#4 Parent Conferencing
by Candra Thornton

Objectives:

• The students will identify the steps to preparing for parent conferences.
• The students will identify key terminology used in parent conferences: academic performance, on grade level, above grade level, below grade level, inappropriate behavior
• The students will explore methods of working with upset parents.
• The students will observe and record parent behaviors:
  • body language
  • cultural differences
  • questions
  • mother/father interactions

Activity:

• One week prior to this seminar, the students received a "Parent Conference Observation Questions" handout to complete during parent conference day.
• The students will share their conference observations with the group.
• The students will discuss how they would have handled conferences differently or similarly.
• The students will have the opportunity to ask questions about conferencing with parents.

Closure:

• The students will write a reflection paragraph on their experience with parent conferencing: "What I have learned from this experience is...".

Parent Conference Observation Questions

Observe the conferences your cooperating teacher conducts with parents and answer the following questions.

Preparation:

1. What did your cooperating teacher do to prepare for conference day?
2. How were conference times scheduled?
3. What items are on the agenda to discuss with parents?
4. How is the seating arranged for conferences?

Cooperating Teacher Behaviors:

1. How did your cooperating teacher begin the conferences?
2. What are some key words your cooperating teacher used to describe grade level academic performance?
3. What are some key words your cooperating teacher used to describe above grade level academic performance?
4. What are some key words your cooperating teacher used to describe below grade level academic performance?
5. What are some key words your cooperating teacher used to describe inappropriate behavior to parents?
6. What information did your teacher solicit from parents?
7. If a parent became upset during a conference, how did your cooperating teacher handle the situation?
8. How did your cooperating teacher end the conferences?

Parent Behaviors:

1. What questions did parents ask?
2. Watch the body language of the parents. What do you see?
3. Did all of the parents attend? If not, what was the attendance?
4. If your room did not have 100% attendance, why do you think you had less than 100%?
5. What is planned to be done to reach the parents who did not come?
6. How many mother/father groups came? If both the mother and the father were present, who did most of the talking?
7. Watch for differences in the way different cultures respond to the teacher and her comments. What do you notice?