Subject:

Language Arts; Writing

Writing Process Stage:

Revising/Editing

Grades:

3-5

Concept:

Students learn how to use widely accepted editing marks to proofread stories.

Teacher Background:

Part of most Writing Workshops nowadays involves peer editing, in which students help proofread and revise each others’ stories. In order to do so, they must know a common set of editing marks. By reviewing others’ work, students will hone their own editing eye. They then can be more objective when revising their own written pieces.

Materials:

• Flawed letter to the principal
• Editing Marks reference sheet. You can find reference sheets at: timeforkids.com (download PDF) and thewritingsite.org (download PDF)

Anticipatory Set:

Explain to your students that you have to write a letter to the principal telling her/him what wonderful writers you have in class. However, you believe that you have made some errors. Show them a copy of the letter (handouts or on the board) and ask them to count how many mistakes (punctuation, capitalization, spelling, grammatical) that they can find. After a few minutes, go around the room and ask for the total each student found. Was anybody right?

Directed Instruction:

1. Emphasize that when we write, even good writers, we tend to make errors. Sometimes the mistakes are silly; our brains are thinking too quickly and we make a mistake that we normally wouldn’t. Sometimes the errors are genuine; as we try to stretch ourselves as writers, we end up crossing into territories unknown to us yet! Therefore, we have to rely on ourselves and others (peer editors) to catch the mistakes before the publishing stage.
2. Hand out the editing marks reference sheet. Explain that writers, book editors, teachers, professors, etc. all use these same marks. It is a shorthand language of sorts for writers.
3. Review what each mark is used for.

Group Activity:

1. Discuss the meaning behind writer James Joyce’s quote: A man’s errors are his portals of discovery.
2. Discuss the meaning behind Albert Einstein’s quote: Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.

Independent Practice:

1. Return to your letter to the principal. Ask the students to use the editing marks reference sheet to edit your letter. Remind them to act like detectives and reread the letter carefully.
2. Encourage them to make comments in the margins too as to what works/what doesn’t work.
3. Can they make the correct editing marks for all (no. of mistakes) errors?

Wrap-Up:

Ask students to create quotes touting the benefits of making mistakes. Display these unique quotes around the classroom.

Subject:

Language Arts; Writing

Writing Process Stage:

Revising/Editing

Grades:

3-5

Concept:

Students will use dialogue to enhance their story writing.

Teacher Background:

Using dialogue requires a complicated set of guidelines regarding the use of punctuation and capitalization. While teaching the various ways to use quotation marks, students will begin to add drama to their stories by giving their characters actual voices.

Materials:

Character images (see images below included under Group Activity)

Anticipatory Set:

Write on the board: The kids had a fight. Ask students whether or not they can imagine this fight scene in their heads. Next, ask them what sorts of things might be said during a fight. Jot these quotes down.

Instruction:

1. Highlight how dialogue, speaking, can bring authenticity to a scene. Using dialogue is another way to “show, don’t tell.” With dialogue, readers get a better sense of the characters since they actually “hear” their voices.
2. Likewise, dialogue is a way to stretch a small moment. With dialogue, authors can add lots of drama to a scene.
3. Explain that dialogue can be tricky to use because there are strict punctuation rules. Provide examples of direct quotes, that which is spoken directly by a character, written in one of three ways:
   1. Sally whispered, “Shh! I hear someone coming up the stairs!”
      Note:
      • comma separates the quote from the rest of the sentence
      • the direct quotation is capitalized
   2. “Shh! I hear someone coming up the stairs!” whispered Sally.
      Note:
      • the direct quotation is capitalized
      • the whispered is not capitalized
   3. “Shh!” whispered Sally. “I hear someone coming up the stairs!”
      Note:
      • quotation marks appear around both sections of spoken words
      • the whispered is not capitalized
4. Provide the following examples so that students can reference the slight variation when declarative sentences are used in quotations.
   1. Sadie explained, “I like pizza, especially when it has pepperoni on it.”
      Note:
      • comma separates the quote from the rest of the sentence
      • the direct quotation is capitalized
   2. “I like pizza, especially when it has pepperoni on it,” explained Sadie.
      Note:
      • the direct quotation is capitalized
      • there is a comma not a period at the end of the direct quote
      • the explained is not capitalized
   3. “I like pizza,” explained Sadie, “especially when it has pepperoni on it.”
      Note:
      • quotation marks appear around both sections of spoken words
      • there is a comma separating the first part of the direct quote from explained Sadie since it is an ongoing quotation
      • the explained is not capitalized
      • there is a comma after explained Sadie since the direct quotation continues
      • especially is not capitalized since it is not the beginning of a separate direct quotation
5. Emphasize to students that they should not let the complicated punctuation and capitalization rules dissuade them from using direct quotations in their stories. They should use direct quotation and then double-check the punctuation and capitalization in the revising/editing stage of the writing process.

Group Activity:

1. Divide the students into pairs.
2. Using the provided images of characters from Fraggle Rock and Strawberry Shortcake, two shows on The Hub (or any character images you have available), ask students to each take five minutes and write a conversation that they imagine would take place between the characters

   Fraggle Rock ™ and © The Jim Henson Company, Inc.

   Strawberry Shortcake ™ and © Those Characters from Cleveland, Inc.

3. Remind them to use the examples on the board as references.
4. After five minutes, ask them to double-check their work.
5. Next, have students switch papers and edit each other’s use of direct quotations.
6. Remind them that the best way to improve on using direct quotations is to incorporate them into their stories as much as possible.

Wrap-Up:

Ask some students to read their dialogue aloud. Discuss the common mishaps in punctuation and capitalization when writing direct quotations. Again, encourage your students to try using dialogue; they will learn how to use it the best by trying!

Subject:

Language Arts; Writing

Writing Process Stage:

Revising/Editing

Grades:

3-5

Concept:

Students begin to incorporate literary devices into their creative writing.

Teacher Background:

By third grade, students are ready to embrace the more formal literary tools. To bring stories to life, writers need to integrate imagery into their stories. Students need to try to “show, not tell” to enhance their writing. By being introduced to the tools of similes, metaphor, personification, onomatopoeia, and hyperbole, students will begin playing with imagery. A simple sentence quickly will become more of a scene if a writer focuses on how words are used.

Materials:

• Various sound materials (*see suggestions below)
• Paper & pen
• Note cards (6/student)
• Binding materials (staples or hole punch/yarn)

Anticipatory Set:

Explain that you are going to have the students listen to a bunch of different sounds. They are going to have the opportunity to write down the sounds. Emphasize that they are not going to write what the noises sound like, but the actual sounds themselves. Try several of the following:

• shake a bottle of water
• shake a bunch of paper clips
• sharpen a pencil
• drop something heavy on a desk
• slam a cupboard door
• knock on a wall
• drum your fingernails on a table
• fan a book’s pages

Directed Instruction:

1. Explain that writers have tools that they use to bring their writing to life. These tools are called Literary Devices. Literary Devices are a way to “show, don’t tell,” because they encourage a writer to think beyond the literal meanings of the words.
2. Hand out six note cards to each student.
3. Ask them to write the following words and definition on each card:
   1. Simile - a comparison between unlike objects using the words “like” or “as”
      • Give an example: My sister acts like an angel.
   2. Metaphor - a comparison between unlike objects NOT using the words “like” or “as”
      • Give an example: My sister is an angel. (metaphors are stronger than similes)
   3. Personification - giving an inanimate (lifeless) object human-like qualities
      • Give an example: The wind whispered to the dancing trees.
   4. Onomatopoeia - words that actually “make” their sound
      • Give an example: tick-tock, hiss, boom, crash, meow
   5. Hyperbole - a gross exaggeration
      • Give an example: My throat is on fire!

Group Activity:

1. On the sixth note card, ask students to write: Literary Devices
2. Bind the six note cards together in any order (staple, hole punch and thread yard, etc.)
3. Explain that the students now have a resource to consult when trying to revise their writing to make it stronger and more dramatic.
4. As group, go around the room and ask the students to volunteer their own examples of a simile. Ask them to add one or two of their own examples to their simile note card.
5. Do the same for each individual literary device. Kids feel empowered once they realize that they are able to play with the words and use such sophisticated literary devices on their own.

Wrap-Up:

Create a special place where students will begin to keep their writing resources, such as this new literary device reference. You may want to designate a special corner of the classroom. Let students know that they have resources now available to them for their writing endeavors.

Resource Suggestions:

• Writing utensils
• Editing pencils/pens (of another color)
• Personalized dictionaries
• Paper
• Literary device reference

Suggestions for individualized containers are:

• Magazine container
• Folders
• Pizza boxes
• Shoe boxes (plastic or cardboard)
• Binders
• Manila envelopes