Conference protocol

"The first thing that we're going to do in the conference is to have it—have the focus be on what's working, what's effective, because that makes it safe."

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Using literature to teach conferencing techniques and conference group rules

"I do teach them to be good listeners in the sense that we conference the books I read aloud to them at my read-aloud time."

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Grouping students for peer conferencing

"When I create the conference groups, the first thing I want to do is have gender parity."

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Importance of teachers as part of the writing community

"That was an authentic first draft piece of writing that I shared with my kids."

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Teaching appropriate and meaningful responses to writing

"I think one of the things that can be hard for kids in responding to each other is feeling they're going to hurt somebody else's feelings..."

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Providing writers with an ongoing and authentic audience

"So in asking them to sort of become more self-aware of what's going on in the conferences, the first thing that my kids tend to say is that they look forward to it, that they enjoy sharing."

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Teaching students to respond to what's effective in writing

"There's some talk when we start talking about what was effective in their writing."

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