Getting ready for fall parent conferences

Fall conferences come about six weeks into a new year, when you know each child well enough to describe them and families are eager to hear how things are going. The meeting is short. What you bring to it decides how clear a picture of their child the family takes home. Start two weeks out. Gather observations, work samples and progress records for each child, then fill in the same one-page summary for every family.

Two weeks out: take stock of what you have

Start with a list of every child in the class and three columns: observations, work samples, progress records. Go through your notes and mark what you already have for each child.

You'll find gaps. Some children have a thick folder of notes because they ask for lessons all day. The quiet child who works steadily in the corner may have very little written down. Circle the children with thin columns. They're your observation priority for the next week.

Check your progress records against the lessons you've given. For each child, you should be able to say which lessons they've been presented, which they're practicing, and which they've mastered. If a record is out of date, bring it up to date now, while the work is fresh.

The next week: observe with conferences in mind

For each circled child, plan at least two short observations during the work cycle. Sit where you can see without being in the way and write what the child does, in plain factual language.

Look for things a family will want to know about:

• How the child chooses work. Do they go straight to a shelf, wander, or wait for an adult?
• Concentration. How long do they stay with one piece of work? What interrupts them?
• Practical life and care of the environment. Do they return work to the shelf, push in a chair, help a friend?
• Social life. Who do they work beside? How do they handle a disagreement?
• Language and movement. What do you see and hear in their speech, and in how they use their hands and body?

Write the observation as what happened: "Chose the pink tower, built it twice, carried each cube with two hands, returned it to the shelf." Leave out labels like "shy" or "bright".

A few days out: choose work samples

Pick two or three samples for each child that show something real about where they are now. For a younger child that might be a cutting strip, a painting, or a photo of a completed work in the classroom if your school's photo consent allows it. For an older child it might be a page of writing or a math work they recorded.

Choose samples that show the process as well as the result. A page of letters with some backward and some formed well tells a family more than the single best page.

Label every sample with the child's name and the date. Put them in a folder in the order you plan to talk about them.

The day before: write a one-page summary

For each child, fill in the same short page, in the same order every time.

1. Settling in. Two or three sentences on how the child has started the year.
2. What we see in the classroom. Two specific observations, written factually.
3. Lessons and progress. The areas of the classroom where the child is working, with what they've been presented, what they're practicing and what they've mastered.
4. What's next. One or two lessons or skills you plan to offer in the coming weeks.
5. Questions for the family. One or two things you'd like to learn from them about the child at home.

Leave room on the page for notes during the meeting. Write down anything the family tells you, and any next step you agree on together.

Before the first meeting

Arrange the room so the family sits beside you at a child-sized table or comfortable adult chairs, with the folder between you. Have a clock where you can see it, and a plan for ending on time: "We have five minutes left. Is there anything you most want to ask before we finish?"

Read each summary again the morning of the meeting. Pick out one small detail from each child's recent week to mention early in the meeting.

After each conference, take two minutes to write down what you agreed and what you promised to follow up on. Put the follow-ups on your calendar before the next family arrives.