Podcast

Teaching Revision Skills: Writing Tip Wednesday Series

Revision is an important skill to teach students but it can often be difficult for them to grasp. For many students, the idea of going back to “fix” something they already finished can seem confusing – or even frustrating! After all, first and second graders often feel proud of completing a piece of writing and may believe it’s perfect as-is. Yet, learning to revise is crucial to developing their writing abilities.



By teaching revision skills early, we help students see that writing is a process. They learn that revisiting their work allows them to add details, make their stories clearer, and improve their ideas. Revision isn’t about finding mistakes; it’s about finding ways to make their thoughts shine even brighter.


Why Teach Revision Skills to Early Writers?

Just like other subjects, we want students to develop their writing muscle. Need them to improve in math? Practice addition and subtraction facts. Want to get better at reading? Make sure to read daily. If we want our students to get better at writing, we need them to write daily.


While we wouldn’t have them formally practice their revising skills daily, it is still a writing muscle that needs to get flexed often to improve. If you are teaching through the writing process (like I teach), then students will be practicing revision each time they publish a piece of writing.


The writing process I teach through my writing units is:


  • Plan - Students use a variety of graphic organizers to plan their writing.

  • Write - Students write their story during independent writing time.

  • Revise - Students reread their story and make revisions.

  • Edit - Students focus on the mechanics of writing.

  • Publish - Students finish their story using their best work.

Explaining Revision to Students

Last week’s blog post, Adding Details to Writing, was all about getting students to improve their writing in response to the “add more” prompt we often give them during writing time.  When students are adding details, they are learning how to revise their writing - without even knowing it!


When it comes time to officially teach revision, it’s important to choose our words carefully. Many students have the misconception that revision means to “fix” writing. Revision is really a way to improve our writing for our reader. 


After we revise, then we will “fix” our writing during the editing process. Editing we will add capitalization, punctuation, and fix misspelled words.


Teach a Revision Process

Here at Shared Teaching, I’m big at following a set process. Teaching writing is no different so of course I like to follow a process during revision.


When students know what to expect and this process is repeated often, it becomes automatic - just like their math facts after practice. While you can teach students to revise using cutesy acronyms such as ARMS, I also like to make sure they know what it means to revise. If they understand what revision is, they will have an easier time at checking their writing.


For my second graders, I always used a checklist (which can be found in my writing units). Having a checklist for students to follow takes away a lot of the guessing of what they are looking for. Instead, a checklist is a concrete list they can move through to check their writing.


Take It Slowly

Last, you’ll want to make sure to go through each step of the checklist one at a time. You know your students best. If they are struggling to write, you might only want to focus on the first step of the checklist - adding details. Hopefully you have been doing some mini lessons about ways to add details like we discussed last week. This way when you tell students to check their writing to add details, they are clear on your expectations.


Once you’ve spent a mini lesson on each of the revision checklist steps, you can release the responsibility to your students to go through all the steps on their own. This will take some time and it will likely not be until at least the second piece of writing they publish.


If we think of it like math or reading practice, we wouldn’t expect them to be proficient after only one practice session. Have patience and make sure to explicitly model exactly what you are looking for.


Happy revising!


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