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Three Minute Writing Conference Kit

Everything for a week of three minute writing conferences with 150 students: the five step script, a rotation tracker for one class, and cut-apart conference notes students fill in before they sit down.

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How to use it: How to Run Writing Conferences When You Have 150 Students

What's on the sheet

The three minute script

The student reads the note: the row, the sentence, and what they notice.
Look at that sentence only. Not paragraph one.
Name what already works in one clause. Then stop.
Name the next change with a verb and a place: “Add the letter, and say what the brother loses.”
They write the new sentence before they stand. You read it. It goes in the draft before the bell.

Rules for the chair

One rubric row per conference.
A timer the student can see. Stand at 3 minutes; 4 is the ceiling.
No note, no chair. Call the next name.
If they freeze, offer a stem with the nouns blank: “When ___, ___.”
Say it out loud: “Nothing I say here is your score.”

While you are in the chair, everyone else…

Works silently on their note for 12 minutes.
Trades notes with a partner: “Does the copied sentence match the row?” Partner initials it.
Rewrites their sentence once on paper before their day.
Stuck after the stem? Writes their name on the parking list.

Rotation tracker · Class Row this week

Day	Names (6 per period)	New sentence on the note?
Monday	1 to 6:	☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐
Tuesday	7 to 12:	☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐
Wednesday	13 to 18:	☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐
Thursday	19 to 24:	☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐
Friday	25 to 30:	☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐

Post the names the day before. An absent student takes the next open chair. On Friday, read only the new sentences, not all the essays.

Conference notes. Cut along the dashed lines. Students fill in all four lines before they sit down. No note, no chair.

Name