Here are Kelly W's discussion points for this week:
In Bend III, Lucy continues to explain how to teach students to revise their writing with partners. Here are a few questions to get our discussion started…
When focusing on teaching students to revise their work, do you generally tell students that they cannot start a new piece during these lessons? Do you spend a day or two letting students finish up pieces so that they have a variety to choose from for partner revision work?
Lucy provides several ways to help coach students into partner revision work. How have you used the following strategies to help students make the most of partner time?
-purple revision pens
-use of flaps or other writing add-on strategies for adding details in the middle of pieces
-cross outs or erasing for minor revisions
-small group coaching of students to make sure they know what is expected of them during partner time
This section also begins to focus on writing amazing story beginnings. Lucy uses the text, A Chair for My Mother, by Vera B. Williams to show students that the “expert writer” provides precise details right in the beginning of the story to make it amazing. Have you used this text to teach this lesson? If not, have you used another text that had an amazing beginning?
Lucy suggests doing a quick assessment as the unit winds down. She says to ask the students to leave today’s writing out on their table for her to collect it. She makes a pile of students’ work that had Some Revisions and a pile of No Revisions to assess whether or not the students understand what they should be doing during revision work time. Do you do these quick assessments as the units wind down? Do you do any other quick assessments besides the formal writing assessments?
