Revision Workshop

Revision Techniques for Writing

Teacher asks the students if they would like to find out about an easy way to revise their writing without recopying it.

Activities:

1. Begin Writer’s Workshop with a mini-lesson about some techniques of revision.

2. Teacher selects a student writing sample (with permission), makes a transparency of the selection, and offers it as an example of a piece that may need revising.

3. Teacher reads sentences from the writing sample and engages students to think about which sentences need to be put together so the piece of writing will be more cohesive. The teacher then numbers the sentences that should be placed together.

4. As a second revision technique, the teacher shows the students how to use different colored pencils or markers to group sentences that would go together to make a more interesting, cohesive piece of writing.

5. Teacher facilitates the process by engaging the students to enter the discussion and assist in completing the revision technique of rearranging the sentences for better organization.

6. After clarifying any student questions, the teacher invites the students to try this technique with their own writing.

7. Students then write independently and try this technique or engage in another aspect of Writer’s Workshop such as meeting in pairs for a peer conference.


Closure: As the class period comes to a close, the teacher may ask the students to form a Share Circle to discuss and review the revision technique previously presented during the mini-lesson. Students will be asked to share how the revision technique worked for them.

Knowledge Rating

Teacher asks the students if they have ever had a dream come true.


1. Brainstorm "dream" in large group.

2. Continue brainstorming, adding "American" to dream.

3. Read a selected poem that further develops the theme of the American Dream (for
example, Harlem by Langston Hughes).

4. Discuss the American Dream while interpreting the poem.

5. Pass out individual copies of the Knowledge Rating strategy sheet to the students.Go over the directions, perhaps doing the first term together in large group.

6. Have learners analyze each word and note whether the term is familiar. If the student knows the meaning of the word, a short definition is written in the appropriate column.

7. Learners then skim the text noting the location of the vocabulary words in context.

8. Read the text in large group, small groups, or individually.

9. Revisit the vocabulary words and note a definition for each. Note: No glossary or
dictionary is used for this activity.

Closure: Review the definitions so that each learner will have an accurate explanation of each term as it was used in the text.

Evaluation suggestions: The Knowledge Rating sheet; group work participation; writing a
short paragraph describing the topic (to assess comprehension).