Students often get overwhelmed when attempting to edit their own or (a classmate’s) writing for grammar errors. Breaking down the process into three steps can help them learn to be more confident and more effective editors at any level.
1. Explain the concept.
Write on the board the following three statements:
I know this is correct.
I’m not sure if this is correct.
I know this isn’t correct.
In their first language, students know when they’ve made a mistake and usually self-correct.
Explain to students that, in their first language, they know when they’ve made a mistake and usually self-correct. Tell students that they can learn to develop that “sense” in a second language, as well. Give examples by putting three level-appropriate words on the board that are difficult to spell, with one spelled correctly and the other two spelled incorrectly. Ask students to identify which of the three statements on the board express their feelings about the spelling of each word.
2. Practice the Process.
Provide students with a short student-written paragraph that has level-appropriate errors in it. Ask students to identify the statements that they are sure are correct, that they are not sure about, and they know are incorrect by underlining, highlighting, and circling. Then, have them compare.
3. Narrow the Focus.
Explain to the students that they should only focus on fixing the problems in their writing that they are sure about. It is worth explaining to students that focusing on too many problems at one time is both de-motivating and ineffective.
This is a very interesting idea. I am going to try this in my next ESOL writing class. Thank you. By the way, you might want to change the following sentence in your article. The first two clauses are independent clauses separated by a comma, making it a comma splice error. “Explain that in their first language, students know when they’ve made a mistake, and usually self-correct.” Also, I would remove the second comma as the words after the coordinating conjunction (and) do not form an independent clause. I wish you an excellent day!
Hi Leslie, thanks for catching that. We just made an edit.
Very helpful. I will use your process, as it will hopefully restore some confidence to my writing student. Thank you!!
Thank you! I hope it works well with your students. When I presented the concept to my current writing class a couple of weeks ago, the students seemed to be very ready for something like this as evidenced by the number of nodding students I saw around the room!
Another benefit of this technique is it helps students to become more aware of their own strengths and weaknesses in terms of grammar and editing.
Thanks for the idea. I work hard to get my advanced writing to self-correct. They truly want to be able to see their own errors. They often edit correct structures and miss the most glaring level one errors. I will try this strategy hoping that it may help them to become better at this.