Student+led+conferences

Students will be using their portfolio to guide them through student led conferences with their parents. Portfolios have been collecting work samples from the start of the school year until the present time. Students have collected all work samples, pretests, posttests, and reflective pieces in their portfolios. These conferences will allow students the opportunity to show their learning and growth over the years time to their parents. Students will also be able to share goals and reflections of their behavior during this time.
 * Description**

Students have been collecting work samples through the year. Students reflect on work as it is handed back to them, but a week before conferences we take time to take a detailed look at their learning. Each student is provided with portfolio reflection sheets. These sheets are helping students reflect on different work samples they would like to share with parents. It is required that they share good work samples and poor work samples along with reflections that show metacognition. Teachers are available to answer questions during this time, but conferences are student centered. Because four student conferences are going on at a time it will be up to students to guide their parents through their work.
 * Analysis**

Students were so excited to share their work with their parents. It was wonderful to see them guide their parents through the work they had been doing. Some parents questioned how they were going to monitor the goals they had set for the second half of the year. Next year it would be helpful to add a monitoring sheet into this goal setting sheet and set up check ins along the way. I could meet with students and discuss their progress, document notes, and sign off on this monitoring sheet. I asked students and parents for feeback after conferences were finished. All of the feedback was very positive. One concern was that the teacher was not giving enough feedback to the student about how to improve and grow. This feedback is discussed with students individually during class, but there was not documented evidance of this within the portfolio. Creating documentation to be included in the portfolio may also be helpful for parents in the future.
 * Reflection**