Collaborative Conferences

During collaborative conferences, teachers observe a lesson or conference and provide explicit feedback on the teaching and learning interaction. Collaborative conferences use a team approach (with two or more teachers) to support student learning. During the pre-conference, the student's teacher identifies the instructional goal and asks the observing teachers to notice specific writing behaviours. After the lesson, the teachers engage in purposeful dialogue that aligns with the observation focus. This Close-Up features three conferences:

• a cluster conference in which a third-grade team observes a colleague during a writing conference with a student;
• a coaching conference involving a fourth-grade teacher and a literacy coach, who also serves as an intervention specialist for the student;
• an intervention conference in which a third-grade teacher and language specialist discuss the revising process of a student served by both teachers.

Collaborative conferences allow teachers to pool their knowledge and engage in focused dialogues for improving their students' writing.