“Unconferencing” Our Way to Community by Dana Clark

We all long for community.  The sense of belonging gives us gifts of kinship, acceptance, safety, and comfort.  That’s why we spend so much of our teaching lives searching for ways to build a community in our classrooms. We know that when we have a strong community, we have created a place where kids can be both vulnerable and joyful. 

While we all work hard to create a writing community in our classrooms, I sometimes wonder if we are using our communities to truly lift the level of student writing.  Many teachers plan grand celebrations for each unit, serving snacks and inviting others to experience or read student work.  But is celebration enough?  While honoring and sharing the work are certainly important, I think another important aspect of a writing community is to create a culture of writer-to-writer feedback. 

One fun way to try out this work is to schedule a writer’s unconference in your classroom.  Unconferences are opportunities for learners to gather and explore an idea with people who are interested in the same topic.  Because there is no set leader, everyone contributes by sharing questions, knowledge, and experience.  With four or five groups huddled together discussing their work during a classroom unconference, the room is abuzz with engaged writers. Here’s how you might tap into the power of your student writing community with a writer’s unconference:

Prep work:

• Choose a date that lands mid-unit so that the students have explored, written quite a bit, and will be ready for some advice.
• Right before the unconference date, ask your students to reflect on some things that they’d like explore with other writers.  Try questions like, “What do I need help with?” and  “What parts of my writing are strong?” 
• Create a list of topics. (I like to have two session times slots.) Then, invite kids to think about a session they’d like to attend for advice and a session where they’d be able to offer support.  

Advice for the big day:

• Try to get a feel for the needs of the room to make sure all of the students aren’t going to one or two spots.  (Some teachers like kids to sign up prior to the sessions.)
• Have students bring writing tools and resources that you’ve taught into like post-its, mentor texts, checklists, progressions, and revising pens to their sessions.
• Schedule sessions for 20-30 minutes and be sure that kids have some time to go back and try out some of the new ideas they learned from their peers!

Happy Writing!

Dana Clark is a literacy coach by day, mom by night, and reader in any spare minute she can find.  You can find her on Twitter @dana_dclark or follow her blog http://litlife.blog.