Sunday, July 19, 2009

I'll do it my way: Three Writers and their revision practices- Stephanie Dix

Acoording to this research, children have different ways to achieve revision. One student compare and revise most of their texts internally before writing them down, the second student do revision as needed in all stages of writing, sharing their writing with a friend to help them get more ideas. the third student is more in rereading and revising as they progress,according to the teachers's expectations. In this study they found out that students revisted their writing, altering it in variety of forms,but the good thing is that all of the three make cognitive decisions in terms of what to change according to the purposes and in their own different and personal ways. The author states: “The students’ diverse ways of learning to write provides another challenge for the teachers classroom” That is true but also it is true that as teachers we need to respect our student’s technique for writing and revision. Modeling and exposing different techniques is also important. The more comfortable the students are with their own technique, the more they are going to achieve towards their goals in their writing.
For me, it doesn't matter which way the students approach their revision. The only thing that matters is that their writing has accuracy.

4 comments:

  1. I agree wholeheartedly when you say "modeling and exposing different techniques is also important." We should respect that our students have different writing processes, but they may need to try out quite a few different techniques before they find what works for them!

    ReplyDelete
  2. How powerful it might be for us to start treating our students as writers!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Yes, not only should we encourage them to use their own approach in revising, but we should also help them discover what their particular method is. They need to see for themselves what they are doing. Once they recognize and appreciate their own revision process, then perhaps they will be encouraged to take revision seriously.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I agree with Tara! We do need to view our students are writers and help them believe that every day. I love the idea of figuring out particular methods. Christy

    ReplyDelete