Kids Correcting Writing

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Home : 2003 : January : 6

Kids Correcting Writing
By Kate

As I read each rough draft, I put a dot at the beginning of each line for every error I find. When the student gets his paper back, he has to find the errors himself and fix them with a colored pencil. If there are three
dots at the beginning of a line, I should see three corrections in colored pencil when he hands his paper in again. This solves the problem of students skimming their papers and not seeing any errors.
I also have them write and edit paragraphs sentence by sentence. I cut lined paper into strips and give each student an envelope. This works best if they use a graphic organizer like

a web to jot down their ideas first. To begin, they write a topic sentence on one strip of paper, check it themselves, have a friend check it, and then get in line for me to check it. When I check it, if there are any mistakes, they have to turn over their strip and rewrite the whole sentence. The rewriting part really encourages them to get it right the first time. If the sentence is perfect, I put a star on it and it goes in their envelope. Then, they get a new strip and take an idea from their graphic organizer to write sentence number two. Make sure they number each strip. It's much easier for kids to edit one sentence at a time. When they have all of their sentences finished, they lay them out on their desk and make sure the order flows before they write it in paragraph form on a sheet of paper. This makes it easy to change the sentence order and to add in an extra sentence.