Keeping track of Student Reading Conferences and Assessment Data - The Confer App

Here in New York we had a slow start to school.  Tomorrow will begin the 4th week of school.  But due to many September holidays tomorrow will only be Day 11.  I use to stress about the choppy September schedule, thinking that my students would struggle to develop stamina and get their learning mojo going.  But over the last several years I've become more zen about the whole September schedule.  I enjoy the slow start and having a few extra long weekends.  It gives me time to build my teaching stamina and I'm sure it helps the students too.

One challenge of this slower beginning is the fact that TONS of assessment data is due.  Some that is helpful and some that is meaningless to me.  But I won't be going into the meaningless stuff today.  I try to keep it positive here on the blog, or mostly positive.

Since I'm thinking about assessment today I thought I would write about my tracking method.  For the last 3-4 years I've use the Confer App to keep track of my reading conferences and assessment notes.  But I will admit to falling behind once late winter or spring comes and "forgetting" to log in my notes. One reason I think this happens is that the app wasn't always working for me, especially when we started to do more book clubs.  And sometimes I forgot my ipad at home. Using my iphone is a pain because I often need to take my glasses off, even thought I do have progressive lens.  So I started to think I might start recording the old fashion, paper and pencil way, again.  But then I thought, Yuk, I already tried that many ways. So, back to the Confer App.  I decided to go back and read all the directions. I like simple and it is a simple app, maybe I missed something.  And wouldn't you know, reading the directions helped.  There were things I could do that I didn't know. (or they are new to the app)


Here's some things that I liked and learned by rereading the directions;

You can customize the note categories!  I didn't know that.  I thought I was stuck with only strength, teaching point and next step.  So I added "text" so that I could enter titles or other text the student is reading.  I also added a "concerns" category.  Sometimes I wanted to note a concern that wasn't related to next steps.

I also figured out how to create groups.  This will be so helpful when doing book clubs or even strategy groups.  I was never clear on this before.

Other things you might like;

There is a section to enter benchmark level.

You can sort students by categories.  For instance you can sort them by date of last conference.  That is helpful for making sure you conference with all students and don't miss anyone. Sorting students by "next steps" is also helpful for forming strategy groups.

You can set up multiple classes.  You could keep your writing and math conferences on the app also.  I only use it for reading.

If you are looking for a simple way to collect your conference and assessment information this might be a great tool for you.  It's not fancy or colorful, but it gets the job done.

INTERESTING NOTE: The same company that  makes the Confer App is developing Snapfolio App.  If you go to the website, you can watch the video.  If you have used Snapfolio I would love to hear your thoughts.

How do you keep track of your reading conferences and student assessment data?

Reading Workshop: Conferring Challenges

As I have moved away from using only guided reading groups to conferring one to one with my second graders, I have realized how much work I had to do on my conferring technique. Being able to keep accurate records and notes has been a challenge. I have used all sorts of systems and rarely stuck with them for the whole year, and found myself forgetting to record and relying on my memory to remember what I had taught at our last conference! Over the last 3 years or so, I have used a 1 inch binder that had a section for each student. I have modified forms that I found in The CAFE Book by Joan Moser and Gail Boushey and Conferring: The Keystone of Reader's Workshop by Patrick Allen.  I am currently using experimenting with the Confer app on my ipad. I have also briefly tried Evernote. But I think I have been focusing on the wrong thing - keeping these records as helped me see my true weakness - the actual conference!

Here's what I think are my main problems;

Time management.  I often spend way too much time with one student. If I want to meet with students on a regular basis I need to be more efficient with my time. But this often leads to my second problem! As soon as I sit next to a student I start thinking, "Oh, I can't waste time, so lets get going!"  And this nagging rush, rush, rush feeling is always lurking and sometimes prevents me from really connecting with my young readers.

Figuring out what to teach. I'm often not sure what to teach, so I talk too much or I teach too much. I sometimes walk away from the conference not knowing what I actually taught and realize the student probably felt the same!

I know I am really great at modeling or explaining how to use reading strategies or skills in my whole group lessons. I have been thinking about how I can transfer this quality to my conferences. When I look back at conferences that I felt good about I realized it was because I immediately knew what the student was doing well and what I could teach them. I didn't get to to the stressed out stage of worrying about time or what to teach.

I am currently reading Conferring With Readers by Jennifer Serravallo (@JSerravallo) and Gravity Goldberg (@drgravityg). One thing that I have been thinking about and doing more of when I confer is the "research" phase of my conference. I am trying to observe my reader for a few moments and really think about what I see them doing. Are they staying focused, using their finger, using post its? I am also trying to make sure I open up our conference with a question that will allow me to continue my research. Here's some questions I have used recently that have helped me in my research phase. Would you like to share your post it notes? How are post it notes helping you understand your non-fiction? What are you thinking?  The last one often flusters many students and they immediately begin retelling the story.  So, sometimes I add, "what do you think of that?" referring to their retelling. It's just over the last couple of weeks that I have been paying close attention to the questions I ask - which has helped me reflect on my conferring technique.  I really think I might keep a list of opening questions or comments to help me out. Once I get the conversation going I usually can see what strategies they are trying pretty quick.

The other idea that Jennifer and Gravity suggest is creating a list of goals or strategies and skills you want students to learn during a unit of study. While I do this in my head I really think this could help me to focus more during my conferences when it's time to identify a skill to teach. After spring break I plan on doing this for the remainder of our non-fiction unit.

I am only on Chapter 7, but I'm finding it so helpful as I work to improve my conferring. The authors do a great job of identifying the parts of a conference and even the different types of conferences. As I read it I realize I am doing many of these things, but I think naming them is so important if I want to keep doing them!

What challenges and successes have you had with your reading conferences?
Do you have a system for recording and keeping track of your conferences?