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I was noticing that the students who were struggling weren't getting seen enough by me. I was relying too heavily on our building reading teachers, their intervention specialists, etc. or was keeping them in a same rotation as the rest of the class. And then the lightbulb went off (I'm sure with some great professional reading help, probably from Dick Allington), that I needed to be their "expert" teacher and know them deeply as a reader. In order for my reading conferences to make a beneficial impact, I needed to see them often- daily or every-other day. So I made a two-column sheet used for weekly conferences and listed student names on the left, notes on the right. The students I needed to see often were listed as much, so I would not move on to others until I had checked in with those that struggled. This was a game-changer for student growth.

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Good evening! My resource for conferring notes is a google doc that I print. I have a 3 ring binder with tabs for each student. Each sheet contains a reminder to look for and notice the assets exhibited, and a reminder to plan for and teach next steps to scaffold learning. It also has a space for me to give "touch marks" for accuracy, fluency, and comprehension in addition to noting if the book was at the child's independent, instructional, or frustration level. In the front of the binder is a chart for "keeping track" of who I meet & how often to help hold me accountable to meet with all students. It's not based on "fairness" as in each student gets x amount of conferences, but "fairness" as in each student gets the time they need to grow as a reader. I have taken the above system from Joan Moser and Gail Boushey (Daily 5/CAFE) and meshed it with ideas gleaned from Ruth Ayers.

I tweak the google doc as needed. I used to report levels on it, but then moved away from that when I learned the danger of relying too heavily on levels. If I record a level, it is for my use, not for the child. I have tried digital notes, but always seem to revert back to paper/pencil.

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I have tried just about every method out there for taking anecdotal notes of conferences I have with students. What I find works best for me is to jot down what I notice, a question I asked and student’s response and a teaching point of the conference. I have the student say back to me what was addressed (teaching point) and jot down a note to myself about what the next conference might focus on based on my observations. I do this by hand rather than digitally.

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