The Impacts of Individual Reading Conferences on Student Growth and Reading Confidence

Abstract

Anyone who has a first grader, or any first-grade teacher for that matter, understands how critical the subject of reading is within this grade level. The purpose of this study was to examine just how individual student conferencing during independent reading time has an effect on first grade readers’ academic successes and learning confidence. Individual student conferencing is when a teacher meets with individual students to discuss their current reading ability and to assist the student in coming up with ways to improve their reading skills. Conferencing also gives the teacher the ability to assess the student to view their strengths and weaknesses while working with them at their level. A collection of both qualitative and quantitative data was accumulated in this study to determine student growth as well as changes in confidence. Findings showed that student growth increased; however, confidence either decreased or remained the same. I found that even though confidence either showed no change or decreased, the student’s motivation to read was there.