American Idol & Writer's Workshop Conferencing

Well hello again blog world!  This week has been very busy because yesterday my husband had his second american idol audition.  He made it through the first round, and we were notified Monday that his second audition would be yesterday.  All that to say, I had to be sure and get a hair appointment, pick a cute outfit to wear, buy confetti etc., and of course spend ALL day yesterday at the audition.  Unfortunately he didn't make it any farther, but even still it was a fun experience!  It did make for a busy week, though.

On a different note, I wanted to show my writer's workshop conferencing bag.  I am loving doing writer's workshop in the classroom and will blog more about it in the future, but today I wanted to focus on conferencing.  My goal is to meet with 3-4 students each day while the other students are working on their writing.  I meet with them at their desks so other students around can listen and get ideas of how to improve their writing as well.  In my conferencing bag I keep a journal, prompting questions to help me with the conferences, a mentor text, some stickers, and a pen.  In the journal I write each students name and divide the page into two sections with a line down the middle.  I write the date each time I conference with the student, and on one side I write what they are doing well in their writing and on the other side I write their writing goals.  I make sure to praise the student before telling them what they should work on for next time.  This info is very helpful to use in parent teacher conferences as well.  I have the mentor text to show as an example of what good writers do.  For example:  "Do you see how this writers ends every sentence with punctuation?  Can you try to do that in your writing too?"  The kids are really embracing writer's workshop so far and I think it is off to a good start.  Do you have any conferencing tips to share?