Student-Led Conferences

[dancingmama]

Anyone else's school do student-led conferences?  I love ds's school but this particular area bugs me.  I don't need to know from my son what he's doing.  He does that anyway, at home, around the dinner table.  We look at his grades weekly on powerschool.  what I want to know is how the teacher's think he's doing. what they think he needs to work on and what they are doing to help him get there, and what we can do to support that at home.  His is tonight.  I hope the teachers are available so that we can get some new info.  

 

If your school does student-led conferences, what are your thoughts?  Anything you found that makes it more informative?

[Tranquility7]

We homeschool so we don't deal with conferences, but if we did, my reaction would be the same as yours! That sounds really odd to me. I assume it at least means that it will be you, your son, and his teacher having the discussion together, with your son maybe introducing things and telling first what he thinks about how he is doing, and then his teacher adding further explanation and comments? Your sentence about hoping his teachers are available made me wonder if you don't expect the teacher to be there... THAT would be a *huge* issue to me. But if it is just a traditional P-T conference with the student present, that isn't so bad, assuming the teacher still has a very active role.

 

I really wonder what the school's goal is in this. Probably many students are not like yours and do not share openly with their parents, so I would guess that at least helps them start a dialogue between the three parties, and maybe helps the student take some responsibility if they otherwise are not. Personally, though, I'd still prefer conferences without the student since something there are just discussions that need to be had out of the student's hearing. I experience this sometimes with DS and DD's piano teacher, and so we email a bit about issues we don't want to discuss in front of the kids.

[regentrude]

I found "student led" conferences an utter waste of time. I did not need my kids to talk to me at conference to know what THEY had to say. I would have preferred to just speak to the teacher.

[SKL]

Our school does not do this, and I am glad.  I could see my kids experiencing it similar to a whipping.  And I could also see it preventing the exchange of information the child does not need to hear discussed.

 

I have heard some parents sing the praises of this kind of meeting, though.  IIRC their kids are great students, so maybe that's why it works for them.

[EKS]

And I could also see it preventing the exchange of information the child does not need to hear discussed.

 

This.  Exactly.  

[dancingmama]

Thanks for all the thoughts. We just back and it went alright. The teachers were available and honest. He had collected data so he could tell us, for example, that he really should study for his tests as he did fine with other things but bombed the tests. It was strange but not as bad as I thought it would be. I guess they only do this for 6th. 7th and 8th appeared to be teacher-parent however it was strange in its own way. Well, I'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

 

Thanks again.

[kiwik]

We are encouraged to take the kids but I don't. At seven I need to talk to the teacher in confidence.

[LLMom]

At my dc's school, only the students in the School of Logic (6-8) grades do these.  At first, I was a bit suspicious and thought it a waste of time.  But then I went to them, actually just yesterday, and I was quite impressed. They had to dress in Sunday best and act professional. They had a very impressive portfolio they went through with me, goals they had made for each subject, sample work, report card, etc.  The teacher's were there in the room to answer any questions.  After the conferences with my kids, I went and talked to the teacher's about behavior and socialization type issues.  

[MistyMountain]

I wouldn't like that. I rather talk directly to the teacher and have them tell me how my kids are doing.

[Spring Flower]

My school did student led conferences when I taught 7th grade. While it wasn't a perfect system, I felt like it was relatively effective. With 208 students, it was impossible for me to meet with every parent. Each child has 7 teachers and each teacher has at least 170 students. (I didn't have a prep period so I had a few more students.) 

 

Each teacher filled out a form for each of their students to put in the portfolio. It included a place for me to indicate that I wanted to meet with the parent. Portfolios also included a sample of work from each class, as well as a current grade print out for each class. At the conference, after the students shared their portfolios, the parents were free to stop by and visit every teacher, 3 teachers, 1 teacher, or simply head home. I think it was easier on both parents and teachers. After parents looked at the portfolios, they knew exactly which teachers they needed to talk to. For parents who weren't able to make it to the conferences, they had to schedule a time to pick up the portfolio. (We didn't just send it home with the student.) This made it possible for EVERY parent to get a note from each of their child's teachers. 

[vonfirmath]

My school did student led conferences when I taught 7th grade. While it wasn't a perfect system, I felt like it was relatively effective. With 208 students, it was impossible for me to meet with every parent. Each child has 7 teachers and each teacher has at least 170 students. (I didn't have a prep period so I had a few more students.) 

 

Each teacher filled out a form for each of their students to put in the portfolio. It included a place for me to indicate that I wanted to meet with the parent. Portfolios also included a sample of work from each class, as well as a current grade print out for each class. At the conference, after the students shared their portfolios, the parents were free to stop by and visit every teacher, 3 teachers, 1 teacher, or simply head home. I think it was easier on both parents and teachers. After parents looked at the portfolios, they knew exactly which teachers they needed to talk to. For parents who weren't able to make it to the conferences, they had to schedule a time to pick up the portfolio. (We didn't just send it home with the student.) This made it possible for EVERY parent to get a note from each of their child's teachers. 

 

This actually makes it sound very useful for middle school -- when students start switching classes. We had home classrooms, when I was in middle school. But being able to get feedback from every teacher would be great (though -- that does mean the teacher has to come up with something to say for 150+ students!)

[Farrar]

My kids are homeschooled so I've never experienced this from the parent end, but the small private school I worked at did student-led conferences and they were mostly very positive in my view. We also did portfolio based assessment so the stated goal of the conference was for the student to show off their portfolio and talk about the specific pieces of work they had chosen as well as the things they had written about being proud of and the things they had written about needing to work on. Perhaps having the student basically have planned the conference by writing the assessment helped give them meaning? Usually that was a jumping off point for a discussion. Parents would cheer the kid's good work and then ask questions and other things would come up. Often the conference started with the student, meandered to the parents and teacher discussing a little, and then ended by bringing the student back in... did you say everything you needed or what do you think of the concerns we're bringing up, etc.

 

Of course, I've also been in ones that were a disaster. There was one conference I'll never forget where the parents refused to let the child speak. They were angry about a specific thing with the algebra class (something they wanted covered that wasn't... I can't remember all the ins and outs) and they turned the whole thing into that. The student tried timidly to show off all her amazing work and the parents literally turned away and wouldn't view it. It was so horrible. And there were many lesser disasters... students who struggled to say anything or even read their own assessments or parents who just seemed confused and not engaged - either because they weren't involved enough to have any context for understanding the academic work or in a few cases because of language and cultural barriers that made it difficult to have a meaningful conversation.

 

But I've been in teacher or parent led conferences that were similarly awkward or pointless. I think if it's done right, it's a really wonderful thing - showing the student that they're the ones ultimately responsible for their education, that they're the ones who have to do the work and get the grades or assessment they want, that they need to make their own goals. It's also the case that while we check in with our kids all the time, it's usually really positive to have a time to reflect on the big picture and especially once a student starts changing classes in middle and high school, only the student really experiences the whole of their education. I don't doubt that many schools think of these lofty goals but then don't do a very good job of structuring them though.

[Penguin]

I have had kids in schools with student-led conferences.  I disliked them because I didn't feel like the parent-teacher conversation was as candid with the kid there.

[debi21]

We did our first scholar-led conference this October. My son is 5, in Kindergarten. It seems very odd to me. I don't know how they expect him to lead it. And he said to me something like, well if I'm in charge, I decide we shouldn't go to it. Anyway, he read a picture book while I talked to the teacher. I know he is at the top of his class academically. I didn't need to see his first math test, because I sit there while he does his math homework every night and I know what he's doing isn't remotely challenging for him. I wanted to talk to the teacher about how he is doing socially. And that's what I will want to talk about for the next several years. And it will get more and more awkward with him there. I guess I will have to broach these topics through email going forward. The other odd thing to me was the goal-setting - one in class and one out of class for the semester. And he chooses the goals with no input from anyone else. Ownership, I suppose. Maybe if he were struggling in an area they would encourage him to work on that. He chose to try to talk out of turn less in class (his mom still hasn't managed that one) and to improve his drawing skills outside of class. And I signed a paper saying I'd support his goal.