TWO HEADS ARE
BETTER THAN ONE: THE
POWER OF THE PEER
CONFERENCE IN AN
EARLY CHILDHOOD
CLASSROOM
Courtney Smith
EP Todd School
Primary Montessori Teacher
June 2013
PEER CONFERENCING ROADBLOCKS
Do you use peer conferencing in your classroom?
 How do you use peer conferencing?
 What is going well in your classroom?
 What are your struggles?

THE WHY
What I Used to Think
My New Thinking
“Readers
“Without
need a quiet
place to write
and think.”
–Mrs. O’Connor
lots
of talk, your
workshop will
fall apart.”
-Isoke Nia
The Writing Workshop
by Katie Wood Ray
and Lester L.
Laminack
WHAT THE EXPERTS SAY

“By keeping an audience in mind and
participating in focused peer review interactions,
students can offer productive feedback, accept
constructive criticism, and master revision…Peer
review facilitates the type of social interaction
and collaboration that is vital for student
learning.”
WHAT THE EXPERTS SAY

“For a while now, children have tried to write in
such a way that we can read their writing. Now
we’ll ask them to write in such a way that their
peers can read what they’ve written. This is a big
step. It’s easier for an adult to use the
information a child gives and to infer what the
child was trying to say than it is for another child
to do these things. Asking children to read each
other’s writing may leave some children feeling
dejected that their classmates can’t read their
writing. But there are tremendous gains to be
had from nudging children to write so their
classmates can read their writing.”
-Lucy Calkins and Natalie Louis, Writing for Readers:
Teaching Skills and Strategies
COMMON CORE STATE STANDARDS






CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.K.1 Participate in collaborative
conversations with diverse partners about kindergarten
topics and texts with peers and adults in small and larger
groups.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.K.2 Confirm understanding of a
text read aloud or information presented orally or through
other media by asking and answering questions about key
details and requesting clarification if something is not
understood.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.K.3 Ask and answer questions in
order to seek help, get information, or clarify something
that is not understood.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.K.4 Describe familiar people,
places, things, and events and, with prompting and
support, provide additional detail.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.K.5 Add drawings or other visual
displays to descriptions as desired to provide additional
detail.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.K.6 Speak audibly and express
thoughts, feelings, and ideas clearly.
THE END IN MIND

Two Goals
 Children will
understand that
there is an
audience for their
writing
 Children will be
able to talk about
writing in ways
that will aid their
reading
comprehension
skills
THE END IN MIND
PROCESS OF GETTING TO THE END

Beginning with the Familiar

Focusing on the content, students will conference about the
content of a picture
PROCESS OF GETTING TO THE END

Beginning with the Familiar

Students will move from pictures to texts. Students
will be able to focus on content and conventions with
texts.
Sticky Note
Conferences
“Elbow to
Elbow” or
“Knee to
Knee”
PROCESS OF GETTING TO THE END

Getting Personal with Pictures
PROCESS OF GETTING TO THE END

Moving Forward with Kid Writing

Content vs. Conventions
3
Steps to a Peer Conference
 1. T: Tell something you
like
 2. A: Ask a question
 3. G: Give a suggestion
T: TELL SOMETHING YOU LIKE
Be Positive!
 Compliment Starters

I liked how you…
 My favorite part was _____ because…
 This was fun to read _____ because…
 You did a great job…

A: ASK A QUESTION
Does the writing make sense?
 Questions to Consider


Are there details you want to know more about?
G: GIVE A SUGGESTION
Be Specific
 Areas to Give Suggestions About






Illustrations and Text
Conventions
Word Choice
Organization and Structure
Details
www.littlepriorities.blogspot.co
m
IN THE CLASSROOM
 “For
me as a teacher, share time
really gets at a value that is bigger
than writing itself. It’s a value I
have about learning communities,
and a writing workshop is a learning
community. It is a place that I
create where we learn together and
where we support each other in that
learning in important ways.”
-The Writing Workshop by Katie Wood Ray and
Lester L. Laminack
IN THE CLASSROOM
What
will peer conferencing look
like in your classroom next year?
RESOURCES
Calkins, Lucy, and Natalie Louis. Writing for Readers:
Teaching Skills and Strategies. Portsmouth, NH:
FirstHand, 2003. Print.
"Implementing the Writing Process." Read Write Think.
International Reading Association, n.d. Web. 8 June
2013.
Moldenhauer, Lori. ""Thesaurus Thursday"" Little
Priorities. N.p., 11 Oct. 2012. Web. 8 June 2013.
Raczka, Bob, and Chad Cameron. Fall Mixed up.
Minneapolis: Carolrhoda, 2011. Print.
Ray, Katie Wood, and Lester L. Laminack. The Writing
Workshop: Working through the Hard Parts (and
They're All Hard Parts). Urbana, IL: National Council
of Teachers of English, 2001. Print.
"Speaking and Listening Standards." Common Core
State Standards Initiative. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 June
2013.