See the CWP website for information about making conferences productive . The key is to require students to prepare for the conferences and to place the burden on them to talk about their writing before you intervene in the process. Consider the reading load from class to class in relation to your writing assignments and in relation to the point in the semester. Some people structure the syllabus so that the entire novel or play must be reading by the first day it is discussed. This is very easy to do with plays, since most aren t very long, and not as hard to do with novels as you might think.
Students do the same amount of reading, but in different blocks.
It can take some extensive tinkering as you plan your syllabus to get this to work, but with practice it can be done more and more easily. With the reading front-loaded, you can have more productive discussions in class. That s why you need to map out the writing assignments first. And you know students are going to be exhausted in the week before Thanksgiving and overloaded in the week before Spring Break. Shorter reading assignments, more time in class on their writing, or the showing of movies can help with these stretches.