Companion Writing Lesson: Edit and Finalize Piece
Getting Ready
The materials:
Reflections handout
Editing checklist
Writing rubric
Present a 5- to 10-minute mini-lesson on editing skills—make it fit your students’ needs, then students edit and finalize their pieces. I often provide an editing checklist to complete as they confer and then double check. Have a class discussion on options of how to make these pieces go public. Do we post in the hall or a bulletin board? Do we create a class book? How would they like their writing displayed so that others might read it? Since this is one of the first opinion or persuasion pieces, I use these as a baseline and have students compare future pieces to these to show growth.
Students reflect and self-assess their writing. I either have them write a short paragraph about what they learned and their process, or I can provide them with a reflection sheet with specific questions such as some of the choices below:
How did you choose your topic and your opinion?
Explain your revision process. How did you make sure you included reasons and details? Do you think you supported your opinion well? Why or why not?
What did you learn about transition words?
How did you edit your piece? Besides self-editing, did you use other people or tools? Explain how you got your piece “audience ready.”
What have you learned about writing opinions or persuasive pieces?
At the end of the reflection piece, there is a six-trait writing rubric (available at www.corwin.com/thecommoncorecompanion) divided into two columns—one for the student to self-assess, the second for me to record my scores. This is another informal assessment for me: Does the student view their writing progress with the same lens I do?
I walk the room to celebrate and read each other’s writing!
Third-Grade Adaptation
In the fourth-grade sequence, students were comparing the POV between two texts. In third grade, students are determining the POV of the text and then comparing it to their own point of view. Our thinking often changes as we read a text, especially as a character is developed and changes as the text progresses. That’s why it’s important in third grade to stop periodically and determine if the character’s or narrator’s POV has changed and why and if the reader’s reaction to the character has changed—and why.
Third graders need to be able to define point of view and determine who is telling the story.
The purpose of this lesson is to determine who is telling the story and ask questions about their point of view and how the student knows this. During reading, the student should decide if he agrees or disagrees with that point of view.
Once students understand point of view, choose a text with a strong point of view (Michael Teague’s Ike LaRue picture books are excellent for third grade.) As you read, stop and model and think aloud how you would answer these questions:
Who is telling the story and why?
What is the main character’s POV? Stop periodically and note if it’s the same or if it has changed. What causes it to change?
What details help me know this?
As I read, what do I think about the main character? Do I find I agree or disagree with how he behaves? Why? (This is wonderful question to show how as readers we bring our own viewpoints and so each of us may have a different perspective.)
What do I think about things in the end?
On the next day, follow a similar model of gradual release as shown in the fourth-grade lesson and allow students to record their thinking. This could be as simple as having one color sticky notes to identify who is telling the story, and then three other sticky notes numbered 1, 2, and 3 for students to record their answers and thinking to the question “What do I think about the main character . . .” at different points throughout the story.
Finally, have students discuss or record what they think about things in the end.
Continue to practice these skills until students can ask and answer the questions independently.
The Mark Teague books on LaRue (there are four) are all incredibly entertaining. To reinforce short bursts of opinion writing, I will have students write a paragraph explaining which one they like best and why. This is an example of “on-demand” writing where students write a piece in a sitting without revision, for example. These pieces also reflect student writing at the beginning of the year.
OR
Core Connections
Grade 3
Reading Standard 3
Distinguish their own point of view from that of the narrator or those of the characters.
Fifth-Grade Adaptation
By fifth grade, students should understand point of view and author’s intent. The difference is that they need to describe how that affects the description of the events in the text. Novels written from different perspectives are a wonderful way to teach this standard; however, it takes time to work through an entire novel. For a shorter lesson, I go back to the sports column, using one sporting event but pulling articles from the hometowns of each team. Columnists have a strong point of view and they will describe the events of the game from that vantage. In addition, the word choice is generally terrific and sports columnists write with strong verbs. Finally, these articles can be quickly found on the day you need them (Google!) and either displayed on an interactive whiteboard or downloaded and printed.
The purpose for this lesson is to identify the narrator’s or speaker’s point of view and describe how that affects how the events in the text are depicted.
Pass out the first article (I generally start with the home town) and either read through it together (shared experience) or have students read it independently. In this first reading, they should be determining the POV and how they figure it out.
When finished with the first reading, turn and talk or share thinking with the group. In the second reading, students should highlight where in the text the author describes specific events. Then they should code (leave tracks