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?
First, I LOVE how Lucy describes this section as “messy”! I think that it's important for me to remember as well as to remind the students during this part of the writing process.
ReplyDeleteI have never really had an entire class working solely on revising during writing. I will do whole group lessons about it, but when the students then went to work on their own, they would just continue with what they were working on. I helped students 1:1 or in a little group as they were ready to revise what they were working on. However, now reading about how Lucy carries out revising I’m ready to change it up!
When students were ready to make changes in their work, I have them use different colored pens, but I have not had a special color specifically for it. I just had blue or black pens available and had them use the opposite color than what they used to write their original work. I have not used post its as ways to add on, but I like the idea! I also like the idea of small group coaching. I really think it will help students to have the teacher role play the jobs of partners and then have the students practice while the teacher can watch.
I really don’t do any official assessments in between our formal writing assessments. It’s mostly observations and taking notes about what I see each student needs or is having a hard time doing independently. I’m thinking about creating checklists (of skills and writing behaviors) to help me streamline how I take notes and to make it a little more official!
I love the idea of revision pens, I will definitely try that this year. I have used post its and find that they are a little bit easier to use than the flaps.
ReplyDeleteI also love how Lucy again, relates back to reading, and says that the kids will be most successful when they are good storytellers.
I LOVE her Lego example, the kids will love that. I don't have kids all revising on certain days but that seems like it might be easier to manage and help me really pay attention to just revising for a few days, so making a revision and non-revision pile seems smart. I also really like there storytelling transition chart on page 127.
I use post-its instead of flaps too. I use post-its a lot to give the kids words they need for writing, especially correct spelling of people's names. Since the kids are used to getting post-its, I think it is easier to use them during writing time. They also LOVE to keep them forever! Ha, ha!
DeleteI also really liked the colored pen for revising-I like that it shows the kids that their works in progress are not going to be perfect and that it's a journey to write a great story. This is super hard for lots of kids, so it will take time I am sure. I LOVE how she tells the class about the long line of kids waiting for her, and tells them that there is not just one teacher in the class, but rather 20 teachers. I think this is a super cute way to encourage them to be independent and helpful with each other. I would definitely carry this concept through to math stations and ELA centers. I agree with Kelly-the Lego example is really good!
ReplyDeleteI am thinking about Kelly W's original question about not letting the kids begin a new piece on some days so that they are really forced to have several finished pieces to work on revising. I don't think I have ever been great at being strategic about this, and it seems like a handful of kids have a folder full of 3/4 finished pieces! I am going to really focus my attention on this.
Yes, I feel the same way about the unfinished work. It is definitely hard to manage. I am going to try to have the whole class work on revisions when it comes to this point in the year. I think we will make an anchor chart about revising and then declare the day, "Revision Day." That way, the students will know that starting a new piece is not an option for that day.
DeleteAs some of you have already stated, I like the idea of having the whole class work on revising on specific days. I actually observed this when I went to visit Jess’ class this past year and I was amazed at how well students could revise their writing with their partners and liked that all students were working on revising. I also think that if students are given the choice to revise or to start a new piece many of them would chose to start a new piece because it seems easier or more familiar to them. It would be beneficial for the teacher to be able to focus on revision strategies with students that go along with the mini-lesson of revising. After having been taught the mini-lesson is when it would make the most sense for students to try out practicing certain strategies with as many pieces as they can. I am excited to try it out this year.
ReplyDeleteI have not used purple pens before for revising, but I like the meaning behind using the color purple that Lucy talks about. I have used red in the past. I have not used post-it notes or flaps, but I think both would be motivating for students to use. I know that some of my students in the past loved to cut and staple their own books together, so I could already envision them wanting to make their own flaps for their revisions. I also like the idea of small group coaching and think it would be a great way to target the similar needs of multiple students at the same time.
I have not used the mentor text ‘A Chair for my Mother’, but I love the quote on page 121 that states “Beginnings matter more than almost anything else because they set the stage and set up expectations.” I would love to find more mentor texts to use that convey this message to students.
In the past, when I have had students work together in pairs to revise each other’s work, I make sure that that the students have at least a couple of unfinished, recent, writing pieces with which he/she may choose to revise. At the beginning of the lesson, I model revising my own story with the students and then remind the students that “today, you are first going to select one of your stories to revise with your partner.”
ReplyDeleteI have had students cross out their mistakes, but I have found that students are often uncomfortable doing so. This year, I am going to try each student having their own large eraser with his/her name on it. While students are working together with his/her partner, I try to walk around the room and work with each table (small group). At each table, I remind the students the expectations of how to revise with one’s partner. I usually try to have a “fish bowl,” in the sense that I have partners work together and the others at the table watch the process. I then point positive aspects of how the two students worked together.
I have never done a quick assessment to determine if students understand what he/she should be doing during revision work time. Although, I think it would be interesting to compare students’ work that had revision versus work that did not have any revision and compare the quality of writing.
I agree with Alissa that I would love to get better at having students revise more of the writing pieces in their folders! When we do work on revising, I usually encourage crossing out as opposed to erasing so that we can see how their work has evolved and changed. I think I am going to use some of my extra red pencil boxes as revision tool boxes filled with tape, revision strips, post-it notes, etc.
ReplyDeleteI love the idea of a “secret code” for bigger revisions that occur in the middle of the page. One student had written “go to nxt pag” and drawn a small box around it to indicate she had made a middle of the page revision. I’m thinking I’d add secret code stickers to the revision toolbox as well so that they can stick it in the middle of their work and then next to the revision on a revision strip.
In a college English course, I was taught that “It was a dark and stormy night” is a widely mocked story starter; however, I love that talking about the weather is the go-to suggestion for creating stronger story leads when you’re stuck. Opening a story by describing the weather or time of day is something that kindergartners can grasp. I feel like there should be several mentor texts that start by talking about the weather- Owl Moon by Jane Yolen was mentioned and Fireflies by Julie Brinckloe pops into my mind.
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DeleteThank you for the story starter suggestions!
DeleteI think the kids will love the secret code too. For those that it may be hard to go back and forth between pages, I have literally cut the page where they want to insert more words, they write their words on a separate page and we tape them all back together in order. It would not work if stories were written back to back, but it is very concrete for those that need it. I have also tried having them skip lines while they write so that there is always a little extra space if they only need to add in a few words here or there.
DeleteI have specific revising days, and I love it! It keeps the kids focused, so not only can I quickly help them as I conference, but they can help each other, as well. I like using colored pens. It's motivating for the kids and is an easy way to see the revisions. I have allowed kids to erase in the past, but I like crossing out too. Erasing is nice for kids who get stuck on things looking perfect, but I like how you can see and discuss the writing process by clearly seeing cross-outs and other revisions. My students all know how to use a caret, for example, and find that helpful both in revision days and when rereading their writing in general. I have not been brave enough to use flaps or post-it's whole group, but have success doing so in small groups.
ReplyDeleteI love Lisa's idea of using a checklist for doing a quick assessment of students' writing. I mark anecdotal notes and reflect on my students needs and understandings, but I would I should be better about utilizing a quick checklist in the process.
I love the "revision day" idea. I think it would be helpful for the adults and kids to be able to be focused on this skill at least until a handful are more confident with doing it. I have not used purple revision pens, but I like the idea. I like Lisa's idea of a checklist for quick assessments. Lucy mentions taking home the kids' writing at night, and I think reading pieces from all of the writing folders would be overwhelming. I'm not sure how often she does this. But it would be a better use of time to use a quick assessment checklist to form small groups and assess progress. I'd like to see what the checklist looks like.
ReplyDeleteI love the idea of using small group instruction to explain the role of a student. So many times you teach a great (or so you think) minilesson modeling what kids are going to do during the work period, send them off, and without a doubt there is a handful who look quizzically and say "What am I supposed to do?"
I like the reading/writing connection that can be made using post its. You could teach kids to but ? on a post it and put it in a book for a part they don't understand or a word they can't figure out just like in writing when they don't understand a part in a partners story. Or ! for a really super part, etc.
I have used A Chair for my Mother before, but I think we'd need more examples of really great beginnings. My mind is still at the beach so I'm struggling to come up with titles with great beginnings. But I agree with Kylee...dark and stormy nights work for me too!
I love the idea of revision days too! I think it is important for kids to see the importance of this and if everyone is doing it, they might be more motivated to do it. Most kids want to just start new pieces. I have also not used the purple pen as a tool for revision. But I think you really could use any color if you have some exciting, fancy way to introduce it. Lucy says purple is the color of royalty but you could really come up with anything. I would avoid the color red because it just comes across more harsh. I love the idea of creating checklists to help focus your observations and notes when students are working. Maybe a group of us can get together and create these.
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