Motivating Students to Revise Their Writing

As an English Language Arts teacher, one of my most difficult tasks is trying to motivate students to revise their own writing.  We’ve all heard the groans from students when we come to the revising part of writing.  (Oh the dreaded groans!)

I teach many different types of writing, but the one I hit on a weekly basis is response to literature or nonfiction reading (find it here).  I use this weekly short-write as an opportunity to work on editing and revision (yes, every week!),  and I’ve come up with a few tricks to increase the laughter and interaction during the revision/editing process.  Here are my favorite strategies:

1. Make Revising Writing Silly and Memorable

I use sounds and movement.  I know, CRAZY, right?  But here’s the hook:  when writing has a formula, the format and punctuation is generally similar in each piece. Since I require a minimum of two sentences per response, I expect two end punctuation marks. I have kids hold up two fingers (their “peace sign”), turn their fingers sideways, bring them down to their written entry and touch the punctuation.  I call them “Period Poppers” or “End Punctuation Poppers“, and students make a popping sound when they touch the marks. (Limit it to one pop, or they’ll go on and on.)

This gives them a chance to catch missing end punctuation and fix it.

They also have “Comma Claws“.

Since we have an interrupter in the first sentence of our response entry, kids have at least two commas to touch. I have them put up their peace sign, bend their fingers into claws, and then touch the commas and make a cat sound (rrrreeeeear). They LOVE this.

Likewise, when we are looking for book titles to be underlined, they hold up their pointer finger (their “Title Target“), dive bomb the finger to the paper and touch the title, drawing a line under it with their finger and making a “Zoooooommmm” sound.

And just recently, students wanted to add the “Capital Letter Catch” wherein they touch the capital letters at the beginning of each sentence and lift their hands into the air from the point of touching while making a “woop, woop, woop” sound.

After we’ve gone through our writing entries, they take a final moment to revise before turning in the assignment. Oftentimes, I have them read aloud an entry to a peer. Since we’ve taken these five minutes to check our writing, the amount of correction needed is greatly reduced (making for a happy teacher).

2. Create an Expectation of Fun Before Revising Writing

Each week, I use pictures of signs with incorrect grammar, spelling, or punctuation.  I purchased Tracy Orman’s product Using Humor to Teach the Importance of English, which was created for her high school English class. It’s a PowerPoint presentation with pictures of signs, notices, decorated cakes, etc. containing egregious errors. It’s hilarious, and the kids LOVE IT.

So on Thursdays, just before I hand back their weekly written responses which I’ve corrected, I show a few slides. I get them laughing and we discuss the errors on the signs and what would need to be done to fix the issues.  I mention that people often spend a lot of money on signs for their businesses only to have them end up an embarrassment.

Then, it’s revising time for students. I truly think they forget that I’m asking them to work because WE BEGIN THE PERIOD WITH LAUGHTER! I know, it sounds so simple, but by approaching the tasks of revising in this manner, student stress is reduced and they work with the frame of mind that what they’re doing matters.

3. Use Tracking Sheets to Target Repeat Writing Errors

This year I’m loving my newest strategy:  a tracking sheet for students to track the editing marks they receive from me. When I return their writing piece, they tally the RO marks I may have made if there were run-on sentences, the SF marks for fragments, the VT for verb tense issues, etc.

Since students have the tally sheet on their desks as I walk around, it’s a great visual overview of their writing conventions skills. Kids take note of the errors that are decreasing and what may still cause problems for them.  (Note: if a student struggles with writing, I don’t mark every error.  I focus on a few essential skills I’d like them to master.)

I’ve made the tracking sheet so it covers six weeks of writing and has a reflection at the bottom for the sixth week. If students have questions about how to edit or revise, I help them after a set amount of time (usually four minutes) during which they sit with their writing piece and their editing marks reference page, reading and considering my comments, making changes, and thinking about a writing goal for the coming week.

Keeping it short and sweet, I quickly conference with everyone, give one compliment, and then notice and discuss a target for their writing in the coming week. If there are very few issues, I discuss a new punctuation mark they might try or a more complex type of sentence structure they might attempt.

4. Use Funny Lessons to Teach the Importance of Writing Revision

My last tip for the day:  create something memorable to which you can refer before students work on writing.  For me, it’s the Killer Panda.

In my Punctuation Matters unit (click here to find it), I go into detail about the Killer Panda who eats, shoots, and leaves (or does it eat shoots and leaves?).  I have a stuffed panda who wears a black mask. It sits in front of class during revision and editing time.

Before we start writing or checking our writing, I say, “Don’t be a Killer Panda!”  They know exactly what this means: check your writing to make sure it says what you want it to say.

I am ridiculously happy with my new approaches to editing and revising.  It’s CRAZY to say, but I actually look forward to our THURSDAY revising time. Unbelievable, I know!  But here I sit blogging about it.

What strategies do you use to get students to revise their writing?

Happy Teaching,

Marcy