Effective Teaching Strategies Through Conferring: Know Students, Teach Better

One way to teach very efficiently is to really understand what students already know and can do and tailor our instruction from there. While teaching to the “middle” will be the sweet spot for many kids, ignoring the various needs of students and teaching only to the middle will also always lead to either spending time teaching what doesn’t need to be taught or missing the mark entirely and teaching over kids’ heads. Which will lead to a good deal of time spent reteaching…putting you further behind in pacing.  So, one of the very most effective teaching strategies is to really hone in on exactly where students are to capitalize on it.

Because effective teaching strategies are also time-efficient strategies

Nobody has time to rethink a bunch of different ways to teach something. On the flip side, no one has time to teach what students have already mastered, either.  So it becomes crucial that we learn what our students can really do. 

One way to do that? Conferring. 

Conferring is when you sit beside a student to really gain an understanding of what they are capable of on their own. This then gives you insight into what their very next steps are. This could mean moving forward or it could mean needing a more supportive scaffold.

Gathering this information efficiently and frequently tells you exactly what the patterns of need are so you can make next steps decisions. 

“Potentially one of the most impactful opportunities we have for making a lasting difference on our students as writers is when we pull up next to them and confer with them.” 

–Melanie Meehan, author of Every Child Can Write

In every classroom, there is a tremendously wide range of capability. Despite this, right now our field is seeing a push for everybody being on the same exact step all at the same exact time.  That will work for more rote-level things like teaching the steps to solving a math problem or defining vocabulary, but when it comes to literacy, this one-size-fits-all approach will often not suit kids’ needs. It’s what makes teaching with a boxed curriculum so difficult.

Don’t get me wrong–there definitely is and always will be an important place for powerful and efficient whole-group instruction.  

There are countless books and articles out there about the important place of effective whole group instruction.  Anita Archer champions it, Adria Klein and Peter Afflerbach have written about it, and very recently, Zach Groshell explains it in his book Just Tell Them.  But teaching through only whole group instruction inevitably means that the content will be way over the heads of some students, requiring heavy scaffolding, while others will be bored. Neither group will get the teaching they really need.  This is the nature of teaching human beings who are not one-size-fits-all.

Which is where conferring–sitting beside a child to ask questions and examine what they’re doing as readers or writers is so important. I’ve explained how a basic conference works in a previous post so I won’t go into that here. In a nutshell, student conferences are very brief and extremely valuable times that give teachers insight into what to teach next.  

Let me just clear the air on something here.  Without classroom management and routines firmly in place, conferring will be very difficult, if not impossible.  This must be in place first.  There’s a definite art and science to getting conferring up and running well. 

It’s also very important that the reading and/or writing work the rest of the class is working on is within their developmental level.

If teachers find that kids have a lot of questions and need a lot of support getting started on their independent work, then the lesson was outside the majority of students’ ZPD.  Because of this, their whole group lesson didn’t land. That’s a big factor which leads to mass dependence and confusion teachers see among students when it’s time for them to do the work.  

However, when the teacher has found that sweet spot and has taught a truly effective whole group lesson where all kids are capable of working on whatever task is at hand at their own level, conferring can take place.  And this will inform you where to go next so your whole group lessons land better.

Not only that….

Conferring is one of the most effective teaching strategies out there, as it also gives valuable insight on how to differentiate for individual students and/or groups of students. 

With a simple and effective note-taking system that simultaneously sets you up to see patterns in students’ learning is the key to knowing what small groups of students need as well as overall, whole-group needs.  

Effective and efficient conferring will lead the teacher to see patterns of need, which drives small group instruction.  Which is what makes conferring–and the note-taking system that undergirds it–one of the most powerful and effective teaching strategies to incorporate.  It’s a powerful tool for reading, writing, and math, too!

This five minute(ish) time spent conferring is time very well spent.Your careful note-gathering might tell you that some kids, for example, may need sentence starters. Or that some kids may benefit from examining a mentor text for inspiration and direction. Other students may need to work on scooping words to read more fluently.  Some kids may need even more very explicit instruction in sentence structure.  You get the idea.

If you are careful about the way you take notes as you confer with your readers and writers, then you are well-positioned to know exactly what small group and whole group lessons to target next. These will be woven into the upcoming lessons you’re already planning.  Which means your lessons will stand a much better chance of truly hitting the mark.

It all comes from getting to know exactly where your students are as readers and writers. Without this important information, you are left to either guess and plan lessons based on arbitrary decision-making, or follow a scripted curriculum. Following provided lessons can be a helpful starting point for sure, but more often than not, they will miss the mark for the kids in front of you.  

Conferring.  It’s an underused, underrated teaching tool.  But it’s also one of the very most effective teaching strategies a teacher can add to their repertoire.  

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If you could use some support in getting conferring up and running in your classroom, reach out.  Contact me to set up a coaching call, so we can set you up for success through brainstorming together!   

Who is Coach from the Couch??  I’m Michelle, a 25-year veteran educator, currently a K-5 literacy coach.  I continue to learn alongside teachers in classrooms each and every day, and because no one can do this work alone, it’s my mission to support as many teachers as I can–including you!

Also,  join my private FB group!  It’s a safe, supportive environment (really–no blaming or shaming allowed!)  where you can ask questions, learn ideas, and share your thoughts among other literacy-loving educators!