Tenoch
“I learned the difference between conferring, small group, and large group lessons…In conferring, we’re able to discuss the wonderful things about his writing."
For her Transliteracy assignment, Ms. Cindy chose to work with student. A third grade student with Aztec roots, Tenoch is proud of his Aztec heritage and showing what he knows in his writing. At work time, Tenoch often hesitating, but responds well to praise, making the conference a perfect forum for learning. Ms. Cindy, Tenoch, and class were engaged in a narrative writing unit, learning how to explain what characters are thinking and feeling using descriptive detail.
Ms. Cindy analyzed Tenoch’s first draft, displayed above, including a narrative account with his family. When Cindy analyzed Tenoch’s English sample alongside his Spanish sample, she reflected on Tenoch’s language use, sharing, “I feel like Tenoch is always thinking in Spanish, even when he’s writing in English. I was looking for proof of this in his writing piece in English but I wasn’t sure if it constituted a direct translation or not. I think Tenoch is more subtle to show this. For example, he uses the word “OK” and I translate it to “Esta bien”, something his mom would say at home.” Cindy noticed that, in addition to Tenoch’s oral language strengths in Spanish, he also had writing strengths! Specifically, in Spanish, he used detail to describe character and setting. Since he was not using this technique (yet) in English, she planned a writing conference for him.
While the conference is a bit of a departure from a traditional “Transliteracy” conference in which we’re specifically linking to the strength and applying it in the other language, I am sharing it for others to learn from. In the conference, Ms. Cindy uses teacher prompting for Tenoch to reflect, critique, deepen, clarify and extend his writing. The conference shares elements of Transliteracy in that it begins with an existing strength, and it incorporates strength-based language throughout. Below are highlights, and click here to listen to the audio recording of the conference.
teacher and student script
Cindy: “I looked at your Spanish writing and noticed how you used a lot of descriptive language to share your ideas…We’re gonna use the skills you already have in your Spanish writing and use it to improve your English piece (1:39)
“So, you have options of where to put more details. You can write the inner thoughts of your character, or you can describe the setting, or you can enter some more dialogue”. (1:40)
Inner thoughts are things the reader can’t see… how did you feel about that party? What can we add so people understand how YOU felt (cuz we know how Andy felt)? (2:55)
Tenoch: I felt exhausted from jumping on the trampoline with my cousins. Where do I put that? (4:05)
Cindy: Awesome, that’s something we didn’t know before!
Cindy: Can you read the next part? (Tenoch reads) (4:41). Ok, so tell us more. What was happening. Where did you go afterward? (Tenoch responds).
Cindy: Ok, that would be good, how can you say that? (5:18)
Read the next part. Tenoch reads: Then I jumped into my bed and slept for four hours. (Cindy probes for more). Tenoch responds: I decided to jump instead of using the ladder…
Cindy: Let me see if I heard you right. You said… (Tenoch listens to recast and adds lines to his writing)
Cindy: Now read more. (Tenoch reads). What was going on in your head at that point?
Tenoch: I was feeling confident I would land on the bed.
Cindy: Confident, huh? That’s a great word to use. Put that in your story (7:08)
teacher and student script
Cindy: Then what?
Tenoch: Since we have a rough carpet, my face felt like it was burning a lot.
Cindy: How can we say that in a sentence? What would you say to your reader? (Tenoch replies) (7:50)
Cindy: (Gently correcting) Ok the part where you fell on your face, we already heard. But this other part is new information.
(Cindy invites to re-read), then: how does that sound? (8:43)
Tenoch keeps on reading, “my brother busted into my room.”
Cindy: how did you feel about that? What can we say about that?
Tenoch: He came in running cuz he heard a loud noise (9:24)
Read more. My brother microwaved bagel bites. Teacher: Ok, there’s one more thing, what happened between those events? (Tenoch responded). Ok, perfect! So you can say, “he asked me again if I was ok”.
Cindy: How did he know you were hungry?
Tenoch: I asked him.
Cindy: Ok, so you said… that’s a perfect transition sentence, write that down. (11:30)
Cindy: So, which sentence do you think should go first, this one or that one?
Tenoch: this one!
Teacher: ok put an arrow there.
Teacher: Tenoch, how do you think you did? Reread it and see what you think.
Reflection
Cindy shared, and the audio clip shows, how Tenoch felt heard and seen in the writing conference. He was honored for what he knew, and his story was validated through an authentic conversation with his teacher who genuinely wanted to learn more detail! Tenoch gained a new writing strategy – writing with detail – using inner thoughts like “I was exhausted” and “I felt confident”. In certain places, he added events as transitions to create cohesion between parts of his narrative and also give his audience more information. Throughout, Cindy shared the work with Tenoch, making him feel like he was the decision-maker. This happened through intentional teacher prompting (e.g. “How can you say that in a sentence?” ) and giving him options “which sentence do you think goes first?” In this way, Tenoch felt in control, and Cindy felt he was more prepared to write independently as a result. Cindy shared that if she could do the lesson again, she would have more directly invited him to use his entire linguistic repertoire; she encouraged him to do this in subsequent sessions. Reflecting on the experience, Cindy shared, “I learned the difference between conferring, small group, and large group lessons…In conferring, we’re able to discuss the wonderful things about his writing.”
Pause and ponder
What were Cindy's teacher moves and what was Tenoch's response?
Take action
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Plan de Conferencia de Escritura/
(Zoeller, 2022 adapted from McQuitty, 2022)