Revision: "What I Learned"

Understanding the new school of thought about ‘revision’ is like opening up a new chapter of discovering ways to hook students to want to write and even write more! I feel like Encyclopedia Brown uncovering clues to a never ending story while unlocking effective teaching strategies based on quality research. Actually, I, myself, am beginning to feel more confident and looking forward to showing how these strategies will help my students experience writing success. Already, I feel empowered and jazzed about gaining this knowledge. Most importantly, I am learning so many new ways to help students understand how ‘revision’ plays a key role to bringing their writing to life! And that is what writing is all about; understanding what revision tools that will first help diagnose whatever the writing ailment is and what revision tools or strategies that will allow students to become critical readers of their own writing. My students will soon understand how wonderfully exciting the adventure of writing can be; we are all on the same team yearning for our stories to be told and understood.

And the Oscar goes to…exactly. Individuals like: Barry Lane, Nancy Atwell, Donald Graves, Ralph Fletcher, on and on should indeed receive the writing Oscar award or better yet a Writing Heisman Award for finding creative solutions of using ‘revision’ strategies towards improving our students' writing skills. Other noted educators have tested these strategies and found success in their own classrooms. And now it is up to us as teachers to do our part. And I really do agree with Lucy when she says, “And that’s what writing is all about Charlie Brown…revision.”