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Parent-Teacher Conferences ((Scenario 1: Below-Average Test Score Results…
Parent-Teacher Conferences
Scenario 1: Below-Average Test Score Results
Me: Thank you for coming. I really enjoy having John in class; he always has interesting things to say about the class material.
Thank you. He's got a sense of humor like his mom does.
Me: What I wanted to talk to you about tonight is John's standardized test scores. They are considerably below the average for his age. If you look at this graph, you can see where John's performance is compared to the national average for his age, and also compared to the class average.
But he's a really bright kid.
Me: Yes he is. One thing I've noticed is that when I ask him about test questions, he doesn't understand what the question is asking for. One thing that might help him is for him to spend more time learning the vocabulary of EOG test questions.
But he gets the material in general.
Me: Yes. One thing that might help him is to practice rephrasing some of the questions or activities he gets for homework. Do you think you could check his homework in the evenings and spend 15 minutes or so helping hi rephrase the questions in the homework like the EOG tests would phrase them?
Yes. Or I could help him relate the homework to problems he solves in his favorite video game, World of Warcraft.
Me: That would help, as well. The biggest thing he can do to help his tests is to learn how to think of material in ways that are familiar to him and in vocabulary he understands.
Me: I've printed out some sample test questions for you to give you an idea of the sort of language they're written in. Helping John 1) practice using this language 2) think of class material in ways that are more familiar to him.
Conference will be conducted sitting at a table during parent-teacher conference session: 1) evening 2) parents voluntarily come in to discuss child's achievement 3) discussion format: I say something, parent answers; I ask question, parent answers; I ask for feedback and suggestion, parent contributes.
Scenario 2: Student Not Performing (Overall) to Capacity
Me: Jane is a very bright young lady...I'm sure you know this. I have talked to her other teachers and they all agree that she is very smart and things come quite easily to her.
Me: What concerns me are the grades I have documented here in her records (shows parent screen or report and points to numbers). What I see are grades in the low-80s, and it is clear to me and the others that she can do better; she could be a straight-A student.
Me: She often seems bored in class, which seems to contribute to her lack of performance or participation.
Thank you. We are proud of her.
She thinks school is super boring.
Me: Can you name some things or activities that interest her?
She likes sports and other kids younger than her.
Me: Well, one thing you can help her do is to help her study the class material and help her see why my subject can be important for athletes of all sorts. Another thing that I can speak to the principal about is seeing if Jane can spend some of her school time [I have not specified which time because every school is different, with different times for different activities] helping kids in the grade below her master some of their class material.
I can do that for her at home.
Me: It's also my opinion that if she can help teach others some material, she might find a way of explaining it to others that she finds interesting--as opposed to what I [or any teacher finds interesting.
Conference will be conducted sitting at a table during parent-teacher conference session: 1) evening 2) parents voluntarily come in to discuss child's achievement 3) discussion format: I say something, parent answers; I ask question, parent answers; I ask for feedback and suggestion, parent contributes.
Scenario 3: Student Misbehaving in Class
Me: Thank you for coming; it's nice to meet you. Jamie has a lot of energy in class and he seems really popular with the other students.
He's really social, but a bit loud and sassy.
Me: Well, I wanted to talk about Jamie's energy. He gets the class material easily, but he talks to his neighbors a lot and often keeps the other kids from concentrating.
Should I punish him? Do you punish him?
Me: Well, positive reinforcement works better than punishment. One thing I've started doing in the classroom is having a behavior jar. Each student gets a number of colored buttons to put in teh jar. Every time I catch a student doing something courteous or praiseworthy, I have them place one of their buttons in the jar. When they have used all their buttons, they earn a special reward. If they do something discourteous or disruptive, they have to remove one of their buttons from the jar.
Me: Do you think you could set up a jar like that in your house? Place buttons or chips or whatever in there each time Jaime does something
Sure. What should be his reward?
Me: Anything he likes: dinner out, extra TV time...anything that will increase his desire to be polite.
Conference may take place during evening parent-teacher conferences (see above description) or during an evening/after-school meeting instigated by the teacher.