Hey teachers! Do you do conferring with your students during independent reading time? Have you found a note taking method that works for you? When I started conferring, I tried all kinds of ways to keep the notes….notebooks, clipboards, sticky notes. There are so many ways you can keep the notes and just need to find the one that works for you. Being a H.U.G.E. Debbie Miller fan, I was curious how she did it. In her book Teaching with Intention, she explains that she uses little memo books to keep her student’s conferring notes in. She uses one book per student.
That’s a great idea! They are easy to hold in your hand, easy to carry around, easy to take home to reflect on or to take to a meeting about a student. No more flipping through notebook pages or dividers to get to a student’s notes. Just grab and go! Now that’s my kind of note taking. It is especially handy for my job, since I am off to intervention meetings about students 3 or 4 times a week. LOVE it! So, if you are conferring and not happy with your note taking, give Debbie’s idea a try. It might just be the thing you’ve been looking for.
Happy Teaching!
