We know that sentence stems are a support for English Language Learners, but I’ve realized they are helpful in all kinds of situations. For example, this week, I shared some sentence stems with my son and his wife, who are going to kindergarten parent-teacher conferences for the first time. (Can you tell me more about…..? We are trying to figure out why……). I also shared with my student teachers sentence stems they can keep in mind during writing conferences. While doing so, it struck me how many of these writing conference prompts I have adopted into my coaching repertoire. Questions that I ask when conferring with young writers are also useful in coaching contexts. And these sentence stems and questions can be useful when I wasn’t part of the planning process or wasn’t there for the lesson. For example:Planning conference:
· I don't understand…
· Tell me more about that.
· How could you find out more about that?
· Where is this (lesson) taking you?
· What do you like best in this (lesson)?
· What's the most important thing you're wanting your (students) to understand?
· How will the beginning bring your (students) right into the lesson?
· Is all of this important? What parts don't you need?
· What could you use more help with?
· What questions do you have of me?
Reflecting conference:
· Tell me more about that.
· Tell me again about that part.
· I don't understand…
· What was your favorite part? How can you build on it?
· What was your least favorite part? How might you change it?
· Why is this significant?
· What will happen next?
· What could you use more help with?
· What questions do you have of me?
Notice that some questions work in both planning and reflecting conferences. Those are my favorites. (Less to remember!) J
Maybe those years of sitting shoulder-to-shoulder with young writers have paid off in unexpected ways! If you have experience teaching writers workshop, consider how your strengths in that arena can add to your coaching repertoire.
This week, you might want to take a look at:
Word choice that supports teacher collaboration:
Student handout with sentence stems for peer discussions:
Ideas for holding Mock Newberry Awards:
Play is important – and mixing up the kinds of play kids do is important, too:
Using infographics and CCSS:
That’s it for this week. Happy Coaching!
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