layers of collaborative practice.

Create and sustain a culture of community, especially with your listening through conferring; with class talk invitations and rituals; with the texts you share and create with your students (Students must see themselves and all people in the learning texts of our classrooms and schools); and by including everyone in all activities.

Surround students with “I can!” text sets & writing models; experiencing early and ongoing success as learners is especially vital for ELL students and our developmentally younger students, too.

Engage students in reading, writing and learning from texts in their native, Mother Tongue language/s; in easy level texts/books (Also providing book selection rituals so that students learn how to make good text matches in meeting their needs and hopes); diverse genres; and massive amounts of mentor texts to feed students' language development, desire and wonder.
 
Use widely, share and encourage students to read, write and learning from short and spirited texts to sustain engagement and growth their confidence
 
Guide students to books in a series and help them get to know and read/learn from familiar, beloved authors
 
Use and give students audio texts widely and often

Engage students in a first dose of independent reading/writing/learning to launch the day - Authentic and frequent practice are vital to helping students grow.

Partner with ELL students often with short conferences.

Cycle in younger (developmentally) learners into your conference rotations more often, too.

Infuse reading and writing/learning for pleasure into everyday schedules and experiences; These should include DEAR (drop everything and read)/FRED (free reading time every day) rituals; opportunities for any/all texts - Students' choice of what they read/learn is paramount to their growth

Encourage text writing, letters, notes and card writing - Vital forms of short and spirited texts for growing composers and learners; Students' choice in their writing topics and projects is critical

Provide tools to nudge & support independence; Give students thinking and learning nudges with thinking self-talk stems bookmarks or concept focused bookmarks as  well as sticky notes; note taking organizers or Thinking Maps®; real things - manipulatives [stop sign, shoe, pineapple, magnifying glass, compass, rope] to signal and trigger students' thinking and understanding; and, again audio texts, and access to supportive devices and technology.

Immerse students in intensive vocabulary instruction & marinate students in school/academic language
 
Develop reasons for literacy/learning WITH students

Frequently, engage students in learning partnerships such as teaching a younger buddy (or older, too); sharing their learning/teaching family members; penning a class blog (great to share with far away friends or family, too)

Create together with your students a class newsletter or newspaper, school "how to find/where is..." and local area travel guides, public service posters, etc. in all the languages of your school community - Language inclusive texts are so honoring and inviting.

CONFERRING TOOL
It is often very helpful to have a Conference Card on your conference clipboard/tablet and/or with students on their desks which have a few key conference questions-prompts in students' Mother-Tongue language/s including an aligned picture or graphic to further support students' thinking and understanding.

(*From Laura - repeating my advice from above:  It is often very helpful to have a Conference Card on your conference clipboard or with students on their desks which have a few key conference questions-prompts in students' Mother-Tongue language/s including an aligned picture or graphic to further support students' thinking and understanding.)

​
*I encourage you to read Valentina's whole blog - Just wanted to offer an inviting and supportive synthesis of some of her brilliant recomendations with the above points. 

The Literacy Teacher's Playbook, Grades 3-6: Four Steps for Turning Assessment Data into Goal-Directed Instruction (There is a K-2 version of this book, too.)

(Link above)

Short conferences

 

Be kind to yourself – Give yourself time to grow into conference rituals and routines which work well for you and your students

 

Have a plan and conference tools which work for you

Short conferences make it possible to connect with all your students over the course of 1 - 2 weeks (especially using a conferring structure such as Listen-Name-Name, short conferences and a personalized, efficient way to take conference notes)

 

Small groups/small group conferences

 

Use opportunities to get to know and note your students growth with a variety of conference conversations = From whole group instruction, exit cards, walking down the hall together…

 

The key part of any conference isn’t what we say – It’s listening…Let the child take the lead even when it comes to the talking part of the conference

 

Unpack your Priority Standards to have clear pictures of what proficiency sounds like and looks like

 

Stuck students, shut down students, “I don’t know…” situations, Not really into the subject (yet) students
*Please see the attached article here/above for some key remedies to "I don't know..."

 

Honoring and nurturing multilingualism
*Please see "Conferring to Nurture Antiracism and Linguistic Equity..."  (column to the right here in our Padlet).
*Profiled in our May 24th workshop

Taking conference record notes
*Profiled in our May 24th workshop

Making teaching decisions from conference record notes and/or analyzing student conference data as you go
*Profiled in our May 24th workshop