Conference Season

So it is conference season now.  It's a busy time of year with report cards, comments, and preparing for meetings with my students' families.  I have been trying out Student-Led Conferences for the past couple of years now.  Overall, it has turned out well and I'm pretty sure there are some things that I need to tweak, but I thought I'd note some things I've been doing.

Here's a quick glimpse into how I plan to have students guide their parents this year:

Agenda Guide: 

Subject Area Review & Goals Form

Preparedness & Participation Form

Effort & Mastery Comparisons and Keep-Start-Stop Behaviors Form

Time Management Form

Students fill out the bar graph horizontally using the same color for the top & bottom graphs.  I have them fill out the top completely first, thinking about AVERAGE time spent in each area.  Then, we discuss how they can manage their time at home to be better students in school.  Many will just want to add time to HW, but we talk about how they have to take time from somewhere else in order to put some extra time in for HW/Study.  They determine where they can take the time and how much they really think they can do (most take from the play time).  We also discuss there are some things you can't change or have control over, such as how long it takes to get home, for instance.  In those cases, that time is the same for both graphs.

After Conferences Reflection Form

Disclaimer: I don't remember where I got some of these forms before I tweaked them to fit my needs.  Some were created, while others were borrowed.

Pros to Student-Led Conferences

1. Time: Students have time to reflect on their learning and effort.

2. Ownership: They are the ones voicing their strengths & needs.  This includes them (not teacher) admitting talking about what they've done the past quarter that did not work well for them.

3. Less parental nagging: Students get nagged less/talked down to when it's in front of a teacher (rather than the "Your teacher said..." afterwards) and parents tend to be open to listening to their children speak about themselves.

4. Student-Parent Relationship Needs: Rather than me telling parents what they could do at home to help their child, the child will voice that concern.  I feel it is more powerful coming directly from the child.  Example:  I need you to help me find a quieter place to do my HW.

Cons to Student-Led Conferences

1. Time: It does take up some class time to prepare these materials, fill them out, and discuss with students.

2. Some parents don't like it: There are a few who are pretty dead set on only trying out conferences the old-fashioned way.  I completely understand if there are concerns they may want to talk about privately, but by 5th grade, I have nothing to hide from them or worry about hurting their feelings.  They need to know their strengths and weaknesses.

3. Students get nervous: Every year I've had nervous kids, even the ones who tend to always do well and I don't have major concerns with.  There are always a few tears shed when talking about themselves if they are not proud of something.

What I'd like to add more of...

More student work samples.  At our school, we do "Monday Folders," where graded student work and flyers are sent home weekly.  Therefore, there are times I forget to make copies or collect samples before sending home.

Another school I've taught at had student binders where students were responsible for organizing their graded work by divider sections.  This allowed them (and me) to peruse through things throughout the quarter to pick and choose work they could reflect on.  One con about this is we only sent the binder home every so often to be reviewed/checked by parents.  Some wanted to see immediate feedback/grades.

I guess there are always things we can do better.  As for now, I don't mind that I'm picking out some sample work.  Our conferences are in 20 minute blocks, so there's not much time anyway to stick a bunch of samples in.  I usually pull out the samples as students are talking about that subject (if I have a sample) and allow the students to talk about their work.


Please send me your email if you'd like electronic copies to alter for your needs.  Here's a pdf version for now: Student Led Conference Forms