The Writing Process: Teaching Revision...a WritingFix Workshop Hosted in Northern Nevada
sharing resources from an NNWP in-service class for educators
The Northern Nevada Writing Project--sponsors of the WritingFix website--offer dozens of inservice classes annually on topics that Nevada teachers express interest in. These workshops are very popular and well-received, and often educators who are not from Nevada express an interest in knowing what we are sharing and doing in these classes. At the WritingFix website, we post activities and resources from these classes because we believe great teaching is all about sharing. This page is a place where we share, and we hope that you'll share back if you appreciate what you find here. Sharing back is what has made WritingFix grow and develop since 2001.
Why a workshop on revision? Let's face it. The writing lessons that we create to teach our students almost always take longer than we had planned. When our lessons "run long," two important steps of the writing process are often "skimmed over" in order to get the teaching back on schedule: student talk and revision. In Nevada, we believe these two elements of a writing lesson are critical in helping students discover the skills used by good writers, and our workshop aims to convince teachers to always find time for both talk and revision on the important lessons. When students talk about what they're writing throughout the writing process, but especially during the revision step, they begin to own writing skills. When students only write rough drafts and immediately move to the editing stage, the chance of them learning about writing craft is lessened.
During our workshop, teachers participate in demonstration lesson presented by Northern Nevada Writing Project Consultants who have designed innovative ways to make sure that authentic revision happens in their classrooms. What do we mean by authentic? Let's face it. Many of the tasks we ask our students to do when rushing through the revision stage don't improve the writing. Our students figure this out early on, and many dislike the latter steps of the writing process because of it. How many students have been "turned off" of the act of writing by being forced to copy their draft one more time while adding a few adjectives in front of a few under-described nouns? How many students' writing assignments sounded less like the student after we required them to add color words or similes as a revision strategy? If we change the introduction to a question or sound effect, have we really made the writing better?
For revision to be authentic, students must first believe that their writing can be improved, and second, they must have a variety of tools to choose from when revising. Most importantly, students must also want to improve the writing, which means they have to care about what they're writing; book reports, constructed response, hamburger paragraphs, and formulaic essays often create competent writing but not writing our students care much about. Our 16-hour teacher workshop on revision explores assignments that not only help students care about the words they put down on paper but also enjoy the act of re-envisioning ideas to take a different form.
If, after looking over the resources on this page, you're interested or intrigued by how we're inspiring Nevada educators to teach revision, we invite you to independently join us. Read through the mentor-text-inspired lessons below carefully. If you are inspired to propose a lesson, like our class participants do, use the template below to do it, and send it to us as webmaster@writingfix.com. If we end up posting your lesson, we will send you a free classroom resource from the NNWP's Publications Page, including a copy of the out-of-print Elementary or Secondary Writing Guide.
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Quotable Mentor Texts:
from the last page of
Nothing Ever Happens on 90th Street
by Roni Schotter:
"What a story!" Sondra exclaimed.
Eva smiled mysteriously. "Thanks," she said proudly. "But just wait. It'll be even better...after I rewrite it." |
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Lesson Template for our Class Participants: |
Each teacher participant in our workshop has a final project as part of the class. During the last session, everyone sits down and writes up a proposal for a revision mini lesson. The most-inspired proposals become part of this page at WritingFix. Template: Mentor Text-inspired Revision Lesson.
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Lessons & Tools Discussed in our Teacher Workshop |
Revision Resources from the EWG & SWG |
Most mentor texts are used by teachers to inspire student writers before they create a rough draft, but another powerful use of a mentor text is to bring it out after the draft has been created. Bringing out well-crafted and published material right before revision starts can make a discussion about writer's craft have an immediate impact on the student writers' revision plans.
Below are six revision write-ups (inspired by amazingly well-written mentor texts) that challenge students to think about a writer's craft.
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Four Revision Tools inspired by Trait Language
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Trait Tool:
Revision
Post-It Notes
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Hello, my name is Dena Harrison, and the act of revision is something I have worked hard to help my middle school see as an authentic task.
 Teaching revision is tough for many of the teachers I've worked with during NNWP inservices. Some are just not sure what the difference is between revising and editing. Others assign revision without actually teaching students how to do it effectively. We hope the tools on this page will inspire the way you present revision in your classroom.
 First, a book I simply cannot live without is Barry Lane’s Reviser's Toolbox. Barry (who is in the picture with me at right) has such a great collection of lessons and techniques in his book that students really respond well to. He injects a bit of humor into almost every lesson and once his techniques have been taught, they very easily become a part of the classroom language about writing. Barry says, “Revision is an ongoing creative process, not simply making a sloppy copy picture perfect.” I love teaching my students about “Snapshots” and “Thoughtshots.” Make sure you pick this book up and learn from one of the best!
 Recently, I was privileged to be one of the teachers asked to review a new series of books by Vicki Spandel. This series of books is entitled Creating 6-Trait Revisers and Editors. They are published for grades 2 through 8. This series contains very informative and helpful lessons for students to revise and edit using the six writing traits. Vicki says, “The six traits make it possible for us to actually teach revision,” and I wholeheartedly agree. (You may have already noticed that I am also the Six Traits Page Host here at WritingFix). I think Vicki has come up with a brilliant way to teach revision using the traits as part of the classroom language about writing.
If you can't afford buying new books right now, then you're in luck; I have been given permission to publish some of the Northern Nevada Writing Project's copyrighted materials here. Below you will find eight resources that I scanned from two of the NNWP's out-of-print resource guides. I posted them here because I think they have great information to get teachers started. As a middle school teacher, I look through a lot of elementary curriculum materials and an equal amount of high school curriculum materials. I love to adapt ideas from these sources so they fit my classroom and my students' needs. Four of the resources below come from the NNWP's Elementary Writing Guide, and four come from the NNWP's Secondary Writing Guide. How might you adapt these great ideas to fit your classroom?
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 Revising Together! Here are instructions for teaching whole-class revision, and a whole-class sample to show your students.
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Revising for Word Choice! Here are simple instructions and a student example for showing how a writer can think differently about verbs by underlining them as a revision strategy.
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 The Revision Sprint. A great activity and write-up that has students compare their own use of writing skills as they prepare to revise a rough draft.
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Revision Checklists. If traits is the language of your classroom, these four checklists will help your students begin to find multiple ideas for improving their rough drafts. Students can apply the checklists to their own writing, or they can have a partner read their papers and fill out the checklist for them.
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Revision Coversheets. Here are two different versions of a trait-based coversheet that can be marked after reading over a student's second draft.
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Revision Dice! Here is a fun way to engage students as they come up with revision strategies for their rough drafts. Fold the templates into dice, and let your students roll all four. Whatever four suggestions come up they need to try adding to their rough drafts.
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Revision Mini Lessons Created by Nevada Teachers Who Attended WritingFix's Workshop
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Revision Board Games
(an writers workshop tool created by our class's participants) |
How to Be... Poems: for Drafting, Revising, Editing
(an activity completed by our class's participants) |
We believe when students know enough about revision, they can create their own tools to inspire each other to think about improving draft writing. One tool that students seem to enjoy creating is a revision board game that can be played during a writers workshop. To begin this activity, challenge students with the following R.A.F.T.S. writing prompt, which we use during our workshops to inspire our teachers to create board games:
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In his Reviser's Toolbox, Barry Lane shares a type of poem called How to Be... Poems. These are simple poems that are built from a list of verb phrases. The writer can take any topic and write a series of verb phrases the topic would do: How to be a Fraction, How to be a Confederate Soldier, How to be a Three-toed Sloth, etc.
To explore how three steps of the writing process are distinctly different from each other--drafting, revising, and editing--our workshop participants create How to Be Poems... for these three topics. |
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On the first night of class, we show participants the example you see at right: How to Be an Editor...
After discussing the format of the poem and the difference between drafting, revising, and editing, the participants work together in a group to create a How to Be a Rough Drafter poem. Below, you will find some of the samples from a recent class.
Participants are informed that on the last night of class, they will individually be writing How to Be a Reviser Poems, inspired by what they learn during the whole class. |
How to Be an Editor...
Remove the run-ons.
Quietly consult with Mr. Webster.
Kill those pesky comma splices.
Double-check your’s apostrophes.
Say “Oops!” when you spy one,
But then fix it with a smile.
Capitalize first words, names, and I’s.
Let your eyes rest for a while.
Let a loyal partner look it over
Just to be safe. Then…
Using your very best handwriting,
Celebrate your final draft,
Proud of its close-to-perfectness! |
| Here are five group-created board games from our teacher participants. You can click on the images to view/print them in larger form. |
How to Be a Rough Drafter...Small Group Poems
(click on the images to see them in larger form) |
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What tools/lessons would your students need to have in order to create revision board games that might authentically inspire other writers in your classroom? |
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Our Workshop's Adaptation to the Four Corners of 90th St.
(an activity completed by our workshop's participants) |
How to Be a Reviser...Poems from Teachers
(reflecting on revision with a verb phrase poem) |
Our Four Corners of 90th Street craft lesson (posted above) has students revise writing done to this prompt: "Write about a time you did nothing, trying to make it seem interesting." In our teacher workshops on revision, we adjust the activity to focus on a piece of original fiction instead of a personal narrative. We have class participants write a six-sentence story about this Homer Winslow painting, asking "What's going on in this picture?"
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During the final session of our workshop, participants dig through their binders and materials and consult the toolbox posters (#1 and #2) we have added to each night of class to create How To... poems. The topic of these poems: How to be a Reviser, or How to Teach Revision.
Participants post their final drafts of these poems at our Revision Ning, where you can find ALL of our participants' poetry Below, I have posted five of my favorite poems from our first-run of our revision workshop for Nevada teachers!
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| While participants are writing, we place four corner stations around the room. Each station has a picture of one of the four character's who gives Eva advice from the book and post-its big enough to write a revised sentence on. Here are what the four corners look like before we read the first part of the book aloud. |
How to be a Reviser...
by Raeann, elementary teacher
Don't hold on too tight to the roughdraft
Be open to new ideas
Read from every angle
Move things around
Play with your writing
Try it here
Try it there
Have fun with it!
Read your writing out loud
Fear not!
Walk away
Return and review
Remember....revision is not for the faint of heart
Embrace the possibilites
Write again
.....and again
..........and again.
A writer never has to produce a FINAL draft
....like life it can always be changed |
How To Be a Reviser
by Nancy, middle scool teacher
Write a rough draft you believe in.
Re-read your rough draft with a smile.
Take a walk.
Read a book.
Eat a meal.
Hang out with a friend.
Re-read your rough draft with a smile.
Take out your green pen.
Find what is good; bring it to life.
Change words with your mind; be kind to your heart.
Change phrases with your heart; double check it with your brain.
Finish with comfort in a phrase
Or a challenge in a statement.
Let it go.
Publish it.
Now it has a life of its own. |
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How to be a Reviser
by Jennifer, middle school teacher
Take off your rose colored glasses and
look at your paper with new eyes.
Ready to change and rearrange.
Like a new year:
Out with the old, in with the new.
Delete redundant ideas-
Delete redundant ideas.
Add some sparkle
Rephrase confusing wording.
(Delete redundant ideas)
Repeat words/phrases for emphasis.
Look to others and examples for guidance.
Try something new
Don’t be afraid to change.
It isn’t black hair dye that won’t come out.
And even if it doesn’t,
you can bleach it a few times
to make it different and unexpected.
Take out your toolbox
and find the tool that is best suited
for the job.
Not the one easiest to reach. |
How to Use ABC's of Revision
by Karel, substitute teacher
Alliterate Nicely
Bludgeon Overused words
Create Prepositional phrases
Demand Questioning
Exaggerate Regularly
Form Series, after series, after series
Go for Transitions
Hyperbole Usefully
Invent Variety
Juggle Words
Keep it eXtreme
Love Your mentor text
Make it Zany
How to Revise
by Ryan, elementary teacher
Take a breath
and dive right in.
Flow and rhythm
will vary like your setences
Revise your characters to
Sing with their thoughts and actions.
Expand on your ideas
Extend them as a series of three.
Explode.
Stand up for your draft,
Make the choice,
and when your done with your revision,
just realize you're never finished. |
After reading the first five or six pages of Nothing Ever Happens on 90th Street aloud, participants paraphrase the four pieces of advice and discuss which of the six writing traits each piece of advice is hinting at. We write the paraphrased advice onto the posters, then teachers travel around to each corner with their six-sentence story rough drafts. At each station, they re-write one of their stories' sentences (using the poster's advice) on a Post-it and leave it behind. At each poster, they may apply the advice to a different sentence from their stories, or to the same sentence.
When they return from visiting all four posters, they revise their six-sentence stories, recalling from memory which changed sentences became better and adding just those to their second drafts. We then discuss other classroom ways to use the four corners of advice from 90th's street to inspire revision from writers.
Below are the four posters after the teachers had visited them with their roough drafts in hand. You can click on the images to view/print them in larger form. |
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Revision "Menus"
(choice-driven tools for writers workshop) |
Student choice is an important element in a differentiated classroom. Great teachers understand the power of letting students choose, but they also understand the importance of guiding them to make good choices. We sometimes call this type of guidance "The illusion of choice," which makes our teachers laugh, but then we let that laughter guide us as we design choice-based tools.
Revision menus (like the response menus shared by Campbell Valle on our Response Homepage) require students to make pre-determined choices about how they will move a rough draft forward to the next stage of the process. There is a variety of ways to instruct students to use these menus; our favorite is asking students to choose one task from each section of the menu.
In groups, our teacher particpants design the following creative revision menus (using this criteria list for their menu items) during our workshop! You can click on the photos to view/print the menus in larger form. We hope these menus inspire your students to want to create their own menus for your classroom. |
(Students choose one appetizer.)
(Students choose one main course.)
(Students choose one dessert.) |
(Students choose one appetizer.)
(Students choose one main course.)
(Students choose one dessert.) |
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Copyright 2010 - The Northern Nevada Writing Project and WritingFix- All Rights Reserved
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