I LOVE conferring! What the students have to say is amazing! And today didn't prove anything different.
The students had written down their thinking to a book I had read to show how their thinking changed and grew. My talker was beating himself up because he didn't have any thinking. I knew this wasn't true...he just didn't stop to really think about his thinking.
I chose to meet with him first. As he's reading Mercy Watson (which my boys LOVE), I asked him about what he thought about the characters. He told me that Eugenia was grumpy. When I asked him to tell me more, he said, "Eugenia is probably grumpy because an old boyfriend broke up with her."
I smiled...Kids say amazing (and sometimes funny) things. If we would slow down, stop and truly listen!
3 comments:
How true! It seems that every time I either wait a little longer or ask a kid to tell me more, I get either or a really insightful comment or a really great story to share.
I liked the reflective nature of this post--your thinking about conferring and your student who "had nothing" but did are good reminders for us to keep considering why we do what we do.
Your post will help me when I conference about reading tests next week. Thanks for helping me remember to get to the kids who think they have nothing to say.
What a great reminder to give kids time to gather their thoughts and work out how to express their thinking!
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