A Conference

You’re asleep in the car after your one-year checkup. Getting four shots was a bit too much, so I’m letting you recharge before we head upstairs for dinner, playtime with grandparents, and a bedtime snuggle.

As I waited, I thought of letting a photo inspire today’s slice. I eagerly swiped my finger up to make the carousel scroll all the way to the beginning, watching the photos go by like a roulette wheel on a TV show. What would be the prize?

I don’t keep school photos on my phone anymore, but I found a few that Amy took the fall before you were born. No one at school knew I was pregnant yet, and I could still easily sit on the floor to meet writers at conferences. On that Tuesday morning, I sat down with N and L to learn how to include internal dialogue to bring out a storyteller’s voice. My memory isn’t great at details sometimes, so I’ll try to capture our actual words:

Me: You’re both getting good at including dialogue in your stories. You think about what your characters are saying and plug that in. One thing I want to teach you is how to include what the character is thinking.

I mostly remember how clear the teaching point from that conference was. I named the what followed by the how. I was prepared, Elena. I had my mentor text to demonstrate, and I could anticipate their participation during the active engagement portion of the conference. I began to read.

L: Do you want us to stop you and tell you where you could include some thinking?

Me: Listen closely and notice actions that might signal the space for some internal dialogue. When I finish reading it, you can tell me.

N waited patiently. His eyes shifted from my draft to L, back to his laid-out draft on the floor.

When I finished reading the short passage, I invited them to engage with my writing. Two seconds of silence, then N’s insecure idea quickly followed by L’s confident suggestion. His voice was louder than N’s, who began looking at one of his pages. I paraphrased L’s idea, leaning towards N to draw him in. He put his paper down and helped L and I revise the text together. Then, they went on to study their pages, looking for places to try it out.

As they worked, I summarized our conference in three steps on a sticky note: one for L and one for N. After two or so minutes, I sent them back to their seats with a new strategy in mind, an invitation for the remainder of their writing time, and a boost of energy.

These are some of my favorite moments in the classroom, Elena. I love the closeness between us writers, the urgency of trying a new strategy, and the palpable learning in just under seven minutes. I hope you and I get to write together someday.