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#MicDrop

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Good for Mrs. Lydon-Lorson but good perspective for others to read about!

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Yes, it's scary. Yes, it's easy to assume you already know what students think about your class, how well they're handling the workload, what activities they like the most. Yes, it's possible you know best. Still.

If you've never asked students for serious, honest feedback, you're missing something. If you ask the right questions and give students the time and encouragement to supply quality answers, student feedback can benefit you in so many ways.

The Benefits

1. Increasing Student Engagement

By finding out what learning activities students like the most and least about your class, you'll get better at designing lessons that really engage them. Of course, your job is not to entertain your students 24/7, but if some methods of delivery are better received than others, then they're likely to result in greater learning gains as well.

2. Preventive Discipline

Learning more about each student's experience in your class can go a long way toward improving the relationship you have with them. And that can go a long way toward improving classroom management.

3. Differentiation

Grades and test scores don't tell the whole story. A student who is getting excellent grades might be accomplishing that only with tremendous effort and hours of work at home. Conversely, a student who consistently turns in mediocre work might actually want more of a challenge. By asking students how well the work fits their abilities, you can adjust your instruction to better meet their needs.

4. Bullying Prevention

When students are given an opportunity to share their feelings about your class, they might also include information about students who harass them, or each other. If a student says he hates coming to your class every day, the reason might have more to do with his peers than with anything you're doing. Gathering student feedback is the first step toward discovering the things you don't know about your own classroom.

5. Self-Preservation

Many school systems are implementing teacher evaluation programs that include student feedback. And at the college level, student evaluations can significantly impact a professor's promotion and tenure. Instead of waiting for the "official" forms to be distributed to students, get ahead of the curve by asking for similar feedback early, while there's still time to troubleshoot.

Gathering Student Feedback, Step-by-Step

Start by asking good questions.

Create a written survey you distribute to students. Even if you teach online, you can distribute forms electronically. Here are some questions that should be included:

Is the work in this class too hard or too easy for you?

Do you feel our tests and quizzes are fair?

How easy is it to approach me with questions or concerns?

Do you feel our class time is used wisely?

What do you like most about this class?

What do you like least?

What else do you think I should know?

That last question might seem like a throw-away, but it can elicit some of the most powerful and significant information you'll get. Some students will use it to tell you about a problem they're having with a classmate. Others will tell you that the handle on the class supply drawer is broken. You just never know what you're going to get, so be sure to add an open-ended question like this to your survey.

Next, create optimal conditions for quality feedback.

Distribute the survey at the right time and place. What worked best for me was to set aside 5 to 10 minutes at the end of a class period and have students do it then, rather than having them take it home.

Talk to students ahead of time about the purpose of the survey and your desire to hear their true feelings. Give them examples of "mean" feedback (insulting another person) and "constructive" feedback (describing your own experience). Assure them that if they tell you something critical about your class or your teaching, you will not give them a bad grade or punish them in return.

Make sure the room stays quiet and that students keep their responses as private as they would with a test.

Decide ahead of time if you want students to put their names on their surveys: Anonymity will often get you more honest responses, but without names, it's harder to do much follow-up work on them. I would tell my students that they could leave their names off if that made them more comfortable, but that I would be able to be a better teacher to them personally if I knew what their responses were. Most of the time, students chose to add their names.

Finally, ACT on the feedback.

Gathering information is useless if you do nothing with it. Here are some ways you can respond to student feedback:

Talk. Then talk some more. Written feedback should be considered the first step. Once you've read the forms, follow up with individual students about their comments, and talk to the whole class about what you plan to do in response to what you learned. A few weeks later, check back with students to see if the changes are working for them.

Look for patterns. A complaint from one student is worth noting, but fifty million Elvis fans can't be wrong. Do many students say they don't like silent reading? Do seventeen kids mention "rug time" as a problem? Even if it's something you want to keep doing, a whole-class discussion can help you figure out ways to improve it.

Dig into the mysteries. Students may put cryptic things on their surveys that are just the tip of the iceberg. If there's anything on the form you don't understand, don't brush it off. Pull the student aside and ask her about it.

Solve the easy problems. One of the best things about getting this feedback is that it can alert you to a problem that's easy to fix. If a student mentions that the draft from the window bothers her, just move her. There. You just made the rest of the school year better for that kid.

Watch your ego. Reading even a little bit of negative feedback is no fun for anyone, so be aware that your first reaction to criticism will probably be defensive. That's natural, but it won't solve the problem. Remind yourself that the student took a risk by telling you, so take the problem seriously and resolve to calmly and constructively find ways to solve it.

Notice the positives. If the criticisms are getting you down, go back through and notice all the good things students said - those things matter. Figure out what you're doing right, then do more of it.

A Tool You Can Use Right Now

If you'd like something ready-made for gathering student feedback, here's a form you can use today: the "How's It Going?" Form. You can use it any time of year to get a quick snapshot for how students are experiencing your class. The form comes in two versions: One for elementary students and the other for secondary and college-level students. With each, you'll also get an editable form so you can add to or adjust the questions for your own needs, and a link to a Google Forms option if you want to conduct the survey digitally. Both forms are available in my Teachers Pay Teachers store:

The "How's It Going?" Form
The "How's It Going?" Form
Secondary/College Level Elementary Level

Come back for more.
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5 Reasons You Should Seek Your OWN Student Feedback

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As teacher evaluation systems become more complex and intense, many of us ignore the richest source of information about our teaching. And it's right under our noses.

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Student to Student Feedback Wheels!

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Sentence starters and love the focus of "Two Starts and a Wish!"

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Good article and freebie at the bottom to use right away!

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You know that feeling. You have spent hours or even days preparing a set of lesson plans you feel are so engaging for your kiddos! Heck, you even have pulled students into your planning to get their input on how you can make the lesson/assignment the best it can be! At the end of the day you decide to look through students' work. It is at this moment you question if your students were even present for the lesson in your classroom? Were they in the same room, the same planet? You begin to question yourself on what language you must have been speaking:-)

Have you been there? Oh, geez...I know I have. I am here to make a bold statement today: It is WORTH it. What you have prepared, the lesson you collaborated on with your team, the lesson that another student helped you to develop IS WORTH IT. Sometimes it is easier to brush off unacceptable work or think that there really isn't time to go back and have students redo their work or assignment. There is always time. You may have to reallocate time, but I promise you IT IS worth it. Whether students were to create and illustrate number lines in Educreations on their iPad, or work out five area and perimeter problems in their workbook...unacceptable work is just that, unacceptable. Maybe your fourth graders wrote a whole "paragraph" without correct capitalization/punctuation, maybe a reading response journal was done too quickly and slopped down...don't be afraid to blow the whistle on unacceptable work! You know your students best, and it is easy at this point in the year to know when individual students are not giving it their ALL!

If you are assigning students respectful tasks/activities for learning, then you should INSPECT what you EXPECT! If students know that you expect their best work no matter what the assignment, they will rise to your expectations. Don't be afraid of having students redo work!

Here is a freebie to use with student work that needs another look! Feel free to run this on colored paper so it stands out! Staple it to the work that needs more work! Two versions are available in this FREEBIE (with and without parent signature.)

Keep working on the work!

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Quality Work Alert: INSPECT what you EXPECT - At Whit's End

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You know that feeling. You have spent hours or even days preparing a set of lesson plans you feel are so engaging for your kiddos! Heck, you even have pulled students into your planning to get their input on how you can make the lesson/assignment the best it can be!

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Feedback is not just for classroom teachers - ALL can get involved!

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Feedback is not just for classroom teachers - ALL can get involved!

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Feedback on sticky notes for hallway work!

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Using homework assignments to give feedback is pokey. Inefficient. Slow.

Think about the length of the feedback loop for traditional homework assignments:

Teacher assigns homework to students.

Students take it home (maybe) and work on it (maybe).

Students turn it in the next day.

Teacher grades and provides comments that night (if not completely swamped with other work)

Teacher returns assignment the next day with feedback

As teachers, we're appalled that students take their graded work - with meaningful feedback - and throw it in the trash. (Or my favorite ... seeing it trapped in a closed locker door as I walk down the hallway. It makes me think, "I spent all that time grading that work and this is where it ends up?!?!")
But why wouldn't they throw it in the trash?
It takes work for students to take themselves back in time to when they were working on that assignment. As an adult, I have a hard time thinking about my thoughts and struggles with my work two days ago.

The path of least resistance is NOT to do that mental back-tracking to apply slow feedback to a meaningless assignment. That assignment was SO two days ago.

I've found that the best feedback is the kind that can be applied right away. Why wait when we can get help right now with whatever we're cognitively wrestling with?

Especially today, where technology is ubiquitous and communication is instant, we can do so much better than tardy feedback.

My feedback revelation with student blogging

This really hit me when my own students started blogging with their writing in my Spanish classes.

At first, I thought I needed to comment digitally on their work if they were writing digitally. So I spent most of my time giving them suggestions through written comments after they were done writing.

Bad move. So, so, so wrong.

Once they were done with that blog post, they had moved on with their lives. They had little incentive to go back into that blog post, find my comments, read them and internalize them.

I've heard people say that in traditional school, once a grade is assigned, the learning is over. I was trying to teach them after they thought they were done learning.

The feedback was good, but perception is reality: they thought they were done learning, so the feedback didn't land.

I revised my techniques and tried a VERY low-tech option ...

I think the technical term for it is "walk around class and talk to students."

Students wrote their blog posts in class. As they were writing, I stopped by each student's desk and took a knee. I briefly read what they were writing and used the sandwich feedback technique:

A compliment (positive feedback)

A change they could make

Another compliment (more positive feedback)

It sounded something like this: "Hey, that's impressive that you remembered that word. We haven't gone over it in a couple months! (Positive feedback.) Remember right there that you want to use the word 'por' because you're talking about a length of time. (A change to make.) Other than that, it's looking good. Keep up the good work! (Positive feedback.)"

Could I have given that student about 17 corrections? Ohhhhhhh yes. Probably more. But I didn't.

There's this thing called cognitive load. It's the total amount of mental effort being used in the working memory. I figured that if I gave students more than one or two suggestions during their writing, it would be more like cognitive OVERload. So I chose my feedback wisely.

It's like coaching little kids to hit a baseball. They have a LOT to learn. If you tell them seven different things to remember when they go to bat, they won't remember any of them.

Tell them the most important thing to remember and they might actually remember it and do it.

As teachers, it makes us feel better - like we're doing our jobs - when we give lots of pointed feedback. But how much does it help kids when we overwhelm them and they can't actually use any of it?

10 ways to provide quick feedback students can REALLY use

Looking for some ways to up your feedback game? To make it lightning-quick so students will actually use it?

Here are some ideas:

1. Play a quick formative assessment game. There are lots of great techy options here. Kahoot!. Quizizz. Quizlet Live. The list goes on and on. If we want kids to get meaningful repetitions with instant feedback, they're a great option.

Try replacing your repetition-based homework assignments with two quick Quizizz games each day. Do the first and check the student results. Do a quick mini lesson to address deficits. Then play the exact same game again. The instant feedback in those two short games will outweigh daily homework almost every time. (Hat tip to Jon Corippo for this idea!)

2. Use digital assignment tools. These tools let you create an assignment and send it out to students digitally. As students work, they can get instant feedback. Some options:

Google Forms quizzes (forms.google.com) - Create simple quizzes using Google Forms. Then click the settings gear button in the top right corner and choose "Quizzes." Add instant feedback for students once they're done with the quiz. They won't have to wait on you to grade it!

Formative (goformative.com) - Create digital assignments with questions, teacher-created drawings, videos and more. (I LOVE the draw-your-answer option called the "show your work" question.) Watch in real time as students answer and give them instant grades and comments. (Be sure students have an account and have joined your Formative class to make this happen.)

ClassKick (classkick.com) - The brilliance of this one is that students can give each other anonymous help. Who says the teacher has to give all the feedback? Create an assignment. Let students work. They can digitally raise their hands for help. The teacher can help - or students who are finished can help. Everyone is invested in everyone else's learning.

3. Comments in Google Slides, Docs, etc. I'm a HUGE proponent of Google Apps/G Suite for its instant collaboration. I love creating a slide presentation and sharing it with students (giving everyone editing rights with the "Share" button). Each student gets a slide for his/her work. Students and the teacher can leave comments for each other. Plus, those comments are "nested" - you can reply to specific comments and keep that "conversation" separate from other comments.

4. The paper version of #3. Tech isn't a necessity for instant feedback! Have students complete a task on paper. Then have them pass their papers to the student behind them. That student provides some pointed feedback (positive, constructive or both). Then pass to the student to the right. Then pass again. Return papers to their owners.

5. Post to social media. Looking for a bigger audience than the classroom? Have students copy sentences from their work (or take a photo of a paragraph) and post it to social media. Use hashtags to reach a larger audience. They can get feedback from whoever sees it. (Note: Know that this opens them up to a broad audience that could abuse that privilege. But also know that people are generally good and inappropriate comments rarely happen.)

6. Provide online flashcards. There's something to be said about flashcards even in a digital age. They still provide instant feedback. Using a tool like Quizlet lets students create their own flashcards - even for classes where the teacher might ask, "What's a Quizlet???" Students can share flashcards with each other. (Plus, when you have banks of Quizlet flashcards, you can create instant Quizlet Live games to do collaborative group practice in class!)

7. Do speed dating. Not real match-making in the classroom. The academic version. The way I've done it is to arrange chairs/desks in two circles - an inner circle facing out and an outer circle facing in. Give each pair of students a minute or so to talk and provide feedback. Then rotate. (My wife calls the rotating group the "taters." Middle school kids like to be taters.) You can even take a desk and be one of the stops in speed dating. (Just don't make any awkward dating comments to students, OK???)

8. Communicate in a backchannel like TodaysMeet. TodaysMeet creates what's essentially a private chat room for you and your students. Just making one of these available for students to use gives them a place to ask questions and trade ideas. Participate and monitor as the teacher as little or much as you decide.

9. Use Voxer for group or individual feedback. Voxer is a digital walkie-talkie app. (And more!) Voice feedback is often the fastest and easiest. Have students download the app and create an account. You can create a whole-class, large-group Voxer group or engage in one-on-one, private feedback with personal Voxer chats.

10. Bellringers, exit tickets and class polls. They're a classroom staple - and for a reason! They still work. Do them on little slips of paper. Do a hands-up poll. Or find a digital tool to conduct them. The important part is that you ACT ON THEM. When you get data from them, make the feedback instant. Don't wait until tomorrow.

[reminder]How do you provide instant feedback - digitally OR without tech? How important do you think instant feedback is?[/reminder]
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10 strategies for lightning-quick feedback students can REALLY use - Ditch That Textbook

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Using homework assignments to give feedback is pokey. Inefficient. Slow. Think about the length of the feedback loop for traditional homework assignments: Teacher assigns homework to students. Students take it home (maybe) and work on it (maybe). Students turn it in the next day. Teacher grades and provides comments that night (if not completely swamped [...]

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Three stages to effective feedback

1. Feed-up: Before feedback can be given, students need to know the learning intention(s). Feed-up clarifies for the student Where am I going? What are the goals? This information sets the context for feedback.

2. Feedback: Feedback itself focuses on monitoring and assessing learning progression in relation to the learning intention or task. It is about How am I doing? What progress is being made towards the goals?

3. Feed-forward: This relates to the next steps required for improvement on a specific task or learning intention. It is about Where to next? What activities need to be undertaken to make better progress? Here the answer is likely to be directed to the refinement of goals, and seeking more challenging goals, because these are most likely to lead to greater achievement.

Effective feedback is when teachers and students address all three of these questions.

Three levels of feedback

Feedback operates on, or can be geared towards, three levels. These are:

1: Task-level (or product) feedback
Feedback aimed at the task or product describes students’ performance and may offer students directions on how to acquire more, different or correct information.
Example: “That is correct. Could you include more information about the Treaty of Versailles?”
Immediate feedback is likely to be most effective for task-level feedback.
Task-level feedback is not the most powerful kind. This is because feedback at the task level is not usually generalisable to other tasks. However, this level of feedback can be effective when the information it provides about the task is later used for improving strategies or self-regulation. For example, task-level feedback might help students to reject incorrect interpretations and provide directions for better ways to process and understand the material.
Too much feedback at the task level focused on the accuracy of responses, and not on the processing required for these responses, can direct students’ attention away from a higher-level understanding of their task performance, and focus them instead on a surface understanding of learning involving acquisition, storage and reproduction of knowledge.

2: Process-level feedback
Feedback aimed at the process of understanding focuses on how the student has completed a task or created a product.
Example: “You might find it easier to punctuate this page if you read it aloud with a peer.”
Process-level feedback is particularly powerful for improving students’ deep processing and mastery of tasks and directing students towards more effective task strategies. It provides a deeper understanding of learning, enabling students to appreciate relationships between strategies and performance, which helps them to transfer skills to more difficult or unfamiliar tasks.
Process-level feedback on metacognitive processes might focus on enhancing students’ self-efficacy, self-regulatory skills or confidence to engage further on a task.
Example: “You already know the key features for introducing an argument, check to see that you have incorporated them into your first paragraph.”
Feedback focused on cognitive or metacognitive processes is most effective when there is a delay between student performance and feedback, which enables better reflection.

3: Personal-level feedback
Feedback focused on the personal level is directed to the self and contains little task-related information.
Example: “That’s an intelligent response, well done.”
This is the least effective level of feedback as it rarely leads to more engagement, enhanced self-efficacy or better understanding of the task. In fact, praise often directs attention away from the task. When feedback draws attention to the self, students have a high fear of failure, and it becomes risky for students to tackle challenging tasks or to try hard. However, sometimes praise focused on the student’s effort, self-regulation and engagement can assist in enhancing self-efficacy and increase student motivation.
Summary: Feedback that is designed to move students from the task to the underlying processes or understandings and then to self-regulation is most effective. For example, feedback based at task performance can build students’ confidence and help them to feel more able to improve and experiment with strategy use. Then questioning and feedback can focus on learning strategies and metacognitive skills, which eventually help students to become self-regulating learners. These are the students that seek and give their own feedback!
How to improve feedback practices in your classroom

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Primary more K-2

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The time is upon us! And as teachers, you know what I'm talking about! Parent/Teacher Conference time is upon us. If you're here reading my little ol' blog, then you must be interested in student led conferences. I blogged about this before at The Primary Pack and if you would like to read that post, you can click the link to take you there. This post will have some old ideas, as well as some new ideas.

I'm sharing two different ways that I've held student led conferences. The first way is in my old school last year and the second way is my new school this year! What's interesting to me is how different both methods are, yet they are both student led conferences!

At my previous school, student led conferences were held just like parent/teacher conferences. You scheduled your parents, sat down with them, but their child led the conference. They mostly led them through their data binder and shared their successes of the school year. Parents really loved it.

First, you'll need to keep a data binder for each student. If you already have a data binder, then boom you're ready! In this binder, you put... Data! Any data you find that your students' parents would like to see. This quarter, the data in our binders included behavior, attendance, reading levels, and sight words. Typically, we would have math as well, but we didn't include any for this quarter.

Now, remember... I teach first grade. This is how it worked for us. I'm going to walk through our data binders with you the same way I did with my kids. When teaching them how to lead the conference, I first modeled with an example binder. The next day, each of them brought their binders to the carpet and I modeled again with an example binder. I would say what I needed to say about a page, then the students would turn to a partner and share their page to their partner. The next day, our fifth grade buddy room came in and practiced with us. All of the practice really helped for the actual conference. I find it mandatory to conduct these mock interviews.

1. Welcome To My Classroom! The student comes into the classroom and show the parents around. The student introduces the teacher. Many of mine said something like, "Mom, Dad... Remember Miss Sanders? Miss Sanders, do you remember Mom and Dad?" (Yes, my firsties really did introduce us and it was adorable.)

2. Data Binder: This is my data binder that I've been using all year to track my data.

3. Data:

"This is my behavior chart. My goal was to have 8 days on green or above for October. I had 16 so I met my goal."

"This is my attendance. My goal was to be here 23 days and so far I have been here 17 days this month."

"These are my sight words. I am able to read all of the first list of sight words." There are four lists so the students continued to show all four lists.

"This is my reading level. At the beginning of the school year, I was reading on a level D. Now I'm on a level F. I jumped two levels."

4. Goals: It's very important for students to make goals, whether you have student led conferences or not. It's also important for students to look back at their goals regularly to determine how they are doing.

"My personal goal is I want to be here everyday. My academic goal is I want to be on a level G by Christmas." The student also may tell the parents how he/she can help the child reach these goals.

5. Celebrations

The student shares some celebrations he/she had from the quarter. Some examples are:

A 100% on a math test

A 100% on a spelling test

Certificates for Reflex (this is a computer "game" we have a license for to practice math fluency)

Other examples include, but are not limited to:

Receiving Leader Of The Month (student of the month, character of the month, etc.)

Honor Roll

Improving reading levels

Improving in anything really 🙂

Clipping up on the clip chart

Anything worth a celebration!

6. Questions: The student asks his/her parents if there are any questions they would like to ask. I sent home this sheet full of questions ahead of time so parents had an idea of what they should ask:

Click the picture above to download.

Students also share a reflection of what they feel they rock at, what they feel they are okay at, and what they feel they need to improve. I made it in a flipchart form so that the students had more fun filling it out than just color in the smiley face form.

Now, time to talk about how I did SLC's this year. I had a lot of help from one of my teammates on how to run them this year. I am so thankful for #awesometeammates that help me become a better teacher!

Before my firsties left for the day, they left their desk looking super clean and tidy (#RealLife, you know that doesn't happen everyday, just for guests). They left their data binder, self evaluation from Jodi Southard at Fun In First, and the self reflection from flip book from my Student Led Conference Pack.

Students grabbed this lotus chard when they walked in the door.

(Click the picture to download editable FREE forms of this lotus chart)

Students made their way around the lotus chart with their parents. What I love so much about this chart is all the different things they got to show their parents about our day-to-day. Many parents gave such positive feedback about how they loved seeing what their child does every day at school. That was seriously so important to them. We kept the biggest parts of our day on our lotus. Our goals and data comes from many of the things that my firsties shared with their parents.

One part that I particularly liked was when the parents filled out the Plus/Delta to reflect on SLC's and on our first grade year together. Some of my kids filled it out too, which made me smile.

My students loved filling out and sharing these self reflection flip books too. One of the most important parts of getting ready for SLC's is reflection. If a child can't reflect on his/her successes, then he/she will have a difficult time explaining them to someone else.

No matter what you do, practice practice practice! Seriously, we practiced for a very long time. I put my students in partners. One was the parent and the other was the child and then they took turns. They even started at the door, grabbed a lotus, and walked up to me and introduced me to their "parent". Seriously, I highly recommend that. "Miss Sanders, do you remember my mom?" and then they would burst into a fit of giggles. So. Stinkin'. Cute.

And, it always helps to leave a little sweet treat for your parents too 🙂 Click the picture to grab the free sign 🙂

Thanks for reading!

Grab the lotus forms for FREE in my TPT store by clicking here!

For more ideas on conferences and classroom management, follow my Grin & Manage Your Classroom Pinterest Board!

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Rock Your Student Led Conferences Like A BOSS - Missing Tooth Grins

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Hi everyone! The time is upon us! And as teachers, you know what I'm talking about! Parent/Teacher Conference time is upon us. If you're here reading my little ol' blog, then you must be interested in student led conferences. I blogged about this before at The Primary Pack and if you would like to read that post, ...

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Secondary more 3rd-4th Grade

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These student-led conference unit check-ins can be used in any secondary classroom! Your middle school or high school students will complete the pre-conference section first and this will lead the conversation as your students will now be able to discuss their strengths, weaknesses, and goals.

There are 4 check-in sheets to be used during the unit. These can be used at the beginning, the middle, and the end of a unit. How you choose to use them is completely up to you as these are editable!

Once you get your free download you will receive access to the editable document. You can edit these check-ins or print them as is!

_______________________________________________________________

You may also enjoy:
Editable Student Data Tracking by Standard- Student Data Binder Inserts Editable Data Tracking Class & Individual Student- Teacher Data Binder Inserts

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Editable Student-Led Conferencing Sheets for Secondary Students

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These student-led conference unit check-ins can be used in any secondary classroom! Your middle school or high school students will complete the pre-conference section first and this will lead the conversation as your students will now be able to discuss their strengths, weaknesses, and goals. There...

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Virtual/Digital Option!

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Save 35% by purchasing printable and digital Student Led Conference resources in this discounted bundle! You get editable printable forms and student Google Slides portfolio in one money saving bundle! Perfect for in-person and distance learning.

➊ STUDENT LED CONFERENCE PRINTABLE FORMS | EDITABLE

Student led parent-teacher conferences are a great way to involve students in their education! Parents enjoy attending because they get to see things from their child's perspective. Students enjoy presenting because they get to be involved in the process and not just sit on the sidelines and hear what their teacher thinks. These forms can help you organize your own student led conferences this school year.
This resource includes templates for you to customize with what you want your student led conferences to look like. Ideas have been given on each template page so that you can see how I run mine in 5th grade. All content (other than the page titles) on the templates is editable. All pages are black and white, which will save you ink and allow you to print on colored paper. Save 25% by purchasing this resource in the Back to School Essentials BUNDLE and get all of the forms and resources you'll need the whole year! THIS RESOURCE INCLUDES

Editable PowerPoint file

Editable Google Slides™ file

Editable Google Forms™ files

Editing and formatting instructions for PowerPoint, Google Slides™, and Google Forms™

Student led conferences overview and checklist

Parent email example

Pre-conference questionnaire (printable form and Google Forms™)

Conference reminder note

Self evaluation (printable form and Google Forms™)

Student led conference script/checklist for students

Conference report

What we're learning and what I've learned this quarter/trimester/semester/year

Student goals (editable template & blank template)

Goal setting ideas

Parent and teacher discussion points

How parents and teachers can support a student

Ways to help your child at home

Conference in session sign (color & black and white)

Full page blank templates (edit the title and contents)

Half-page blank template (edit the title and contents, prints two to a page)

HOW TO USE WITH DISTANCE LEARNING
This resource comes with a Google Slides™ file, which you can easily edit and share or assign in Google Classroom™ for remote student led conferences. 4 Google Forms™ are also included.

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➋ STUDENT LED CONFERENCES PORTFOLIO GOOGLE SLIDES | EDITABLE

If you're distance learning this year, you can still hold Student Led Conferences virtually! This student portfolio for Google Slides has everything you need to make your student led conferences work for students at home. This resource is best used with Google Classroom or other LMS that allow you to distribute a file to students so they each get their own copy.

Student led parent-teacher conferences are a great way to involve students in their education! Parents enjoy the process because they get to see things from their child's perspective. Students enjoy presenting because they get to be involved in the conference and not just sit on the sidelines and hear what their teacher thinks. This digital portfolio can help you organize your own student led conferences this school year.
This resource includes Google Slides™ templates for you to customize with what you want your student led conferences to cover. Ideas have been given on each template page so that you can see how I run mine in 5th grade. All content (other than the page titles) on the templates is editable. The portfolio is in color. THIS RESOURCE INCLUDES
" Editable Google Slides™ Portfolio file, with the following pages/ templates:

*IMPORTANT - Please read Editing in Google Slides on page 10 of the PDF for how to access ALL template pages.*

Cover - 10 options

Student led conference script/checklist for students - 3 options with moveable checkmarks

Self evaluation - 3 options + additional ideas with moveable Xs

Conference report - 4 options + additional ideas

What we're learning - 2 options

Work samples - blank page for adding student work

Student reflection - 5 options with moveable emojis

Student goals - 3 options

Goal setting ideas - 2 options

Ways your teacher & parents can support you

Ways my parents can help me at home

Discussion points for parents

Questions - 2 options

Blank page - create your own pages

" Editable Google Forms™ for the following:

Pre-conference parent questionnaire

Student self evaluation

Post-conference parent questionnaire

Post-conference student questionnaire

" Editing and formatting instructions for Google Slides™ & Google Forms™

" Student led conferences overview & checklist

" Parent email example (editable Google Docs™)

" Teacher discussion points

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FILE FORMAT

Zipped Files: This resource includes more than one file and is zipped. You will need to unzip the file in order to access the resources.

PowerPoint: This resource requires PowerPoint software installed on a PC or Mac to access. It has not been tested with other presentation software.

Mac Users: Fonts may not appear correctly in the file and may require you to download a font if you wish to use the one in the preview. Font information is provided in the file.

Google Slides™: To access the Google Slides™ version, you need to have a (free) Google™ account. Once you purchase this resource, you will receive a PDF with a link for access to the digital resource. The link will prompt you to make a copy of the resource, which will add it to your Google Drive™.

Google Forms™: To access the Google Forms™ files, you need to have a (free) Google™ account. Once you purchase this resource, you will receive a PDF with links for access to the digital resources. The links will prompt you to make a copy of the forms, which will add it to your Google Drive™.

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Copyright © 2015, 2020 Tiffany Schmidt

All rights reserved by author.

Permission to copy for single classroom use only. If using with multiple classrooms, please purchase additional licenses at the discounted rate.

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Student Led Conference Forms & Digital Portfolio BUNDLE | Printable and Virtual

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Save 35% by purchasing printable and digital Student Led Conference resources in this discounted bundle! You get editable printable forms and student Google Slides portfolio in one money saving bundle! Perfect for in-person and distance learning.➊ STUDENT LED CONFERENCE PRINTABLE FORMS | EDITABLEStu...

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Anything like this would be awesome! Let me know if you need me to purchase anything for you:

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As we close out April we will spend the last week completing this Bingo Board on feedback!

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What is a Morning Meeting and Closing Circle? Ideas for an Elementary Classroom

Morning Meeting and Closing Circle is part of "Responsive Classroom." There are great resources on their website and they have many books that cover morning meeting and many other things in the classroom.

My school adopted the "Responsive Classroom" way of doing things, so I have had many trainings on this topic. I really enjoy Morning Meeting and Closing Circle. It is a great way to start and end the day. I felt like it helped my classroom environment and overall attitudes of my students in a positive way.

Although I did have training on the "Responsive Classroom" way of doing things, I did change the Morning Meeting and Closing Circle just a bit to make it fit in my classroom.

Here I will walk you through what this is and how I implemented it in my classroom.

What is a Morning Meeting?

A Morning Meeting is a group meeting with the whole class every morning. This helps to start the day on a positive note. Included are a greeting, sharing, activity, and morning message. I schedule about 15 minutes for my classroom Morning Meeting. Sometimes they are shorter, but I do not go over 15 minutes.

How to Implement a Morning Meeting and Classroom Management Tips

The first thing I do is teach procedures for the morning. In my school, the students eat breakfast in the classroom. So, part of my morning procedures is to eat breakfast then complete the morning meeting procedures (agenda, unpack, sharpen pencils, etc.) I give 15 minutes to do this. I will set a timer for 15 minutes, and when the timer goes off students need to be on the floor in a circle to start Morning Meeting.

This is the PowerPoint slide I project during Morning Procedures with the timer.

I have my students sit on the floor in a circle to do Morning Meeting, this way everyone can see everyone else. I sit in the circle with the students. When we are in the circle, I tell my students they need to be respectful of everyone else. This means no shouting out, raising a hand if you want to speak, and being kind to others.

I also have a Morning Meeting Leader as one of my classroom jobs. This student is responsible for running Morning Meeting, picking activities, or calling students to share. I monitor the Morning Meeting most days, but it is nice to have this student know what to do if a sub is ever there.

I also have my morning procedures and the schedule for the Morning Meeting in a PowerPoint that I project each day so the students can look at it if they forget what to do. My timer is also imbedded in the PowerPoint so this is another reason I always bring it up.

This is the PowerPoint slide I project during Morning Meeting.

Greeting

The first part of the Morning Meeting is a greeting. This is a little game or activity to help everyone say "Good Morning" to each other. You can find all kinds of different greetings online. My favorite is "Friendly Touch" or "Pass the Ball."

Friendly Touch is where the first student fist bumps, hugs, high fives, or any touch that is "friendly" to the next student. When they do the friendly touch, they have to say "Good Morning (student name)." This is passed around the circle, while everyone says good morning to the person next to him or her.

"Pass the Ball" is a simple greeting. I pass a ball to one student and say "Good Morning (student name)." Then that student passes the ball to another student and says, "Good Morning (student name)." Once all students have got the ball, the last student will pass the ball back to me.

Sharing

This is a time in the morning meeting for students to share something about their lives. Normally, my students love to share, so I pick one student to share each day. Sometimes, I have a schedule and write down the students who want to share on certain days.

Students can share something that happened to them, a funny story, or even bring in something to share (usually pictures or drawings, NO toys). I let the student share what they wanted. When they are done, I allow the student to ask for questions, comments, compliments, or connections. All other students raise their hand if they have something to say, and the student that shares can call on 3 students and respond. When this is over, the student that shared says, "Thank you for listening" to the whole group and the whole group says back, "Thank you for sharing."

Sometimes you will have groups of students who don't like to share. If no one wants to share, I will have talking questions and go around the circle and have everyone add to the conversation. This could be something like "What went well this week so far?" or "What is your favorite food?" I just choose something simple to talk about that everyone can add in. Sometimes, I might ask them what certain quotes mean to them.

I find sharing to be an important part of Morning Meeting. I think it is so important for students to be able to talk about themselves. This is a great time to learn valuable communication skills. It is also beneficial for everyone to feel comfortable enough to share in the classroom, which leads to a positive learning environment. I also like learning little things about the students. It is a great way to make connections.

Activity

This is my student's favorite part of Morning Meeting. The activity is just a short game that the students play. I normally don't tie anything educational into this game. It is just for fun. My students love to play Quiet Ball, 20 Questions, and Telephone, just to name a few.

This is a good way to get the day started on a good note. The students need to know that they can have breaks from time to time. This is also a good time for students to learn valuable communication skills, like how to communicate to others, how to play fairly, and how to take turns.

Morning Message

Morning Message

Morning Message during Morning Meeting is typically a short paragraph that the teacher writes about the events of the day. However, I do not do this for Morning Message. I do find that this time on the floor together is a good time for class discussions or to tell the students if there is anything going on for the day. Normally, I just tell them this verbally at the very beginning of Morning Meeting or at the end.

The way I do Morning Message is I write a question on the board for the students to answer. This question can be something educational or it could be just for fun. The students can answer the question by writing on the board with markers during the morning procedure time.

When it is time for Morning Message, the leader reads the message and then reads everyone's response to the question. Sometimes, we have a discussion about it, but most of the time it is short.

Morning Message on my white board.

What is Closing Circle?

Closing Circle is very similar to Morning Meeting but it happens at the end of the day. I do a closing circle after pack up/end of the day procedures. Normally, my closing circle is about 10 minutes. A closing circle wraps up the day in a positive way. Everyone leaves on a good note. A closing circle usually consists of a share time, celebration, and activity.

I will do a Closing Circle in a circle on the floor, just like the Morning Meeting.

Closing Circle PowerPoint I use in my classroom.

Sharing in Closing Circle

Since I give students time to share individually at the beginning of the day, I don't do individual sharing at the end of the day. Normally, I will ask the students what they learned today or their favorite part of the day. I will then go around the circle and ask each student to answer the question.

Usually, the types of questions I do during this time are reflections of the day or week relating to our school day together. I think this is a great time to reflect on everything we learned throughout the day.

Celebration

Students just finished another day of learning, so this is a cause to celebrate! There are cute chants that you can do to end the day. Two chants that I really like to end the day are:

Give This Group a Hand

Students stand in a circle and chant:

We're gonna give . . . this . . . group a hand.

We're gonna give this group a hand. (Clap twice)

We're gonna give . . . this . . . group a hand.

We're gonna give this group a hand. (Clap twice)

So raise your hands up in the air, (Raise hands)

And pat your neighbor . . . right there. (Pat neighbors' shoulders)

Circle of Hands

Each person puts their right hand into the middle of the circle and makes a fist with their thumb extended to the left.

Then, everyone connects hands: Each fist grasps the thumb of the person to the right.

Holding this circle of hands, the class chants, "We are a class that helps each other!" three times, then raises their hands into the air, breaking them apart.

You can look up celebrations online, but you could also just tell the students that they did a good job today and end with clapping for each other.

Activity

This is an activity just like we do in Morning Meeting. Sometimes, students will do the same one we did in the morning. This is just another way to end the day on a good note.

Sometimes we are really short on time at the end of the day, so we might skip a full activity. In this case, I will do something quick like, "Everyone with blue, line up to go home." This is just a quick little activity if we run out of time.

I hope this was helpful to you! Morning Meeting and Closing Circle are so important for communication skills and social skills. It is something that we need to take time to teach during the busy school day, so this time is so valuable!

Thank you for Continually Learning with us!

Kyle and Sarah

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Morning Meeting in an Elementary Classroom | Continually Learning

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Morning Meeting and Closing Circle is part of "Responsive Classroom." There are great resources on their website and they have many books that cover morning meeting and many other things in the classroom. My school adopted the "Responsive Classroom" way of doing things, so I have had many trainings on this topic.

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There has been A LOT of talk recently about what school will look like with all the social distancing requirements that have been put into place. But with all these rules, how are teachers going to make students feel like they're part of a classroom community?

The lack of ability to gather on the rug - let alone in the same room - is going to make it difficult. Some schools are going to continue distance learning with no face-to-face instruction. Others are going to use a combination of distance learning and in-person instruction. And some are going to have students in the classroom 100% of the time (if that's you, read my post Socially Distanced Centers: 4 Brilliant Ideas!).

To make it even more confusing, teachers who will have students in the classroom are having to follow an incredible range of social distancing rules. Here are just a few of the rules that I've heard from teachers:

Stay in the classroom as much as possible

Keep 6 feet apart at all times

No rugs

No tables

No shared materials

No centers or rotations

Teachers and students must wear a mask

Books can be rotated but need to be "quarantined" for 3 or more days before the next student can use them

The logistics of all of this are baffling. I could go on and on about how kids are going to spread germs even if they don't use shared center materials. And how that's just going to make it harder to teach kids and engage them without preventing the spread of germs...but that's not what this post is about. The goal of this post is to talk about building a strong classroom community with all these rules in place.

Related Posts:

How we can build a strong classroom community in spite of all these rules

This post came about because one of my readers emailed me saying that she loved one of the resources I wrote about in my last post but didn't think it was possible with her school's restrictions on being outside the classroom. Then she asked for ideas on how to build a sense of community with these rules in place.

That got my wheels turning! So many of our go-to community building activities involve being in close proximity to each other. So I came up with a handful of ideas. They can be used in a socially-distanced classroom or for virtual learning. It is possible to build a classroom community, even with all those obstacles in the way! Here's what I came up with.

Socially Distanced Greetings

One of the most obvious ways to build a classroom community is by having students spend time each morning greeting each other. Unfortunately, many of those greetings have involved touching or being in close proximity to one another.

Luckily, I've been seeing lots of lists popping up for socially-distanced greetings. There are so many that I didn't really feel the need to reinvent the wheel here...I just did a little research on what was available and picked my favorite from Teachers Pay Teachers.

This set from Learning with Kiki is great because the posters are adorable and contain lots of diversity, and the greeting ideas are so fun! It's also available in a bigger bundle of social distancing resources. You can pick it up from her TpT store by clicking on the image:

Daily Class Pledge

A few years ago, I started using a class pledge rather than having "rules." A class pledge is awesome because it gives students a reminder every day of what the expectations are. Not only that, but it gives them ownership of their behavior. This is a really great way to build a classroom community because it emphasizes how we treat each other.

I really talk up the class pledge by explaining that a pledge is a promise we make. So when we recite the class pledge in the morning, we're making a promise to do those things. Then when a student makes a not-so-good choice, you can tie it back to that promise they made. From there, you can also talk about how it affects everyone in the class.

You could also do a class pledge for distance learning! You may want to modify it a little bit to fit the expectations of, say, virtual meetings...but the idea is still basically the same!

Here's the pledge I've always used, and I teach them movements to go along with it. Feel free to click on the image to download it and/or add it to your Google Drive. Or, if you want a cutesy colored version for your bulletin board, you could check out the Classroom Kids set or the Forest Friends set in my TpT store.

Sit or Stand Getting to Know You

In past years, I've had kids walk around the room and do surveys at the beginning of the year to get to know each other and start building a sense of classroom community. We would also practice turn & talk with getting-to-know-you topics. But those types of activities may not be allowed right now, so a good option is Sit or Stand.

Basically you just call out something like, "Sit down if you prefer chocolate milk. Stand up if you prefer white milk." Then take a minute to have the students look around, see who answered the same way, and talk a little bit about their choices.

For virtual meetings, you could have them do thumbs up/thumbs down, put a finger on their nose, or just raise their hands.

FREEBIE ALERT!

Whether you're teaching in the classroom or virtually, you might love this free printable! Just click on the image, then add it to your Google Drive or download it to your computer.

Virtual Scavenger Hunt

I love doing a scavenger hunt around the school on the first day. It's really helpful for getting students get acquainted with where things are. It also provides a perfect opportunity to practice some of the rules and routines that will be so important for your classroom community of learners.

However, as I mentioned earlier, some schools are keeping students in their classrooms as much as possible. That's going to make a school-wide scavenger hunt really difficult.

Unless...you make a virtual scavenger hunt! You can use the same one you've always used (or snatch up this adorable pigeon-themed one). But instead of taking your whole class through the school, just take pictures of the signs. Then stick them into a Google Slides presentation and share them with your students that way!

I thought it would even be fun to introduce other staff members that way. Instead of taking pictures of different places around the school, you could take pictures of staff members standing near the place they're most likely to be found!

All About Me! (Digital)

Another way for students to get to know each other and start developing a classroom community is through the classic All About Me activity. You know...the ones where kids fill out a poster at home then bring it back to school to show the class?

Well, you can put a digital spin on it by creating one in PowerPoint or Google Slides! All students would need to do is insert photos and/or type their information. However, I would highly recommend the Seesaw learning app for this because they can add their own drawings and voice recordings too! It is so user-friendly for little learners!

Plus, I've already created an All About Me activity for Seesaw, so you don't have to make your own. It's part of my Seesaw: Building a Classroom Community resource. You can grab it on Teachers Pay Teachers, or get it along with over 100 other activities by joining my Seesaw Lover's All-Access Club!

Here's what it includes:

Virtual Show & Tell

Show & Tell is a great way to build classroom community because it:

Gives students a chance to learn more about each other

Provides them with opportunities to speak in front of the group

Allows them to ask & answer questions

And when it's done right, it doesn't just have to be kiddos showing off their shiny new toys. There are tons of ways to make sharing time more meaningful, and doing it virtually opens up a whole bunch of new options.

Instead of bringing in an actual object, students can just take a picture or draw a picture of the thing they want to talk about. They can share about things that they wouldn't be able to in the classroom. Here are just a few ideas:

Family and pets

Places they've visited

Something from their house that fits a certain criteria (color, shape, beginning letter, etc.)

Things they've learned

Things they can do (they can even make videos!)

Things they've found in their homes/neighborhood that go with the theme or learning topic (trees, flowers, animals, etc.)

Again, you can create one yourself...or save yourself some time and energy and grab my Seesaw: Building a Classroom Community resource on TpT. It even comes with 6 pages of Virtual Show & Tell topic ideas!

Or, better yet, join my Seesaw Lover's All-Access Club to get all of the activities in this post, plus over 100 more...and every new activity I create for Seesaw in the future too!

Here's what's included for Virtual Show & Tell:

Digital Birthday Book

My all-time favorite way to build a classroom community is by having students create a book when it's someone's birthday. Typically, I've printed off one page for each student from my birthday book resource and had them complete it as morning work. Then I'd staple it together and send it home with the birthday kid.

However, I'm hearing teachers say they can't pass out/share papers this way. I guess a printed birthday book touched by every student in the class would be an easy way to spread germs...

So, you guessed it...I created a birthday book activity for Seesaw! It just a simple 2-page template, but students will love getting these special pictures and messages from their friends. Here's what it looks like:

I even found a way to compile each student's individual assignment into one book using Google Slides. From there, you can send it to the birthday boy or girl digitally, or you can even print it off! Watch this video tutorial to see how easy it is:

This video is just one of many tutorials available for teachers, students, and parents in the Seesaw Lover's All-Access Club. Not only do you get tons of tutorials, you get all 170+ activities I've already created PLUS weekly new releases!

What are your ideas for building a classroom community while distance learning?

I feel like this is definitely a topic that could use some more attention and I'd love to add more to this post. If you have ideas or examples of what you're doing in your classroom that you wouldn't mind me adding to this list, leave a comment below!

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Build a Strong Classroom Community (Despite Social Distancing Rules) - Little Playful Learners

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There has been A LOT of talk recently about what school will look like with all the social distancing requirements that have been put into place. But with all these rules, how are teachers going to make students feel like they're part of a classroom community?