In this podcast, Patrick Allen shares why conferring matters for teachers and students, ways to hone your conferring skills, and ideas to get started with conferring. He also discusses how conferring connects to planning, classroom community, application of the Thinking Strategies, practicing discourse, and assessment.  Patrick is classroom teacher, PEBC Lab Host, well known speaker and blogger, the author of Conferring: The Keystone of Reader’s Workshop,  and a contributing author to Put Thinking to the Test.  He has also produced two video series entitled "Fact Finders" and "What are You Thinking?" through Stenhouse.