Melissa Pruitt's Blog Post 4: Conferencing

                Conferencing with my students provides me with vital information about them as readers.

All of my students are struggling readers with a diagnosed disability, however, they all have very

different strengths and weaknesses in reading. Conferencing helps me determine which skills I need to focus on with individual students and which skills are weaknesses for the entire group.

                Through conferencing with my focus group I have learned that JE decodes grade level texts

 fluently but he struggles with understanding vocabulary meanings as well as answering inferential

questions. He gets frustrated easily and is quick to give up. He needs more positive reinforcement then most of my students.  SM also reads grade level texts fluently. She is often unable to recall basic

information from a text and has to look back to answer questions. She has difficultly answering

inferential questions.  She has gained more confidence when reading. TN struggles with basic decoding skills. He reads at a fast rate paying and often guesses words that look similar instead of applying  decoding skills he’s learned. Although he misreads many words, he is generally able to make connections, answer most comprehension questions and retell a story.  AS struggles with decoding lengthy words and often lacks focus when reading. She does use context clues to help her when reading. She does well answering comprehension questions and looks back for details if she needs to. JT has difficulty with decoding and his fluency rate is very slow. He is unsure about vocabulary meanings and will often ask what words mean before trying to answer a question. He always puts forth his best effort and looks back in passages to double check before answering comprehension questions. JT loves to read. JLP struggles with decoding skills as well. He lacks focus and often says that he can’t concentrate on what he is reading. His comprehension skills are inconsistent. At times he is able to answer details questions and other times he cannot. He has difficultly with inferential questions. He often needs more time when conferencing and needs lots of positive reinforcement.

                My students and I both grow during our conferencing. During this time the students are able to learn more about their individual strengths and weaknesses in reading. It gives me opportunities to model specific strategies that the student needs when reading. Conferencing gives me information that helps me pair students so that they are able to work together and help one another. It also helps me to determine which skills I need to focus on with individual students and which skills I need to focus on with the entire group. I have realized that the students in my focus group lack vocabulary knowledge and struggle with inferential questions. Most importantly, conferencing helps me build relationships with my students.