Hello, again! Today’s blog post is discuss how to incorporate revising and editing practices in your classroom. Revising and editing skills are instrumental to your writing curriculum. Read on to find out more about teaching revising and editing practices!
Common Core Standards:
First, I’m going to cover which standards are hit within the revising and editing standards. Each grade-level has 2 or 3 writing standards that include revising and editing skills. The goal is for students to be able to strengthen and publish their writing. Depending on the grade level, students will be revising and editing their writing with guidance from either peers or adults.
Kindergarten
- W.K.5- With guidance and support from adults, respond to questions and suggestions from peers and add details to strengthen writing as needed.
- W.K.6- With guidance and support from adults, explore a variety of digital tools to produce and publish writing, including in collaboration with peers.)
1st Grade
- W.1.5- With guidance and support from adults, focus on a topic, respond to questions and suggestions from peers, and add details to strengthen writing as needed.
- W.1.6- With guidance and support from adults, use a variety of digital tools to produce and publish writing, including in collaboration with peers.
2nd Grade
- W.2.5- With guidance and support from adults and peers, focus on a topic and strengthen writing as needed by revising and editing.
- W.2.6- With guidance and support from adults, use a variety of digital tools to produce and publish writing, including in collaboration with peers.
3rd Grade
- W.3.4- With guidance and support from adults, produce writing in which the development and organization are appropriate to task and purpose.
- W.3.5- With guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, and editing.
- W.3.6- With guidance and support from adults, use technology to produce and publish writing (using keyboarding skills) as well as to interact and collaborate with others.)
4th Grade
- W.4.4- Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development and organization are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.
- W.4.5- With guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, and editing.
- W.4.6- With some guidance and support from adults, use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing as well as to interact and collaborate with others; demonstrate sufficient command of keyboarding skills to type a minimum of one page in a single sitting.)
Show Them the Difference Between Revising and Editing
When teaching revising and editing practices, a simple tool to use is CUPS and ARMS. I recommend displaying an anchor chart that shows the process of each strategy, and model, model, model.
To begin, CUPS is going to be your editing strategy. Students will be looking through their work and correcting capitalization, usage, punctuation and spelling errors. Then, ARMS will be your revising strategy. Students will be improving their writing by adding details, removing unnecessary information, moving portions of the piece, and substituting boring words for vivid words.
A great way for students to learn each of the strategies is to use interactive activities. Matching games and task cards will prompt students to identify which process contains specific tasks. Play these games multiple times so that students build their skill memory!
Teach Editing Symbols
Next, editing symbols should be introduced. These are essential to revising and editing practices. When you introduce editing symbols, be sure to display a chart to help students edit efficiently.
Play games with the editing symbols, having students intentionally identify each symbol and its purpose. Similar to the CUPS and ARMS rules, the repeated matching will help students strengthen their skill memory!
Once students are comfortable with the editing symbols, have them apply the practice with sentences and paragraphs. Fixing errors is a good practice for students!
Practicing Editing and Strengthening Sentences
Another way to ease into revising and editing practices is to use simple sentences. These sentence strengthening activities can be done independently, with a partner or even during small group!
After practicing with sentences, students can move onto editing and revising practices in paragraphs! This activity prompts students to write a paragraph on a topic. A peer will revise and edit their partner’s paragraph. Both partners will benefit from working with writing that is on a similar level to their own.
Introduction to Peer Editing
Peer editing is an essential step in the writing process. It will require explicit teaching so that the process stays respectful and intentional. Furthermore, you will want to provide your students with plenty of modeling for peer editing.
Additionally, you can use peer editing graphic organizers to guide students when providing feedback! I like to use the graphic organizer during whole group modeling, too! *Hint* Project the graphic organizer, write and “peer edit” the paragraph on the board!
Students may also use a peer editing check-list during the writing process! Some teachers like their students to turn in the peer editing check-lists with their writing. While, others like to laminate checklists and make them reusable!
Show Different Ways to Publish
After students have completed their revising and editing practices, it is time to publish!
Publishing writing pieces can be done in a couple of ways. Simply, students may hand-write their piece. As they work through the writing process, they may write and edit drafts. Finally, students can write a neat final copy of a writing piece on nice paper or in a book format.
Digital Publishing
The Common Core State Standards also wants students to publish their writing digitally. This can be done with Microsoft Word and PowerPoint or GoogleDocs and GoogleSlides.
Because these formats can be easily edited, there are some pros and cons. The pros are that students can quickly revise and edit their work, without messy handwritten edits and inserted information. This will allow students to get to a complete, final draft with less time and effort. However, this format is sometimes tricky for students to manipulate and it is just as easy to “lose” their work. So, you will need to work with your students on the process.
Personally, I would suggest printing each “version” of their writing piece. First, students can map their piece by hand. Then, they will type their original writing piece in a digital format. Next, students will print the piece and can hand-edit the printed form. They will revise their digital piece based on the hand-written edits and reprint a paper format. They can repeat this process until they have a final piece. *Keep all versions for their writing portfolios!*
Need resources to structure your unit?
- Kindergarten W.K.5 & K.6
- First Grade W.1.5 & 1.6
- Second Grade W.2.5 & 2.6
- Third Grade W.3.4, 3.5, & 3.6
- Fourth Grade W.4.4, 4.5, & 4.6
Thanks for reading all about ways to practice editing and revising in the classroom!
Want to read more writing blog posts filled with tips?
- Opinion: How to Teach Opinion Writing
- Narrative: How to Teach Narrative Writing
- Informative: How to Teach Informative Writing