Q: I am getting ready for parent conferences. Can you tell me how to use the Café Menu in the conference?
A: Whether doing Student Led conferences or traditional Parent-Teacher conferences, the Café Menu is always an integral part of our literacy conversations with families. For each conference, we use our Pensieve (or conferring notebook) which has a Café Menu behind each child's divider sheet. Using the menu, we share with the families their child's strengths as a reader and their goal, which are based upon fall assessments.
For student Led conferences, we also have each child point out their name, which they have placed on the Café Menu bulletin board in our class, and show how this connects to their individual Café page in the Pensieve.
Before leaving the conference, we spend a moment or two modeling for parents how to support their child's goals at home. We also have a Café Menu for each family ready to send home so they can post it on their refrigerator. We remind them that their newsletters will highlight the strategies we are working on in the classroom so they can provide ongoing support at home with their child.
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