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Conferring With StudentsA conference can be one of the most useful tools for teaching written rhetoric, and all instructors should confer with their students. Many instructors meet with individual students several times during a semester, and the English 101 Committee encourages instructors to allot time for these conferences and to encourage students, especially those who seem unlikely to seek out the instructor, to make an appointment for a conference. Often, the weakest students benefit most from personalized attention, yet these students are often reticent to ask for extra help from the instructor. Student writers and English 101 instructors benefit from these conferences. In conferences, students feel free to ask questions that they might not ask at in a class meeting. Students and their instructors discuss strategies for maximizing writing strengths and minimizing writing weaknesses. If conferences occur while students are working on essays, students apply their new-found understanding about writing immediately. Instructors benefit from student conferences as well. Conferences provide excellent opportunities for instructors to gain valuable student feedback on writing assignments and class discussion. In these conferences, instructors assess what pedagogical strategies succeeded or failed in the classroom, and they gain insight about their teaching from a student's perspective. |
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