WRITING ACTIVITY
TEACHING REVISION Purpose It is important for students to understand writing as a recursive process. Through this sequence, students will: -‐-‐Understand the differences between revision and proofreading -‐-‐Practice getting comfortable with both local and global revisions -‐-‐Understand the importance of drafting and practice
S c a f f ol d i n g s equ e nc e Activity 1: De,ining Major Concepts 1) Divide the board into two sections, “Revision” on one side and “Proofreading” on the other 2) Ask students to deHine each of the terms, and write the deHinitions on the board. This is an opportunity to introduce the differences between making small (local) changes to papers, such as grammatical concerns,and making major (global) revisions. Changing structure, major ideas and sequences are major, global revisions. 3) Ask students which should come Hirst, revision or proofreading. When they answer “proofreading,” ask them why they would spend time proofreading something they are likely to delete. Then move on to the next activity.
Activity 2: Practice Global Revision 1) Have students bring in a “Shitty First Draft” after reading Anne Lammott’s article (see resources) 2) When students get to class, ask them to read their draft and pick their best sentence. Have them re-‐write this sentence on the back of their paper. 3) Tell the students they have to re-‐start their paper using only this sentence from their original draft. Give them 15 minutes in class to write their new draft. 4) After the 15 minutes are over, have a few students read their new and old draft aloud. Discuss the differences and improvements. Tell them they can draw from both drafts before submitting their Hinals-‐-‐this should make them feel better :)