A View of Editing Aiming To Empower Young Writers



How do we assist students to establish clear procedures for editing their writing? How do we help them to develop skills for proofreading?
A basic idea:
• Expect your students to be their own first editor. Build this into the routines in your class.
• Model and demonstrate how you undertake such a routine. Reveal your process.
• Notice student needs based on the edits your students make and teach accordingly.
• During conferences teach one or two editing skills students might use. Avoid overloading the learner.

Sample Editing Checklist. Suitable for Grade 2 (Adapted from Ralph Fletcher)

 SKILL
I have written complete sentences
I have used capital letters at the beginning of sentences 
I have used correct ending punctuation 
I have checked the spelling of key words

 *You could modify the list according to the age level or the need.


When it comes to the issue of correction, I suggest teachers provide feedback that engages students in cognitive problem-solving as they attempt to self-edit. Students should be expected to self-edit their texts after receiving feedback, ideally in class where they can consult with their peers and teacher. (Exceptions may include students at lower levels of proficiency, who may not possess the linguistic competence to self-correct.)
Different types of errors require varying treatments. Students may be less capable, for instance, of self-editing some errors with sentence structure than more discrete errors at the word level.

Additional contextualized grammar instruction (in class, or through self-study and enquiry recommended by the teacher can facilitate progress in accuracy if it is driven by student needs and integrated with other aspects of error treatment (teacher feedback, charting, proofreading etc.). 

Katie Wood Ray’s book Study Driven deals with enquiry driven investigation of story grammar in detail, providing excellent support for developing such curriculum approaches.
Maintenance of error charts, ideally made up by the students themselves -with guidance from the teacher, can heighten student awareness of their weaknesses and of their improvement.
Research findings reveal that contextualized feedback is more effective than isolated skill sessions. Even students themselves realize that they will learn more from feedback. Feedback on preliminary drafts is more effective than feedback provided after the writing is completed. By then the writer has moved on from the piece. Their attention is elsewhere.
Oral feedback via writing conferences is highly effective on preliminary drafts, because it provides strong interaction between teacher and student and opportunities for instant clarification of meaning. For the student, talking to a teacher about his/her work and responding to the teacher’s questions is a way to expand and clarify ideas and objectives. I always have the student holding the pen- making the changes. Some teachers find this difficult. They just want to get at those surface features and fix them up!
Because some students make a large number of errors, feedback can easily become overwhelming. It is far better to focus on errors that are global/serious (interfering with understanding) and frequent (as compared to other errors). Most of the careful written corrections undertaken by teachers are actually wasted. Error correcting takes lots of teacher time and energy and many students just do not want to see their writing after teacher corrections. This type of correction wrests the responsibility from the student. The teacher effectively owns the correction process and the developing writer is totally overwhelmed. It entrenches dependency and devalues ownership and responsibility for making the writing ‘reader friendly.’
How can the student add to their writing skills in a way that accords with previous grammar knowledge and vocabulary?
One method is Author’s circle. Such group writing helps students to benefit from feedback and support from several peers. It assists students to learn not only from their mistakes, but from the mistakes of others and makes effective use of the students' and the teacher's time.

You can use a white-board, or large chart paper  One student writes while the rest of the group (up to three others) offer suggestions and corrections during the writing process.
Author’s circle is an effective method of correcting writing errors. Immediate feedback is quick, within the groups and again when corrections are suggested in front of the entire group there is further reinforcement. This small group approach allows students to benefit from assistance in a peer-learning situation. It is an adjunct to partner sharing.
Another instructional practice is interactive writing, where a number of students share the pen and compose the text for the group. This is best done with teacher guidance.
Once correction is incorporated into the teaching framework of the writer’s workshop those out of context skill sessions and hideous black line exercises become excess to need. The teaching of writing grammar needs to embedded in authentic contexts to be fully appreciated and embraced by our student writers.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular With Other Visitors

Learning How to 'Zoom In' When Writing

Image
It is important for young writers to understand that not all parts of a story are equal. There are parts through which a writer moves quickly, and important parts where the writer slows down and lingers a while. This is where the writer might intensify the action or reveal the character’s reactions in greater detail. Young writers need to know that this is a deliberate strategy on the part of the author. The author consciously zooms in. The writer uses a magnifying glass to view a part of the story more closely; to focus on a moment and to slow down time. When an important part of the story is enlarged upon, it   is a signal to the reader, that this part of the story is important. The strategy of ‘zooming in’ goes by many names: ‘exploding a moment’ ‘magnifying a moment’, ‘hotspot’ ‘snapshot’, ‘adding detail’ or ‘slowing the action.’  What ever the name, the idea is the same. The author writes in a way that expands a significant part of the story with the intention of drawing t
Read more

Writing Irresistible LEADS with Grade One Students

I have been reading Australian author, Kate Grenville’s book, ‘The Writing Book – A Practical Guide For Fiction Writers.’ Grenville writes about leads and reminds us that the beginning of a piece of writing needs to be irresistible . Further to this she reminds the reader that it doesn’t matter where you begin a piece of writing- just begin! Grenville quotes Ezra Pound who said, ‘It doesn’t matter which leg of the table you make first as long as it stands up in the end.’ The writer’s aim is to glue the reader to the page. Grenville also makes the observation that sometimes you need to write the whole story before returning to the start in order to write a great beginning or ‘lead’ for it. Recently I have been working with groups of Grade 1 writers alerting them to the various ways in which writers ‘lead’ the reader deeper into their stories. Initially we looked at their own writing samples and I asked students, what did they notice about the words being used in their story leads? Th
Read more

Answering Questions Posed by Young POETS

Image
UPDATED, May 2020 As a frequent visitor to schools I have the great pleasure of working with groups of young, enthusiastic poets and their teachers. When I arrive in a classroom, young poets are often pre-loaded with questions, and most keen to have them answered.  I try to answer as many as I can, but we frequently run out of time, and the poetry caravan moves on to the next classroom. So I am here to answer some of those questions -right here, right now. So here goes: When you were little did you love writing? The short answer is yes. I have always enjoyed words and language. I can't recall a time when I wasn't doing some kind of writing. When did you write your first poetry book? I have had poems published over the years, but it wasn't until 2014 that I had an entire book of poems (an anthology) published. When I looked back through all my notebooks I realized I had hundreds of poems from which to choose. So, 'Searching For Hen's Teeth-Poetry From The
Read more

Writing Opposite Poems

Image
 O pp o s ite  P oem s In his book, ' How To Write Poetry,'  Paul Janeczko presents the idea of opposite poems. Paul suggests they could also be referred to as antonym poems. This is wordplay and it's fun to try. Here are some examples Paul provides to help us see very clearly how these short little poems work. I think the opposite of chair Is sitting down with nothing there What is the opposite of kind? A goat that butts you from behind Paul Janeczko You will  notice the poems are written in rhyming couplets. They can be extended so long as you remember to write in couplets. Paul shows us how this is done. What is the opposite of new? Stale gum that's hard to chew A hot-dog roll as hard as rock Or a soiled and smelly forgotten sock You might notice that some of Paul's opposite Poems begin with a question. The remainder of the poem answer the question posed. Opposite poems are a challenge, but it is a challenge worth trying. Not every thing has a
Read more

Writing About Reading - Reading Reflection Journals:

Image
UPDATED February 2022 Writing in response to literature can be a great way for students to organize their thoughts, explore what they think, and generate ideas. One of the strengths of writing in journals is that it allows students to capture all of those great ideas that generally float off into the air during the discussion.  Journal writing can also become drudgery if students are asked to write too often, given little choice or inspiration in what to write, or if they simply don't have anything to say. While some students eagerly share their impressions about selections they have read in class discussions, others are less comfortable and keep their thoughts to themselves. In an effort to encourage all students to think more about what they read and confidently share their observations and opinions, some teachers are turning to the reading reflection journal and are gaining insights they never anticipated.  The Value of Reflection Journals   Journals assist teachers to gain i
Read more