Adventures in writing,creative writing unit, writing lesson plans, Jennifer Berthelot

Editing

It is now time for students to add a little bit of polish to their writing. In the editing stage, students focus one last time on spelling, punctuation and grammar. Consider having students exchange their papers with a peer for a fresh perspective. New eyes can often catch mistakes that familiar readers overlook.

Editing Warm Up

In chapter five of Frog and Toad are Friends, Frog writes Toad a short letter. On this page is a reply letter from Toad. Toad has made several mistakes. Have your students edit Toad’s letter so that he can correct it before he mails his reply to Frog.

Strategies for Editing

1. Provide a checklist that students must go through as they read their paper one last time. The checklist can be made up by the students during a discussion about what they think good writing is (proper punctuation, capitalization, etc). As the students read over their work one last time they must check for all of the elements listed on the checklist. The checklist is signed by the student as “proof” that the student has checked over their work. (See here for a word document easily edited for your own use.)

2. Assembly Line Editing: Place the students around a long table. Each student should be sitting directly across from another student. Students exchange their papers across the table. The teacher assigns the group of students ONE thing to look for as they read over their peers work (capitalization, periods, spelling, commas, etc). Once the students are finished looking for that one particular element, they return the paper they were editing to the owner. Students all move down one seat and exchange papers with the student sitting across from them. The teacher then assigns another error for students to check for in the paper they are editing. This assembly line editing continues until the students have had the opportunity to examine several other papers.