“Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man.”
– Francis Bacon “Of Studies”
Francis Bacon knew what he was talking about! He realized that reading and writing were simply not enough. Conferring was the step that he put at the middle like a bridge between taking in ideas and creating our own. But what has happened to that bridge in schools? Sometimes it is misperceived as cheating among students or providing too much assistance if the conference is with a faculty member, but even in schools that encourage it, conferring is sometimes overlooked as an important research process tool.
This is my second year doing research conferences with our junior US History/American Studies students. One of the main goals of the conference is modeling how to attack a difficult research task. As you would expect, each research conference is different because they come to us at different parts of the process and with different skills. It involves a lot of deep questioning and investigating on our end…kind of like a doctor’s visit. Students often have tunnel vision when it comes to research, so we model approaches to various research skills that students may not traditionally take. We may focus on strategies for narrowing topics, finding varied levels of sources, or connecting ideas. The result is an email of the sources we found together and discussions we had so the teacher can see where the student is. It also allows us to clarify some of the comments we make about their citations.
Initially, I thought the conferences would be all about sources and search strategies, but as I do more of them, I see that several students need scaffolding for how to approach the assignment. I find myself asking more (and hopefully better) questions of the teachers regarding the assignment itself, so I can help direct students.
This time we asked students to send us the following in an email beforehand and then used their response to prep for the meeting. This brief email also served as a way to gage their progress so far.
Tell me about your topic, including how it has developed/changed since you wrote your proposal. Then tell me a bit about the information you have found so far, which sources have been most helpful, and what types of information you still need to look for or have been unable to find.
I have to admit that I really let myself go astray several times during this round of conferences. I got caught up with being a “source superhero” instead of ensuring that the conferences were just as much about skills and strategies that can transfer to other projects. I became too focused on speedily providing cool sources and content. The tension between giving students great sources for a project and providing them with skills and strategies for the current project and the next is a dilemma we will always have, especially with our time-stretched teens. However, next time, I am committed to making sure students do the majority of the searching, keeping my question-asking stance, and focusing on skills and strategies that they can use on any future research task.