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Asset-Focused Co-Noticing Tool II:
Co-Conferring

ACT II

ACT II creates opportunities for teachers to learn about the complex work of eliciting students’ mathematical assets through conferring. The tool prompts teachers to confer with students side-by-side during the lesson as they work together to understand and surface students’ ideas and strengths.

Download ACT II: Co-Conferring

Click on the images below to explore ACT II

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

Part 2: Co-Notice During Instruction

Circulate and confer with students together

Teacher A:
Leads the conference
Possible questions:
  • This is so interesting! Can you tell us a little more about your thinking?
  • How did you get this?
  • Why/how does that work?
  • What feels hard or confusing?
  • What questions do you have about this problem?
  • Teacher B, do you have any questions you want to ask?
Co-Conferring
The goal of these conferences is to elicit students’ current mathematical ideas and assets.
Try to avoid coaching or correcting students.
Teacher B:
Collect data for debrief
Jot down:
  • The questions Teacher A asks
  • The ideas/thinking each focal student says
  • Representations or visuals the student writes down or references
  • Note:
  • You might ask students follow-up questions if invited to do so by Teacher A.

Part 1: Prepare to co-learn

Choose focal student(s) & plan for co-conferring

STEP 1: Choose 2-3 students you and your co-learner would like more about during this lesson.
  • Why are we interested in learning more about these focal students?
  • What do we know about these students already?
  • What mathematical assets and strengths have we noticed about these students?
  • What questions do we have about these students’ mathematical understandings and assets?
STEP 2: Look at the task students will be working on and discuss how you will confer with your focal students.
  • How might students approach this task?
  • What are we hoping to learn about focal students’ thinking?
  • What questions might we ask? (See Part 2 for examples)
STEP 3: Make a plan for how you will circulate side by side and confer together.
  • 1. When will we confer with students during the lesson?
  • 2. Who will lead the conference with each focal student?
  • 3. Who will take notes and observe?

    NOTE: You might decide to alternate roles for each conference.
  • 4. Be sure to tell students why you are circulating and conferring together: E.g., “Today we will be working together to learn more about your thinking. During work time we might stop by together to ask questions about your ideas. Thanks for helping us learn!”

Part 3: Debrief

Reflect on our learning and make new plans

Directions: Use the prompts below to debrief your co-learning. Challenge yourselves to use specific evidence from the lesson to support your reflections and ideas. Bring student work and your notes to support this discussion.

STEP 1: Reflect on our Focal Students
  • 1. What do we notice about each focal student’s math understandings and assets?
a. Specifically, what strengths do we notice about students’ procedural fluency, conceptual understandings, problem solving/reasoning?
  • 2. How can we build on what each focal student does understand to support their own or whole class learning in the future?
  • 3. How were our assumptions about focal students challenged by what we noticed? What surprised us? Why?
STEP 2: Reflect on Asset-Focused Conferring
  • 4. What did we notice about the work of conferring with students?
a. What teacher moves or questions did you notice that seemed especially productive? Why?
b. Were there any moments that felt tricky or challenging?
  • 5. What do we want to try next when conferring with students?
  • 6. What new ideas or questions do we have about asset-focused conferring?

* This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under grant No. 2010634. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

Please email Torrey Kulow at kulow@pdx.edu for more information about our project.

Please explore our site to learn about our protocols and think about how you might use them in your own work as a teacher candidate, mentor teacher, or teacher educator!

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This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 2010634. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

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