In Ms. Dunning's first grade class, students were having difficulty signing up for conferences in a timely manner. So their teacher created magnetic name tags. She explains: "I use the magnetic name tags and they move them onto the numbered list (1 to 5) on the board.  When they come for a conference they take their name down from number 1 and move up the next four so 2 becomes 1 etc. and another child can sign up at number 5. It's working well."

During conference time, Ms. Salina doesn't just question her first graders to help them to include quality details: she tapes a precut "spider leg" to her students' work. The spider leg does a great job of reminding them that details need to be added when they return to their seats.

Ms. Marshall's kindergartners don't sign up for author's chair. Instead, when examining writing in conferences, and while circulating at the end of her writer's workshop, she slips plastic bangles onto the wrists of the three students' whose work she wants featured that day. Before each student shares, she tells the class why she chose that particular piece. In every instance, she was able to pick out exemplary traits in the writing, thus infusing her author's chair with very brief mini-lessons.

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