Student-Led Conferences

   Student-led conferences are exactly what the title says. They are an opportunity for students to take responsibility of what they are learning in school and explain their grades to their parent or guardian. They can be digital or on paper, but access is much simpler digitally. The students have a chance to document big projects and accomplishments and follow their progress through the year, and then show they achievements to others.


The teacher's role in this is to guide the students to do the thinking. They are the facilitators, and simply prepare the students to present their work and guide them in the right direction when creating their portfolios. Especially for younger grades, the teacher may provide the students with a rubric, but still provide room for creativity. The student’s role is to create and present their presentation. They can collaborate with their peers for ideas on what to use and help with technology or setting it up. The parent’s role is to show up, be and encouragement, and hold the student accountable for the goals they set for themselves at home.

There are several benefits to this. Parent participation improves, ELL students feel more comfortable because they can share their work in their own language, students learn to make improvements and be self-reflective, it covers listening and speaking standards, and it grows students speaking and presenting skills just to name a few. In order for this to be successful and easy, the teachers must keep a digital portfolio of each student, or the students can keep up with them themselves. If the student is nervous about their first presentation, have them record themselves and show the recording and then answer questions after with the help of the teacher. GoAnimate, SeeSaw, WeLearnedIt, and Evernote are all webistes/apps that can be used for this.