Student Led Parent-Teacher Conferences Increase Student Confidence
Student Led Conferences facilitate student articulation of learning, student-engaged assessment through review and reflection, and parent engagement. As parent-teacher conferences transition to parent-teacher-student conferences, students become a part of the conversation and become involved in the process of reflecting on their progress.
After parents and students understand that both parent and child are expected to be present and viewed as valued contributors to the process, through parent-teacher-student conferences, teachers then begin to prepare their students to be able to lead the conferences in order to achieve true Student Led Conferences. Then, as students transition to become the leaders of these conferences, the preparation involved becomes a natural process of assessing their own work and writing goals for improvement. Students look at their guided reading level compared to the what is expected for their age range. Students look at their standardized test data. They review their fluency rates in both math and reading. They also review their writing projects and assess the quality of their writing according to the 6+1 Traits of Writing. Additionally, students reflect on their Habits of Scholarship and how they are performing in those as well. With each of these review sessions, reflections are written and goals are developed.
After engaging in this review and reflection process, students are then able to share their present levels of performance with their parents. They are also able to share with their parents what is expected of them by the end of the school year, what they need to do to achieve those goals, and steps that will be taken toward success. They are able to articulate both the ways they have grown and their goals for further growth. Parents are excited to have these meaningful conversations with their students, facilitated by teachers. As a result, families prioritize attendance for this impactful conversation between all parties involved in the students’ learning.
Challenges or Obstacles:
- It can be difficult to find ways to work the individualized process of portfolio reviews into the school day. We set aside a morning circle every week to devote to portfolio discussion, organization, and review. Teachers also devote additional time to the process of preparing and practicing for conferences the week before conferences take place.
- Some parents desire time to talk with the teacher without the child present. It is important that teachers articulate to parents that they are willing to have a meeting with parents alone as needed to discuss sensitive issues for which the parent does not want the child present.
Benefits and Successes:
- Our parent participation rate in Student-Led Conferences is extraordinarily high. We regularly enjoy between 98% and 100% participation in our Student-Led Conferences. This opens the lines of communication between all parties invested in the each child’s success.
- Our students develop working portfolios to track their growth using additional measures so that state testing alone does not define the child’s rate of success. Norm trackers and fluency trackers provide additional data. Long-term writing projects document growth. These portfolios follow the student from grade to grade so that they have evidence of growth over time using authentic artifacts of student work.
Submitted by: Leslie Draper, Inspire Academy