Student-led Conferences (SLC) Kick-off
We are excited to announce student-led conferences are coming to Roosevelt!
For the past three years, we have done conferences via House and last year, encouraged your student to participate in a conference with you. We are now fully transitioning to a student-led model.
While traditional parent-teacher conferences can be an effective way to discuss student achievement and progress, they often lack one key element: student engagement. One way to support student agency, develop independence, and encourage self-advocacy is to put students at the center of their learning.
As a staff, we’ve chosen to do student-led conferences because we believe a student-centered approach is key. We also want to foster meaningful conversations between students and their adults about academics and social-emotional growth. And, rest assured, simply because we are doing student-led conferences does not mean teachers won’t be available for additional information, clarification, and support. Finally, once student-led conferences are over, we invite you to reach out to any teacher for any reason about your student’s performance and academic habits.
We’re really excited about the potential of student-led conferences. Our neighboring middle school has been doing student-led conferences for nearly a decade with great success. Drawing upon that model and with a splash of our own RMS flair, we invite you to participate with curiosity and joy as your student shares with you, uninterrupted, a portfolio of work they’ve crafted just for the occasion.
SLCs: How Students Prep
The preparation required for SLC is quite significant!
This week and next, teachers are guiding students in creating or refining a task reflective of a specific learning target. Our students’ job is to insure they know and understand how the task they’ve completed reflects the learning target. In addition, we support students to reflect accurately on their strengths and challenges for both the task and the academic class, and to develop a set of goals related to the content beyond just ‘getting an A.’
Late next week, students will put their portfolios together after they’ve written reflections for each class, and will travel from class to class with it, adding to their portfolio each class period. In House, students will write one final, over-arching reflection based on the school year so far which we believe will reveal some important revelations for students and parents. Students will practice in each of their classes to deliver their presentation to families and this will be a key component to student success during conferences.
When you arrive at SLCs, to support helpful facilitation– suspending judgement and listening openly– we’ll have a checklist and question sheet for you. We’ll hold SLCs in the Dining Hall and will have about 20 families at a time in meetings making for a quiet and semi-private setting. We’ll also have laptops available if students would like to show their families any electronic or digital files.
The preparation can be intense, and the payoff will be a deeper understanding of your student’s daily experience and precious time with your student, uninterrupted for 25 minutes or more. You’ll have each others’ undivided attention and we believe each of you will learn a great deal as a result!
SLCs: Ready to Register?
We look forward to seeing you between 10 am – 8 pm on either Monday, November 20 or Tuesday, November 21 for you SLC. If you have multiple students, you can sign up for as many 25-minute blocks as you have children at Roosevelt. Teachers are available for brief consults at your Dining Hall table.
Please click on the link below to schedule a conference or contact the front office if you have any questions: 541-790-8500
- Create a parent square account if you have not already.
- Sign up for SLC: https://www.parentsquare.com/feeds/25850755
Thank you! Looking forward to seeing you soon!