T WO H EADS A RE B ETTER T HAN O NE : T HE P OWER OF THE P EER C ONFERENCE IN AN E ARLY C HILDHOOD C LASSROOM Courtney Smith EP Todd School Primary Montessori Teacher June 2013

P EER C ONFERENCING R OADBLOCKS Do you use peer conferencing in your classroom? How do you use peer conferencing? What is going well in your classroom? What are your struggles?

T HE W HY “Readers need a quiet place to write and think.” –Mrs. O’Connor “Without lots of talk, your workshop will fall apart.” -Isoke Nia The Writing Workshop by Katie Wood Ray and Lester L. Laminack What I Used to ThinkMy New Thinking

W HAT T HE E XPERTS S AY “By keeping an audience in mind and participating in focused peer review interactions, students can offer productive feedback, accept constructive criticism, and master revision…Peer review facilitates the type of social interaction and collaboration that is vital for student learning.”

W HAT T HE E XPERTS S AY “For a while now, children have tried to write in such a way that we can read their writing. Now we’ll ask them to write in such a way that their peers can read what they’ve written. This is a big step. It’s easier for an adult to use the information a child gives and to infer what the child was trying to say than it is for another child to do these things. Asking children to read each other’s writing may leave some children feeling dejected that their classmates can’t read their writing. But there are tremendous gains to be had from nudging children to write so their classmates can read their writing.” -Lucy Calkins and Natalie Louis, Writing for Readers: Teaching Skills and Strategies

C OMMON C ORE S TATE S TANDARDS CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.K.1CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.K.1 Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners about kindergarten topics and texts with peers and adults in small and larger groups. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.K.2CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.K.2 Confirm understanding of a text read aloud or information presented orally or through other media by asking and answering questions about key details and requesting clarification if something is not understood. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.K.3CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.K.3 Ask and answer questions in order to seek help, get information, or clarify something that is not understood. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.K.4CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.K.4 Describe familiar people, places, things, and events and, with prompting and support, provide additional detail. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.K.5CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.K.5 Add drawings or other visual displays to descriptions as desired to provide additional detail. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.K.6CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.K.6 Speak audibly and express thoughts, feelings, and ideas clearly.

T HE E ND IN M IND Two Goals Children will understand that there is an audience for their writing Children will be able to talk about writing in ways that will aid their reading comprehension skills

T HE E ND IN M IND

P ROCESS OF G ETTING TO THE E ND Beginning with the Familiar Focusing on the content, students will conference about the content of a picture

P ROCESS OF G ETTING TO THE E ND Beginning with the Familiar Students will move from pictures to texts. Students will be able to focus on content and conventions with texts.

Sticky Note Conferences “Elbow to Elbow” or “Knee to Knee”

P ROCESS OF G ETTING TO THE E ND Getting Personal with Pictures

P ROCESS OF G ETTING TO THE E ND Moving Forward with Kid Writing Content vs. Conventions

3 Steps to a Peer Conference 1. T: Tell something you like 2. A: Ask a question 3. G: Give a suggestion

T: T ELL S OMETHING Y OU L IKE Be Positive! Compliment Starters I liked how you… My favorite part was _____ because… This was fun to read _____ because… You did a great job…

A: A SK A Q UESTION Does the writing make sense? Questions to Consider Are there details you want to know more about?

G: G IVE A S UGGESTION Be Specific Areas to Give Suggestions About Illustrations and Text Conventions Word Choice Organization and Structure Details m

I N THE C LASSROOM “For me as a teacher, share time really gets at a value that is bigger than writing itself. It’s a value I have about learning communities, and a writing workshop is a learning community. It is a place that I create where we learn together and where we support each other in that learning in important ways.” -The Writing Workshop by Katie Wood Ray and Lester L. Laminack

I N THE C LASSROOM What will peer conferencing look like in your classroom next year?

R ESOURCES Calkins, Lucy, and Natalie Louis. Writing for Readers: Teaching Skills and Strategies. Portsmouth, NH: FirstHand, Print. "Implementing the Writing Process." Read Write Think. International Reading Association, n.d. Web. 8 June Moldenhauer, Lori. ""Thesaurus Thursday"" Little Priorities. N.p., 11 Oct Web. 8 June Raczka, Bob, and Chad Cameron. Fall Mixed up. Minneapolis: Carolrhoda, Print. Ray, Katie Wood, and Lester L. Laminack. The Writing Workshop: Working through the Hard Parts (and They're All Hard Parts). Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English, Print. "Speaking and Listening Standards." Common Core State Standards Initiative. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 June 2013.