student led

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Home : 2008 : March : 1

student led
By imalith

The best experience I have ever had with conferences was when I tried student led conferences last fall. I'm sure there are a million ways to approach this task, but I'll tell you how I set it up with my sixth grade students.

Preparation was the key. We had been saving important parts of classwork in folders for quite sometime. Students examined that work and compared it to the information found in their progress reports.

I prepared a very basic script for students to follow and they filled in their thoughts. As I remember, it was something like...

My grade in reading was "blank".

The reason I earned this grade was because... (then they wrote in their own ideas based on the progress report).

Students were told to highlight all the positives they could find in their progress reports and we kept the conferences very upbeat. We also talked about goals and specific areas for improvement.

We reviewed the scripts a few times with trusted friends and I reviewed what they wrote and listened in to their practice conferences.

At conference time students did a fabulous job. It was so great to see them take ownership for their grades. They really did know what skills they had mastered and what they needed to work on. Some were very nervous, but some were very proud of their accomplishments.