Monday, October 6, 2014
Conferences
So this week is conference week in my mentor's class. I have a love/hate relationship with conferences. I love them because I feel like the students get a lot more feedback and are able to revise their papers better. I would love to do conferences for all my papers because I feel like the students learn more through them. I hate conferences because they take so much time! If you don't read the paper's ahead of time then you have to have really long conferences. If you do read them ahead of time then you have to spend the time before hand getting through everyone's paper and commenting on them before you even start conferencing. Especially as a grad student, I don't know that it's feasible. I definitely make sure to have at least one conference with them, so that I can go over patterns of issues that each student is struggling with. I think if you are going to do conferences you should have one at midterm and one before the final paper/portfolio is turned in. This gives students time to try to adjust their writing from high school expectations to college expectations, as well as giving them a little extra help before the last major assignment is turned in.
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Conferences do have some definite advantages and some challenges also. To me being able to verbally offer feedback is sometimes more efficient than writing it; on the other hand, the conference itself can take as long as reading the paper and writing comments, so it is a trade-off. I think establishing that interpersonal communication is important regardless, and that is one of the most important advantages of conferencing. To me it is important to facilitate that even when it does require a time commitment.
ReplyDeleteOne thing I do when I hold conferences to save some time is have the students fill out a short worksheet before their conference and bring it with them. The most important question on the worksheet is "what are you most concerned about with your paper?" Then, I spend the short amount of time we have together focusing primarily on responding to their concern--plus maybe one other major issue that I notice while reading through the paper. It's helpful to me at least. Let me know if you want a copy of the worksheet.
ReplyDeleteThe worksheet idea is a great suggestion. I think having some experience in the writing center will also be useful for this. It helps prioritize the concerns for the paper and give honest feedback quickly. Asking them to answer a few questions before, such as "What are your concerns? What is your argument/purpose? Who is your audience?" can set a schedule in a way for the conference. Then you can add anything you've noticed.
ReplyDeleteI just had my first conferences this week (and I still have many more Monday), and I'm finding the amount of time ridiculous. I thought I would have trouble filling 30 minutes slots, but 30 minutes has flown by and some conferences approached 45 minutes. Yikes! I'm definitely implementing Morgan's worksheet idea for the last essay's conferences. However, the students have found the meetings useful, and I've learned a lot about what students are concerned about.
ReplyDeleteI do conferences when choosing a topic rather than for a draft. So, that takes away the problem of having to read the draft as well. We'll be talking about conferences in class soon, so don't forget these questions!
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