Teacher Conferences
The keystone of a writing program in which children are involved in revision and editing is the teacher conference. It offers a personal conference between the teacher and young writer that offers the student opportunity to help them learn to reflect on their own writing and revise their writing and learn what to do in reworking a paper. It is the time when the teacher gives one-on-one assistance to help students apply the specific revision/editing tools they have been learning during mini-lessons, interactive writing, and share-times.
Buddy Conferences
To encourage oral reading of compositions-in-progress and talking out of ideas, I pair students up for peer revision and editing. Buddies work together, reading aloud a piece composed by one, then a piece composed by the other. They can ask their buddies, “What is the most exciting party? What more do you want think I should add? More dialogue?” Sometimes I require that a student have his or her buddy go over a paper with him or her before placing it in the “ready to go” basket. These buddy conferences benefit social skills, teamwork, and community.
Stars & Wishes
When conferring with a student, I will tell them what works in the writing. What did I notice? What are the “stars“? These are the positives of the writing! Then I would decide on a teaching point. I wish you would …. This is the place where I would make a suggestion to improve the writing. There should be more writing positives than negatives. This can be done in a group setting with the whole class as well.
Reference: Hennings, D. G. (2002). Communication in action, teaching literature-based language arts. (8th ed.). Boston: Houghton Mifflin College Div.