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Literacy Unleashed

book bins

#11 Why Confer?

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Conferring
Conferring

The "What" and the "Why" of Conferring

We all know and value the importance of all children reading self-selected books for up to 30 minutes every day in a balanced literacy classroom. Independent reading provides the time for students to internalize, through practice and reflection, the learning from whole group and small group classroom experiences. Independent reading also empowers readers. Readers choose what they read and set their purposes for reading. They develop their interests and their reading repertoire. However, independent reading is incomplete if the teacher is not conferring with each child about their reading every week.

The "what" of conferring

Conferring is a regularly scheduled time devoted to meeting one-on-one with each reader to discuss the texts they have chosen and are reading from their book bins. Every text that they have selected tells part of their story. We learn about their interests, their understanding of their own reading abilities, their ability to take risks as readers if interest is high: conferring tells us about who they are as readers and as people.

Effective conferring sessions are:

  • Regular: at least once a week
  • Short: about 5-7 minutes
  • Focused: teachers have identified and clearly communicated the purpose for the session
  • Student Led: teachers use prompts and guiding questions to learn about the student as a reader, learner, and thinker
  • Data Rich: teachers make notes about what they learn about each reader to use for reflection and planning

Conferring requires consistency and dedication. Teachers constantly work to use their instructional time wisely. Strong literacy teachers know the importance of devoting at least 90 minutes every week to conferring because of the richness of the experience for both teacher and reader and the valuable data it provides.

“Conferring is critical to student learning because it provides feedback in an authentic context. It is in the moment. Students want to know that we care about them, not only as learners, but as readers.” (Patrick Allen, 2012)

The "why" of conferring

Conferring is the culmination of the reading process. By engaging with students in rich conversations about their reading, we can shepherd developing readers and writers and provide an authentic context for ongoing assessment and response. Daily reading motivates students and develops their love of reading. Conferring with readers about their choices adds an important layer. When we take time to sit one-on-one with children and ask them about what they are reading, we are placing great value on the process. We show them that this work is important enough for the teacher to learn about what they are doing and why. We engage in a conversation as a fellow reader, a learning partner, who is truly interested in their choices and thinking, asking questions to learn more than what books they are reading. We want to know how that book changed their thinking and their understanding. We want to know them! Reading isn’t just something we do in school, it is part of who we are as learners.

RESOURCES

Allen, P. (2012). Conferring: The Keystone of Reader’s Workshop. New York, NY: Stenhouse.

Boushey, G., & Moser, J. The cafe book: Engaging all students in daily literacy assessment and instruction. New York, NY: Stenhouse.

Fountas, I., & Pinnell, G. (2001). Guiding readers and writers (3-6): Teaching, comprehension, genre and content literacy. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

This article is #11 in the twelve-part series, “Getting My Classroom Ready for Balanced Literacy Instruction: Classroom Culture and Environment.”

#7 Classroom Libraries: Student Book Bins

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girl reading

A student’s book bin is her toolbox for independent reading and application. The contents of the book bin supports the student’s developing interest and motivation for reading while providing texts to practice the skills and strategies she is learning in class. The contents of a book bin depends on several factors including; a student’s reading range, interest, past reading, and the instruction during that period of time. Students need practice in packing their “toolbox” of texts and resources that provide both enjoyment and resources to connect the ideas learned in class and to practice and demonstrate their learning.

girl reading

Book Bins

What should students have in their book bins?

It is important to have a classroom discussion several times during a year to create a “book bin protocol” or a list of items that everyone should have in their book bin. At minimum, every book bin needs to have a fiction, narrative nonfiction, and an informational text. Texts should be within the student’s reading range from their independent level up to their challenge level. The number of texts depends on the reading range of each individual. The higher the reading range, the fewer the texts. Preschool and kindergarten readers may have 10-15 texts in their book bin. Primary students may have 8-10 books. Students reading at and above third grade may have 4-5 texts in their book bin. The important thing to remember is that students need enough texts to read and learn for 30 minutes every day for at least a week. Book bins may also contain a book log or graph to keep track of their reading history, a journal for writing in response to reading, sticky notes and other tools for marking important areas of texts, strategy cues and bookmarks.

Book Bins

What should students have in their book bins?

It is important to have a classroom discussion several times during a year to create a “book bin protocol” or a list of items that everyone should have in their book bin. At minimum, every book bin needs to have a fiction, narrative nonfiction, and an informational text. Texts should be within the students reading range from their independent level up to their challenge level. The number of texts depends on the reading range of each individual. The higher the reading range, the fewer the texts. Preschool and kindergarten readers may have 10-15 texts in their book bin. Primary students may have 8-10 books. Students reading at and above third grade may have 4-5 texts in their book bin. The important thing to remember is that students need enough texts to read and learn for 30 minutes every day for at least a week. Book bins may also contain a book log or graph to keep track of their reading history, a journal for writing in response to reading, sticky notes and other tools for marking important areas of texts, strategy cues and bookmarks.

Connections to Learning

How can a book bin support instruction and the demonstration of learning?

book bin example

Independent reading is a student’s time to practice the skills and strategies explicitly taught and modeled by their teacher in whole group and practiced with their peers during small group sessions. It is important that they teacher models how to think about applying the reading skills and strategies currently being taught and practiced in class while students are reading on their own. For example, if the teacher is focusing on inferring, she will explicitly teach and model how she makes inferences while reading and confirms or revises those inferences while she continues to read a text. While doing this modeling in whole group, she sets the students up to practice this strategy when students are reading and discussing instructional level texts in their small groups. She also models how students can demonstrate their ability to do this when they read text independently. While she models, she will explain that she is showing them what she wants them to do when she confers with them next. Students know that they will need to spend some of their independent reading time practicing what their teacher has been teaching during their 30 minutes of daily independent reading.

RESOURCES

Book Boxes, from Shared to Independent Reading Blog by Keier & Johnson

Rethinking the Book Box by Connell

This article is #7 in the twelve-part series, “Getting My Classroom Ready for Balanced Literacy Instruction: Classroom Culture and Environment.”