Are you looking for student led conference activities to prepare your upper elementary students? You’re in the right place!
Student led conferences are a fantasic way to build responsibility and accountability in your students. The key is to use student led conference activities to prepare your students so the conferences run smoothly and successfully.
Before we dive into how to prepare your students with these student led conference activities, let’s explore what exactly are student led conferences.
What are Student Led Conferences?
As the name implies, the student is in charge of a student led conference. They explain to their families their progress so far, their goals, and possibly their grades. Sharing grades works very well in middle and high school. I personally went over the report card with families when I taught 4th grade because our standards-based report card was pretty complicated and I felt it was best for me to explain. However, you can make whatever choice works best for you.
Some student led conference activities that may happen during the conference include:
- Sharing grades and academic progress
- Self-reflecting on behavior
- Presenting a letter written to the family
- Reporting their goals and progress toward them
- Celebrating any achievements, whether they be academic or social-emotional
Why should you use student led conferences?
The benefit of student led conferences is that students take accountability for their grades and their progress. Sometimes students see grades as something that happens TO them, instead of something they EARN. Through the Student Led Conference process, they see a correlation between their work so far and the outcome and they set goals for the next trimester (or semester or quarter).
What student led conference activities should you do to prepare?
The key to a smooth student led conference is preparation. Students need time to reflect on their work and make goals.
In preparing students, I typically do the following student led conference activities:
- Explain to them what a student led conference is and possibly show video examples from YouTube
- Have them write a letter to their parents welcoming them to the conference and explaining how the school year is going so far
- Ask them to name their strengths across different academic subjects
- Ask them to set academic goals
- Have them self-evaluate their behavior and effort and set a behavior goal
Students then use these student led conference activities to guide the meeting. I like to give students the opportunity to practice with a partner beforehand, as again it leads to a smoother conference the day of.
Where can you find student led conference activities?
I have premade the student led conference activities mentioned above in both English & Spanish with an accompanying slideshow that explains student led conferences and walks the students through the preparation process step by step. It also includes letters to the families about student led conferences and a reminder letter. Everything is editable so you can customize it to your liking.
When you use my student led conference activities, your students will:
- Reflect on their progress this school year
- Set academic goals
- Practice with a partner
- Present to their families
You can get more details, see a preview, and purchase your student led conference activities by following the links below.
