English Language Arts and Reading.3.11.C

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The student is expected to

revise drafts to improve sentence structure and word choice by adding, deleting, combining, and rearranging ideas for coherence and clarity;

writing process TEKS talk image

Knowledge and Skills Statement

Composition: listening, speaking, reading, writing, and thinking using multiple texts--writing process. The student uses the writing process recursively to compose multiple texts that are legible and uses appropriate conventions.

Have students read a partner’s composition. Then have students discuss possible revisions and edits and rewrite the piece applying appropriate revisions.

Questions to consider:

  • Is the main idea clear?
  • Are ideas presented in an easy to follow order? How could they be improved?
  • What suggestions do you have for improving your partner’s writing?
     

Further Explanation

This SE requires students to review their drafts and identify places within the composition that are unclear or illogical. Students should be able to make necessary changes by choosing more precise and effective words, adding information to clarify meaning, deleting extraneous information that obscures meaning, combining ideas to avoid redundancies, and rearranging the ideas to ensure logical progression.

having a clear and tightly connected relationship among all the parts in an effective speech or piece of writing achieved by ordering ideas, sentences, and paragraphs logically
Students should be able to review their initial writing and identify places where the ideas are expressed in an unclear or illogical way. Students should make necessary changes by choosing more precise and effective words, adding information to clarify meaning, deleting extraneous information that obscures meaning, combining ideas to avoid redundancies, and rearranging ideas to ensure logical progression.
the grammatical arrangement of words in a sentence; how a sentence is constructed

Research

1. Ginty, E., Hawkins, J., Kurzman, K., Leddy, D., & Miller, J. (2016). A powerful tool: Writing based on knowledge and understanding. American Educator, 40(2), 33–38. Accessed online at https://eric.ed.gov/?q=teaching+students+to+write&ft=on&pg=5&id=EJ1104458

Summary: The National Writing Project (NWP) researchers studied the ways writers write. This work evolved into what has become known to teachers as the "writing process," an approach that has stressed the importance of stages in writing: prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing.

2. von Koss Torkildsen, J., Morken, F., Helland, W. A., & Helland, T. (2016). The dynamics of narrative writing in primary grade children: writing process factors predict story quality. Reading and Writing. 29(3), 529–554. doi.org/10.1007/s11145-015-9618-4

Summary: In this study of third grade school children,  the association between writing process measures recorded with key stroke logging and the final written product was investigated. Analyses of keystrokes showed that while most children made revisions while writing, few revised previously written text. Children with good reading and spelling abilities made more online revisions than their peers. The results show that developing writers’ ability to make online revisions in creative writing tasks is related to both the quality of the final written product and to individual literacy skills.

3. Saddler, B., Saddler, K., Befoorhooz, B., & Cuccio-Slichko, J. (2014). A national survey of revising practices in the primary classroom. Learning Disabilities: A Contemporary Journal, 12(2), 129+. Retrieved from https://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A395847923/PROF?u=tea&sid=PROF&xid=3fb82c16

Summary: A research survey of primary teachers indicates  that more time needs to be given to revision in the classroom. Students primary make surface-level revisions that do not improve writing. In order to for students to become stronger writers, revision must be integrated into the writing process.