March 6 (Mon.)

Ok, so the conferencing was bad. Nobody really got upset, but there were several (girls and boys) that had glassy eyes. I made absolutely sure to start off with something positive and end with the thing that would be ‘really easy for them to fix tomorrow’.

On a positive note, while I was conferencing, they made collages of all of the things they needed to remember tomorrow. They were GREAT! They remembered things that I hadn’t thought about in a long time. They worked alone, they were creative, and they all met their goal of having at least 25 things. Bunches of them (even in B2) got more than 25 things. Luis was really worried, but once he got started, he was on a roll. Lynn worked with Johanna while I conferenced with everyone else. Poor Johanna… I don’t know how she has managed to live here as long as she has without learning more English. She is almost on the same level as Gabby. When she wrote her last essay in Spanish, she willingly translated it, but it only came out to a couple of lines. This last essay was much better. We aren’t going to worry about spelling and specific grammar rules. We will focus on making sure that she gets her ideas down on paper legibly enough to get her ideas across. The content score is so much higher than the convention score that if she can link her main ideas with supporting details, she might do okay…

I guess at this point, I’ve done just about all I can do. It’s time to sit back and see what they can do. I’m sure I will worry all night about what I should have done, who needed more help, and what prompts I’ve neglected… I’ll wonder and wonder what the prompt will be… But really, in the long run, my students are better writers than they were in August, and that is really all that matters. Stupid state testing.