Name:  Landon Pollard

Subject:  English I

Time: 50 minutes

Objectives:  The students will use the revision process to correct and improve other students’ informative essays.

Materials:  Overhead

                        Overhead transparencies

                        Overhead markers

                        Whiteboard

                        Whiteboard markers

                        Student essays

                        Proofreading Handout

Set:  If you remember, last week we talked about some of the reasons why you don’t read or like to read and how to avoid that.  Well today I want to extend that discussion to writing.  How many people enjoy writing?  Why or why not?  (Possible answers: it’s boring, I can just say what I want, no one reads it, etc.)  Well what are some advantages of writing?  How many of you have ever said something to someone else – a friend, girlfriend, boyfriend, parent, or teacher – that you regretted as soon as it came out of your mouth?  Writing is great because it’s never permanent until you want it be.   Why is it better to have someone else edit your writing than yourself (same answers as group activities).

Procedures:

            1)  Talk to students about what they should look for in other person’s writing – particularly in this class, with this assignment.  Focus on what we’ve discussed (S-V agreement, Run-on, transition words). 

2)  Model on overhead how to correct a paragraph – “SV, commas, semicolons, TW, Word choice”

3)  Discuss how to criticize and praise someone else’s writing.  Ways to start out critical sentences, etc.  Stress that the author has final cut.

4)  Have students pull out essays and divide them into groups of four.  Give them four minutes read over one person’s paper and write suggestions, comments, etc.  They then have 30 seconds to discuss it with the person they wrote on and then switch it up.

4)  Repeat process 2 more times so each author has his/her piece read 3 times.

Closure:  Review the importance of editing/proofreading.  How should you critique someone else’s work?

Assessment:

            Informal:

                        Teacher will gauge student responses to model and student answers.

                        Teacher will monitor students’ progress in groups.

            Formal:

                        Teacher will grade final copies of essays tomorrow based on organization, flow, clarity, and grammatical correctness.

Critique Handout