Revision Strategies for Adolescent Writers
Moving Students in the Write Direction
Foreword by Vickie Spandel
Enlarge your repertoire of revision strategies!
For many secondary students, writing effectively is the most elusive of the critical literacy skills needed for college and career readiness. And for many teachers, revision is the most difficult part of the writing process to tackle. How can adolescent writers be guided to revisit their work, to identify the weaknesses in their writing drafts, and revise—making their pieces stronger and more effective? The Common Core State Standards advocate strengthening students' writing through revision—a skill different from either drafting or editing—and using technology for creating and collaborating with others. This instructional guide, with its more than 30 flexible, classroom-tested strategies, demonstrates these practices and more:
- Frontloading (planning, rehearsing, and conversing before writing)
- Peer conferencing as part of a writers' workshop
- Using technology to write, collaborate, and revise in and out of the classroom
- Modeling effective revision techniques as writers and teachers of writing
Teachers will turn again and again to this easy-to-use resource, with its clear explanations of strategies correlated to the 6 Traits of Effective Writing, examples of "before-and-after" student work, and thoughtful quotes from published writers about their own writing and revision processes. These authors and experienced teachers of writing have provided a handbook that can be used immediately to scaffold students' revision and help them become more fluent, confident, and independent writers.
"Revision Strategies offers strategies and lesson ideas for helping students re-think and re-envision their drafts and in so doing produce outstanding work. The authors make the hard work of writing well something all students can accomplish. You need this book!"
"Revisions Strategies for Adolescent Writers: Moving in the WRITE Direction is an innovative and engaging writing resource! Its ready-to-use handbook structure is just what teachers need to take a fresh look at the teaching of writing. It will be welcomed by every educator who values writing as a lifelong skill."
"From the groundbreaking work of Janet Emig to recent studies of revision in digital composing, researchers of writing processes find that when students understand and practice a rich sense of revision, their writing improves dramatically. Revision Strategies for Adolescent Writers offers a wide-ranging collection of instructional strategies teachers can use to help with this key element to improving student writing."
“This is a practical text for any teacher of writing in Grades K-12, but a rarity in its usefulness of 6-12 applications for revision instruction. I’ve been teaching English 9-12 for 28 years and found this book to be immediately usable in my classroom.”
“The greatest struggle of English teachers is finding ways to incorporate meaningful writing assignments into the curriculum, giving effective feedback, and helping students make changes in their writing beyond editing for grammar. The sound theories in this book give teachers strategies to help their students move from editing to true revision.”
“Finally there are some practical ideas for teaching revision that don’t involve gallons of red ink and loaded weapons! I found whole new lessons on every page.”
"This is an important reference for language arts teachers. The strategies give students concrete ways of revising, and for kids who have a hard time verbalizing or explaining their ideas, this book provides techniques for them to expand and describe what they're talking about."
