13 Tips To Improve Student Conferencing and Feedback #HackingPBL

I can’t clone you. I know you have 30 (sometimes more) kids in your class at a time and spending even 5 minutes with each individually would take an entire week of instructional time. What I can tell you, without reservation, is this time investment is worth it. Countless studies (especially the work of John Hattie) highlight the positive impact timely, specific feedback has on student self-efficacy and achievement. Even with this knowledge, finding the time to implement conferences remains a challenge. If you have spent any time thinking about student conferences, you have already come to realize that they must be brief – typically 3 to 5 minutes. A leisurely walk around the room just won’t do. Conference time requires strategy and planning, and it can be done! Here are some tips to make the most of the precious minutes you have with your learners:

Start with the end in mind

1. What are the goals for the work? Typically there are enduring understandings (or High Impact Takeaways), which stretch throughout a unit. In addition, there are learning targets/objectives aligned to your lessons and activities which drive students toward the desired understanding.

2. Learning targets may be determined based on the standards for your course or by the student/group based on the goals of their project. Ross Cooper does a nice job explaining this process in more detail in his post, It’s the Learning, Not the Lessons!

3. It is important that the learning targets are transparent to your students, eventually. You may choose to kick off a unit first and allow students to uncover some of the targets along the way. However, in order for students to deeply reflect on their progress, they will need an understanding of the final destination.

Schedule your conferences

4. Post your conference schedule for the day – or the week. If students know they have a scheduled meeting with you, it will lead to fewer interruptions while you are conferencing with other students. Be sure your students have a place to save their questions such as a sticky note, journal, or project documents.

5. Scheduling your conferences also ensures your minutes are allotted efficiently. In a 42 minute period with 30 students, plan to conference with 5 to 6 students a day. Breathe. You can do it.

Keep your conference focused

6. When you sit with a student or small group, especially when there is writing involved, it is easy to become distracted. They forgot to capitalized letters. They used the wrong sized font. Any number of things may catch your eye, but chances are these are surface level observations and they are not aligned to the goals set for your work.

7. Allow your learning targets to drive your conference. Plan the question you will ask to start the conversation to ensure the dialogue is rigorous from the start.

8. You may also ask your students to plan their own questions in preparation for their conference. Again, ensure your students know where to collect their questions.

End with something actionable

9. A conference was successful if both you and the student(s) walk away knowing what happens next. That does not necessarily mean that you provided play-by-play directions for their subsequent moves, but after your collaboration, the student should have a clear understanding of their imminent work. This may mean researching a question they have not yet explored, reviewing mentor texts to fine-tune their written transitions, or updating a video to provide a clearer understanding of the mission of their public service announcement.

Track your conversations

10. Using a Progress Assessment Tool (designed by my co-author, Ross Cooper, and me) allows you to marry your targets, feedback, and, if necessary, grade together in once place. A resource of this kind provides a running record of the work invested into a project.

11. While in the classroom, I kept the PATs at school and distributed the document to groups as they began their work for the day. Often times we distribute a rubric at the beginning of a project and students do not look at it again until it is time to submit. The process of distributing and collecting took an extra minute, but it kept the information contained on the document fresh in my students’ minds. Selfishly, it also saved the frustration of a lost paper. Many classrooms now have regular access to digital tools, so this document could be housed in a web-based hub.

Reality check

12. Conference rotations do not need to happen every week. If students are working on a four to five week project (PBL, written piece, etc) you may meet with each student or student group two or three times.

13. It should be impossible for a student to reach the end of a project and have “nothing done.” Through conferencing, you will be able to help each student make process.

Are you exhausted already? Dedicating time for regular student conferencing is a commitment to student success.  You will reap the value of your efforts when evaluating student assignments and in their future work. Ultimately, in-progress feedback is far more likely to create sustainable change than feedback accompanying a grade.

In what ways do you manage conferencing in your classroom?

Resources which have helped shape my thinking on conferencing: