Helping Young Students Build Confidence in Writing Through Revision

As an elementary writing teacher who is enthusiastic about revision, I understand that it is a tough concept to teach. It sometimes feels rigid and formatted, leaving students unwilling or unable to try. At its worst, it is a method to “fix” students’ writing, giving them the sense that their ideas are wrong and forcing them to censor their work. It hampers individuality and generates a “just tell me what you want me to say” attitude. At its best, though, it is critical thinking, creative wordplay, and even social justice, developed through direct activities and a natural process to reenvision a piece.

Drawing inspiration from my writing fellows and Jamaica Kincaid’s quote, “I write a lot in my head. The revision goes on internally. It’s not spontaneous and it doesn’t have a schedule,” caused me to expand my approach. In my writing lessons, I’ve adopted a more fluid, reflective progression rather than adhering to strict guidelines. I blend this approach with more traditional methods such as step-by-step procedures, checklists, and rubrics.

Each year, I open with an informal writing assessment to analyze students’ needs and interweave some or all of the following strategies to build a more complete understanding of the process.

Revision: Not Just for Writing

Connect thinking between content areas. In any STEM lessons, I guide students to a broader definition of revision by applying the word interchangeably with other words such as rethink, innovate, and rework. We discuss the importance of its value in those settings. This helps develop a natural understanding for younger learners.

Combine STEM opportunities with creative writing. I have found that combining the two helps reluctant writers to buy into the concept. I use Lego bricks as a metaphor, making the association that just like words in a story, Legos snap together to create, but when interchanged, they make something new. This extends thinking beyond writing and is a great visual.

Students in my class use basic tools to take apart smaller broken electronics or technology supplied by parents. They explore them internally, categorize, measure, and “Frankenstein” the pieces with art supplies to make a hodgepodge creature. After analyzing the monster in The Lightning Thief, these become inspirations for creative writing. This task involves investigation and application across disciplines with a discussion tie-in to revision.

Analyze artwork. I use Monet’s approach of revisiting the same subject and re-seeing it differently each time based on a range of factors as a bridge to revision in writing.

Revision should develop analytical reasoning

Link to the value of revision. Using mentor texts beyond the curriculum reinforces the idea that writers deliberately select words and ideas to affect readers. Jason Reynolds partly displays his word choice process in Ain’t Burned All the Bright, while Cassie Beasley, in her acknowledgments for Circus Mirandus, discusses the community of writers who helped her.

Rather than hide my own messy process, I model it and my thinking, start to finish, including setting aside the piece and coming back to it multiple times. We analyze choices that authors make, especially those that may seem unconventional. This opens a discussion for word nuance, literary devices, and an authentic voice in writing. It invites the usage of other languages, dialects, and slang. Our aim is not to perfect a piece, which can be a suppression of a voice, but to find a voice.

My students write in a journal I have made filled with revision prompts. They reflect a wide range of topics that require creative thinking, such as revising a unicorn, a rainbow, a favorite video game, or a story. I include social justice issues like altering a school rule or a stereotype that they or someone they know has experienced. Students must reason and justify, expanding critical thinking.

Revision should be a positive experience

Create a trusting, collaborative classroom writing community. Initially, we share writing without judgment or feedback, only appreciation, to allow students to value their contributions no matter the skill level. When my students and I ease into giving feedback, we always start with a positive and then move to something that needs more clarity.

Trust your instincts. Growth and mistakes will occur for both you and your students. I am not afraid to learn alongside them and grant all of us grace. I understand that what works well for one class of students may not have the same outcome for another. I constantly evolve strategies on a student-to-student basis.

We design awards for stories and the “whys” for them. This offers higher-level evaluation and stepping stones to revision. We write personal narratives about events such as watching fireworks on the Fourth of July and then flip the narrative to the point of view of the fireworks. We redraft a story into a comic or a letter into a poem to reimagine a piece. We translate foreign language poems, without knowledge of the language or translation apps, to create our own image of the piece.

Making these changes has increased my students’ confidence and experimentation with writing. They have a view that writing is fun, see that revision is powerful, and are ready to take on higher-level writing concepts in upper grades.