Tip: Student Conferences
Conferences are a productive middle step between less-structured walk-in office hours and the more-structured class time.
Why consider conferences…
I remember only a handful of times over my undergrad career when I went to a professor’s office hours. I was just too shy and too intimidated, and so I went only when explicitly asked to come. These meetings were very narrowly focused: in-major advising, for example, or to get approval for a possible research topic. It wasn’t until the end of my senior year when my French advisor asked me to speak with her about my post-graduation plans (how I ended up teaching English in France rather than going to law school) that I had my first real mentoring-focused meeting with a professor. Looking back, I feel that there were a lot of missed opportunities to ask for and to offer more one-on-one help.
This is part of why I like to have "required" office hour meetings so students early in their academic career learn about what office hours are and how to take advantage of them. In a similar vein, I try to have time built into my schedule for conferences with students who perhaps can't arrange to come to office hours but would still really benefit from some one-on-one time for discussion of their work. Conferences are a natural place to provide fewer, but deeper, comments and communicate to students that you believe they can meet the high expectations you have of them.
The logistics….
When teaching on campus I typically have one week each semester dedicated to student conferences - both individual and small-group. I schedule these weeks for about two-thirds of the way through the semester, and students sign up for a time in advance. Most often these are opportunities to touch base on a couple of different in-progress assignments, and students bring both one nearly-finished short paper and an outline or first draft for the course final paper for discussion. I appreciate these conferences because it’s one of the few times when I can truly provide differentiated instruction for each student: Student A may come in with specific areas to work on and questions to ask, and I do very little to prep them for the conference; Student B may need to fill out a pre-conference questionnaire so that I can help direct them about what to bring to the conference. I find that 15 minutes is a good length of time - long enough to answer questions, but short enough to require a narrow focus for the meeting.
When I set up group conferences, I group together 3-5 students who have either similar skills or topics they are struggling with and create a plan for addressing their common issues in a slightly longer session. With groups, I plan to spend around 30 minutes. Sometimes I offer students the choice of a shorter individual conference or a longer group one, and let them know what the group topic choices are so they can sign up for the session which is most of interest to them.
I see conferences as being a middle step between less-structured walk-in office hours and the more-structured class time. Students who might not know what to ask during office hours are often helped by getting a clear focus for the meeting, and end up finding conferences to be quite productive and helpful.
For more reading...
Five different types of writing conferences - different strategies/goals for different needs or assignments
Written for a K12 audience, but still some helpful advice for English (5-Minute Writing Conferences) and math (How to Differentiate Math Instruction With One-on-One Conferences)
The Teacher-Student Writing Conference and the Desire for Intimacy
