Digital Conferring Notes & Feedback

Over the past month I have been in the process of switching from the Confer App to using Google Forms for my conferring notes.  I loved everything about Confer except that there was not an easy way for me to send my students feedback from our conference.  I was leaving students with post-it notes as to what they were to be working on, but many times they were left behind in the classroom.  Not very helpful for the student to refer back to the next day.

Using Autocrat with my Google form sends my students an email right after our conference with what we discussed.  It is the same way we get feedback from walkthroughs.  I created a template of the items I wanted the students to see.  They see their Star & Stair, which is a narrative comment.  They also see targets from the continuum and which grade level the task or skill represents.  I have a section where I select areas that would be useful for a small group that the students do not see.

So the students get an email, but how do I know they are reading the comments?  This would only be beneficial to the students if they are reading and reflecting on my feedback.  On the PDF the students get is a link to a Student Reflection Form where they answer two questions from our conference.  What helps you to reach your STAR in your writing?  How will you accomplish your STAIR in writing?  Be specific in what you will do.

The students fill out the reflection the next day during Writer's Workshop.  This helps them to remember what we talked about and set them up for success because they are explaining what they will do to improve their writing.

The students keep their conferring notes in Notability and I remind them to look over them before they start writing and to focus on reaching their Stair.