Finding a Lens to Guide Your Reading Conferences
We’ve all been there, we pull up next to a student and begin the conference and we ask our best question to start our time with the student.
Something like, “What have you been working on as a reader/writer?’ or, “What type of ‘mind work’ are you doing in your book?” or, “The last time we met, you were working on____, how’s that work going?”
Then, we carefully research as the student begins his or her tour of their most recent thinking and work. At this point, it is possible that we are listening intently for the work of the unit or skills we’ve taught and it begins…we start to realize there are like 18 things to teach or even worse, I have no idea what to teach this reader.
Sound familiar?
This is a common challenge for all of us trying to meet the needs of our readers each day in the classroom. Further challenges like trying to meet the needs of 22 readers can make us feel overwhelmed and even stressed to the point where we find ourselves just sort of ‘checking in’ with readers rather than feeling like we’ve taught or coached them in a way that they are advancing their skills as a reader.
So, what can we do about it?
Get Curious
First, we need to acknowledge that teaching reading is challenging for so many reasons. Approaching these challenges from an inquiry stance can be beneficial. Get curious and treat the work of conferring with a lens of:
How can I engage this reader to do more, say more, write more, or just think more deeply?
What is the best instruction I can give this student to set them up for reading or thinking work that is enough of a challenge but without overwhelming them at the same time?
These questions, phrased with what and how automatically force our brains to engage in inquiry and problem-solving mode. This is a good thing because now we are curious!
Harness the Power
Next, understand that the structure of conferring comes with great power. 1:1 conferring is arguably our most powerful structure in the teaching of reading. It is most likely your best ‘in-time’ teaching. Think about it, you are forced to ask questions, listen intently, process previous work, think about where the child is in the text, use everything you know about teaching readers, and ultimately make a decision about what to teach. And this work happens at lighting fast! Powerful!
We can harness this power just by simply acknowledging that this is going to be my best teaching with this one child regardless of what has happened earlier and what might come next. It is happening NOW!
Great, now that we’ve gotten the acknowledgments in clear view and we are approaching our conferences with a curious mindset and we intend to give ourselves over to the power of teaching 1:1, let’s turn our attention to how we might approach our research during the conference.
Research with a Lens
When someone says, “Hey, I want you to watch for [name something specific] and tell what you think?” they are asking you to watch with a specific lens. Approaching our conferring with a lens can help streamline our focus and help us in providing the best in-time teaching possible. So, how can we research with a lens?
Identifying Three Lenses
When it comes to conferring, there are three basic lenses we can use to research our readers:
Habits
When we research our readers with a lens of habits, we are on the lookout for areas that will enhance and advance the areas we want to become more automatic. These habits might be outright observable or somewhat underground. Making a reading plan or quick jots might be habits we’d like to see more often. We could also be on the lookout for how the reader takes an idea and is able to add more to that idea either in talk or writing about that idea. Or perhaps, how the reader gathers evidence for their ideas.
Any behavior that you feel is important to enhance or advance the readers’ habits for reading could fit this category. If you approach a conference with this lens, get curious about what habits are already in place and what habits might need attention.
Skills
Most of us are probably comfortable using a skills lens for conferring. The big reasons for this comfort are because we have data that informs the skills, a unit of study that might shape this focus, and we are mostly aware of the skills that need focus based on the characteristics of the texts in the hands of our readers. So, entering a conference with a skills lens might sound like;
The last time we met, you were trying to pay attention to what character relationships and prompting your thinking with, ‘this part shows…’ or ‘this part connects…’ How is this working going?
In this example, you know you’ve taught inferring about characters and now you want to explore just how the inferring work is going for the reader. The skills lens lends itself both to enhancing and advancing the existing skill while simultaneously serving as an assessment to determine if there is a bit more automaticity or habit with that particular skill,
Identity
This lens feels most terrifying for some of us. Sitting down to reflect on your reading identity can be your best tool for getting comfortable leading with a lens of identity in a conference. Try these questions and prompts;
I’m the type of reader who…
I’d like to read books like….because…
Some of reading goals are….
These questions can be an entry into seeing ourselves as a reader. If your students are going to take this work on as a result of your conference, they might do this work in their notebook in a creative way, they might create their own book log (notice I didn’t say reading log, there is a difference, check the image below), or they could share these responses with their peers. Get creative and support them in developing a reading identity.
The reality with reading conferences is that we can easily get bogged down with thinking there are too many things to teach at once or we get the feeling that finding the starting line for a good conference feels miles away. However, with a little curiosity and a few lenses, we can streamline the time for our readers and for instruction.
If you want to hear additional thoughts about conferring with a lens, please check out the video below.
As always, I want to hear from you. If you’ve reached the bottom of this post, please leave me a comment with your thoughts. I truly appreciate the comments!