Writing Celebration!

Dear Parents,

We have just finished our writing unit on the craft of revision. If you are able to, please join us at 2:00 tomorrow (Thursday, April 5) to celebrate all that we have learned about revising our writing. One of the first things you may notice in the work in their revision folders is that there are strips stapled to their stories, post-its, marks and re-writes with purple ink, and speech bubbles every where. When we teach children how to use these tools, they often over-use them! Their stories may not seem "improved" to you. In this unit it actually seems like they’ve lost their sense of how a story sounds because they are so focused on the revision strategies and tools we teach. That’s okay. The purpose of this unit was for the children to experience and approximate the revision process, think about their writing, and, hopefully, get more writing on the page. Whether you are able to join us tomorrow or not, ask your child to tell you about revising their stories. They should share things such as: planning their revision by rereading, making a movie in their minds, and using post-it notes; revising by adding to the sketches and the writing; adding dialogue by using speech bubbles in the sketches and quotation marks in the text; adding details by using tools for revision such as paper strips or post-its, carats, asterisks; taking away parts that don't help the main idea; and showing not telling about feelings. As you listen to your child (and others) share the stories, compliment on the revision work that has been done. If a part isn’t clear, you might ask, “Can you say more about this part?” After it’s been cleared up orally, you might say, “Maybe you could add that part.” Then, you may see the revision tools at work! Hope to celebrate with you!

Susan