ABSTRACT
Jen was recently at a conference where she asked the teachers in the room how many of them write themselves. Out of fifty-eight teachers, two raised their hands. We see this as one of the biggest problems teachers create for themselves when it comes time to confer. In order to confer well, there needs to be an empathy for how it feels to be a writer. A teacher who writes—and we aren’t saying you have to be a good writer—is able to talk a student through strategies and help him or her through trouble spots because they both walk in the same writing shoes. Katherine Bomer tells us, “My hope is that as teachers we respond to all students’ writing with astonished, appreciative, awestruck eyes. This is what we need to do for kids before we get into the nitty-gritty and work of teaching craft in writing. We need to notice the strengths, another essential to building a trusting relationship.
