How do you teach editing skills to elementary students? What are some strategies for revising writing? If you have ever asked these questions or anything similar, you’re in the right place! This post shares ideas that help with effective editing practice for upper elementary students. These revision exercises can be used for in-person and online learning.
PLUS you can grab some FREE editing and proofreading worksheets to use in your classroom.
The Main Problem with Editing Practice for Upper Elementary
Why do we need to teach revising in the writing process? Well, in a nutshell, it’s because every writer makes mistakes during the process.
Since our students are still learning important grammar rules, they are bound to make mistakes.
This makes editing practice for upper elementary essential!
But there’s one huge problem I’ve run into when teaching proofreading: getting students to apply it to their own writing.
Usually the process flows like this:
- my kiddos learn a grammar skill with a mentor sentence (WHOO-HOO!)
- they practice the skill in isolation and become masters at correcting that mistake (YAY!)
- then they turn around and make the same mistake in their own writing (UGHH!)
Now don’t get me wrong, I am not against mentor sentences or practicing grammar apart from writing.
In fact, I LOVE having daily grammar practice to sharpen those skills.
But in this post, I want to share effective ways to connect editing with writing. Not only that, but these ideas go beyond simple sentences with editing longer paragraphs.
Provide a Checklist of What Errors to Look For
Even though I adore using guessing games in the classroom, I don’t think they work for budding proofreaders.
For students who especially struggle with editing, having guidelines boost their confidence because they know what they are looking for.
So when I start teaching revising, I give my students a checklist of the types of errors they should correct.
We begin this process by focusing on paragraph correction worksheets before applying the checklist to their own paragraph writing.
This editing practice for upper elementary students works whether we are doing a whole group lesson or literacy centers.
By using these editing checklists consistently, students build “proofreading habits” that become second nature when they are correcting their own writing later.
The one caveat I will give here is that you must MODEL for your students how to use the checklist correctly!
Don’t just assume that they will refer to it on their own the very first time.
For this activity, I love the “I Do, We Do, You Do” approach. It allows me to demonstrate the correct editing technique, then monitor their practice before allowing them to use it independently.
Consistently Include Revising Practice Activities
In the first section, I mentioned a little word that leads to big results: HABITS.
After reading Atomic Habits by James Clear, I started looking for ways to apply his theories about habit building in my teaching.
Instead of being overwhelmed by one big writing unit, I make time for smaller editing assignments each day.
Around 10-15 minutes works for me.
I started asking myself, “In what ways am I allowing editing practice for my students?”
This question led to a list of ideas that can be used for upper elementary students:
- weekly paragraph editing worksheets during literacy centers
- proofreading task card activities
- putting students in small groups to correct writing on anchor charts
- peer editing activities
- finding memes, Tweets, and other “grammar mistakes” on the internet to correct
This is not the full list, but they are some of my favorite examples that have worked over the years.
Give Spiraled Grammar Editing Practice
To piggyback off the previous section, I have found amazing results with my students in the past when I spiraled my grammar lessons.
So first of all, what does it mean to “spiral” your lessons?
Spiral review in the classroom means that you are addressing skills and concepts repeatedly throughout the school year.
It is the opposite of just teaching a unit or academic standard once, testing students, then moving on.
When I spiral my grammar lessons, students complete weekly paragraph editing worksheets that revisit the revising skills we’ve already practiced.
Since they are combining this with editing checklists, they are getting effective practice every single week.
This video clip shows all of the academic standards that are covered in my 40-week grammar editing worksheet set which is available HERE in my Teachers Pay Teachers store.
Remember when I talked about building small habits?
This is why spiraling works wonders during editing practice for upper elementary students!
By consistently applying the same proofreading skills over time, students build stronger “editing muscles” when they revise their own writing.
Be Sure to Connect Editing with Writing
So far, I’ve shared quick tips on how to help students master revising and editing.
We started with editing checklists, moved on to consistent practice that includes spiraling grammar skills.
Now for the final piece of the puzzle: connecting editing with writing.
To solve the main problem with proofreading practice, students must immediately apply corrections to writing.
It’s not enough to just revise and edit grammar mistakes in isolation.
In the past, when I only gave proofreading worksheets, students would ace those activities, but then make the same grammar mistakes in their own writing.
Even though it takes extra time, I now have students rewrite the entire paragraph immediately after revising it!
This ensures that they make the connection between the work they did on editing with the skill of writing.
Then when they are writing their own paragraphs and essays, they are more likely to apply these grammar rules.
Don’t Leave Out the FUN!
Let’s face it, with all this editing practice, upper elementary students may get bored or burned out!
Which defeats the purpose.
So I make sure to give them paragraph proofreading topics that are engaging and interesting to read.
This is actually a bonus win-win they are getting practice editing AND practice reading informational text passages.
Once I teach students how to use our editing checklists and how to rewrite the paragraph correctly, then they can complete these independently while I focus on teaching a small group.
That’s the power of a good no-prep, spiraled grammar activity!
As long as I choose high-interest topics, students are free to consistently work on building their editing and writing skills.
To give you more insight into the types of topics I use, here’s a YouTube video that shows my Weekly Paragraph Editing Set with 40 weeks of spiraled revising and writing practice:
If you are interested in purchasing this resource for your class, it’s available HERE in my TpT store.
You can also grab this FREE sample of the editing resource–also from my TpT store.
But wait, what about the online learning part mentioned in the intro?
I wasn’t going to leave my online teacher friends hanging. All of my proofreading exercises come in a Google Slides version!
Your virtual learning students can slide the highlighting bar over each grammar mistake. Then they can type the entire paragraph with all of the corrections.
In-person teachers who are 1-to-1 can also use this digital feature in class.
Hopefully these simple tips give you some ideas for how to keep your students engaged with editing practice.
Let me know in the comments your biggest frustrations when teaching grammar.
Happy Teaching
