Priscilla Ann Ing
Summer 2006
Book Review #4
Calkins, Lucy. THE CONFERRING HANDBOOK, Portsmouth, NJ: Firsthand, 2003
This book is one of eight in a series authored by Ms. Calkins aimed at younger elementary children learning to write. Conferencing with students during writers’ workshop is the focus of this selection.
The architecture of conferences with students is used for three different reasons: to research what the student’s focus is in his chosen writing topic, to review behavior expectations during writers’ workshop, and for the teacher to understand what process the student may need help with and work toward a goal of improving that writing element.
This book centers on the last kind of conference after evaluating, through research questions, what instructional need the student has. Guided practice, demonstration, and explicitly telling and showing are the methods used to guide students to a new or higher level writing skill. Emulating authors’ writing is one suggested way to teach children about writing. This is done through the sharing of literature and having children discover language patterns that they might copy. When the curriculum focuses on personal narrative writing, phonemic awareness and increasing the use of details is emphasized. Punctuation is also taught and practiced. This is also the time that writers are encouraged to skip lines in order to revise and repair. Erasing is not encouraged and even at the primary grades, use of proof reading marks is begun. As the year goes on, students are asked to reread for details and reader understanding. Writing vocabulary words like “setting” and “main idea”, as well as making use of descriptive details are addressed and easily understood by the young writers. By the end of the year, student authors have practiced correct capitalization, punctuation of several kinds, and the use of refrains. Lastly, students are taught to research factual material and begin to think in outline form using the concept of Table of Contents. If time for extensions is available, poetry forms with emphasis on metaphors is attempted.
Though aimed at the early grades, I came away from this reading with a better understanding of the role of conferencing at any grade level. Emulating the steps of research (evaluate the writer’s progress), teach (tell, model, remind) the needed skill, and link (connect) to previous and future writing experiences. I no longer see conferences as happening in a special place reviewing a whole, completed piece of work; but as an activity happening quickly as I move through out the room within the format of a daily minilesson.
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