User:UW Nightman/sandbox

Learning, in any context, requires some form of feedback. In schools, this feedback is almost entirely thought of as the teacher providing feedback to the student. The idea of providing feedback to advance student learning is best understood in the framework of the “zone of proximal development” (ZPD). Vygotski defined the ZPD as “the distance between the actual developmental level as determined by independent problem solving and the level of potential development as determined through problem solving under adult guidance or in collaboration with more capable peers.” (p. 86, emphasis in the original) More plainly, a student has a certain level they can achieve by themselves and with support they are able to achieve a higher level of learning. However, there is still some level in which the student is incapable of reaching, no matter what support is provided. For example, a student may be working on double digit addition. Their current knowledge may already provide them with the skills to move on to triple digit addition without any help. If the student is introduced to multiplication, however, they will need help to understand that multiplication is a quicker way to represent the same number being added onto itself a defined amount of times. Where this help occurs is the student’s ZPD. Even with help though, it is not reasonable to expect the student to learn how to solve a calculus problem. The struggle for teachers is how to provide the right amount of help to each student. If a teacher provides information to the whole class too quickly, some students are left behind trying to figure out the first step. Conversely, if a teacher provides information to the whole class too slowly, some students will finish rapidly and be left with nothing to do. Conferring is a tool that teachers have used to help mitigate that issue.

Conferring first gained prominence in One to one: the art of art of conferring with young writers. Calkins et al., describe how effective writing workshops for students included individual writing conferences (conferring), where teachers would sit and talk with their students about their writing. As Calkins et al., states, "Conferring can give us the force that makes our mini-lessons and curriculum development and assessment and everything else more powerful. It gives us an endless resource of teaching wisdom, an endless source of accountability, a system of checks and balances. And, it gives us laughter and human connection-the understanding of our children that gives spirit to our teaching." (p.6) Calkins believed that there were three main components to every conferring session: Research, Decide and Teach. Research focused on where the student was in their current writing, decide would help the teacher choose what to teach the student, and teach would use modeling and guiding practice to further advance student learning. Ray and Laminack added a fourth component in where after the teaching portion the student and/or the teacher would “Make a Record.” (p. 168) This modified model can be thought in the terms of: research, decide, teach, record. The benefits of using conferring have been documented in a couple of studies.

Using a mix method case study approach in observing a group of 4th grade students, Stubbs poised the question: “How does the implementation of one-on-one conferring promote higher order thinking skills in students with difficulties in reading?” The results from her pre and post-test found that “even those with reading difficulties did show a significant gain in higher order thinking skills.” In a separate study, Smith examined the effectiveness of using teacher-student writing conference for English Language Learners (ELLs). Observing two students who were ELLs in a second-grade classroom working on a book project, Smith found that the work produced “looks similar to what is produced by native English speakers.” Smith later suggests that the success of the two students were largely tied to the writing conferences, and goes on to state that writing conferences are the “heart of the writing process, and with this in mind, the potential of the teacher-student writing conference becomes clear.”

The information can be summarized into three main takeaways. First, building student knowledge is dependent on the current level of knowledge the student has and what kind of support they are provided. Second, conferring is a model that can provide student support through a structured four-part process. Third, conferring has been shown to increase student learning in both reading and writing.