A Teacher's Guide to Reading Conferences: The Classroom Essentials Series

Why are reading conferences so important?

What do effective reading conferences look and sound like?

How do I fit reading conferences into my literacy block?

“Conferring,” writes Jennifer Serravallo, “is where the magic happens.” In this primer, she reveals that this seeming magic is actually purposeful, responsive instruction.

Jen presents conferences for six specific instructional situations: assessing, goal-setting, strategy lessons, and more. A rich design, replete with infographics and special features, guides you quickly from learning to teaching with:

• Jen’s moves and language
• 9 videos of her teaching in K–8 classrooms
• 13 conference note-taking forms—one for each reading goal from the hierarchy in her Reading Strategies Book
• Suggestions for connecting emergent bilingual learners’ language goals and reading goals.

With Jen’s support, you’ll discover the true magic of conferring—the joyous, aha moments you’ll see in growing readers.

Jennifer Serravallo is the author of The New York Times' bestselling The Reading Strategies Book 2.0 and The Writing Strategies Book, which have been translated into Spanish, French, and Chinese. These and her other popular books and resources help teachers make goal-directed responsive strategy instruction, conferring, and small group work doable in every classroom. Her newest titles are The Reading Strategies Book 2.0; Teaching Writing in Small Groups; A Teacher's Guide to Reading Conferences, and the assessment and teaching resource Complete Comprehension for Fiction and Nonfiction. Jen is a frequently invited speaker at national and regional conferences and travels throughout the US and Canada to provide full-day workshops and to work with teachers and students in classrooms. She is also an experienced online educator who regularly offers live webinar series and full-day online workshops. Jen began her career in education as an NYC public school teacher. Now as a consultant, she has spent the last fifteen+ years helping teachers across the country create literacy classrooms where students are joyfully engaged, and the instruction is meaningfully individualized to students' goals. Jen is also a member of Parents Magazine Board of Advisors for education and literacy. Jen holds a BA from Vassar College and an MA from Teachers College, where she has also taught graduate and undergraduate classes. Learn more about Jen and her work at Hein.pub/serravallo, on Twitter @jserravallo, or Instagram @jenniferserravallo.

For many years as the author of bestselling Heinemann books such as About the Authors, Study Driven, Already Ready, and In Pictures and In Words, and as a member of Heinemann's Professional Development Services, Katie Wood Ray gave teachers resources and PD that transformed writing instruction and helped children discover a lifelong love of writing. In 2014, Katie "moved to the other side of the desk" and joined the dynamic team of editors at Heinemann where she works closely with authors to craft powerful professional books on a range of literacy topics. Katie is also the series editor for the new Classroom Essentials books from Heinemann. Tasked with bringing foundational, progressive practices to a new generation of teachers, Katie works to ensure that the sharp focus and enhanced design of each book best serve the content. She also teamed up with her longtime collaborator, Lisa Cleaveland, to write one of the first books in the series, A Teacher's Guide to Getting Started with Beginning Writers. You can find her on Twitter at @KatieWoodRay.