Chap. 9

Conferencing with students comes in many forms from individual conferences to whole class conferences. I conduct more individual conferences and roving conferences. This chapter expresses how influential to the whole class that group conferences can be. I always worry about pointing out student mistakes in front of everyone, but I guess if it is handled correctly it can be done. I understand how whole group conferencing would encourage other students to do well and try new things. It would also be important to discuss with the students before hand how to conduct themselves. They would need to know the proper technique for listening and the appropriate responses to other's writing.
I found the section on student editing interesting. I have my students edit their own writing, but am never quite sure how much to expect them to do and when it is time for me to help edit. I think that I need to make them do more of their own corrections than I have been. One student comes to mind that continually spells they "thay". He is in 2nd grade and after correcting it for him and telling him continually the right way to spell it, he still spells it wrong. It is posted around the room in several places for him to look at. I think it is time for me to start handing his paper back and making him do the correction himself. I would also be interested in knowing how the discipline part of writing workshop is handled. The author states that the student are "expected" to have appropriate behavior and work habits. That is easy to say, but we all have those students that don't care what is expected, they still interupt, disrupt, or don't work. Even when they are writing about something that they have chosen, they might write a couple of sentences then are done and being disruptive. In order for this type of writer's workshop to work effectively, the students have to be on tasks and able to work independently.

                                                           
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