Power = Insight

Give your students power.  Yes, that's right, power.  As a teacher, that may sound a little scary, as any number of things could happen as a result.  But I dare you to give your students power regardless.  Power to write.  Power to reflect.  Power to collaborate.  Power to revise.  When students gain power, they possess ownership over their writing and become intrinsically motivated.  Such ownership and motivation leads to a continued appreciation and involvement in writing.

This week, I learned the key to student empowerment is to let students speak.  Allowing students the chance to speak is a simple task teachers may overlook.  It is simple, but it is also invaluable.  Don Murray, professor and author, writes about the benefit of holding one on one student/teacher conferences in his essay "The Listening Eye".  According to Murray, when he conferences with his students one on one, he is teaching them to be evaluators of their own writing so that they continue to write well beyond their school years.  He wants to teach his students how to read "evolving writing", because writing is a process after all.  During his student conferences, Murray says he listens before he speaks; he allows his students to share their ideas, ask questions, and come to conclusions all on their own before he interjects any commentary.  Murray even goes so far as to say that his students do most of the work during their conferencing time, and he feels sort of guilty as a result.  But I would like to suggest that is a good thing.  Students should take ownership over their learning, that way it is more authentic to them and they are thus intrinsically motivated.  

Let's take a step back, though.  In order to train his students to be critical assessors of their own writing, Murray starts off the year of conferencing with guiding questions that teach students how to question or analyze their writing.  I find these questions to be especially helpful, even though they are simple, and perhaps you will too:

"What did you learn from this piece of writing?"
"What do you intend to do in the next draft?"
"What surprised you in the draft?"
"Where is this piece of writing taking you?"
"What do you like best in the piece of writing?"
"What questions do you have of me?" 

Murray even goes so far as to suggest that conferencing with your students can be the substitute for whole class instruction.  Now that may not be feasible in all classrooms; Murray is a college professor, however.  Then, how can middle/high school English teachers use the power of frequent conferencing in their classroom where there is so little time in a school day?  That question was posed to me, and some solutions were also suggested.  The solutions sounded like no-brainers once I heard them, and I immediately thought: Why didn't I think of that myself?!  So, let me share those solutions with you so that you can help to empower your students.  

(1)  Let students pair up and conference with each other.  I mean, most students do love to talk to each other.  Therefore, having students talk about the strengths/weaknesses/questions they may have of their own paper with each other allows students to have a focused discussion.  It also promotes collaboration, which is an invaluable skill to have in the real world.  Once students have conferenced with each other, individually invite pairs to see you to report what they have discussed.  Doing so holds students accountable for the time they spent discussing their writing.  As students report back about their conversation, you as the teacher can help problem solve any issues that your two students couldn't figure out together.  Ultimately a student paired conference allows for student collaboration and time cut in half with teacher conferencing.  Essentially you are teaching your students how to ask each other questions and partake in a discussion that would be very similar to the one you may have with a student one on one.  Win!

(2)  As you are reading student writing, write questions that prompt students to think more critically or consider an alternative, for example.  I'm sure most teachers do that already.  But here is something new to try: Have students answer your questions in a written response.  Then students' written responses can be used to help them revise their draft.  In having your students write a written response to your questions, you know they are considering the questions and working toward enhancing their writing.  As always, if your guiding questions, which are questions you would ask during a one on one conference, throughout your students' writing promotes confusion, while students are writing in class, you can pose one on one conferences with students who need extra support or clarification.

(3)  While students are spending time writing or revising in class, call one student up at a time for individualized conferencing time.  As students are busy working, you can give individualized attention.  What I have done in the past is review my student's paper rather quickly and have them read a paragraph or two aloud.  We then discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the excerpt, and what questions they may have.  I even extend the conversation to discuss what is the purpose of their writing and who is their intended audience and whether or not that comes across as clear and how to then improve it if not.


Now that I've suggested some ways to incorporate conferencing into your classroom, what are some ideas you have?  What strategies have you used that have proven to be successful?