Whatever Wednesday — a chance to post something I’ve seen that I’m diggin’. Though often a cool quote or poster, it might simply be a picture.
Enjoy!… and consider posting your own Whatever.
For the past few weeks we have been working on memoirs–the story of a personal experience centered around a specific event, person, or place. My students know that the draft is just the first step.
Since the draft, we have worked to add:
- background information/circumstances that helps the reader understand the importance of the event;
- dialogue and thought;
- show, don’t tell;
- a gripping lead;
- a “So What?” conclusion/ reflection;
- details that help the reader make a mental movie.
I’m quite proud of how my students have jumped into the revision process. I know it can be challenging–and even annoying–to repeatedly go back into a piece of writing to make it better. As you’ll be able to see in the slideshow below, the students have used many revising devices such as arrows, Post-it notes, and symbols to add new information to their drafts. It was so cool to see them latch onto these new strategies and personalize them.
For great examples of real-world authors and their revision work–yes, real authors revise–check out this post on author Kate Messner’s blog.
click to visit Mrs. Messner’s blog and a post and a Real Revision Gallery. WOW!
This is my first to your blog. Very cool.
Welcome! Don’t be a stranger!
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This is my first visit to your blog. Thank you to Kate Messner for sharing! I enjoyed your succinct post and the slide show presentation with authentic samples. It is so nice to see revision in action!
So glad you came by. Writing is such a difficult thing to teach. It’s exciting to see students trying new things and putting energy into revision.
Thanks for leaving a comment. I’ll drop by your blog soon.
How fascinating to see the kids working on their revisions. And what a great way to do it, with post-it notes! I wish we had them to use when I was in school. Sigh…..