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Professional development activities that have proven effective will be included in Develop Your Staff. Your contributions are welcome. Send them to principal@osu.edu. Please indicate if we may use your name in the “contributor” credits.
Planning for Parent Conferences: Student-led Conferencing
One of the best ways for students to accept responsibility for their learning is for them to have to explain their learning to someone else. For the second round of parent conferences, one school planned the following format for the evening:
The parents or a family representative arrives in the classroom with their students. The students and parents visit the desk of the student where a portfolio of work has been prepared. The portfolio includes (1) work that the student is proud of, (2) work that the student feels could have been better, (3) any infraction notes, (4) any positive acknowledgements such as stickers, “caught you being good” notes, etc., and (5) information about the class such as schedules, special projects, classroom newsletters, etc.
The job of the student is to walk their parents through their portfolio and to conference with their parent. Some talking points for the student in addition to explaining the portfolio to the parent are What did I do well? What could I have done better? and What goals do I have for the rest of the year?
Once the parents hear the report, the student may introduce their parents to the teacher. Time may be arranged for further discussion with the teacher on specific interventions. The teacher also has a generic portfolio ready to hand parents with “tips” for helping their child.
The staff planned for children who could not bring a parent to conference night by scheduling a meeting with the principal or another adult advocate to go over their portfolio and to make new goals.
