was inspired by the E.E. Cummings line, "Always the beautiful answer who asks a more beautiful question." In my years covering the worlds of design, invention, and innovation, I noticed many breakthroughs began with someone posing a bold, interesting question. For the book, I came up with my own, admittedly subjective, definition of a beautiful question: An ambitious, yet actionable, question that can begin to change the way we think about something--and might serve as a catalyst to bring about change. Such questions challenge the prevailing assumptions, and take a fresh look at things that perhaps are being ignored or taken for granted. Anyone can ask a beautiful question. The Polaroid instant camera was inspired when the 3-year-old daughter of company founder Edwin Land asked her father, "Why do we have to wait for the picture?" She couldn't understand why film had to be sent out for processing; she wanted to see the results right away. This question got her father thinking, and set in motion the process that led to the invention. More generally, whenever someone steps back and asks--Why are we doing things the way we've been doing them all along? What if we tried a whole new approach?--that, to me, is a beautiful question.

LF: You discuss how many of our schools still use a "factory model" of education that is not very friendly to the idea of encouraging students to develop their ability to ask these types of questions (though you do highlight some that have not followed that path, including schools founded by one of my colleagues here at Education Week, blogger Deborah Meier).

If you only had a short time to help a student understand why this ability is important to their present life and to their future, what would you say to him or her?
Warren Berger: Here's what I would say to any student: Knowing the answers will help you in school, but knowing how to question will help you in life. That ability to question--and do it well--enables you to tackle challenges and solve problems, which will help you succeed in your career and as a person. Plus, it can help you do a lot of cool, interesting things that may make the world a better place. Just think about those tech gadgets you love: Most of them sprang from someone asking, "Why hasn't anybody come up with a better way to do this?" or "What if we tried that?" Or think of the musical artists who are doing the most interesting stuff--they all tend to question the status quo and try fresh, original approaches. If you want to forge your own path, you've got to be a questioner.
LF: And, after you did that, what would you say to a teacher that might convince him or her to make this kind of question-asking skill a higher-priority in their classroom -- even in the face of standards and standardized testing pressures?
Warren Berger: Here's what I'd say to teachers: The world needs great, imaginative questioners. It needs them today and will need them even more tomorrow. In an environment of dynamic change, these students will have to be lifelong learners. They won't be able to rely long-term solely on the knowledge they gained in school; they will be forced to constantly adapt, re-think old rules, systems, and approaches, and keep learning new skills. As Harvard's Tony Wagner has declared, our education system must create innovators--and innovative thinking starts with questioning. It's a given that teachers have a lot of material to cover and limited time and resources. But if you accept that questioning is a critical skill--a survival skill of the future--then that's reason enough to try to somehow carve out a bit more time dedicated to helping students become better questioners. It's not easy: There is evidence suggesting that student questioning in classrooms steadily declines as kids get older. There are all kinds of forces working against student questioning, not least being that it can be seen as "uncool" to ask questions in class. So it's up to teachers to create a safe haven for questioning, and to stimulate and encourage it--they must somehow try to rekindle that flame of curiosity and inquiry.
LF: Okay, let's say you've now convinced them both. You suggest the Right Question Institute as one resource for teachers who want to pursue it more, and I think their work might be somewhat similar to Project Zero in Harvard, whose Ron Ritchhart has previously contributed to this column.

What simple practical teaching suggestions, though, would you recommend to a teacher who would want to "dip their toe in the water" of beginning to prioritize question-asking in their classroom?
Warren Berger: There are various question-teaching methodologies, and I suspect there's no "right way" to do it. What I like about RQI's approach is that it's simple, yet does a very powerful thing: It shifts the dynamic from teachers formulating questions for the students, to the students formulating their own questions. This is a big shift. Teachers spend a lot of time crafting the questions designed to get students to think more clearly--and rightly so. But something else seems to happen when students are encouraged to formulate the questions themselves. They begin developing their own questioning "muscle" and figuring out for themselves which questions are effective and aren't. And it's logical that kids would become more engaged when they think of their own questions--they have an investment in them, and are likely to care more about finding answers. So I would say, find whatever method you're comfortable with, as long as it creates the time and "safe" space that will allow and encourage students to focus on doing their own question-formulation. Don't tell them what questions to ask. And don't give them answers before they've had a chance to question. I love the example provided by teacher Dan Meyer in this popular , in which he shows that the mere act of withholding information can spark kids' curiosity to the point where they can't help asking questions. Once they do start coming up with their own questions, then it becomes important to help them analyze and improve those questions, and work toward asking even better ones.

LF: You write that, since we're awash these days in data and information, it's more important than ever for us to be able to develop the ability to ask good questions so we can effectively "sift and sort" through all of it. Your point reminded me of a recent New York Times article on the same topic -- the need to ask the right questions to derive valid information from "Big Data." And it certainly relates to lessons we teachers use to help our students identify credible -- and not credible -- reference sources on the Web.

Can you elaborate a bit on both the threat and the promise of technology to the development of effective question-asking skills?
Warren Berger: I think the threat is that students (and the rest of us) may assume the answers are all there at our fingertips--that all the thinking has been done for us. But all that data isn't of much use unless we know how to interpret it and what to do with it. Again, this goes back to questioning skills: The ability to look at information and ask, Why is this important? Should I accept it as entirely true or complete? What if there's a different way of thinking about this? And, from a practical standpoint, How can I best use this information for my purposes? Google is a wonderful tool for questioners, but it's only a starting point. If we're going to tackle really interesting, powerful questions, we shouldn't expect easy answers obtained with a few keystrokes. We shouldn't settle for Wikipedia wisdom. We should get in the habit of living with important questions, turning them over in our minds, experimenting and acting on them in various ways, large and small, and sharing them with other people. That "sharing" part is where technology can be really great--if you have a "beautiful question," you may find someone halfway around the world who is thinking about that same question, and who may help you explore.
LF: Many teachers who do include explicit question-asking skills in their classroom use Bloom's Taxonomy as a guide. I was a bit surprised to not see that Taxonomy mentioned in the book. What was the reasoning behind leaving it out, and do you think it can be a useful tool to promote questioning skills?
I think Bloom's Taxonomy can be an extremely valuable tool for teachers in terms of breaking down various levels of learning and the different kinds of questions that tend to be effective at each level. I thought about including it in the book, but it seemed a bit technical and academic for a general readership. My only concern with Bloom's Taxonomy would be if it were used in a way that made questioning seem either too complex or overly formulaic to the students. This might dampen the enthusiasm that can be generated by letting kids use their own imagination and innate questioning skills to figure out how to get to "higher level" questions themselves--with help from the teacher, of course.
LF: Is there anything I haven't asked you about that you'd like to share?
Well, I'll close by saying that questions are much more powerful than we may realize. They have a magnetic quality--they can intrigue, engage, motivate. I've started suggesting to business executives that maybe they should get rid of their corporate mission statements and replace them with "mission questions"--which would be much less arrogant-sounding, and also more likely to engage employees in a mission that is not yet accomplished and full of possibility. And I wonder if this concept would have relevance in classrooms, too. Should schools formulate their own "How Might We" mission questions? Should teachers? Should teachers and students collaborate on coming up with a "beautiful question" for the class or the school to pursue? I have lots more questions, but I'll stop there.
LF: Thanks, Warren!

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'A More Beautiful Question': An Interview With Warren Berger

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This summer, I'll be alternating between publishing thematic collections of past posts (ones on Student Motivation, Implementing The Common Core, and Teaching Reading & Writing have already been published) and sharing interviews with authors of recent books I consider important and useful for us educators ( Meenoo Rami was the first, and co-authors Carmen Fariña & Laura Kotch were the second).

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5 Powerful Questions Teachers Can Ask Students

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5 Powerful Questions Teachers Can Ask Students

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5 Powerful Questions Teachers Can Ask Students

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Many would agree that for inquiry to be alive and well in a classroom that, amongst other things, the teacher needs to be expert at asking strategic questions. With that in mind, if you are a new teacher or perhaps not so new but know that question-asking is an area where you’d like to grow, start t…

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Cris Tovani and Samantha Bennett: So What Do They Really Know?  Interview, Part One

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Author and educator Samantha Bennett interviews Cris Tovani about SO WHAT DO THEY REALLY KNOW? Cris's long-awaited new book from Stenhouse Publishers. So What Do They Really Know? is available now from Stenhouse: www.stenhouse.com/0730.asp Samantha and Cris have also created a new website which includes articles and their schedule for professional development: www.LiteracyLabs.org About the book: In So What Do They Really Know?

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Conferring Toolkits: Cheat Sheets

To be honest, I never created an official Conferring Toolkit when I was a classroom teacher. I didn't know there was such a thing (but sure wish I had known)! What I did have was a clipboard which I faithfully carried around the room as I conferred. The clipboard held my conferring notes and other record-keeping items. However, the real reason the clipboard never left my hands was because it also held my cheat sheets. Yep, that's right, I had cheat sheets, and I highly recommend that you add some to your own Conferring Toolkits, too.

I had two types of cheat sheets. The first type was a sheet to remind me how to conduct a conference. I used this sheet often when I was just learning how to confer. This sheet was a simple graphic to remind me to research, decide, teach, and link. Unfortunately, I misplaced my original long ago, but I recreated it here as an example:

Please note that my original was not this clean. It had my handwritten notes all over it with prompts and reminders in case I felt stuck. For instance, near the "Teach" box, I had probably written prompts for myself such as:

Many writers find...

One strategy I use when I want to...

Here's one tip that I think will help you...

Currently, I am in a coaching cycle with a first grade teacher who is refining her conferring skills. Our cheat sheet for how to conduct a conference comes from the work of Carl Anderson and can be seen here.

The second type of cheat sheet helped me find the teaching point in a conference. This sheet varied with each writing unit. For example, I might add the final checklist or rubric from a writing unit to to my Conferring Toolkit. This will help remind me where we are going when I sit down next to a writer. It will give me a list of things to be on the lookout for in his or her writing.

I would also include a copy of the my grade level's Common Core State Standards for writing, especially standards #1-3. A quick glance at the standards might remind me of an important teaching point.

I have some tried and true cheat sheets which belong in any writing unit. For example, here is a copy of page 28 from Carl Anderson's book, How's It Going? (2000).

I love this page because it addresses many of the common teaching points I often use in a conference, and it offers a strategy I could teach the writer. I recently saw Carl Anderson speak at a conference, and he shared some questions he asks himself when he sits down next to writers:

Is the writer attempting to communicate something meaningful?

Is the writer attempting to structure their piece in a logical way?

Is the writer using details?

Can I hear the writer's voice?

Did the writer use appropriate conventions?

I can imagine using Canva or Vanillapen to create a cheat sheet of these questions as well.

Once you've added a few cheat sheets to your own Conferring Toolkit, you will feel more confident and better prepared as you sit down to confer with young writers.

Our blog series continues tomorrow! And don't forget to join us Monday, May 11th at 8:30 p.m. Eastern Time for a Twitter chat. Use #TWTBlog to join the conversation.

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To be honest, I never created an official Conferring Toolkit when I was a classroom teacher. I didn't know there was such a thing (but sure wish I had known)! What I did have was a clipboard which I faithfully carried around the room as I conferred.

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Wow!

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ICYMI: Conferring Toolkits Blog Series

In case you missed a post during out Conferring Toolkits Blog Series, here is a sneak peek!

Elizabeth wrote about Class Stories, Shared Writing and Interactive Writing

She shared how having pieces of writing that the whole class has been involved in creating are invaluable resources to have at your fingertips while conferring.

Anna wrote about Creating Visuals for Teaching Tools

Anna shared ways to demonstrate visuals that support elaboration and balance in a narrative as well as feelings and conventions.

I wrote about S upplies and How to Use Them

There are all kinds of supplies you can carry around in your toolkit to make conferring more efficient. In this post I shared some of my "must haves."

Dana shared Cheat Sheets

Dana's cheat sheet examples help us keep moving when we feel stuck.

Stacey showed us different styles of Record Keeping

Do you go digital or handwritten? Stacey shares options for both styles of record keeping.

Tara shared Mentor Texts

Tara shares how mentor texts are one of the most important pieces within her toolkit and allows her to share good writing with students.

There you have it! But wait! Join us tomorrow at 8:30 for a Twitter Chat that continues the conversation! What do you have in your toolkit?

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In case you missed a post during out Conferring Toolkits Blog Series, here is a sneak peek! Elizabeth wrote about Class Stories, Shared Writing and Interactive Writing She shared how having pieces of writing that the whole class has been involved in creating are invaluable resources to have at your fingertips while conferring.

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Two Writing Teachers

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Don't Forget the Compliment

Recently, I received an authentic compliment on my writing. And I must say, it gave me pause. It sort of jangled around inside me for several days, causing me to reflect and occasionally bringing a smile to my face. Even though I'm an adult, I could honestly feel myself walking taller, feeling larger, and experiencing a true sense of, well, pride. Just that one compliment changed, perhaps ever so slightly, the way I viewed myself as a writer. Suddenly I began to take myself a bit more seriously. Suddenly I started to imagine more possibility. Suddenly my writerly identity somehow expanded. All because of a great compliment.

Lucy Calkins once taught me that a good compliment can accelerate learning. And yet, so often in my own conferring and the conferring I have witnessed in the middle school classrooms in which I have worked, the compliment suffers one of the following fates: It is phrased as a quick, non-specific version of "good job"; or it is given, but couched in a perfunctory tone that strips it of any real educational value; or it is skipped altogether! If you are reading this and thinking, "Oh, yeah...that's happened to me before," you are most definitely not alone!

Oftentimes, we are so committed to moving our kids forward as writers that we don't feel like there's the time to stop and pay a writer a specific compliment. During writing workshop, we pull up next to a writer. We research. We converse a bit. But how many of us all the while are really thinking, "I've got to get to the teaching part of this conference... I've got so many kids to confer with and give feedback to today!"? And compliments aren't really true feedback anyway...are they?

Actually, compliments are feedback. In fact, feedback tucked inside a really good compliment can be some of the most powerful feedback we can offer. Someone once said, "If you want to light someone up, acknowledge him or her." As teachers of writing, we aim to light up our students. We strive to fill them with light that acknowledgement, a sense of accomplishment, and writerly independence can provide. Compliments offer a wonderful way to generate the kind of light inside our students that can sustain them as writers for years to come.

That said, there are some specifics we might consider when it comes to complimenting our writers:

Causal statements- Be wary of the phrase, "I like how you..." In his seminal book Opening Minds: Using Language to Change Lives (Stenhouse, 2012), Peter Johnston reminds us that when we employ such phraseology in our compliments as "I like...," we unwittingly place ourselves into a position of judgment. He argues that we really ought to strive for "process-oriented" feedback" versus "person-oriented" feedback. That is to say, we as teachers want to consider focusing our feedback on a process-in this case, the writing process. As teachers, we are in the business of nurturing agency within our students. Saying words like, "I like how you used flashback here. Good job with that!" while well meaning, communicates a message to the student that her job as a writer is to please you. Alternatively, consider such phrases as, "Look how you used flashback to help readers learn about some important background to the character. It really helped me understand why she made that decision!" Delivered in an enthusiastic tone, this will likely be interpreted as a compliment.

Johnston calls this a "causal statement" and argues that these types of statements (typically phrased as, "You did this...with this consequence") lie at the heart of building agency within our students.

Tuck in some teaching- A good compliment contains some teaching inside of it. When we deliver that compliment, whether it is to one writer or a group of writers, consider working to tuck in a little teaching that is transferable to future pieces of writing. For example, I recently worked with a sixth grade writer on moving from summarizing to storytelling in his narrative writing. One day, I noticed him revising his draft to contain more internal thinking. "Wow, Spencer (not his real name)," I began, "look how you help your reader begin to see the real meaning in your story, that 'thinking before you act' is so important! You wrote your inner thinking right here where you think about the importance of wearing a helmet, and then again here when you think about what your mother had always said. This is one way writers get their messages across, by writing an internal dialogue-and look how effectively you're doing that!" This compliment definitely lit Spencer up, as I saw him smiling from ear to ear. But it was also meant to teach or reteach some important content about narrative writing.

Compliments are paragraphs-Although this idea has been written about by many, it's still worth mentioning. The middle school schedule can instill a panicky sense of haste in even the most experienced teacher. Just remember that a compliment begins by "listening for the gold" as it has been called by Lucy Calkins. And once you have heard or seen a writer do something you would like him to continue to do as a writer, try gushing a bit about it! I often try to do this in a few ways: (1) Be specific about what the writer did in his current writing piece. And tone matters here-I try to include some real enthusiasm when I do this! (2) Mention this particular move as a worthy technique that published writers often make; (3) Discuss the payoff this writing move or behavior will have for both him and a reader. Yes, complimenting in paragraphs takes a bit more time. But consider the rewards for your writers!

Compliments are a bit like little gifts we give our students each day. One of my mentors once told me that if your compliment makes the writer smile, you have succeeded. I would add that if your compliment is not just given but strives to make a real difference for a writer, you truly have succeeded.

Happy Complimenting!

For more than 23 years, Lanny has taught, coached, presented, staff developed, and consulted within the exciting and enigmatic world of literacy. With unyielding passion and belief in the possibility of workshop teaching, Lanny has worked to support students, teachers, and school administrators around the country in outgrowing themselves as both writers and readers. Working first as a classroom teacher, then as a coach and TCRWP Staff Developer, Lanny is now a literacy and reading consultant in Northwestern Connecticut. Outside of literacy, he enjoys raising his three ambitious young daughters with his wife, and playing the piano. Find him on Twitter @LannyBall, as well as his literacy blog: lannyball.com.

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Recently, I received an authentic compliment on my writing. And I must say, it gave me pause. It sort of jangled around inside me for several days, causing me to reflect and occasionally bringing a smile to my face. Even though I'm an adult, I could honestly feel myself walking taller, feeling larger, and experiencing a true sense of, well, pride.

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Two Writing Teachers Blog

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"Lift the ball with your right hand, and pretend your right knee is tied to your right elbow." Placing the orange ball uncertainly in my right hand, I glanced over at Mr. Brown, my new basketball coach. Fixing his gaze squarely upon me, he added, "You can do this." It was my 8th grade year, and unexpectedly I had been selected for the varsity basketball team. Somewhere during the first week of practice, I found myself working at one of the side baskets of the court with my coach practicing lay-ups - a basic fundamental of basketball. Working with him one-on-one, my coach was talking me through and showing me - step by step- how to make a lay-up.

In the writing workshop, this approach of working with a single student to support his or her writing repertoire is not much different from the individual coaching I received from Mr. Brown those many years ago.
A Writing Conference: What is it?
One of the important goals of writing workshop is to slow down the process of writing so that feedback is possible the process, not just at the end. Feedback has been identified as having a significant effect on student achievement (for more on this, read ). According to Peter Johnston, the purposes of feedback are to: (1) improve conceptual understanding, and (2) increase strategic options while developing stamina, resilience, and motivation (Johnston, 2012).

One effective way to provide feedback to learners is through conferring. Now, I hear many teachers, when discussing conversations with individual writers, use the word "conferencing." But recalling a workshop I took with author Carl Anderson , I remember him pointing out that when we sit and talk with students about their writing, it is called conferring , not conferencing. Conferring is a means of both assessing and providing targeted individualized instruction to students in a way that no whole class instruction can. It is a means by which teachers can quickly gather information about their students to determine where they currently fall on a continuum of learning, and then begin to help them move to the next level of performance.

Conferences are a powerful way to support each student's growth and independence because teachers are able to meet students right where they are and provide instruction that will potentially have the biggest impact.

During the independent time of writing workshop, we want to pull up next to our writers to confer with them about their writing. A writing conference is a one-to-one interaction between an individual writer and her teacher, and it is arguably the single most effective way to help a student improve. During this time, we as teachers assess the level to which a student is currently writing and select one way we can provide feedback that supports the student in lifting the level of his writing. As teachers, we always want to keep in mind that we are working to teach the writer, not fix the writing.

This approach is starkly in contrast to sitting down to fix up what the student has written, or tell the writer everything she needs to add in order to "make it better." During a writing conference, we are not telling students how to "fix" their writing or what they should or should not do to make this particular piece better. Rather, we are aiming to teach them a transferable strategy they might use in any similar piece of writing.

It is also in contrast to sitting down to be an editor. As author Carl Anderson pointed out in his fall 2016 workshop in New York City,

The old thinking was that if teachers are editors, correct everything, and punish students, they will learn how to write; the fallacy there is that teachers already know how to write. It's not fair to be their editor. We need to be their teacher. So we teach one thing in a conference. We assess and teach one thing (Teachers College Reading & Writing Project Saturday Reunion, fall 2016) .

While the approach of editor may serve to make the particular piece of writing better, it does little to support the student in becoming a stronger, more independent writer. Therefore, we focus our conferring energies on the writers themselves.
The Architecture of a Conference: What to Do
While there is indeed no one way to conduct a writing conference, we have found it helpful to follow a few steps to increase the odds that each conference yields an impactful result. The steps of a Research-Decide-Teach ("RDT Conference"), often called an "architecture," are outlined below. There are other types of conferences as well, such as a compliment conference, but the RDT Conference is a good starting place.

Research- One of the goals of the research phase of a writing conference is to nudge kids to talk at a higher level about their writing. Initially, conferences often begin by asking the student an open-ended question, a question that gets them to say a lot about their writing. I'll often initiate a conference by asking, "What can you tell me about the work you're doing as a writer today?" And then listen. Often, students will need further prompting, so we may need to ask a few assessment questions to instigate more talk on the part of the writer, nudging them to provide us with more information about their work (see suggestions below). If we are returning to a student, perhaps from earlier in the week or last week, we want to be sure to check our conferring notes to follow-through on previous conferences. To do this, we might say, "Last time we met we worked on____... how's that going for you?" or "Would you show me a few places where you tried it?"

In addition to listening, the research phase is also a time to read of the student's work. You don't have to read all of it! Frequently, it pays to read the part about which you and the student are conversing. While reading, look for how the student is doing or progressing in the area of writing upon which your discussion is focused.

Compliment- After researching students, we provide them with feedback. And we begin with a compliment. This compliment should be authentic, specific, and serve to acknowledge one thing the writer is doing you would love for them to continue doing. Now, they may not be doing it elegantly or perfectly! But perhaps, they are on what Peter Elbow calls "the edge" of doing it. So compliment them on it!

One way to light someone up is to acknowledge them for something. And a compliment should do both: Light the student up (try to make them smile!) and acknowledge them for a writerly move they are already demonstrating.

Lucy Calkins once said, "A good compliment can accelerate achievement." And when students know they'll be receiving feedback that is positive, they will be glad to see us sit down next to them.

Teach- Following the compliment, writing workshop teachers will often ask, "Can I teach you something?" At this point, we have silently selected in our teacher minds one thing, one method or move, that would benefit this student in his or her writing. This is often in the form of a tip or strategy that we are now going to take some time to teach the writer. It is important to remember that this tip should be something that is (a) within the writer's zone of proximal development, and (b) transferable to pieces of future writing.

So we begin by stating what the writing move or convention is and explaining it. Many times, I'll rely on two basic steps to teach students during a conference:

(1.) Step One: Use a mentor text - Most of the time, I'll begin by saying, "One thing that helps me..." and I'll show the student by way of my own writing (or sometimes I use another writer's text) what it is I am attempting to teach. During this process, it's important to break down the writing move, convention, or strategy into replicable steps that a student can follow.

(2.) Step Two: Ask the student to try - After teaching the student, ask them to try it in their own writing piece. You may ask them to physically write it in front of you or "write it in the air," which means to say what they write, while not physically writing. This often saves time and allows us to assess whether or not students actually understood what it was we were attempting to teach.

Link- Essentially, the link is a recap of what we just taught the writer. Writing workshop teachers often end conferences by saying the words, "So today, and everyday, when you are . . ." and restating the teaching point. It's helpful to leave an artifact, if possible. This may by a post-it with the strategy written on it, or perhaps a copy of a mentor text we used during the conference.
Quick Tips

Aim for three to four conferences per workshop- As a teacher, especially when we are just getting started, it is helpful to set a goal for how many conferences we want to hold during a workshop. This will, of course, depend on our time structure and how many students we teach. Middle school teachers often hold fewer individual conferences and rely more on small groups.

Avoid questioning the conference away- Carl Anderson recommends conferences be around 4-7 minutes long. Be careful not to spend this entire conference time asking students questions! This will negate effectiveness and begin to intrude on actual teaching time (which is a main point of conferring). A few high-leverage assessment questions might sound like:

"How's that going?"

"Can you say more about that?"

"Can you show me where you tried that in your writing?"

Do your homework ahead of conferences- Research often starts by observing the student from afar, looking through past conferring notes and by taking a tour through their notebook/folder/on-demand ahead of time, and/or while they are still writing. Walking into a conference "prepared" can help us feel more confident about how to best support a writer.

Think about what's easy and what's going to be tricky for this writer- Conferences help build important relationship between teachers and writers, so as we get to know our students, we can begin to anticipate what strengths and needs each student has within his or her writing as we approach each conference.

Confer with students, even if you don't feel like you are "good at it" - It takes time to become good at conferring- years, even! But realize that even by the sheer fact that we are sitting down next to students to talk with them about their writing, we are sending a positive message that helps nurture a crucial element to teaching: relationship with student.

Keep records of your conferring - It is helpful to write some things down after each conference. This allows us to both remember what we taught in previous conferences, as well as assess as to what degree our previous teaching "stuck with" our writers.

Next Steps

In your conferences, work to establish multiple lines of inquiry with writers. You might ask, "So that's one thing you're working on. What else are you working on?" Or, "Tell me about how punctuation will help us read this part here?" Or, "Can you say a little about how this part fits with what you know about this type of writing?" Establishing multiple lines of inquiry can help determine what the most appropriate or needed teaching point might be.

Work on building a conferring kit. Often kits include samples of teacher writing, mentor texts that students are familiar with, post-it notes, copies of checklists and/or rubrics, and lists of possible assessment questions.

Link Roundup from TWT Suggested Reading
GIVEAWAY: RENEW! BECOME A BETTER AND MORE AUTHENTIC WRITING TEACHER, BY SHAWNA COPPOLA

This giveaway is for a copy of Renew! Become a Better - and More Authentic - Writing Teacher.Many thanks to Stenhouse Publishers for donating a copy for one reader. (If the winner has a U.S. address, you may choose a paper or eBook. If the winner has an international mailing address, then you will receive an eBook.)

For a chance to win this copy of Renew! Become a Better - and More Authentic - Writing Teacher,please leave a comment about this or any blog post in this blog series by Monday, August 7th at 5:00 p.m. EDT. Beth Moore will use a random number generator to pick the winner's commenter number. His/her name will be announced in the ICYMI blog post for this series on Tuesday, August 8th.

Please be sure to leave a valid e-mail address when you post your comment, so Beth can contact you to obtain your mailing address if you win. From there, our contact at Stenhouse will ship your book out to you. (NOTE: Your e-mail address will not be published online if you leave it in the e-mail field only.)

If you are the winner of the book, Betsy will email you with the subject line of TWO WRITING TEACHERS - RENEW BOOK. Please respond to her e-mail with your mailing address within five days of receipt. Unfortunately, a new winner will be chosen if a response isn't received within five days of the giveaway announcement.

For more than 29 years, Lanny has taught, coached, presented, staff developed, and consulted within the exciting and enigmatic world of literacy. With unyielding passion and belief in the possibility of workshop teaching, Lanny has worked to support students, teachers, and school administrators around the country in outgrowing themselves as both writers and readers. Working first as a classroom teacher, then as a coach and TCRWP Staff Developer, Lanny is now a literacy specialist, working and living in the great state of Connecticut. Outside of literacy, he enjoys raising his three ambitious young daughters with his wife, and playing the piano. Find him on this blog, as well as on Twitter @LannyBall. Lanny is also a former co-author of a blog dedicated to supporting writing teachers and coaches that maintain classroom writing workshops, twowritingteachers.org. View all posts by Lanny Ball

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"Lift the ball with your right hand, and pretend your right knee is tied to your right elbow." Placing the orange ball uncertainly in my right hand, I glanced over at Mr. Brown, my new basketball coach. Fixing his gaze squarely upon me, he added, "You can do this."

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Whether you are brand new to the art of conferring or you've been at it a while now, this resource can help you "find your words" to prompt conversation and learning during the reading conference. The list below provides examples of teacher language that keeps the conference focused on the reader and reader strategies.
To Get You Started To Stimulate Thinking about Book Choice To Get Students to Say More To Paraphrase what a Student Has Said To Compliment To Suggest Stretch Points To Provide a Demonstration To Provide Guided Practice To Provide More Explanation of Something You've Already Taught To Provide Another Example of Something You've Already Taught To Close the Conference
To learn more about making the most of conferences, checkout out Simple Starts; Making the Move to a Reader-Centered Classroom, from Heinemann.

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34 Prompts to Support Thinking and Conversation During the Reading Conference - Simply Inspired Teaching

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Whether you are brand new to the art of conferring or you've been at it a while now, this resource can help you "find your words" to prompt conversation and learning during the reading conference. The list below provides examples of teacher language that keeps the conference focused on the reader and reader ...

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Nurturing Intrinsic Motivation and Growth Mindset in Writing

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Nurturing Intrinsic Motivation and Growth Mindset in Writing

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It's the first writing conference, four weeks into the year, with this blond senior. He stiffly leans back from me as far as the metal desk will allow, exuding cynicism, too cool for meeting with teachers about his writing. I can see he doesn't trust me yet or know why we conference, and he's afraid. He says, "So, what is this meeting about then?" And we begin.

The Power of Teacher Enthusiasm

Conferencing and portfolios work for me. Over the last 13 years of teaching English, I've developed a system of folders for work, held regular quarterly conferences with every student, and instituted cover letters in which students introduce, explain, and critique their writing at the end of the year. I also teach California State University's Expository Reading and Writing Course, a curriculum for high school seniors that encourages teachers to coach writing and students to write for real audiences. After the course, students report growth in their writing -- new confidence, success in their next-year college classes, higher EPT scores, and perhaps most importantly, ownership of their writing. Scholarship from the 1980s to the present supports my own findings and reiterates that portfolios and writing conferences can sometimes be very successful.

But I wish the research would point to these systems as consistent and universal means of student growth. It does not. The research suggests that these practices improve student writing only along with the qualifier of enthusiastic teachers who create meaningful systems for their own classrooms. It worked in my classroom, but I was bothered that the research was so tepid. I kept doing portfolios and conferences in my classroom, noting anecdotal and statistical success for my students.

Then, two years ago, I read Daniel Pink's Drive and Carol Dweck's Mindset, and I realized that a system of portfolios and conferences was not enough to change student engagement on its own. The way I thought and talked with my students about their writing and learning had also changed. The words out of my mouth in the classroom changed the way students thought about their writing even more than portfolios and conferencing.

Intrinsic Motivation

Pink's argues that employees -- and students -- after their basic needs are met, are motivated by autonomy, purpose, and mastery. Humans want some control over our tasks, we want real tasks that connect to our world, and we want the opportunity to improve. Extrinsic motivation (grades, bonuses, stickers, prizes) actually inhibit students from succeeding on cognitively difficult tasks like, say, writing. I'd been teaching writing all wrong! I'd dangled the carrots of prizes and threatened with the sticks of docked points for misplaced modifiers.

But sometimes, I also got it right. Before, I'd let students choose prompts and readings as much as possible, providing autonomy. After reading Pink, I learned to unbend myself, make deadlines more flexible, and shape the writing process more to fit the student. Now, my students feel more control over their process.

Before, I'd encouraged my students to write for real audiences as summative assessments. Now, I encourage students to write to real people for real purposes throughout the school year -- their own blogs, each other, me, their principal, their Congressional representatives, and the world.

Before, I'd embedded grammar instruction in writing process and had students keep their work to casually notice their progress once a year. Now, I conference four times a year with students about portfolios of their work -- an ongoing conversation about writing goals of their choosing. I explicitly teach metacognition, or how to talk and write about their writing.

Growth Mindset

Carol Dweck's also made me question the feedback I was giving. Dweck found that praising students for intelligence actually made kids less likely to take academic risks because, on some level, they feared losing the label of "smart" if they did poorly. And since avoiding academic risks means avoiding learning, praising students' intelligence eventually impaired their success in school (and life happiness as well, since they felt intelligence was out of their own control). Students praised for working through difficult material wanted to show they could do so again, with the cumulative effects of long-term academic success, confidence in trying situations, and happier outlooks. Dweck called these mindsets fixed and growth, and started a movement to instill growth mindset in students. She has also talked about the amazing power of yet. She argues that we do a disservice to students by giving them only positive feedback on their writing. Although we don't want to crush their dreams, they can handle -- and even need -- room for growth and mastery. Hence the power of yet: "Your sentence structure does not yet match the tone you are trying to achieve." Yet allows negative feedback while also transmitting trust that they will get there.

I had a realization several years ago that my goal is not a good essay from Student A, but rather for Student A to know that she's in charge of her progress as a writer and feel confident to keep writing for the rest of her life. To that end, I must teach writing process, self-confidence through intrinsic motivation, metacognition, and the willingness to write badly, much more than I need to teach themes, metaphor, or prepositional phrases.

Reading the Common Core Language Arts documents and support, one notices the words "choice," "audience," "purpose," "metacognition," and "growth" throughout. Recently, I presented nurturing intrinsic motivation in writing to a classroom of other educators. They had no problem brainstorming ways to improve intrinsic motivation and growth mindset in our classrooms. Students want the same freedom in writing that we do, and teachers know how to provide it when given the opportunity.

The Payoff: Engagement and Ownership

It's the fifth meeting since September with that blond senior. Now his knees are tucked under him so he can arch across the desk and dissect the same sentence a foot away from me. We have gone from a distant "What is this meeting about then?" to an eager "Can I schedule a conference right now? I think I've smoothed the transitions, but I need to play with the syntax in the conclusion. Hear me out." Perhaps more importantly, I didn't schedule it, and I'm not doing most of the talking. He's found his voice and his reason to write.

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Nurturing Intrinsic Motivation and Growth Mindset in Writing | Edutopia

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It's the first writing conference, four weeks into the year, with this blond senior. He stiffly leans back from me as far as the metal desk will allow, exuding cynicism, too cool for meeting with teachers about his writing. I can see he doesn't trust me yet or know why we conference, and he's afraid.