Mid-Year Conferences

Conferences just happened last week and I as I was preparing for them, I thought a lot about the purpose of mid year conferences and how they can look different from our Fall conferences. A lot of the conference was dictated by the goal setting sheets we prepared for each individual student. However, how I chose to utilize it for mid year conferences differed a lot from Fall conferences. At this point in the year, I have built solid relationships. I put a significant amount of time ensuring families showed up to Fall conferences but this being the third round of conferences for fifth grade families, I already knew what attendance would look like and who I would have to reach out to individually to ensure they were present. Based on this, I had all but two families attend. I viewed the first set of conferences as a time to build relationships, the second round of conferences to set goals and used this round of conferences to talk about how we are doing towards reaching those goals using the data sheet (below).

As always, attendance was the first thing we discussed for a quick minute. We also included tardies this time which was different than Fall conferences which can be seen in the artifact below. If students were present for less than 95% of the year so far, we discussed the importance of class time for learning and if there was anything I could do to better support families and students in ensuring they are present in class everyday. This was a quick conversation but was an important piece that I wanted on the data sheet to emphasize that in addition to academics, this was a crucial piece of for succes year long.

The next part of the data sheet shows reading goals and current reading levels. I inputted the general metrics for what a passing score on the MCA from last year looks like, what letter passing is on the F&P reading test and what proficiency looks like on the district interim test. Having levels of mastery helped lead a conversation about where students should realistically be at this point in 5th grade if they were not there yet or if they were surpassing it. However, also having the goals we set for growth on the data sheet helped inform families and students where they are at in meeting goals rather than just looking at mastery. Surprisingly, the growth versus proficiency conversation dominated a large part of conversations. It was insightful for families to see how even if students were not mastering content yet, their growth levels painted a different picture.

The back side had math growth and proficiency. However, this time we focused on Fast Bridge reports (measure of growth) and district interim tests (measure of standards mastery). While not on the artifact attached, there were Fall fast bridge measures which gave families an indicator of how much growth was made to the winter levels. We also had a chance to discuss their projected score on the MCA based on MDE projections as well as the goals we set together. This is also on the data artifact. Just like reading, this provided a great opportunity to discuss why it was okay that students were not necessarily passing the MCA at a 550 but rather they were making growth towards passing based on their fourth grade scores. The language proficiency and social/emotional skills at the end provided a good reminder of where students were at their ESL levels and how they were progressing socially/emotionally. This part of the artifact helped families and students see how social/emotional growth intersects with academic growth.

Overall, the conference data sheet met my goals for the third round of conferences. It gave students and families an understanding of where they are and how much work needs to be done to meet goals. It made the data more concrete and visible to them which I found to be more impactful than just verbally stating goals. According to John Hattie (Visible Thinking), lesson goals and clear intentions promote higher student results and engagement. Therefore, while the overall generic data points were helpful for students to see where they are at, I want to make sure I also break it down more for each student to have clear learning goals for each subject. Based on that, coming out of the conferences I also set a specific learning goal for both math and reading with students.

Ross Greene and Lagging Skills

“The Explosive Child” has become an integral part of how I support students who need extra practice with skills to be able to do their best in the classroom. The quote that has really driven how I change my response to “behaviorally challenging” students is, “Behaviorally challenging kids are challenging because they’re lacking the skills to not be challenging” (pg. 9). Using this quote, I was able to adapt how I responded to the top three challenges I had with one of my students. I understood the skills he was lacking that caused him to react to situations in the way he did. This in turn helped me understand how to best support him. This relates to Vygotsky's idea on the zone of proximal development. These are skills that are too difficult for children to master on their own, but with guidance and encouragement from a person who has those skills they can quickly move to the independent stage.

When Carlos got upset by his classmates he would start yelling or just say, “Shut up!” really loudly. At first I would explain to Carlos that we need to switch our language and come to me when something was bothering him. This didn’t seem to work and it was hard for me to comprehend why he was responding with screams and inappropriate language each time he was trying to express something to his classmates. After going back to the quote, I understood the skill that he was lacking, as referenced by Ross Greene on page 9 was language processing and communication skills. He clearly had difficulty expressing concerns, needs, or thoughts in words. Rathern than saying, “It bothers me when you talk loudly because it gives me a headache” Carlos would result to “Shut up!”. I realized that asking Carlos to take a break or just change his language wouldn’t do anything to develop this skill. So instead, we have been actively working on phrases and words he can use when he is experiencing frustration to communicate his thoughts.

Second, whenever Carlos faced a challenge or got frustrated, he would respond only with his emotions. For example, if he was struggling answering a reading comprehension question, he would tighten up his fists and his face would get really red. Or, if someone teased him he would respond in the same way. My initial reaction would have been to have him take a break and relax his body but I realized that wasn’t getting at the root of the issue because he would always react in the same way. Thinking about Greene’s quote about lacking a skill, I realized that he had difficulty managing emotional response to frustration in order to think rationally. The skill he was lacking was using thought in finding solutions rather than pure emotion. Therefore, Greene’s idea of finding the lagging skill has helped me understand that I need to work on incorporating thought into decision making skills rather than focusing on the emotion.

Last, at times it seemed that Carlos “knew what buttons to push”. If I did a countdown from 5, he would be the only one continuously talking. Or, when everyone was seated, he would run around the room or get up and wander as he pleased. However, thinking about the concept of lagging skills, it became clear that Carlos would do things that seemed irritating at times when he was having trouble adapting or being flexible to the situation at hand. So rather than thinking about it as “why is he intentionally trying to irritate me” my mindset has shifted to “what skills can I teach him to improve on his flexibility and adaptability in new situations”.