It is our job to introduce students to academic vocabulary so they learn the way readers in the world talk about books. However, one of the primary goals in a conference is for the student to feel like the ideas being explored come from her. One way to straddle this seeming contradiction is, whenever possible, adopt the student’s own words to describe the comprehension strategy she is beginning to approximate.

As an example, let’s take a look at part of a conference with fourth grader Nico about his nonfiction book Frogs, Toads, and Turtles, followed by second grader Wendy discussing her fiction chapter book The Sapphire Princess Meets a Monster.

In this video, literacy leader Dan Feigelson demonstrates how to use a child’s language when conferring to boost engagement and student ownership. This great tip comes from Dan’s latest book, Radical Listening: Reading and Writing Conferences to Reach All Students.