Student Led Conferences

 For years parents have been coming into classrooms to sit down with their child's teacher to discuss their child's progress as a student. While these can prove effective, especially for parents who are highly invested in their student's learning, they are not as effective as when the student is in control of the conference. Many schools are beginning to host student led conference days in which parents schedule a time to bring their student back to the classroom in order to discuss their education. However, instead of teachers leading these conferences the students are in complete control. They are responsible for gathering data that shows their gross according to what is developmentally appropriate for their age and grade level. Students may create physical or digital portfolios, presentations, or even visual displays in order to provide their parents with a window into their classroom. The biggest benefit found by doing student led conferences is the increase in self regulated learning skills the students are exhibiting. Students are learning how to present to others, how to gather and organize data, as well as how to use their academic language to convey ideas to others. Students are much more invested in their learning and personal growth when they're able to display them to important figures in their lives. This also allows parents to become highly invested in their students learning because they are just hearing what their student does from an outside voice; they're hearing about their student from their student.   

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