Classroom Resolution: More Conferencing

Four months into the school year, my students have done a lot of work. They've read novels, short stories, poems and plays, they've written several compositions, they've done projects and presentations, they've taken literature tests and learned grammar rules, they know how to access information on my web pages, submit work electronically via Google Docs and publish wiki pages, and they've completed almost half of the vocabulary units for the year.

But there is one area where I feel we are behind. I rarely have time to talk to students on a 1:1 basis about their work and give individual feedback. Sure, I write as much as I can on their papers, which they log in their composition record forms when they file the papers in their writing folders, but how much of this do they retain? We also spend class time reviewing the most common mistakes from any round of papers or projects. But the school schedule has become so hectic, and the lives of today's students so jam-packed, that there is virtually no time outside of class to really talk to an individual student and work on his or her areas for improvement.

So I try to fit as much as humanly possible into each class, to "cover" as many of the biggest issues as we can. It can be exhausting planning these lessons and delivering them in our 40 minutes (often much less time, actually, with all the schedule assemblies, drills, benchmark and sate testing, etc.), and it has led me to see that I am still doing much more work than they are. That is a problem. I spend hours planning and hours grading. How do I know that they are putting in the time and effort where it counts, improving their own individual English skills? I need to devote class time to conferencing with students.

To get 2-3 minutes to look over student work, discuss areas of strength and areas for improvement, and answer individual questions, I will need to make sure the rest of the class is working independently. I think I can accomplish this during the upcoming months when the students in most of my classes start writing their critical papers, the biggest writing assignment of the year. As the class is engaged in research, organizing, writing and revising, I will be able to work with each individual several times over the span of a few weeks.

In order for this to happen, I need the buy-in from my students. I have to trust that they will be mature and responsible enough to work independently while conferencing takes place. I resolve to trust them to handle this, and to make it happen in the classroom more often in 2013.

Good luck with your own resolutions, professional and personal, and have a great, happy and healthy 2013!
Happy new year!