A student-led conference (or SLC) can be a magical opportunity for teachers to engage deeply with a student and their family. It typically involves a middle schooler gathering some evidence of their learning, strengths and challenges, and possibly their goals and aspirations. They assemble that evidence along with reflections into some format; many use a slideshow or PLP, but there are many possible ways – even papers in a binder or journal! Then, the teacher helps facilitate a conversation and sharing process between student, family, and teacher. Many factors help determine its success. Here are some of our favorite resources to help you.
Why Student-Led Conferences are Important
How to Prepare Families for SLCs
- The Parent’s Role in an SLC
- A description of the difference between an SLC and a traditional parent-teacher conference that gives tips to parents for making it a success.
- How to Design Pre-Conference Conversations with Families
- This post also focuses on how to prepare families. It contains talking points for teachers around the purpose and many other resources.
Examples of Student-Led Conference Implementation
- Student-led conferences come to Leland & Gray
- Describes how-to do the SLC process, including examples, communication and feedback tools.
- Successful student-led conferences
- Also describes the process and how-to, includes sample agenda and student template.
- 4 shifts for student-led conferences in a proficiency-based environment
- This post also focuses on how-to do SLCs, but specifically while in a proficiency-based environment.
- Video evidence & reflection for student-led conference
- A story from a school that used screencasting as a tool for using video evidence and reflection in an SLC.
- How to Evaluate Student Led Conferences
- This post focuses on how to collect feedback and reflections from students, families and teachers to improve the SLC process.
What does a student-led conference look like in action?
Emmett, Lamoille Union Middle School, Hyde Park VT
Emmett reflects on his student-led conference
Alina, Brattleboro Area Middle School, Brattleboro VT
And what do educators think of student-led conferences?
Katie Bryant, Lamoille Union Middle School
- Bryant’s action research project on gauging family opinions of student-led conferences
- Lamoille’s student-led conferences script (Google Doc) and pep talk
Joe Rivers, Brattleboro Area Middle School
Lori Morse, Crossett Brook Middle School