Over the past few days, I've enjoyed the activities on revision. It's made me think about, as a writer, how I do my revising. I like to revise and tweak my writing and know it's part of my writing process.
As we've been going through these activities, I can see the other teachers wrestling with how to get revision into their classroom, make is easier for their students, and in general just get their students to do it. I didn't give much thought to revising in my classroom, because I thought "we don't do it." We "just" celebrate the fact that they wrote something. Then as I was reading Kendra's blog this morning, it hit me...I do help the kids with revising. What was I thinking earlier? How did I not see this?
After the child writes a phonetic story, he shares it with me. This is when I help with the revision, but in my mind I call it a discussion. I use it as a time to make conventional spelling corrections (if he is at the point of understanding that), I help add punctuation...some of those mechanical revisions. But then, I also help with moving the story along. I may ask open ended questions to have him write further, or add to the story myself if he is stuck. (SIers don't look too closely yet at this story, as it's part of my demo tomorrow!)All of these thoughts for today...and it's not even 8:00...help me!
I love your point of your kiddos getting a celebration just for writing something! That is an accomplishment at such a young age. To get their thoughts written down on paper and documented, I can only imagine how difficult and challenging that can be sometimes.
ReplyDeleteI also like how you mention that revision is a sense of conferencing! I haven't had my sixth graders talk about their writing with peers (which is where I'm struggling) and would love to try it when I get back in my class. I think having them talk it out, and ask the right questions, would be a sense of revision in itself. Great points :)
The conversation that you offer the students is as valuable as anything else. Sometimes talking it out gets the creative juices flowing, even for little ones. I'm glad to read that you are thiniking about revision for the little ones.
ReplyDeleteI'd love to be a fly on the wall during one of you discussions to see what it looks like between a skilled teacher and such a young little one!
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