Abstract
In the chapter How to Help Children Revise, from our book How To Teach Writing, we emphasise that while drafting is about discovering what we want to say, revising is about how best to say it. Revision involves re-envisioning and refining drafted writing, turning it into a playful and creative process. Inspired by Annie Dillard’s view of revision as a privilege, we encourage children to explore and experiment with their drafted writing. We introduce to children revision checklists, originally developed from our own needs as adult writers, to help students focus on key craft elements after drafting. Demonstrating the use of these checklists with our own writing, we invite children to ask questions and try them during writing sessions too.
Revision checklists should feature all the product goals you’ve taught as part of your class writing project. Space should be made available in children’s books for them to make playful revisions. We stress that students should try out techniques but are not required to use every item in their final piece. This approach promotes thoughtful decision-making and is indicative of greater-depth writers. We suggest you creating your checklists collaboratively with your students based on your project goals and recommend conducting small-group revision sessions over a couple of days while the rest of your class work on their personal writing projects. We also suggest practical strategies like drafting on one side of a double page to facilitate easy revisions. For younger children, revision can be integrated into activities like pupil-conferencing and through additional blank pages for significant changes.
This chapter aims to make revision a dynamic and engaging part of the writing process, helping students become more proficient and reflective writers.
To find out more, download our book How To Teach Writing here.
