What do I Want to Learn?

In Mary Kate's last post she asked, "What do you want to learn, Josie?"  What a great reflective question, to think deeply about what it is you truly want to learn, it forces me to focus and key in on what will push me the most as a learner, to focus my reading, reflecting, collaborating time.  No wonder when we allow students to determine what they want to learn about, it becomes so powerful - this process is a good reminder for me!

I noticed as I started to reflect on what I wanted to learn, my mind always went to the HOW I love to learn.   I wonder, do I offer enough choices with my students on HOW to learn?   The how for me is the easier piece - I love to learn with people, especially with students.  For me that equates to conferring.  So if I were to choose one thing to focus my learning on it would be the conference piece of workshop.

The conference time could possibly be my favorite part of both workshops. The time that you truly get to see passion in a writer's and reader's plans, passion when the reader or writer reads to you. This is the time you get to share in the excitement for what has been written and what has been read.  This is the time that you get to hear strings of truth that allow you into that reader's/writer's life and bring you closer to understanding choices made in that reader's/writer's learning. 

The same is true during conferences with colleagues as we plan together or reflect on student progress and next steps.  I want to learn how to learn more in all conferences - writing and reading conferences with students, pre-conferences and reflection conferences with colleagues.  I want to learn to listen with more intensity.  Learning to rephrase what is said and then ask for clarification before moving on to a goal or to a next-step plan.


Mary Kate shared her thinking about scaffolding.  This is where conferring and scaffolding come together. Here is one of my favorite new professional books: 

The Construction Zone: Building Scaffolds for Readers and Writers 

By Terry Thompson

Terry Thompson helps us to learn about the feedback loop.  How we observe, reflect and respond.  "Effective scaffolds exist and expand in a responsive feedback loop that continually moves learners toward greater degrees of mastery." pg. 105

With the help of reading material like this and colleagues and students to think about conferencing with, I feel more focused and ready to challenge myself to push deeper and more focused when conferring.  

Reflecting on what I want to learn and how I want to learn has been a true reminder for me to honor both the what and the how with the learners I encounter each day.  What is pushing your learning, thinking, reflecting?