Describes a weekly meeting of a collaborative elementary school teacher support group in Ohio. Triangular conferencing, which involves parent-teacher-student and is student-led, is the subject of the meeting. Also describes visits to elementary classrooms where new ways to teach reading and writing are implemented with input from Regie Routman,…

Describes a complaint file system for dealing with students' complaints about others, whereby students write up their complaints and deposit them in the teacher's mailbox for future action. Describes requirements for complaints and how each is followed up with a written conference with parent(s) and perhaps a meeting with a counselor. (KDFB)

Discusses techniques that elementary school teachers can use to help students assess their own achievement. Suggests that writing checklists can be used to evaluate content, organization, grammar, and diction and that student self-assessments are also a useful part of parent-student-teacher conferences. (MDM)

Describes the use of student-led conferences in place of traditional teacher-parent conference. Notes that conferences reflect curricular change to reading and writing workshops and thematic studies, belief that students should take responsibility for their own literacy behaviors, and use of portfolio assessment. (TM)

Discusses an approach to parent-teacher conferences that involves fifth graders as equal partners with their parents and teacher. Students update their portfolios for the student-parent-teacher conferences, ask and answer questions about their achievements, and discuss their work with their parents. Parents are expected to answer questions about…

Presents the following six articles on working with parents: (1) "Conversing with Parents through Dialogue Journals"; (2) "Reading with Your Child at Home"; (3) "Dads by the Dozens"; (4) "Parents in Your Classroom: A Valuable Literacy Link"; (5) "Inclusion: But They Still Won't Play with Me"; and…