Reactions to How's It Going? Chp.1-Conferences Are Conversations

I'm very eager to learn tips for having effective writing conferences from this book by Carl Anderson, which I am reading with several other reading/writing teachers in an online study group about Reading/Writing Workshops.

Anderson, Carl. How's It Going? A Practical Guide to Conferring With Student Writers. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2000.
(Amazon link)

This week (and last week), I am conducting writing conferences of about 20 minutes each with my ICU first year college students to discuss documented essay drafts of about 800 words, so I am right in the midst of all that Anderson is talking about. I hope I will be able to apply (or at least begin to consider to apply) many of his suggestions to conferences right way.

Key Quotes/Points:

p.3 "Writing conferences aren't the icing on the cake. They ARE the cake." (In other words, even in classes of 30-40 students, conferences are where we can help writers grow most effectively).

p.7 citing Donald Murry's A Writer Teaches Writing (1985): [Conferences] are not mini-lectures but the working talk of fellow writers sharing their experience with the writing process.

p.7 Conferences, like conversations 1) have a point to them, 2) have a predictable structure, 3) have "lines of thinking" we pursue with students, 4) have roles for students and teachers, and 5) are places where we show students we care about them.

p.8 WE CONFER WITH STUDENTS TO HELP THEM BECOME BETTER WRITERS (NOT MAKE BETTER WRITINGS) citing Lucy Calkins The Art of Teaching Writing (1994): "If we can keep only one thing in mind--and I fail at this half the time--it is that we are teaching the WRITER and not the writing." SORRY FOR THE SHOUTING, BUT THIS IS KEY!
-Avoid getting sidetracked by the topic
-Avoid being therapists (he says, but sometimes that's priority? On p.20, he says SHOW THAT WE CARE, and respect them as thinking individuals)
-Avoid the urge to take control and fix the writing
That's like a coach subbing for his basketball players. Doesn't work.

p.9 Goal: After a conference, BE ABLE TO SAY WHAT YOU DID TO HELP THAT STUDENT BECOME A BETTER WRITER--for his next piece or a piece in ten or twenty years in the future.
Teach them techniques for the rest of their lives
Teach them to teach themselves
Teach them to step back and be reflective about their writing
When we ask good questions in conferences such as "What do you need to make this work?" "What's your next step?", the students will (hopefully) begin to ask those questions themselves.

p.17 You can't cover everything; have to pick one --> Make a teaching decision for what to focus on--this should be based on the writer's concerns at that point and also the needs that the teacher perceives based on observing strengths/weaknesses/progress.

p.20 The Structure of Conference Roles
First, the student sets the agenda for the conference and the teacher LISTENS carefully and ask questions to deepen understanding of the piece in progress.
Then, the teacher takes the lead role and pursues a line of thinking, shares his/her assessment (point out good things, show them we feel they have important ideas/lives to write about) of the student's work, and helps the student learn techniques to be a better writer in the next step.

感想・疑問・やってみたいこと等
ここからは日本語です。今週は様々な件が山積みなので短く書きます。

感想：Andersonのこの章はライディング・コンファレンス (WrConf)の目的と理想的な構造を分かりやすく説明していると思います。自分がなんとなく十年間WrConfをやってきて目指したいなと思うようになってきたことを的確に表現してくれていると思いました。特にWrConfをする上で教師が間違えやすい「Take control and try to fix the writing for the student」や「Get too involved in talking about the topic of the paper (rather than the writing techniques)」は彼も述べたように何度言われても再び陥ってしまう悪い癖です。それを避けるためにはどうすれば良いのか？この先の章でより具体的に書いていると嬉しいです。

もう一つ難しいのは彼が書いた「Make a teaching decision」というところです。学生の作品の中にたくさん改善を勧めたいところがある中で何に焦点を絞って話し合い、限られた時間をかけるか？選べないまま進めて行くと学生は何も長期的なライターとしてのコツを得ないまま、作品をどう直すかという短絡的な知識しか得ずに帰っていく。。。これが難しいです。この点についてもこの先の章に期待したいと思います。

疑問もやってみたいことも上記に集約されていると言ってよいと思います。どうすれば目的をBetter Writerに固定できるのか、そしてどうやってTeaching decisionを的確に選ぶか。

おそらく鍵は「Learn to Listen to the Writer」というところにあるのでしょうが、上記を達成する具体的なテクニックを話し合いたいです。

今学期初めて実験的にやっているのは「Conference Summary」的なNotecardの使用です。どうしても学生のドラフトを見ながら話し合うと、話しながら自然と文法のミスに言及したりしてしまう自分がいたので、Draftは学生がもってメモを書くものであって、私はNotecardにTaro's Next StepsとTitleをつけ、その学生と話し合った内容の要点を箇条書きにしています。成功しているかどうかは学生に聞く必要があります、Action Research的に。

とりあえずここまで！

Extra: ライディング・コンファレンスよりもっと短い日本語訳があるといいですね。ライコン？中国語は外来語を使わないので、きっと「作文面談」という漢字を使っているのでしょう。