Teaching students how to revise can be one of the trickiest parts of the writing process. Many teachers express issues about having difficulty teaching this skill.
In my experience, most students do not know how to revise or have never been taught properly. In upper elementary and middle school, you may have to start with teaching them specific academic vocabulary:
- How to edit: Editing includes checking over spelling, grammar, punctuation, and technical writing rules. When editing, there are basic rules in the English language that must be followed.
- How to revise: Revising includes moving sentences around, changing the structure of paragraphs, deleting sentences or words that aren’t needed, adding more detail, and anything along those lines.
For a closer look at how to revise vs. how to edit, visit this site.
Once students know what revision means (as opposed to edit and look for smaller mechanical errors), they see the purpose of the task. They know they will be required to make their writing more clear, focusing on the strengths and weaknesses, and look at the essay as a whole.
For help with teaching your students the differences between how to revise and how to edit, check out this free download in my store.
So… what are the best ways to teach revision without head ache? Here are some I’ve found to be helpful in my fourth grade classroom.
1. Be a model on how to revise
In ELA and Reading specifically, modeling a skill is important to student mastery. When students see a skill being used from the teacher, they can get a view into the thought-process.
Students need to see and experience what revising looks like, along with what good writing looks like. Modeling revision (and editing) for them can give them a good idea on what they are going to do to their own essays.
Think aloud as you revise an essay. Use one that you’ve written, a sample, or see if there is an anonymous volunteer. Have students think aloud with you as you revise, or have them give you suggestions. Go over each
Modeling does not have to be whole-group instruction, either. Give students a paragraph or essay to revise individually, in partners, or groups, and come back together to discuss what choices they made and why. This helps students see other students model and practice the skill hands-on.
2. Have a peer read the student their writing
Sometimes it helps for students to hear their writing in another voice; this will help them notice whether or not their writing makes sense, whether they need to add a word or take one out, etc.
First, have a peer read the student’s essay aloud. After the student listens to his/her/their essay, have a peer read it again while the student takes notes on what to change. They could use arrows to show where they need to move something, put an X through words or phrases they need to omit, and more.
After they do this, have the peer read through the essay again with the changes made to see if it is more clear and makes more sense.
3. Substitute common words for more descriptive words
The thesaurus is an excellent tool for writing and revision is the perfect time to use one!
Through modeling or with a list/poster of similar words, teach students to replace words like “good” with something more descriptive. Ask them if the words they are using give an accurate picture of what they are writing about.
For example, if they are writing about a woman donating a million dollars to charity and describe her as “nice,” they may need to change this
To do this, have students get into the habit of circling simple words like this in their rough drafts. They can then come back to these words in the revision stage to find a more suitable and descriptive word. You can teach students to do this through modeling!
4. Teach how to revise with hands-on activities
We all know that many students learn best with hands-on lessons. For these students I have found it helpful to give them a pair of scissors to cut the paper into paragraphs, or cut paragraphs into sentences.
Students could rearrange their paragraphs and/or sentences, then, to see if another order and structure works best.
Students could do this in their own essays, a peer’s essay, or in a sample essay that you provide for them. This could also be done in partners or groups.
5. Provide student-friendly rubrics and examples
Rubrics with student-friendly language can help immensely, especially if you turn it into a checklist.
If students have an example (that they cannot copy, maybe of a slightly different assignment) of an essay that meets the expectations of your rubric, they can then evaluate and check off what they need to
6. Break down the prompt or assignment
Have you ever given students a writing prompt or assignment and one of them hands you an essay that makes no sense whatsoever?
Example: Your students are supposed to write an informative essay on Benjamin Franklin, but you get a full-on narrative from a student about their uncle who is also named “Ben.”
Sound familiar?
Break down the prompt or assignment with students again while revising. Train them to look to the prompt (and rubric) frequently to make sure that their essays answer the question or assignment at hand.
You could model how to do this, as well as go back and highlight or underline the important parts.
Example: Write a persuasive essay about whether or not your school should implement school uniforms.
The important part of this assignment is in bold (and you could also argue that the word persuasive is just as important). Ask students to make a question out of the prompt. A question for this prompt could be, “should your school implement school uniforms?”
Their essay should answer this question clearly. Is it clear what the purpose of their essay is? Can the reader immediately tell what side the writer is on?
Click the button for revision freebies for upper elementary/middle school!
Have your own tips and tricks for teaching revision? Leave me a comment below!