Spending time making notes on your students’ writing assignments is only half of what needs to be done. Most students do not look at their graded papers when they get them back. For most students, holding a writing conference will make a difference in knowing what they did well and what needs improvement.

Writing conferences provide valuable opportunities for writers to enhance their skills and gain insights. By having regular conferences, students can learn about what they are doing well in their essays, receive feedback on their papers, and teachers can establish meaningful connections with their students.

Just like when you scaffold and model the writing requirements for an essay in a mini-lesson, you do the same thing individually for each student through conferencing. Many students don’t need every lesson when you are teaching writing. Conferencing will help you deliver differentiated instruction. It’s helpful to have a monthly schedule, students’ anecdotal notes, and teacher’s anecdotal notes to keep documentation of the writing conferences. Overall, it’s important to stay organized with writing conference notes to ensure students are getting what they need.

During the Writing Conference

During the writing conference, making one-on-one eye contact with students to let them know what they should do differently and continue doing makes a difference in their progress. This also builds a relationship between you and your student. It’s important not to get hung up on what they can’t do, but what they CAN do!

You want to conference with your students on each writing assignment even if it’s for one minute. Review no more than five ways they can improve their essay and you must find something you like about their paper even if it’s their handwriting.

Always set a positive tone for each writing conference. Start the conference supportively with at least one compliment. This compliment can also be written on a sticky note (from Amazon). Once you state the compliment, talk softly so that other students can’t eavesdrop on the conference. Then constructively recommend 3-5 suggestions of ways to improve. Lastly, close the writing conference in a way that builds excitement for your students!

Make it a habit for your students to feel successful after each essay. They put the time in to write the assignment. Many times their effort and accomplishments in a paper are overshadowed by mistakes. If you have trouble finding something your student achieved in the writing assignment, many complementary ideas can be used.

Here are some Compliment Ideas from my Writing Conference Card:

Great word spacing.
Good job indenting.
Terrific use of punctuation.
Perfect spelling/grammar.
Excellent capitalization.
Fantastic job using vivid words.
Wonderful use of transition words.
Logically ordered reasons.
The introduction paragraph ties in with the main idea.
Superb topic sentence(s).
Amazing facts and details.
Marvelous knockout in your conclusion, I can’t wait to read your next one!

When to Hold a Writing Conference

There are two times a writing conference can be held. The first one is during a current essay. I usually conduct a conference with students once we brainstorm ideas and finish the drafting phase. I pull students when they revise essays or edit writing during writing workshop. This way I can guide students to get on the right track for their new essay. The next time I hold a conference is during a new essay. This way gives me time to grade the previous essay and then students know exactly what to improve on while working on the new essay.

You can either call students to sit by you or conference while you are already circulating the classroom. Every classroom and schedule is different, therefore you’ll want to find a way that works best for you. It’s hard to fit the time in, but writing conferences pays off later in the school year!

Here are my writing conference card and tracking sheet forms. They are excellent for mixed or leveled classes to give students individualized instruction.