I’m spending alot of time talking about editing. Today I spoke to my preps about the writing process that authors go through. Authors write notes or a plan with lots of jottings or ideas. They then think about what they’re going to write and complete a first draft. This draft may stay a draft or it may become a piece of writing to be read by an audience. If it’s goinng to be read by an audience it has to be correct. I told them that authors correct their writing and then… they sometimes give it to a Wordsmith. Wordsmiths are people who correct the edited writing by an author. My preps understood this and it highlighted the process that writers go through.
They are starting to understand that writing is a process. Today my children wrote a first draft about a topic of personal interest. When we were talking about Wordsmiths, one child put up their hand and said they wanted to be an engineer. This led to other children sharing what they wanted to be when they grew up. It’s a lovely converstaion to have with young children and some children decided to write about this.
When they had finished their first draft I asked them to complete their writing checklist. See previous post – 5 Year Olds Can Develop Criteria for Editing. Hand Over the Responsibility. The class constructed writing checklist will be completed by the children everytime they write. It is a powerful strategy which I believe inproves student writing.
Cheers Nina
Nina Davis: Teaching & Learning in Australia 