How can portfolios help students with the revision process?

[Tracey Albee]

This is my fifth year teaching at Spanish Springs High School. I currently teach freshman and junior English, however I did teach sophomores for four years. It has been an adventure teaching a class of between 29 and 32 students the wonderful subject of English. I know that English can be a boring subject and the least favorite subject for students so I have tried really hard (especially this past year) to create an environment that is fun, creative, and supportive for all students reading and writing abilities. I try very hard to make the connections to rel life situations and have many discussions with them on the importance of reading and writing. I want my students to realize that it is really important for their future to be able to read and write. I am very big on vocabulary and want my students to not only expand their vocabulary but also use the new vocabulary they have learned in their writing.

 

I consider myself a good teacher of reading strategies but am weak in writing strategies. Although I have many different writing assignments in class. I want to improve my writing to help my students improve theirs. I want to improve how I teach writing and learn strategies that will help my students go beyond what they think they can do.

 

I have tried doing writing portfolios in the past and they have failed miserably. I am also frustrated that my students don't actually edit and revise things they just turn the same paper in for their rough and final drafts. Therefore, my essential question is "How can portfolios help students in the revision process?" I really want my students to learn a good revision process that will help them write pieces for their portfolios. Next year at SSHS, we are going to implement a program called "Navigation 101". Part of this program is a portfolio that the students will be creating for all four years of high school. The portfolio includes writing pieces. I am hoping to research strategies that will help students revise their writing and present good writing pieces in their portfolio.

 

 

[Gia Maraccini]

Hey Tracey!

 

Portfolios are something that overwhelm me.  I am hoping you discover some wonderful ideas to make them more a more meaningful part of the classroom environment.  Teaching reading, for me as well, is where I have the most success.  Or at least it is where I feel I am the better teacher.  I have struggled to develop that same level for teaching writing. 

 

Kelly Rubero and Abby Olde gave me a revising technique that I use all the time now.  We ARRRG out our paper.  Each letter stands for one thing that they need to go back and do in their paper.  For example, A might be to add one color word and one of the Rs might be to remove on boring verb.  I have the students write ARRRG at the top of their paper and cross out each let as they work their way through their paper.  We make a big deal out of it being an ARRRG kind of day and the kids have fun making the sounds.  A lot of times the G is Get someone from the class to read over your paper and let you know what they think of your changes.  This let’s students pick who they think will give them some good input on their writing.  I am not sure if this would work in a high school setting, but I thought I would throw it out there to you. 

 

I also grade each draft of a paper.  I don't grade it for content, just a visual check to see evidence of revision.  They have to use a different color pen and skip lines on their rough draft, so I can see where they have worked on their piece.  I usually make each draft worth 10 points and just quickly check over it.  That helps push students to go back and spend some more time on their paper. 

 

Just some thoughts that might help you on your journey.  Good luck!

 

Gia

[Megan Garijo Pruitt]

Hi Tracy!

 

I always look forward to learning new revision strategies.  Through my inquiries & experiences in teaching, I have learned that revision is hard to teach!  But the way we can tell if a student values the concept of revision, if they have a desire to work on a piece of writing to make it the best they can with the skills we teach based on what they need to become better writers.  A simple, powerful strategy of revision is to teach them to re-read as they write to make every sentence count. 

I read in your blog that you will be having students keep portfolios throughout the years they are learning good writing techniques.  I think that is a great idea!  As teachers explicitly teach skills, students can go back in their writings and improve them.

Good luck with Navigation 101.  It will be interesting to learn about!

[Tracey Albee]

Gia,

 

Thank you for replying to my post. I am excited about researching this topic. I am really interested in learning a little bit more about the revising technique you mentioned. If there is something that you could give me to look at, I would love to have it. Revision seems like such a hard thing for the students to grasp. I am not sure if they just don't want to do it or if there is some way I could make it fun for them to want to do it.  Thanks for giving me something to think about.

 

Tracey

 

[Tracey Albee]

Megan,

 

I, too, hope that I fins some great revision techniques. I agree with you that it is a hard thing to teach students. I am hoping that teaching portfolios and having the students keep it throughout the years that revision will take place on its own. I think it will be interesting to see if the students will want to go back and revise papers to improve them. I am really excited to see where my research takes me. Thanks for your input.

 

Tracey