Student-Led Conferences

Dear Families,
Tomorrow(Monday), I will send home a conference form for you to fill out. Please make sure you get the form and return it to me as soon as possible. I have held student-led conferences for the past several years and have received much positive feed back from parents and students alike about this way of conferencing. The following is information/research about it:

The Student-led Conference

THIS CONFERENCE FORMAT IS BECOMING an accepted alternative to the traditional parent/teacher conference, in which the student is left out.The goals of this conference format is to increase positive communication between students and their parents and teachers in the following ways :
to encourage students to accept personal responsibility for their academic performance;
to teach students the process of self-evaluation;
to facilitate the development of students' organizational and oral communication skills and to increase their self-confidence;
to encourage students, parents, and teachers to engage in open and honest dialogue;
and to increase parent attendance at conferences


Why are faculties exploring this new conference technique?

Teachers, parents, and students report exceptional success and satisfaction with this format. Parents attend this student-led format to a higher degree than the traditional parent/teacher conference. Students feel comfortable in this supportive environment and parents appreciate hearing specifically from their children on their academic progress.
Although student-led conferences vary from school to school even within districts, one characteristic remains constant: the student leads the discussion. Students gain self-confidence in oral communication.

What exactly is a student-led conference?
According to Donald G. Hackmann it is important "to see the conference as a process and not an event." It should be seen as part of a student's ongoing educational progress.


SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS ARTICLE
Student-Led Conferences: A Growing Trend

For years parent-teacher conferences have been the primary means of parent-teacher communication. But now, many schools are trying something new -- student-led conferences that communicate not only how a student's doing but also why.

-->Parent-teacher conferences -- we all know how they go. Parents troop into classrooms to talk with teachers about their children's progress in school. Often, the process feels rushed, and parents leave feeling vaguely dissatisfied, as if they didn't really get what they came for.
For years that process has been the norm, but now it is changing. In more and more schools, students are leading conferences, and, overall, the word is that they're doing a fine job.

Many teachers themselves speak enthusiastically of the advantages of student-led conferences over teacher-led ones. "We found the [student-led] conferences most beneficial," said Keith Eddinger of the Marcus Whitman Middle School in Rushville, New York. "From a teacher's perspective, we were able to get a better picture of each child. It forced us to sit down with each student and review strengths and weaknesses. This conversation often told us the students learned more than perhaps we had measured through conventional assessments."
Eddinger added, "Our post-conference reviews with parents and students were overwhelmingly positive."
John Osgood, of C. L. Jones Middle School in Minden, Nebraska, found that "comments [about student-led conferences] from parents and board members were very positive."
Another staff member, Dick Philips, said, "Most parents listened to their child. It was interesting listening to [children] explain low grades to their parents. It did open the lines of communication."