Response to Calkins: Ch 13 & 14

Response to Lucy Calkins
7-14-10
Chapter 13: Conferring
Calkins analogy that writing is not very different from making a clay rabbit was very helpful to me. I can remember trying to sculpt something in clay many years ago. You do tug and pull at the clay and smudge it between your fingers. You stand back and as yourself or someone else, “How does that look?” Then you get back to work and tug and pull some more until you stop again to take a look at how you have done. Writing is no different. All writers need to have those moments where they discuss their writing either with someone else or themselves. As Calkins states, “Creation and criticism—these are central to our work with clay and blocks, and they are also central to our work with words”. The implication for my classroom is that I need to take more time to confer with my students on their writing and do it in a structured, regular and predictable way.
Another shared experience is the “I’m done!” syndrome that so frequently plague’s students during writing time. I think by conferring with the writer and asking them what questions they have about their writing we can gradually keep writers focused in the classroom. Calkins states that conferring is at the heart of the workshop and it is difficult to learn to confer well. She also reminds that it is worth the struggle. I look forward to establishing conferring in my classroom this fall when I implement writers’ workshop.
On sustainability-we should be teaching the writer, not the writing. Calkins reminds us that we need to be focusing our attention to things that can help the writer rather than a particular piece of writing. The implication for my classroom practice is that I don’t need to be making marks on my student’s papers. We need to talk about their writing and have them make the changes. This will be a challenge for some of my students, but I think students retain ownership of their own ideas and writing by doing the revision this way.
Chapter 14: Learning to Confer
In this chapter Calkins presents four types of conferences for us to ponder:
Content: Just interested conversations about the content of writing or even about the content of student’s lives.
Design: Conferencing about organization. Writers need to learn that they don’t have to follow the actual sequence of event.
Process: Conferring about the strategies the writer is using & helping them develop more effective strategies.
Evaluation: both individual writings and to evaluate several pieces (best, worst, how is writing changing, what new things are being tried, what patterns do are apparent?)
In this chapter Calkins states, “If the conference goes well, the child’s energy for writing increase and they want to write”. This quote provides all the more reason for me to try conferring as I look at ways to motivate unmotivated writers.
Calkins states in the last page of her chapter that these categories of conferring should be viewed as lenses for thinking about conferring:
“In the end, conferring is useful not only when rethinking writing, but also when rethinking our clay rabbits…and our teaching.”
The implications for my classroom are that I would like to find a balance of conferring using all four types of conferences. Currently my student and I talk a lot about content and design. I would like to include more process and evaluation conversations.