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In my world of teaching and writing, revision is a constant companion. I look at my teaching and revise. Rarely am I following the lesson plan I wrote. I revise based on the direction my students need to take. And last week revision was something we needed to talk about.
I believe that revision is a mature behavior. Revision is having the confidence in a piece of writing to take the risk of changing it. Without even realizing it, I write in constant revision. As I write this post, I backspace. I save and read. Go back. Rephrase.
My students do this, too, as they type their pieces into the blog. Many of them are resistant to the two steps of rough draft in their notebooks, then typing into a final draft. But as I watch them, I see that revision becomes organic to this process.
Sometimes, revision comes from talk. We read the piece together. Discuss what we like. And look at where the words can be stronger.
I sat down with Kaiden to revise his abecedarian about wonder posted here. For the most part, this was an excellent piece of writing. The repeated word, wonder, was intentional and served a purpose. Yet there were a few words that weren’t quite working. So we looked at a list of Shakespeare words. This elevated Kaiden’s poem. There we found kindle. What a great word for K and for wonder! Engaging in this work with him was fun for both of us.
Ralph Fletcher tweeted:
Let’s relax about revision. If a piece of writing is a stepping stone to another piece, let it be. Use revision strategies on those gems, the ones you want to embrace and hug a little longer.
Reflections on the Teche 