How can a teacher confer with a child who speaks a different language? How can teachers confer with many children speaking many different languages, all in the same classroom? In Write from the Start: Conferring with Young English Language Learners, Andie Cunningham and Ruth Shagoury confer with five-, six- and seven-year-olds in Andie's kindergarten writing workshop. Daily conferences are an essential element of the literacy curriculum, helping students see the links between their home language and culture, English, and making meaning through print.

The nine conferences on the program feature boys and girls with first languages of Spanish, Cantonese, Vietnamese, Hmong, and Russian. The children are at different stages in their language development - from confidently verbal to silent. The writing the children produce is a mix, too - with a range from strings of words with conventional spellings, to drawings and individual letters labeling pictures.

The print materials on the companion Workshop Guide PDF provide step-by-step instructions for sixteen different workshops in a variety of formats. Workshop topics include basic conferring principles, understanding the "silent period" of English language learning, assessment to track writing growth and development, and analyzing boys' writing through drawing. Student writing samples, practical explanations of literacy and learning theories, and record keeping tools are all provided.

57 Minute Program & PDF Workshop Kit