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By Carolyn

This was too funny! I loved it! It is just so true, I have found. Kids just don't give enough attention to editing. They do a good job of writing, but once they've done that, they think they are finished, even though
they KNOW there is a writing process. I teach fifth graders who really ought to know better.
I never receive perfect papers from kids. Another thing, as our fourth grade teacher points out, the kids will edit and revise to fix their mistakes, then they'll write them back into their final copy! LOL
I like to hang papers, too. However, I also refuse to do kids' editing for them.

They really need to learn to do this themselves. I will have them write their final copy, and then I will hang them in the hallway. I will place a note beside the works that they have been "student edited" so that the principal and others can see that this has what has occurred, and that I haven't been negligent. I emphasize to my students that they have to learn to edit independently, because that's what they'll have to do on the state test. Once I teach editing skills, they're on their own.

I do grade all of their writing. Last semester I took off a point for each editing mistake. One boy in my class turned in a paper which he said he edited, and he lost 20 points for his mistakes. Most of my students don't lose more than 7. I am going to tell my students that the stakes are going to be higher second semester. I will take off 5 points for each editing mistake! Look out!