Rationale
This study was important because through writing conferences I was able to understand the different needs of all the individual writers in my classroom. With this knowledge, I was able to differentiate writing skills which promoted positive growth within every student. Writing was a subject that built off of previously learned skills. When writing was taught in a whole group format, the curriculum was focused, mainly, for students that were at the expected developmental level in second grade. These skills were predominantly aimed for students that were already proficient, on grade level. After students learned the skill in the whole group, a workshop model had the students go to their seats and apply the learned skill into their independent writing. My data showcased that, on average only 45% of my students were ready for the grade-level skill. This left students who were not academically ready for this skill, potentially 55% of my class, at a disadvantage.
This data proved that I needed to provide enrichment and intervention opportunities for my students. Individual conferences were a great way to differentiate. Lower level students were able to develop more fundamental writing skills. On the other hand, students who had surpassed the skills taught in the whole group were able to be challenged in specific areas they were developmentally ready for.
My hope was that the implementation of individual writing conferences would positively impact growth within my students. Through goals being tracked and monitored, I would be able to work with each individual regarding specific skills that they personally needed to grow in. My hope was that I would grow in the ability to meet students at their level and be able to help them grow through direct instruction and modeling. After one-on-one instruction, students would be left to practice implementation on their own. This independent time would allow for the development of skills in writing and independence. The implementation of this study would benefit me as it would advance my ability to hold writing conferences in a way most beneficial to students. I would learn how to let students lead conferences while adequately giving developmentally appropriate instruction. This was a skill to be continued and developed throughout the study and throughout my career.
School Population
I was a second-grade teacher in a suburb of Omaha. The school I taught at had 521 students enrolled. Of these students, 84.67% were Caucasian. In the school, the boy to girl ratio was 54% male to 46% female. Of the 521 students, 10.67% of all students were in Special Education. In my specific classroom, I had one student on an IEP for speech services. There were 0% of the school on the Title I program and 99.56% were not English Language Learning students. In the surrounding area, there was only mobility for 8.89% of students. The school opened four years ago and is placed as the newest school currently in the district.
Classroom Racial Diversity
The lack of racial and socio-economic diversity in my class showed that a lot of students came from similar backgrounds. In my class, I had 0 students eating free and reduced lunch. Of the 20 students that were in my classroom, 18 of them were Caucasian and 2 were Asian. All 20 of the students spoke only English at home and at school.
Classroom Academic Diverrsity
Although there was a lack of racial diversity, there was a high level of academic diversity seen within my classroom. The majority of students at the school I taught in came from very supportive homes where education was highly valued. There were 9,407 total housing units that fed into the school. Of those households, 7,290 were family households. Parents, generally, were heavily involved in the education of students within my classroom. Parents were very dedicated to student growth and the continuation of their child’s learning at home. This value was seen as many students came in beyond the national average for their grade level. This put an extra expectation on me, as the teacher, to push students above the normal grade level expectations. Parents wanted to see growth in their students, no matter their baseline level. Even with the support at home, not all the students in my classroom came in above grade level. I had students in my classroom who were in the 99th percentile of all second graders, nationally, and I also had students who were in the 13th percentile of all second graders nationally. This enforced the need for differentiation within academics in order to reach the needs of all learners within my classroom.
C u l t u r e and D i v e r s i t y
Classroom need via Common Summative Assessment
In my classroom, 11 out of 20 students scored a Beginning Level for our first writing Common Summative Assessment (CSA) regarding writing at the beginning of the year. There were also 7 students who scored at a Progressing Level and 2 within the Proficient Level. This data told me that 11 of my students were significantly behind grade level expectations. With this information, I needed to provide direct instruction for basic writing skills such as complete sentences, capital letters, punctuation, and writing a true story that occurred in their lives. This data, simultaneously, showed me that 9 students in my classroom had met the basic skills that were required for a piece of writing. Differentiation was needed among those students because they were ready to move past the basic punctuation, capital letters, and simple sentence instruction. They were ready for instruction to push further growth in order to meet second-grade standards. Higher level students already scoring in the proficient level were ready for differentiated, advanced instruction to grow past second-grade expectations. This made me reflect on how I could push the higher level students in my classroom. Many times, there were high performing students that showed little growth because of the lack of challenge. I wanted to ensure high performing students still showed positive, consistent growth.
The highest need for my students, according to the data found from the to the writing CSA baseline assessment, was Organization. 10 out of 20 students received a 1 (on a 4 point scale) in the Organization of Writing. The pieces of writing were predominately all one long paragraph that didn’t separate different ideas. The stories were often scattered events, out of sequence order.
This showed me the importance to have a focus on creating a successful writing environment for the students in my classroom. As a teacher, I created a writing environment that fostered and promoted successful writing skills, specifically, with organizing their writing. This was done through effective instruction targeted to the goals of students during individual writing conferences.
Classroom need via Measures of Academic Progress
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Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) was an adaptive test used to measure student achievement levels and the growth of all students. This test was given 3 times per academic year in my district. MAP tested all 20 of my students in the subjects of Math, Reading, and Language Usage (which corresponded to writing). The MAP scores within my classroom highlighted that writing was the lowest score among the tested areas. The MAP data showed that 10 of my students scored below a second-grade level, with the largest need in the areas of Proofreading and Editing for Conventions. When students looked back on their writing, they needed to reflect on what they did well and edit what needed to be improved. This told me that my instruction needed to specifically show and model students how to go back into their work and look for specific conventions that could be revised. During writing conferences, I helped students highlight a need in their writing that could be grown. This guided modeling and conversations were achieved during writing conferences.
Classroom need via Rubric
The first and second-grade rubrics for writing were very similar in their grading criteria. When my second-grade students left first grade, the students were lowest in Writing compared to all other subjects. The data showed that in first grade they ended their Narrative Writing unit in quarter three with 61% of all students in the progressing stage for the section of Organization in writing. A score of progressing from the first-grade rubric was the exact criteria to a score of beginning on the second-grade rubric. The skills that would qualify as an advanced grade, 4, on the first-grade rubric are the same skills that would earn a proficient grade, 3, in second grade. This showed a great need for students, now in second grade, to further work on how to organize their thoughts and ideas. This aligned with the baseline writing scores I saw from my students. It supported the high need to focus on the area of Organization in order for the progression of students in their writing.
A section within the district provided rubrics was the ability to spell High-Frequency Words. At the beginning of second grade, all students were assessed on the reading and writing of second grade High-Frequency Words (HFW). In my class, 16 of 20 students were in the beginning level for writing their second-grade HFW with correct spelling. This was a mistake that students noticed when they reflected on their writing. The sight words were posted on a word wall in our room. Students had the ability to look at the word wall and make sure the high-frequency words they used in their writing were spelled correctly, just as they are on the wall. One of the categories in scoring writing was if students were able to spell Kindergarten, First Grade, and Second Grade HFW correctly. Throughout the conference, I had the ability to have students reflect on specific HFW that were spelled incorrectly within their writing. There were common mistakes in spelling or spelling patterns that I addressed as a quick mini-lesson between the student and me in a writing conference.
Classroom need via Student-Based Reflection
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Another data point used was a student feeling based reflection. I understood the feelings that my students portrayed regarding writing through a feelings-based reflection. Students took a reflection survey on how they felt about their overall writing ability. The students ranked themselves on a 4 point scale with 1 being they were unsure how to compose a story and a 4 being they were able to teach writing skills to the class. The reflection was done before the new writing unit. The data showcased that 60% of my students scored themselves at a three which said, “I can write strong stories. I need help from the teacher." 30% of my students graded their ability at a 2 which stated, “I am getting better at writing stories. I still need a lot of help from the teacher”. And 10% of my students graded themselves at a 4.
The way students scored themselves showed me that many students were confident as writers but still needed assistance to further their ability. The student reflection survey data had a correlation with the MAP data which stated that students had a need of going back and editing to find mistakes. It was clear that students believed in their ability, but many of these writers overestimated their actual skill level in writing. I needed to clearly teach students what a writing skill looked like at a proficient second-grade level. When students went back and edited their work they were able to identify a skill that was weak and needed to be enhanced to a proficient level.
Literature Review
In my classroom, there were varied levels of academic writing abilities. If I had only relied on a whole group lesson to instruct my students, I would have left many of my students at a disadvantage. I had students in my classroom who were in the 99th percentile of all second graders, nationally, and I also had students who were in the 13th percentile of all second graders, nationally. Regarding writing specifically, the need for my class showed that 55% of students needed the instruction of basic writing skills such as punctuation, capital letters, and complete sentences. The other 45% of students in my class had mastered these abilities and were ready for more in-depth skills. This data enforced the need for differentiation within academics in order to reach all the learners within my classroom. The variety of writing competencies presented in my classroom led me to explore writing conferences. I determined the effectiveness and impact of writing conferences through an action research study. The purpose of my study was to determine if individual conferences during writer’s workshop increased student achievement in writing.
Writer’s workshop is a form of writing instruction which was laid out with a whole group mini-lesson followed by students spending the majority of their time writing individually. The teacher met with a student one-on-one to discuss the strengths and future goals of their writing ability during this individual writing time. Writing conferences were an approach that was used in order to understand each student’s ability in the writing process. Through a conference, I was able to provide just-right instruction to reach the instructional level of each specific student. While writing conferences provided specific opportunities for the teacher and student, there was no universally agreed upon method for the format of how a writer’s conference should have been conducted. Conferences were varied according to the time of the school year and the individual child’s ability. Even though conferences were varied, they always included four components of research, decide, teach, and link (Calkins, 2003). These consistent components allowed the students and me to understand the interactions that occurred in conversation. It also developed a sense of anticipation and a set plan for future writing and conferences among each student.
While there was no agreed-upon best practice to teach writing, I did benefit from having the opportunity to meet with each student one-on-one. The writer’s workshop model included explicit time for individual conferences with a focus on understanding each student as an individual writer. Knowing each writer personally, I was able to provide direct instruction that was targeted at each writer’s individual ability. This specific instruction enabled my students to be pushed them accordingly to their developmental ability. With proper targeted instruction, student achievement in my classroom improved as students were aware of what they needed to accomplish in order to strengthen their writing. Writing conferences were formatted through many different models. This literature review focused mainly on the different types of conferences and their overall layout, the positives, and negatives of a writer’s conference, and the ways to have successful incorporation of writing conferences into an elementary classroom.