Jayna Lehrer – November Blog Post – Conferencing

Although individual conferencing is an area in which I struggle to get done, due to the high demands of the day, rigorous curriculum and other assessments that need to be accomplished with my Kindergarteners, it is one of my favorite things to do with my students.  I love getting to know them on a more personal level by conducting both reading and writing conferences in my classroom.

By conducting weekly reading conferences with my students I have been able to find out more about them in terms of their personal interests and real world connections. With five year olds and reading, it is almost impossible to make it through a conference without them telling you something from their personal lives that relates to the pictures or words in the book.  You also will have those students who tell you something that has nothing to do with what they are reading.  By conducting these conferences I am able to assess my students in terms of their ability to comprehend what they have read and if they can make text to self-connections. These findings help to guide my ELA instruction.

I am also able to assist my students during reading conferences by working with them on decoding and sounding out words. I can get them to look at a word and think about a particular strategy to sound it out. Strategies that I go over with them during these conferences are:

o   Refer to letter sounds from our Read Well Curriculum

o   look for vowel clues (two vowels go walking, magic “e”)

o   Check for blends

o   check for word chunks

o   look at the pictures

o   skip the word and then come back to reread

I have been able to see vast improvements in my students thus far. I have really enjoyed these reading conferences and look forward to watching my students continue to grow as lifelong learners.