ABSTRACT
Conferencing is the most mystifying topic in Writers' Workshop. Golden gate method helps to clarify quality over quantity when it comes to conferencing. Donalyn Miller is the brilliant creator of this method of conferencing. One-on-one conferences are great as formative assessments and for personalizing content for individual students. But there are other types of conferences that are just as appropriate to use during Guided Writing that can help one to reach a broader audience for a variety of purposes. Writing conferences must not be a surprise, they must be an accepted practice in the writing classroom as a time to receive feedback on a paper. So students should keep a running list of questions they want answered. Teaching the Focused Question Card strategy helps with this so much, students already know how to define revision issues and write a question that addresses them.
