Student-Led Conference

What is a Student-Led Conference?

I was not really aware of what student-led conference meant, but after the presentation it seemed that it would be effective in student's learning. It's almost like a teacher-parent conference, however, students are more involved in conducting the conference. Within a student-led conference, the student is able to assess and reflect on learning that he or she has been doing throughout the grade. The student is responsible for being prepared when the conference begins. Students are suppose to gather work samples that showcase how they have improved. The students have to be honest on what they report to their parents. Usually, students are suppose to write a reflection page in how students improved in their learning and also the reflection page would guide the discussion in the student-led conference. Students may talk about a certain learning goal that they want to achieve within each conference meeting. They might want to highlight strengths and weakness that they have noticed in their work samples then discuss a plan for improvements. In addition, students might discuss about issues that they might have that are affecting school performance. 

Here's a video of how a student-led conference might look like:

Student-Led Conferences: Empowerment and Ownership

Putting students in the driver's seat of their parent-teacher conferences creates opportunities for reflection, engagement, and agency. Wildwood IB World Magnet School GRADES K-8 | CHICAGO, IL Explore more resources from this school: https://www.edutopia.org/school/wildwood-ib-world-magnet-school

When teachers are facilitating a student-led conference, they must provide the technological tools that students might need to keep organized and on track. If I were scheduling the student-led conference, a popular tool that students might use to save and showcase their work samples is a digital portfolio.

An app called SeeSaw is a student-driven digital portfolio that students can use. I plan to use to SeeSaw in student-led conferences. The students do have the opportunity to insert videos, audio, and images to portfolio to make it interactive and creative for parents to view. Digital portfolios are easy to share with anyone. Teachers can save papers and time with SeeSaw. Teachers do not have to go through the hassle of assembling a folder portfolio then few days later it ends up missing or damaged.

Look at the video below to see how a student might use the features of SeeSaw to capture work samples:

Seesaw: The Learning Journal Overview

Seesaw - the learning journal that empowers students and engages parents. Download at: http://seesaw.me Teachers can setup a class and start using Seesaw in less than 60 seconds to: EMPOWER STUDENTS: Students (as young as 5!) can independently create, capture, and store artifacts of learning in their private learning journal.

4C's

Student-led conference covers the 4Cs of the 21^st century learning skills. Students are collaborating with teachers and are involving their parents in their learning. They are allowing parents to get an insight of their hard work whether it was good or bad. Students are collaborating with their peers because with the use of SeeSaw students can get inspiration on what to insert in their portfolio. Students are communicating with their teacher and parents when they walk in the meeting room prepared. They are already have the artifacts they might want to reference when talking about their strengths and weaknesses. Students are thinking critically because they are reflecting on their learning in what ways they could improve to achieve their goals. Students are creating by building and adding work samples in a digital portfolio. They can also add links, voice record, and type in notes in a work sample of their digital portfolio.  I hope I can give my students the opportunity to use these skills so that they will be prepared.