SUPPORTING STUDENT WRITING THROUGH THE REVISING AND EDITING

PROCESSES

Professional Development

Literacy Design Collaborative

Workshop Objectives

Review the LDC framework and explain how editing and revising are essential skills in the writing process.

• Present the best practices for teaching editing and revising

• Support LDC mini task development for editing and revising based on exemplars

• Describe strategies for effective peer revision and editing

The Writing ProcessPerry, Angela, 2009. Writing Matters in Every Classroom.

• Prewriting: Thinking, gathering and organizing ideas and information

• Drafting: Writing the first version

• Revising: Reviewing for content, organization, style

• Editing: Checking for accuracy on conventions of language and form

• Publishing: Writing is read by the intended audience

Teaching the Writing Process Through LDC Modules

LDC and the Writing Process

The LDC framework consists of four sections: – What task?– What skills?– What instruction?– What results?

This program is designed to address two writing skill areas: editing and revising, and instructional plans for teaching these skills in mini tasks.

The LDC Framework

• The LDC Framework is based on a standards-based teaching and learning cycle that “begins with the end in mind”

• Students are provided a writing rubric that guides their self evaluation of progress on the writing RESULTS that are expected from the teaching task

LDC Module System

What Instruction?

• The skills of revising and editing are essential to the writing process; therefore, the teacher will determine whether students are already competent with these skills independently, or if they need to be taught the skills in order to complete the task.

• If the skills need to be reviewed or taught, a mini task will be created to teach and practice the skill.

A Definition for Revising

Revising: The act of correcting, improving, or bringing up to date as necessary.

“The writing that occurs during the revision makes a mediocre paper a good paper. Revision adds variety, emphasis, coherence, transition, and detail. Revision eliminates wordiness, irrelevancies, and inconsistencies. Revision polices, hones and perfects.”

Definition and quote from: Webster’s New World Student Writing Handbook (Prentice-Hall, 1992)

LDC Revision Definition and Mini Task

REVISION: Ability to refine text, including line of thought, language usage, and tone as appropriate to audience and purpose.

Mini Task for Revision(from published module)

Product: Long Constructed Response

Refine composition’s analysis, logic, and organization of ideas/points. Use textual evidence carefully, with accurate citations. Decide what to include and what not to include.

Scoring Guide: work meets expectations if:

• Provides complete draft with all parts.

• Supports the opening in the later sections with evidence and citations.

• Improves earlier edition.

Teaching Strategies:

• Sample useful feedback that balances support for strengths and clarity about weaknesses.

• Assign students to provide each other with feedback on those issues.

Duration: One class period

Defining Editing

Editing: This is the process of checking that the conventions are used correctly: including, capitals, punctuation, titles, etc.

Editing also looks for correct use of standard English, such as, agreement of subject and verb, regular/irregular verbs, homonyms, verb tense, elimination of slang, modifiers, etc.

Mini Task on Editing

EDITING: Ability to proofread and format a piece to make it more effective. (Mini task is taken from a published module)

 

Product: Long Constructed Response• Revise draft to have sound spelling, capitalization, punctuation, and grammar. Adjust

formatting as needed to provide clear, appealing text.

Scoring Guide: work meets expectations if:• Provides draft free from distracting surface errors.• Uses format that supports purpose.

Teaching Strategies:• Briefly review selected skills that many students need to improve.• Teach a short list of proofreading marks.• Assign students to proofread each other’s texts a second time.

Encourage the Revision Process

• “We should applaud and support our students’ efforts in revising their work.” (Perry, 2009)

• “Revision takes courage. It is easy to edit and proofread your work and turn it in. It’s not so easy to improve the content of your writing-the thoughts, feelings, and details that carry your message-before submitting it. Revision is the important process of making changes in your writing until it says exactly what you want it to say.” (Sebranek, Meyer, Kemper, 1997)

Teaching the Skill of Revising

• There are several excellent strategies for teaching students to have the patience and perseverance to revise their work

• One of the most difficult tasks is to cut out or rewrite over-written or confusing sections

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s editor advised him that: “Killing off the darlings” is pain staking for even the most celebrated writers.

Teaching Revising: Modeling

• Provide students exemplars of drafts and model a revision process with the whole class or small group with visuals

• Focus on areas such as organization, content, adding details and “killing off the darlings”. Invite students to comment on the piece and “think aloud”

• Emphasize that this is the process used by published authors during the draft to revision stage of the writing process, prior to editing

Teaching Revising: Self Reflection

Student Self-Monitoring and Editing

• “Student feedback in the form of self evaluation has been strongly recommended by Grant Wiggins (1993).”

• (Bob Marzano. Classroom Instruction that Works, 2001, p. 99)

• Feedback must be criterion-referenced (specific to a skill) to be effective

• Rubrics can provide blueprints for self monitoring by outlining clear expectations

Self Reflection and Revision(Adapted from Perry, Angela. 2009. Writing Matters.)

Provide students time to review their own writing and provide them with a checklist or protocol to follow that asks them to respond to prompts, such as: the message is understandable, the details support the message, the writing is interesting, verbs are mostly active.

Changes You Made

1. Does the introduction grab the reader’s attention, include background information, and provide a

clear opinion statement?

______ Put a check mark by sentences that get the reader interested.

______ Put a star by any background information.

______ Underline the opinion statement.

2. Are at least three reasons provided? Do the reasons contain logical, emotional, and ethical

appeals?

______ Highlight each reason.

______ Draw a box around the part that indicates a logical, emotional, or ethic appeal.

Use the rubric in this chart to help you improve your persuasive essay.

Revising: Improve Your Persuasive Essay

3. Is each reason supported by at least two pieces of relevant evidence?

______ Circle each piece of evidence.

______ Draw an arrow from each item to the reason it supports.

4. Are the reasons organized effectively?

______ Number reasons in the order of their importance. If the order seems illogical or ineffective,

revise.

5. Is the opinion restated in the conclusion? Is a call to action included?

______ Underline the sentence that restates the opinion.

______ Put a check mark next to sentences that make a call to action.

6. Are active-voice sentences included?

______ Put a minus sign above each subject that does not perform the action of the verb in its

sentence.

Revising: Improve Your Persuasive Essay

(Continued)

Teacher and Student Conferencing

Teacher and Student Conferences

• Research from Marzano and Hattie emphasize the importance of timely feedback for students

• Conferencing with students individually or in small groups is one of the most effective strategies for teaching students the skill of revision

• There are numerous protocols available for student/teacher conferencing in books and websites referenced in the resources slide

Teacher and Student Conferencing

• Provide students with information that is specific and gives them clear expectations for improvement

• Assist them in setting goals using the rubric

• An effective strategy for young and unconfident writers is to limit feedback to one strength and one recommendation or next step in the revision process

Assignments Matter: Making the Connections That Help Students Meet Standards

by Eleanor Dougherty

Eleanor Dougherty on Rubrics(Assignments Matter, p. 58)

“Students and teachers can use a rubric throughout the production process—teachers teach the demands and qualities embedded in the rubric, and students follow the rubric almost like a recipe to produce their products. Rubrics provide a kind of advance organizer for students, giving them the guidance they need to perform to expectations.”

LDC Writing Rubrics Provide a Blueprint for the Writing Process

• Brief history of how rubrics were designed for LDC: the rubrics were constructed by teachers and vetted by universities and writing experts across the country

• Rubrics represent the three modes of writing: narrative, informational/expository and persuasive

Using Rubrics for Effective Feedback

• Rubrics are explicit with criterion targets for performance, therefore they can be used by teachers, students and peers as a guide for feedback

• For teachers, rubrics provide a guide for small group and individualized support based on the levels of performance indicated on the first draft

• For example, if five students are “2” on organization, then a focused lesson for that group is indicated

Using Rubrics for Effective Feedback

• Student self-assessment using analytic rubrics: Students can annotate rubrics with their personal strategies in order to monitor and regulate their work on assignments

• For example, if a student has a goal to use more powerful words, then he may want to revise an assignment based on looking in the thesaurus for more precise word choices

Strategies for Effective Peer Revision and Editing

Peer Feedback

Peer feedback and peer assessment of work can be valuable and productive, if students are taught a process and have an opportunity to role play peer assessment before they are given the task.

Peer Revision Conferences

In order for this strategy to be successful, teachers need to provide students with specific training and a process to follow during the peer conference.

Students need to follow a guideline that includes: compliments on the writing, questions on content, suggestions and feedback from the writer.

Ground Rules for Peer Assessment(Brookhart, Susan. 2008. How to Give Effective Feedback to Your Students.)

• Read your peer’s work carefully

• Capture the work with the rubric

• Talk about the work, not the person

• Don’t judge; rather, describe what you think is good about the work and what is missing or could be better

• Make specific suggestions

• Tell what you think, and then ask what the author thinks

Guidelines for Receiving Peer Assessment

• Listen to your peer’s comments and take time to think about them before you respond

• Compare your peer’s comments to the rubrics, and decide what comments you will use in your revisions

• Thank your peer for the feedback

Brookhart, S. 2013. How to Create and Use Rubrics, p.105

Peer Assessment on the Teaching Channel www.teachingchannel.org

Self-Assessment and Peer Support Lesson Objective:• Students assess their own work and then partner up for

peer teaching (4 min)

Questions to Consider:• What does peer support offer for efficient re-teaching? • What different and useful information could you learn

from students' self-assessment as compared to your own assessment of their work?

ReadWriteThink

For additional resource materials and to view Promoting Student Self-Assessment click on the link below:

http://www.readwritethink.org/professional-development/strategy-guides/promoting-student-self-assessment-30102.html

LDC Mini Tasks on Revising and Editing

• LDC has hard-wired mini tasks on revising and editing into the writing cluster on module creator www.modulecreator.com

• There are now scores of exemplars of creative and effective instructional strategies for teaching these skills in published modules on module creator

Resources

• Brookhart, Susan M. 2013. How to Create and Use Rubrics. Alexandria, VA : ASCD.

• Brookhart, Susan M. 2008. How to Give Effective Feedback to Your Students. Alexandria, VA : ASCD.

• Dougherty, Eleanor. 2012. Assignments Matter. Alexandria, VA : ASCD.

• Hattie, John. 2012. Visible Learning for Teachers. New York, NY: Routledge.

• Marzano, Pickering, Pollock.2001. Classroom Instruction That Works. Alexandria, VA : ASCD.

• Perry, Angela. 2009. Writing Matters in Every Classroom. Englewood, CO: Lead and Learn Press.