Making Connections (Week 13)

In chapters 6-7 Zull discusses neuronal networks, the importance of finding out what students already know, and then building upon their pre-existing knowledge.  One part that stood out to me is that we have to build upon students' knowledge even when their pre-existing knowledge is incorrect or inaccurate.


After reading these chapters, I was working with a group of first grade teachers who were frustrated with their students' writing.  They felt like student writing had not progressed as much as they would like.  When observing in their classrooms, I noticed that teachers were typically conferencing with students on the same topic, even when students were at different levels or when they were working on different skills.


One problem was that teachers had already planned what they wanted to conference about, instead of seeking more information from students before diving in with guidance.  Based on these chapters from Zull's book, I wanted to see what would happen if students had more influence on teacher guidance.  Instead of beginning with pre-planned coaching, I tried conferencing with students by starting with a few questions - What are you working to get better at?  How are you trying to do that?


I was surprised that even in first grade, students were able to tell me what they were working on and how.  Their responses provided information on what they understood about writing, even when it was wrong.  For example, one student said he was working on adding more periods, by putting them at the end of the line.  I asked him how he decided to put them at the end of the line, and he showed me one of his reader's workshop books that had simple sentences, all which fit on one line (so the period was at the end).  So, he was doing exactly what he thought was right based on his experiences.


Although this conferencing style is not a quick fix for developing writers, the teachers at this school are now starting each conference with questions instead of answers.