Entry #7 * Revision and Feedback - Truly Important

After reflecting on our session this past week, I find myself still pondering Philippakos (2017) article on revision and feedback. I've always found revision so hard because you have to change what you originally wanted to say. When I revise, I tend to either skip the entire process or just make minor errors or adjustments. It is clear to me now that revising really means "examining for mismatches between intended meaning and actual meaning" (p. 2017). It's so much more than making those small final adjustments. I am learning that taking the time to deeply read over my work during the revision process is extremely important in the final piece and saves me a lot of extra work later on. 

Understanding the revision process as a teacher helps me to see how useful this will be for when I teach students this process. It will be important that I explicitly teach students how to use the revision process so they know what the difference is between revision and simply editing. Philippakos (2017) states students may "have a limited understanding of the revision process" (p. 13). This is why I think it will be important to demonstrate how revision works to my class. I imagine I had a 2nd grade and we are working on writing pieces about favorite animals. We would spend one day pre-writing and getting out all the ideas, then we would spend time drafting the piece. After my students have rough drafts,  I would stop and take a day to teach a mini-lesson on revising. Tompkins (2012) makes clear that the revising process "isn't just polishing; it's meeting the needs of readers by adding, subtracting, deleting, and rearranging material" (p. 9). I would have all students sit on the carpet and I would have my easel out with my draft of my writing about animals. I would explain to the students that revision really means "seeing again" (Tompkins, 2012, p. 9). I would read my draft out loud and make necessary changes in a different colored marker so students can visually see the changes such as adding transition sentences and incorporating more punctuation. This mini-lesson should allow students to put some strategies for making revisions in their back pocket. 

A question I have about the revision process as I have been able to take the time to reflect on it, at what age is peer review appropriate? Thinking about my second graders, I am unsure of a good way to teach peer review as a strategy of the revision process. Do you have any suggestions for this? Revision can be so challenging, and I would love for my students to be able to have the option to peer review as a way to connect with other students and find some common ground. 

References

Philippakos, Z.A. (2017).  Giving feedback:  Preparing students for peer review and self-evaluation. The Reading Teacher, 71(1), 13-22.  DOI: 10.1102/trtr.1568