Writers Pretend to be Our Own Readers

Writers pretend to be our own readers. We step outside of ourselves, pick up the text as if we have never seen it before, and we read it.

The mini lesson for this persuasive writing lesson was about revision. The teacher explained how sometimes in the morning, she is in a hurry and doesn't pay attention when she is dressing. One time she only had on one earring when she got to school. That night when she had more time, she really looked at herself in the mirror and noticed the lack of an earring. She explained that as writers, they had done the same thing. They typed their pieces, but they were in a hurry when they did it. So, now they were going to go back and look at it again to see if they needed to revise anything.

She talked to them about Radical Surgery and ways to do that surgery: cut & tape; post its; symbols*: spider legs.

Next came the writing time/conferencing time. I was able to talk to three students. Joey was writing a letter to his parents about getting a bird. Ariana was passionate about her topic: Puppy Mills. She even told her readers what they should do..."write your legislature". Anna was writing about sour lemonade. She had loads of post its at the bottom of her page, places to add or change her piece.

For sharing time, the class did one of my favorite types of sharing: Whip Share.  They did it in a circle and all could share the way they revised.

I was impressed with the language these fourth graders were using:
"I had a loss of energy with my piece"    
"I added some razzamatazz!"  
"I didn't have enough evidence, so I added two paragraphs of evidence."