The Power of Revision

Well, I hate to be cynical, but unless my school district starts to value education the way they should, or I get a job in a district that does, my class sizes will never look the way the first two teachers do. Conferencing with students one on one is wonderful. The first teacher has Kelly read her entire piece, and then he asks her questions essentially about the placement of her persuasive statements. The conference lasts roughly 3-5 minutes. If I did this in my classroom for an entire class period, I would get to 1/4 of my class, and that's only if I keep each meeting under five minutes, and I am on a constant move for 60 straight minutes. The level of conferencing in which these teachers are partaking is unrealistic in a classroom of 41 students.

Ok - now that I have that out, I really like how the teacher from St. Paul has the reluctant writer trace his hand and then try to come up with different descriptions for what a soccer practice is like. She focussed on the different senses the student experienced during practice in order to get him writing, and to make his writing more descriptive. I like this. She, and the teacher before her, always have notes on the board to which they're referring. They ask the students questions that are reinforced on the board.

"Once you make one change, other changes become much easier."

It's funny that he recommends starting with a question. I try to tell my students to start a piece with a question, ONLY if it's a good question. Questions can be a powerful way to open up a paper, but if it's a weak question, it has the opposite effect.

He does a nice job of showing multiple examples of openers for a persuasive speech. He points out multiple tools, and then has students write two separate intros with two different opening techniques. I like the idea of having them do two intros.

Students have to make three changes to a written piece. He picks three so students can at least get their foot in the door. He says it's critical that students don't feel overwhelmed, but once they change three things, they'll realize there's much more that should/could revise.

Students read their before and after of their paper in order to see the drastic changes.

Essential to show different techniques and conventions in writing during mini lessons, and then they need to try it in their own writing.

Students listen to model essays, and then they make a chart that focusses on different features of the paper that made it engaging. After that, the teacher makes a master copy of the techniques the students came up with, and then they have to incorporate it into their own writing. This is just another tool that takes the place of the mini lesson. I like this idea because the students are generating the mini lesson instead of the teacher. If I'm talking for more that five minutes, I start to lose my students--especially if I'm talking about writing techniques. After students make their changes, she has them take their revisions and exemplars of introductions and dialogue, and students worked on typing out their revisions.