One to One: The Art of Conferring with Young Writers

by Lucy Calkins, Amanda Hartman, Zoe Ryder White

In an effective writing workshop, young children grow in leaps and bounds, and within just a few months, the changes in their written products can dazzle you. And after 30 years of studying her students' growth in the writing workshop, Lucy Calkins knows one of the most powerful ways to support good clear, purposeful writing conferences. In One to One Calkins and her colleagues Amanda Hartman and Zoe White show you the practices and principles that create effective conferences. They dispel the myth that master teachers have a magic touch and show you that effective teachers do not reinvent the conference with each student, but rather use predictable, principled interactions that follow a few simple frameworks. In One to One , you will Good conferring, like good teaching, relies on your ability to communicate effectively with children, and the skills you develop as you learn to confer will improve your teaching abilities in all areas, including developing curriculum, leading strong minilessons, and untangling the classroom chaos that can derail a smoothly running workshop. Read One to One to improve your conferences and your teaching. But most important, read it to improve your students' writing every day.

Genres: Education, Teaching, Writing

232 pages, Paperback

First published January 13, 2005

Reviews

[Ellen Riggenbach · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book very helpful, my language is already changing and growing as a writing coach. Lucy recommends teachers to study conferences to improve in this area. Since reading the conference transcripts in this book I feel braver to pull up along side students writing (these days often kids I don’t know) to research, compliment, teach, and really be fully present to teach the writer and support their writing identities.

[Shannon · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best and most helpful professional books I have read in a long time. This is a quick read, but is packed full of "aha" moments. This book has changed my perspective on a few aspects of conferring, like note taking and working with ELLs, and has drastically improved what is happening in my class. I strongly recommend this for teachers who are feeling confident with their mini-lessons, have a well managed independent writing time, and are ready to take on conferring.

[Anna Warren · Rating 5 out of 5]

Writing workshop is a part of my day that I love teaching, yet I felt I need to get more of a handle on the conferring aspect of it with my students. I have read other texts by Lucy Calkins before, and one of the things I love about her books is that she provides actual transcripts of work she's done with students. In Part Two of "One to One," Calkins provides different types of writing conferences, the methods she used, and the main teaching goal in each. Through her "1.Research 2.Decide/Teach 3.Link" format, she includes the actual talk that took place between the student and herself, and also shares brief captions providing reasons and explanations for her teaching. The main goal, I think, from this text was to help teachers communicate effectively with children and conduct clear, purposeful writing conferences.

[Elie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Remember how I just read The Art of Teaching Writing and gave up on it? Well this book was significantly more helpful due to the focus on one aspect of writing workshop: conferring. It helped me rethink my entire writing workshop, which is exactly what I needed.

[Erica Sonzogni · Rating 4 out of 5]

This had a lot of practical and effective advice for how to manage the writing workshop and how to have conferences with students during this time. The step-by-step conference procedure was easy to follow and the transcripts at the end were great to "see" the advice and suggestions in action. I love how the book discussed real-life situations that teachers will face in the classroom and how to handle them. I recommend this professional book to all teachers of younger students, even if they are not teaching language arts, because conferences can be used in any subject area.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found it to be both helpful and self-gratifying as many of the suggestions and strategies given I have been incorporating in my class. I am thankful that Lucy continues to share her knowledge with us.

[Kimberly · Rating 5 out of 5]

An absolute MUST have if you have a true Writing Workshop happening in your classroom. Conferring is key, and this book does an outstanding job of explaining to the reader exactly what certain conferences should look like.

[Jen Munnerlyn]

We have three copies of this text in the ACS Library.

[Tyson Spraul]

targeted at teachers using Units of Study for the Primary grades, but relevant to other teachers as well

[Malissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading this book and am looking forward to trying it out with students.

[Nicole · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great resource for teachers!