Elementary Activities on Revising Writing

Revising by adding interesting details and words helps elementary student writing quickly improve.

It you take the time to teach elementary kids a few interesting writing revision activities, you can increase the quality of their writing, and your reading pleasure as you assess it. Revision involves working with the words and ideas of a story to make it more interesting and detailed. When given a few tools in the form of engaging activities, elementary students can learn to successfully revise their writing.

Zoom In for Detail

Encourage elementary school children to write with greater detail by teaching them a revision activity with a name they will remember. Teach them to "Zoom In for Detail" when writing. Have students look for a place in their writing where a person, place, thing or action could be described with greater detail and circle it. Ask them to use their imaginations, and pretend to hold a pair of binoculars pointed at the words they circled. Students then pretend to zoom in on the circled words and describe what details they now see, hear or smell. Have them write the details on their rough draft as you explain that this is a revision technique.

Sentence Stretching

Have students revise short sentences by stretching them. Ask students to find a very short sentence in their writing. Post the words who, what, where, when, why and how in an easily visible spot. Have students examine the sentence that they circled to determine how more detail could be added. Tell them to use the posted question words as a guide in deciding what details can be added to the sentence to stretch it and make it longer.

Read Aloud Model

Choose a short children's story with highly descriptive language to read aloud to kids. Before reading it to students, ask students to write a story about the same subject as the subject of the book you chose. When students finish writing their stories, read the book that you chose aloud to students. Discuss all the descriptive language the author used, and create a list of the words and phrases the students mention. Ask students to point out similarities between the book and their stories. Have students work with partners to read and revise each other's stories to help each other find places where they could add some of the words and phrases they heard in the story, to their own writing.

Word Graveyard

Help students revise for weak word choice by creating a word "graveyard" poster. Give students a few examples of old, boring words that add little to a story such as good, nice or little. Draw a headstone on a large piece of poster board, and write the words that you gave as examples on the poster. Title the poster "Word Graveyard." Have students look in their stories to find words that are common, boring and not descriptive. List the words that the students find on the word graveyard poster. Explain that the words on the graveyard poster can no longer be used. Have students revise all rough drafts by circling the words from the graveyard poster that they find in their stories and replacing them with more interesting, detailed words.

References

• Read, Write, Think: Help a Child Edit and Revise