This week, in our third of four series, we will focus on CONVENTIONS, REVISION, and ways to encourage correctness with writers.
Georgia Head in The Revision Toolbox makes a distinction between editing and revision. Revision is seeing writing anew and making deep changes in areas such as organization, ideas and voice. I hope you liked the youtube video I posted. Let me know if it is effective if you use it with students.
Editing, on the other hand, is making sure our writing is correct. I often use anonymous papers or assignments from previous years for "correcting" grammar and punctuation in class. I also have students help each other proofread. Mini lessons and reinforcements are essential. We know we cannot suppose that by "teaching" something once, students have "learned" all they need to know about it. Direct instruction and repetition, in my opinion, are key to teaching conventions.
What do you think? How do you approach revision? What do you do to teach proofreading and conventions? What do your teaching sources say that you find valuable? Let's have a conversation on this topic.
Both revision and editing are important although I know it is one area I don't teach enough to students. I just started this year looking at how I can change the way I teach these two writing concepts so that students are included more. I am open to trying some new strategies. I do want to show the youtube video (hope it works) to all my students, 3rd-6th grades. In the 5th/6th grades we have taken a look at revision, created a list of what it might look like, and discussed what each needs to try. I'm hoping we can take it a step further and actually have students realize what revision looks like in their writing. Maybe they are revising and don't know it. Often times, we take a look at a sentence that does need editing or read a paragraph searching for editing issues. I think some are born to be better at editing than others.
ReplyDeleteI'm just learning about the 6 + 1 Traits method in my class, so I'm a student along with everyone else in my classroom. We have just finished writing a compare and contrast paragraph in the composition class involving revision and editing. I found that many students strongly resisted the idea of revision as presented in the material I'm reading for the traits method. In our discussion about this resistance, it seems that pride is an important factor. A fair number of students said that they worked hard to formulate ideas and organize thoughts with mind maps, and additional ripping apart and putting back together seemed like their time was wasted. I'm thinking that our second round of revision and editing will be more dogmatic. I'm going to require that students purposefully substitute commonly used words for more precise synonyms, for instance, instead of more broadly asking them to "revise." I have one example of a writer scribbling all over a first draft; I'm going to look for more examples and have students copy what they see with their own writing. In essence, I'll direct kids to revise specific bits and parts of the writing as a way to ease their reluctance about revision.
ReplyDeleteI found that they were far easier with editing. Most students dove right into it. We divided ourselves into groups of three, with one person editing for punctuation, one person for spelling, and the original writer there to explain what he or she meant to write. This worked well.
In any case, I've got a lot to learn myself.
I found the questions posted in the video to be really helpful and I'm thinking of making a poster for my room with them. The first one, "Does it make sense?" is so important.
ReplyDeleteAnother technique that I find helpful in my own writing is to sleep on it. Unlike the girl in the video, I'm not willing to revise immediately, but the next day or the next, after reading the piece cold, I can see the weaknesses and logical gaps more readily.
I think Paul is right about resistance to revision. All of us like to be "done" with writing. I remind my students that they own their writing so the only obligation they have during revision is to consider suggestions, but they have the ultimate say as to changes. If they come to expect that every time we write there will be opportunities for revision, they seem more receptive. They know they are not "done" until we consider revisions. They also seem to take it less personally. Also, I agree that the more specific we can be about revision, the more buy in we have. The process seems to get easier as they see the pattern.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteIf you haven't already done so, check out Kate's lesson plan post on revision. Besides serving as a good model, she shares specific ideas on revision that you may want to explore. Nice work, Kate. Remember everyone needs two lesson plans before December 1.
One thing we've done this year to get students used to working on multiple drafts is by having them take out old work and as we've practiced another step (ie adjectives, pronouns, editing) they make improvements to their writing and put it away. One way I've explained this is that a writing may be done well, but there may be a way to make it even better. They did a descriptive essay for an assessment at the end of first quarter, but were graded on the description piece, but just recently we took them back out to see what we could improve on for editing.
ReplyDeleteOne thing I'd like to add is having mini-lessons on editing and revising. I think by now student have enough samples that they can take out an old one and do some peer editing as well as self-editing.
I like your practice of using mini-lessons in conjunction with student work with peer editing and self-editing. I am sure it is effective. The "book" exercises never seem to engage students as much as a real sample of their own work or one they know a student has written.
DeleteGood idea from TIM
ReplyDeleteWhile grading a recent assignment for my upper class students, I was disturbed by the amount of simple mistakes they were making. Spelling and grammar aside, it was obvious that they were simply writing their thoughts quickly and not giving the content any further consideration. I decided that I would anonymously use their own writing as future warm-up exercises. I posted the piece, typed as to protect identity, and allocated time for small groups or individuals to specify necessary corrections. We reorganized and had a discussion on how to best improve the selection. What an eye opener for everyone in the room. Many students gleefully snickered at the fact that someone else had made a mistake. Simultaneously, I observed the majority of students, include those who were attempting to avoid embarrassment, mentally record the proper technique of constructing a well written sentence/response. This is something I will definitely utilize in the future.
Each semester in my classroom based classes (the non-P.E. classes), I assign one major writing project. The projects are worth as much as a test. In Galena, we offer at least two versions of a single test: "Form A" and "Form B." If a student fails an objective on Form A of a test, they can re-attempt the objective for full points on Form B. So for my projects, completing the teacher suggested edits and revisions is my version of a Form B for that project.
ReplyDeleteWhen a student initially turns in a project paper, they often feel like they are done. I grade the paper as is and also edit the paper and suggest revisions. I then do a mini-lesson in class on editing and revision symbols (so that the students can understand my edits/comments). Next, I sit down one-on-one with each student and discuss their papers and why some revision is necessary. The students can then complete a final draft of their paper and submit it, alongside their initial draft, for final project points. Usually a student does not earn a good grade on their initial draft, so that is enough motivation for them to complete a final draft. However, I occasionally have one or two students who do not turn in a final draft. In those cases, the student earns their initial grade.
The one thing that I would like to work on more is successfully having the students do peer edits. I do not currently provide class time for that, because the papers often trickle in two weeks past their due date. I penalize projects by 10% if they are not turned in on time, but that does not seem to be enough of a penalty as the majority of papers are late.