Student-led Conferences and Digital Portfolios

     A growing trend in the education world is student led conferences. For years, the primary means of communication between parents and teachers were conferences between the two parties, but this is changing in the modern classroom. In more and more classrooms students are beginning to take the lead in communicating their own progress and struggles. Student led conferences are beneficially for students because they are able to assess themselves and communicate their struggles and successes with their teachers and parents. It helps students to be able to take responsibility for their own learning by taking the lead and opening communication lines. This conference model has highlighted the student’s voice and insights, which draws a better picture of what the student is doing well at or struggling with and, most importantly, why.

      Although student led conferences may take extra work to prepare, the work is worth it. Just like everything in the teaching world, PREPARATION is key! For a successful student led conference, teachers should guide students through reflection of their own work. Through this preparation and reflection, students can identify their strengths, weaknesses, and set goals for the future. The students can look back on their portfolios to find work that can be used as evidence during their student led conference. This part is vital because it provides all participants in the conference with tangible representations of academic progress.

     One way of keeping track with student work is through digital portfolios. I have heard of some apps used to keep track of student work such ass SeeSaw and ClassDojo, but learning more about this way to keep record of student work was interesting to me. One new application that I learned about was WeLearnedIt. This is an easy and free app that allows students to create digital portfolios. Students can upload their work on this application and use it for future student led conferences. One awesome feature of this app is that teachers can leave feedback on student work through the app! I think it is important for the teacher and student to have an ongoing portfolio that holds student work from the beginning to the end of the school year. It provides evidence of academic growth and achievements that students have made.


     Below is an awesome video that shows the importance of students taking ownership of their learning and facilitating their own conferences.