Per the book, "Conferring can give us the force that makes our mini-lessons and curriculum development and assessment and everything else more powerful. It gives us an endless resource of teaching wisdom, an endless source of accountability, a system of checks and balances. And, it gives us laughter and human connection-the understanding of our children that gives spirit to our teaching."[12] Calkins believed that there were three main components to every conferring session: Research, Decide and Teach.