Conferring With Intention: Why, When, and How

WHY
According to the blogpost The Goals of Conferring in Mathematics, “Conferring is the practice of talking with students as they engage in meaningful work with the purpose of uncovering their thinking and supporting learning in the moment.” The goal is to find out what students know, decide what they need to learn next, and scaffold instruction accordingly. Brain-based education supports the goal of students working in their Zone of Proximal Development. Conferring provides the opportunity to bring out targeted instruction right when it’s needed.

WHEN
Conferring Within a Math Workshop Framework
The teacher normally meets with 2-3 small groups during the Math Workshop. If the teacher meets with 2 groups, there can be time allotted for conferring with some students. During this conferring, which could be with an individual student or with two, the teacher is prepared to talk with the student about a specific goal that has been identified either by the student or the teacher. There is intentional nudging to grow the student’s understanding.

Conferring Within a Math Problem Solving Framework
This occurs after students have been given a rich problem solving task. They may be working in groups of 2, 3, or 4. The teacher approaches the group with the purpose of eliciting student thinking. According to Jen Munson in her book In the Moment, the teacher asks probing questions about the work, looking for:

• Surprising or original thinking
• Different components of the work and the connections between these parts
• Potential misconceptions
• Gaps in the students’ explanation of what they did
• Organization of their work

The teacher’s goal is not to tell the students how to solve the problem, but rather ask questions that will keep the students actively involved in the task.

Conferring Within Personalized Learning Units of Study
Some math units lend themselves more toward a personalized learning approach, particularly where students are working on skills at several different levels. Conferring in these units might be where the students are able to show the artifacts of their understanding. The teacher listens for deep understanding as the student explains her work toward her personal goal. Students may sign up for a conference with the teacher to share these artifacts, or for help understanding a concept. There is great student ownership during these personalized learning units, where students have a heightened awareness of their understanding, and can take steps to further their learning.

Conferring for Reteaching
A teacher who takes anecdotal notes during small group instruction and conferring will be able to analyze where specific students need better understanding of concepts. If there are 1-3 students who have not yet achieved mastery of a critical skill, the teacher may decide to move ahead with the next unit, making time to confer with these few students who need more teacher time. Their goals are specific to the concepts they need to master. The conferring time is highly focused.

HOW:  Eliciting and Interpreting Student Thinking
A conference begins with a probing question that isn’t too general. For example, asking “How is it going?” will almost always be answered with one word, “Good.” This doesn’t give the teacher much insight. Instead, students can be asked to share their thinking with various prompts, such as, “What are you working on? Tell me about your thinking. How did you get started? What are you trying?” These all invite students to share work in progress. This leads to other probing questions to uncover student understanding and give students the opportunity to justify and deepen their thinking. It moves the conferring from talking about a particular task to talking about concepts.

For more on Conferring in the Math Classroom, try this Podcast by Jen Munson, author of In the Moment.