
Students also come to the reading conference prepared. They need to refer to their goal recorded in their reader's response book/notebook and their notes about the work which was needed to achieve it. The student's role in a reading conference refer to the previous goal and information about the reading

Together set a new reading goal or continue with the same one.Together the teacher and student decide if the goal has been met.

The teacher gives individualised explicit feedback about the reading or what the student says/understands. The student usually reads a section of the text aloud.The teacher may use prompts to focus the discussion. The student shares the goal and their learning related to the text, through a dialogic interaction. The teacher prepares for the reading conference, checking notes from the previous session, ensuring that she/he has a clear understanding of the student's goal and prepares some prompts to address the goal.Students independently read a self selected text, monitoring their reading goal.Realistically, teachers conference most students once a month, meeting more regularly with students who have specific reading needs. There is no set time between reading conferences, but the student does need to have had time to complete some reading. The teacher has thought about the student, the reading goal and what may be the next step in the student's reading. The teacher and the student both come to the reading conference prepared. The importance of dialogic interactionsĪ typical reading conference will take about 10 minutes and will occur while students are involved in reading or other independent work.Why use reading conferences: Theory to practice.The student's role in a reading conference.The teacher's role in a reading conference.They are an effective and individualised way to focus on an aspect of reading that will benefit each student such as the knowledge and understanding of: Reading conferences complement and operate concurrently with the core teaching practices of modelled, shared and guided reading, guided reading-reciprocal teaching, literature circles and/or close reading. Reading conferences allow the teacher to monitor students' reading, and provides formative data about the students' progress and their meaning making including their level of reflection and engagement. share their thoughts about what they have read.Texts are sourced from a range of 'just right' books which have been tailored to the learning needs and reading interests of each student.Ī reading conference follows independent reading and offers students the opportunity to:

The focus of the discussion is based around a text independently selected by the student. A reading conference is a scheduled discussion between a teacher and a student, which draws upon the principles of dialogic teaching.
