It's the middle of your writing block and you sidle up to a student to have a writing conference. And it goes great. You feel like you made a difference with that kid. You feel like you accomplished something. But then you start doing the math... "Let's see, I just spent 8 minutes with this student, so at this rate it'll only take me... hmmm... 9,000 years to meet with everyone." It quickly gets overwhelming and you may start wondering, why even bother? Holding one-to-one writing conferences with students is a really effective way to help them grow, but conferences that last 8-10 minutes a pop just aren't sustainable. Even 5-minute writing conferences are tough. So are 4 minute writing conferences. 2 minutes. That's where we want to be. Now, before you start rolling your eyes telling me you'll never get anything out of a two-minute conference, hang on. Let's just for a second assume that you CAN have a meaningful, productive writing conference with a student in two minutes. Okay? If that's the case, what would that allow? If we had two-minute conferences with a class of 30 students, it will only take us four 15-20 minute writing sessions to meet with every student one-to-one. Less than a week to see everybody! That's motivating. Now I need to prove to you that two minutes is enough. That with two minutes, we can scooch a student writer forward. So let's dig into how to have a worthwhile two-minute writing conference. We'll break our time into three sections: Learn, Show, and Push. I want you to keep in mind this isn't meant to be a formula, but I also recognize that it can be really helpful to see exactly how those two minutes might get filled. So let's meet with one of our students, Leroy, and see how a two-minute conference might run. "Hi Leroy." And boom... our two minutes have begun. With the first thirty seconds or so, we LEARN. We check our notes for the focus of recent conferences with Leroy. (We do this quickly, like 5 seconds quick: Okay, I met with Leroy about leads and setting details recently.) We orient ourselves to what Leroy is working on right now in his writing. (We do this quickly, like 5 seconds quick: Okay, Leroy looks to be drafting his personal narrative about losing his gerbil.) We scan a chunk of Leroy's writing, preferably what he's been writing today and/or yesterday, looking for something to focus on with him: We're looking for progress related to the focus of one of our recent conferences. (In Leroy's case, we look at his lead and how he describes the setting. We might also ask Leroy how he's doing with one of these skills.) Do we need to revisit one of these skills? Or, Can we build off one of these skills, either by taking the skill to a more sophisticated level or by choosing a related skill to focus on? We're also open to a glaring need, unrelated to a recent conference, that we think should be a priority to address and therefore trumps the skills we were focusing on before. What if nothing jumps out at us? As a default, we'll use the writing skill/strategy we taught in a recent whole-group minilesson as the focus for this writing conference. With the next sixty seconds or so, we SHOW. This is the meat of the conference: the teaching part, the coaching part, the modeling part. We've chosen something to focus on, so let's do it! With Leroy, let's imagine we noticed him describing his setting, and we think he's ready to take it to the next level. So we're going to first show Leroy what we noticed: "Let's look at this little part you wrote here, Leroy. I see that near the beginning of your piece you wrote two details about the setting, one about being in your house and one about it being a Saturday morning. I can tell you are trying to think about that part of your writing. Then we model something new for Leroy: "So Leroy, when writers are trying to establish their setting, they do what you did: they describe the place and the time. But to really be successful, they use sensory details that really help the reader imagine the setting. For example, I see that most of your narrative so far is taking place in your bedroom. So we could try adding another setting detail that can help the reader picture your bedroom. If it was my bedroom, I might write, "The stench of my dirty socks strewn all over my bedroom floor almost knocked me over." Do you see how that helps the reader put themselves there in my room? What sense did I use with that extra detail? With the last 30 seconds or so, we PUSH. We transition from showing and modeling to giving the student an action step. "So Leroy, think about your own bedroom and how it was on that morning when your story took place. I want you to try adding a sensory detail that will help bring the setting alive for your reader." Now we feel out the student. Dots might be connecting. Or blank stares might be forming. Or anything in between: If Leroy gets started right away, we observe and simply be a sounding board for him. If Leroy struggles to get started, we might make a suggestion or ask a leading question to help him get the ball rolling. "I added a detail involving smell. You could do that too, or think about sounds, feels, or specific sights." If Leroy stares blankly at his writing, not sure what to do, that's okay. He might not be ready to make this jump, or maybe he does understand but this particular situation is just stumping him. Again, we might make a suggestion or ask a leading question. Depending on the student and the situation, we don't necessarily need to stay and continue to watch the student work. We leave the student with a closing push: "As you continue writing, Leroy, and your setting moves, I want you to think about those extra sensory details here and there that you can add, okay?" Our two minutes have ended. We make a quick note about the conference and move on. Here's a little chart that sums up the three parts of our two-minute conference: I highly encourage you to get out your phone, set it on the student's desk, and have the stopwatch running during the conference. It's the only way to really keep the timing a priority. There will be conferences when you think, this student needs more of my time, I can't just whisk along and move on here. I get it, that's understandable. Just remember though, if you do that very often, you're going to be right back where you started in this whole thing. Utilizing this two-minute outline with your students is one key component of a practical and effective system of writing conferences. But what about keeping all the interruptions at bay? And what about other types of interactions like strategy groups and check-ins? And what about the forms on which to keep records? And how does this change the big picture of my writing block? What does a week of independent writing really look like? Don't worry! Head over to my blog where I get deep into ALL of those questions in my post, How to Have Successful Writing Conferences with Student Writers. You can pick up all the forms I use there, too!

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Socratic seminars. Fishbowl discussions. Harkness method. Jigsaw. There are many wonderful structures and strategies for facilitating classroom discussions which deepen student learning about a text or topic, while also developing vital communications abilities: a true life skill. However, I know that when I was a new teacher, I found class discussions challenging at best, and painfully awkward at worst. So, here are some questions many teachers struggle with, along with some answers I have come to through lots of trial and error, and plenty of practice. Any time! Whether studying literature or analyzing persuasive language, having students engage with each other in small groups to share and deepen their knowledge, while also developing critical communication skills, is just solid practice. Moreover, especially when working with teenagers, student-led discussions encourage them to take responsibility for their own learning, and help them to learn how to work well with others. Personally, I step back and have students run discussions almost every 2 or 3 classes. The more they do it, the better they will become. There is no one-way to do this; it will completely depend on your class size, dynamics, objective, and more. It could be the whole class sitting in a circleand all discussing. It could also be a fishbowl discussion, with an inner circle having the discussion while the outer circle observes (read more about Fishbowl discussions here). It could be multiple smaller groups each having their own discussions at the same time. You want to vary your types of discussions to keep students engaged, and on their toes. You know teenagers: do any one thing too often and they get bored! However, two key things I have learnt through practice: Stay out of the discussion as much as possible to really let students muddle through on their own; while I may interject occasionally, I really try to do so as little as possible to force students to take responsibility for their own discussions. Discourage students from raising their hands; while this can be a challenge at first, it does break away from teacher-led formats, and it teaches them to be assertive, mindful of others, and collaborative. Preparation is key. While it is great to have informal, on-the-spot discussions, this really favors the engage, confident, assertive students; it can be highly challenging for the quieter, more reluctant members of the class. If you want students to engage and lead the discussions, you must let them prepare thoroughly first. Let them pick the topic themselves. I often put students into small groups and have them decide what might be an interesting question for discussion around a text. The mere process of deciding is valuable as they explore the text/topic being studied, and assess the validity of essential questions. To scaffold this process, you can give them a list of possible questions to select from. Have students write questions. Before the class discussion, I will assign homework for students to work together to come up with a list of about 10 essential questions they will discuss. This also teaches them how to write good open-ended questions, and I stipulate that I want a range of types: clarification, analysis, comparison, opinion-based, etc. This works beautifully in Google Docs, as students work together on the same document to write, critique, refine, and agree upon their set of questions. It also allows me to see if they all truly participated! *GRAB THIS FREE WORKSHEET TO HELP STUDENTS PREPARE AND PARTICIPATE IN A FORMAL DISCUSSION* Teenagers are awkward. We get that. If you are going to hold formal discussions in the classroom, you may well encounter everything from students feeling self-conscious and barely speaking, to students dominating and oversharing. That’s ok. It is all part of the learning process. However, you need to be prepared to sit back, outside of the discussion, and let them battle through: embrace the silence. The more that they practice, the more natural and easy it becomes. *In terms of balancing out participation, see my recommendation below, for the app Equity Maps. Check out these DISCUSSION GOAL CARDS to help give students tangible goals to focus on during the discussion! Just last week I put students into groups to prepare a discussion on Shakespeare’s Othello. While I busied myself in the background, they chatted about what topic they would like to pick. My teacher heart was overflowing with pride: critical thinking was on full display as they tossed around ideas, assessed the validity of topics, listened attentively to each other, backed up their opinions with textual evidence, and thoughtfully included even the quietest of members. I was thrilled, and really excited for the ‘real thing.’ The next day, I sat back, eagerly anticipating more of their rich dialogue and collaborative sharing. Yet, that’s not what I got. Instead, I was greeted with stilted conversation, forced interest, self-conscious interjections, and little evidence of the depth of which I knew they were capable. The difference? Grading. The quickest way to make a discussion inauthentic, static, and forced, is to grade students. I am not advocating that we don’t do it - it is an important process - but we need do so many ungraded discussions formatively, that it takes away the performance anxiety and fear around the ‘formal’ discussion. I only have a graded discussion perhaps twice a term, yet we hold student-led discussions almost every week. Often for the quieter students it is not a case of not having something valuable to say, but it is often a case of not being able to find space, feeling too shy, or not knowing how to jump in. For this, I have a couple of tips: Give all students incentives: I have students sit with 5 chocolates in front of them (my favorite: Cadbury’s Mini-Eggs) and encourage them that each time they contribute, they get to eat a treat. This not only incentives participation, but it also gives them a clear goal, and a great way to monitor their interactions. Have students write alist of possible questions beforehand, and have this in front of them. This way, even if they struggle to think on their feet, or struggle to voice their opinions, they still have something with which they can enter in. Half way through the discussion, get up and “press pause” on the discussion. For a couple of minutes let students collect their thoughts and jot down some notes, then for the following few minutes let only those who have not had a chance to speak yet, do so. Use these FREE opinion signs to have students engage visibly. This way, they are forced into coming up with an opinion, indicate it to the whole group, and then other students can ask them why they agree or disagree. Remind students of all the possible ways to engage. Participation should not just be through giving opinions: it could be through asking for clarification, validating a peer’s contribution, signalling agreement or disagreement, asking for evidence to deepen someone else’s thinking etc. For more tips on how to encourage participation, check out Room 213’s great blog post on the topic. She has a wealth of experience with class discussions, and some simple, easy-to-implement ideas! Having students reflect on their growth and learning is a vital part of any educational experience (read more here). The same is true for discussions: after any class discussion, encourage students to self-reflect, and assess their own participation. Simple bell-ringers work well here. Nothing fancy: I just pick an appropriate one, write it on the board, and have students write down an answer in the last few minutes of class: In what way are you proud of your participation? Which area do you need to grow? How can you improve next time? What is one think you will focus on next time? Who do you think displayed good facilitation skills in today’s discussion, and how? As mentioned earlier, I rely heavily on Google Docs for students' collaboration and preparation. However, another app which I use regularly is Equity Maps: with this app, you can record the whole discussion, visually map the conversation, and collect all kinds of data: seeing the gender dynamics; timing students’ contributions; and seeing how balanced the discussion is. There is a feature which even assesses the group on how even the participation was (green for highly balanced and fair, blue for high levels of equality, yellow for medium etc.); my students now see this almost as a goal or game to aim for, and they are so proud of themselves when they reach Green status! If you have anymore questions about facilitating meaningful discussions in the classroom, feel free to post them below. In the meantime, check out these incredible blog posts and resources: Encouraging participation in Discussions by Room 213 Engage your students with Fishbowl Conversations by The Daring English Teacher Holding silent discussions by Presto Plans Tips for Successful Lit Circles by Addie Williams Holding Whole Class Discussion for Any Novel by The SuperHERO Teacher Discussion Activities by Presto Plans

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Try this STEM Activity Challenge at home or in the classroom!! In this activity students will work in groups to design and build a small boat from aluminum foil. They will then see how many pennies it can hold before it sinks. The goal is for each student to work with their group to build and modify their boat to hold as many pennies as possible. Materials (per group, 3-4 students): 2 aluminum foil squares that are 15cm by 15cm (1 square will be in case they make a mistake or want to redesign their boat) 1 beaker or clear cup (to show the aluminum foil and penny sinking at the beginning of this activity) approx. 50 pennies (I put these in a small cup) A fish tank / large bowl for setting these in when filling with pennies (1 tank per class) Video Tutorial: https://youtu.be/KqeJr-eJe0E Available for purchase in my TpT Store: k-2 Grade Activity, 3-5th Grade Activity, 6-8th Grade - Student Worksheet - Teacher / Parent Instructions - Grading Rubric - Other fun and exciting STEM Activity Challenges! This STEM Activity Challenge includes teacher instructions, student instructions (worksheet), grading rubrics, a demonstration video for the teacher, a materials needed sheet, and the related NGSS standards! In the teacher demonstration video, I give you an overview of the activity challenge, talk about the materials involved and where to get them, demonstrate how to set up the challenge for the students, and discuss the science involved. Teachers have found these videos to be very helpful by showing them step-by-step how to run the activity and giving them a better understanding of the science behind it. This activity will challenge students to work together in groups to complete the given task. These activities are fun, engaging, and the students will learn science in the process. Group work and problem solving are at the heart of these challenges. Each activity challenge will end with a real-world research question, video, or activity. It is usually an extension of what the students just discovered and learned. The students will be involved, excited, and looking forward to future activity challenges in your classroom.

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