Schoolwide Weekly 1:1 Student Conferences

Overview

To better support students during remote learning, Tanner Elementary School carved out time every Wednesday to dedicate an hour to student conferencing. Given the decrease in touchpoints that came with remote learning, these conference times were built to connect with students and provide targeted support to enable them to be successful when learning at home and to feel supported by staff members.

Approach

To ensure that they were engaging as many students in conferencing as possible at a given time, all staff members were leveraged to lead the conferences, including core classroom teachers, school leaders, counselors, fine arts teachers, and any other school-based staff that regularly supported a student in grades pre kindergarten through eighth. Conferences were held each Wednesday for an hour with students engaging in conferences at different cadences based on need. Every student participated in a conference at least once a month, and students with greater needs had conferences on a more frequent basis.

The structure of the conference varied depending upon grade level, but all conferences incorporated the same core elements: relationship building, goal setting, planning, and reflection. Additionally, each conference had a set purpose:

• Advice - focused on relationship building, identifying strengths, growth areas, interests, etc.

• Assessment - focused on designing instruction, academic interests, and choice-based opportunities

• Reflection - focused on setting and monitoring goals