Improving Student Writing Skills - cse crafts

Improving Student Writing Skills
Keep the following in mind when encouraging parent/
peer revisions:
• Give Specifics
Just as revision by the writer needs to be focused, so does
revision by an adult/peer. If comments become lengthy,
students are likely to either have so much to apply that
they don’t know where to begin, or they misinterpret
the number of comments as negative criticism. Consider
guiding peer revisions such that partners look for only
one aspect of writing during the revision process. With
older or more able classes, you might encourage partners
to take “multiple passes” through each other’s writing,
but still only focusing on one aspect of writing at a time.
Again, this is a likely place to insert language from the
Traits of Good Writing.
If you are using parent revision, you will likely want to
create cover sheets that guide the revision. For example,
you might explain how to detect problems with sentence
fluency (i.e., Read the paper aloud and notice where you
stumble); then ask parents to list three sentences they
think are especially good, list two that could use revision,
and finally offer suggestions for revision.
• All Parents Aren’t Effective Teachers
Adults may need guidance and redirection, just as their
children do. Since you have little chance to guide adults
as they revise their child’s work at home, you will likely
want to communicate through revision cover sheets as
described above. If you find that parents aren’t performing
effectively, you can either call to iron out the difficulties,
encourage students to work with a different adult,
or choose to use peer revision instead. Some parents will
enjoy the ability to affect their child’s education, while
others may see parent revision as a stress on their time
and part of a job that you, the teacher, should be taking
care of. There is no need to make this into a battle; if
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