Free Conversation Starters for Reading Conferences

Hello!  Two posts in two days… I am on a ROLL! This is going to be a short post, but I wanted to share something with you.

At the end of each year (just like any good teacher) I reflect on the previous school year to see what needs improvements and what went well.  Last year, I had a difficult time stimulating conversations during reading conferences with my students.  I found having a list of questions handy helped to begin the conversations.  If a student began to focus in a new direction; I allowed them to lead the conversation and found that 9 out of 10 times I learned a great deal about the student as a reader.  There are those times especially before I know the students well that a conversation started was needed.  I use the cards below to help me.

After printing, laminating, and cutting them out, I punch a hole in them and place them on a binder ring.  There are cards for students who:

·      just started reading the book.

·      are in the middle of a book.

·      have finished reading a book.

I also included some blank cards if you would like to add your own to the collection. 

 

 

This is just a sample of the set. You can get a FULL set of the cards for FREE by downloading them from my Teachers Pay Teachers Store.  I hope that you will find them useful.  If you have a moment, I would appreciate it if you left me feedback either on TPT or by commenting on this post.

You may also like my Reading Graphic Organizers.  They can be used with any book.  I use them quite often during reading workshop. They really have been a BIG time saver.

You may also like my Reading Interactive Notebook Flaps.  They are also frequently used during reading workshop time.  They are simple flaps for the students to cut out.  I prefer having the students recording information on the flaps rather than spending too much time cutting and pasting.  Students enjoy working with the flaps and having a resource that they made and can use as a reference throughout the year.  

I also posted random pictures of my classroom from last year under the “Classroom Pictures” tab above.  I had a camping theme last year and my students and I really enjoyed it.  You can read about my theme for next year HERE. 

Enjoy a relaxing weekend!