Revision: Learning to See Our Writing

with New Eyes

Connie LindseyRegion XV

July 8, 2005

Who am I?

• I teach English 3, AP Language & Comp, and Newspaper at Brownwood HS.

• I have taught English in grades 7-11 for 24 years.• I am a Texas Schoolmarm! Visit my

website at www.texasschoolmarm.net

My students are mainly college-bound juniors who are very grade conscious.

They want to be ready for college,

but they come into junior English with few analytical skills.

Brownwood High SchoolHome of The Mighty Lions

• 4A high school • Enrollment—

1059 • Beginning

3-year campus remodeling

Brownwood High School

BISD: 59% Economically DisadvantagedBHS: 38.6% (Open campus for lunch)

Ethnicity:

8% African American

30.6% Hispanic

61% White

2005 TAKS Scores:

BHS State

9th Reading 85% (82%)

10th ELA 74% (67%)

11th ELA 90% (88%)

SAT, Class of 2003

Took SAT: BHS State Mean score: BHS State 66.4% 62.4% 1005

989

Revision: Learning to See Our Writing

with New Eyes

“The hardest thing about writing is to look at your own work objectively, without being in love with it.” Bill Broyles, screenwriter

Revision is …

A chore for most writers.

What students avoid at all costs.

What do you

MEAN “rewrite it”?

•“I don’t do that sort of thing when I write.”

•“I don’t need to revise.”

•“If I change anything, it will mess everything up.”

Revision is more than …

just changing a few words.

But it isn’t necessarily making changes on every piece of writing nor writing dozens of drafts.

Revision IS, however,the only way to make sure that the reader will know exactly what we see, what we feel, what we see, what we believe.

“My basic rule as a writer is don’t be too easily fooled. Every draft I write, I think, ‘This is wonderful. It’s done; I don’t need to change a word.’…”

“And then I sit down and rewrite it.

I did over 100 drafts of Cast Away.”

Bill Broyles, screenwriter

“Such analytical behaviors must be cultivated in the classroom, and my role is to help students develop these behaviors.”

David P. Noskin

Revising requires a breaking down of the

text.

“During the process of revision, my role is to help students learn how to remove themselves

from their own work.”

How can we help our

students take a fresh look

at their writing and be willing to make

significant changes

“We ask our students to generate new aspects of their topics once they bring a rough draft to class.”

•Write two new introductions / conclusions.

•Switch the point of view (from third to first).

•Add dialogue where you had description of an event.

•Describe a person mentioned in the paper.

•Describe a personal event related to an argument in the paper.

Tchudi, Estrem & Hanlon “Unsettling Drafts: Seeing New Possibilities”

Good Luck!