It is important to limit the scope of the conference to one or two strategies or teaching points. Teachers should focus on the reader and the strategies being used, not the specific text during a conference. The goal is to guide students in developing strategies that will transfer to many different types of reading. It is helpful to keep notes about what was discussed in the conference as a part of ongoing assessment. Sharing provides an opportunity for a few students to share briefly about how they applied a concept introduced during a mini-lesson, a discovery made during reading workshop, response journals entries, reading extensions, or book recommendations.
Sharing needs to be brief and allow many students to participate.
If more students feel a need to share than time allows, they can share with partners or in small groups. The amount of sharing time may need to be longer earlier in the year and may slowly decrease as students need more time during the independent reading time to read, write, and discuss. Teacher observation is the primary tool in monitoring students' progress in reading workshop. Running records and anecdotal records taken during conferences and observations provide the focus of future instruction for individual, small group, and whole class mini-lessons. Reading response or dialogue journals also provide a basis for assessment and planning.