Introduction


 * "To make an individual metacognitively aware is to ensure that the individual has learned how to learn." - Garner, 1988 **

** "Self-initiated learning, once begun, develops its own momentum." – Ray Hartjen **

** The most difficult thing in life is to know yourself. – Thales ** Imagine yourself a grade ten math teacher. Kelsey and Morgan are both students in your class. They both appear to be keen, willing, and genuine students who want to learn math. Both regularly attend class and hand their work in on time. During lunch hour chats, you ask them to share how they prepared for the first exam. They stories are vastly different (inspired by Tanner, 2012).

During lunch hour, Kelsey expresses that she had a lot of time to prepare for over the weekend for the exam so she was happy the exam was on a Monday. She explained that she made flash cards to help her study all weekend, and feels that this should have helped her on the exam. She feels she did everything she could to prepare, but is still worried about what her grade will be. She wants you to know that she studied really hard, so she should get a good grade on the exam.

At another time, you have the chance to sit and talk with Morgan. When asked how she prepared for the first exam, she explains that she has regularly reviewed the notes and examples from class every few days, and she also regularly went over extra questions from the textbook. She found and recognized different strategies to complete a question, and kept a running list of these. She shares that she brings up different ways of doing math to her friends while they work on their homework together. These “homework groups” help her clear up any confusion she may have. She has came to you during RTI and lunch to ask you about a couple of things that she did not figure out before the exam. She is not too worried about her mark on the exam, because most of the material related to problems and concepts that she had been thinking a lot about.

Most teachers would be very happy to have Kelsey and Morgan in their class. As mentioned earlier, both appear to be keen, willing, and genuine students who want to learn math. So, what is the difference between Kelsey and Morgan? One key difference, aside from their educational background, their personalities, and more, is their differing ability to use metacognitive approaches in their learning. They are very different in knowing how to learn, being able to monitor their own understanding, and being reflective about what they understand and do not understand. In today’s information-rich society, it is becoming more and more our job, as teachers, to guide our students in becoming self-initiated learners who take control of their own learning. To help encourage and empower more students to take control of their own learning, as Morgan has, portfolios and student-led conferences are tools to do such.

The concept of student-led conferences was introduced at the end of the 2012-2013 school year, when the Ministry of Education announced the increase in student-contact minutes for the upcoming school year. As a staff, it was decided that we would introduce student-led conferences as an alternative to the traditional parent-teacher interviews, to help increase our contact minutes. A small committee of teachers was put together at this time to discuss what this would mean for the staff, students, and parents of Esterhazy High School. It was decided that, since the students are already divided into multi-grade “mentor” groups that meet daily, the teacher advisors of these groups would facilitate portfolio development and prepare students for the student-led conferences. It was also decided that the first year of implementation would be done by a small group of 4-5 teacher advisors who are willing to pilot the process for the year, then expand to the entire student body and staff the next year. This document will serve as a guide to help the team of teachers at Esterhazy High School implement student-led conferences.

 