Sophie Dean

Lesson Plan Two: Revision Workshop

Learning Outcomes:

Students should be able to demonstrate an understanding of writing as

a process that involves composing, editing, and revising.
Students should be able to approach their own writing critically and be
able to implement effective revision strategies.
Materials:

1. Student Sources
2. 17 handouts of sample text

Instructional Procedures:

Free Write: 5 minutes

Ask the students to complete a free-write reflecting on their own

revision process.
What kinds of questions are they asking when revising? How do they
respond to and incorporate peer review feedback within their paper?
Do they like to scrap entire paragraphs and start from scratch, reword
sentences, or simply move sentences/paragraphs around?

Discuss Responses to Free Write: 5 minutes

Ask for students to share what strategies they find most helpful, and
what parts of the revising process are difficult for them.
Group Work: Revising Strategies: 15 minutes

Introduce revision as a holistic process focusing on global rather than

local errors
Divide students into 4 groups of 4 (1 group will be of 5 because there
are 17 students)
Group 1: Revising for Ideas and Content
o Does the author go into enough detail?
Group 2: Organization
o Does the argument flow in a logical order?
Group 3: Word Choice
o Does the author use appropriate terminology/vocab? Is a word
misleading?
Group 4: Clarity/Concision
 o Are the sentences clear and concise? Do they simply get the
point across?
The groups will examine a piece of student writing (attached is a
sample student essay but this can be substituted for an article of
current student writing/drafts)

Discuss Group Work: 10 minutes

Ask for students to share what they discussed in their groups, call on
each group to present on what strategies and elements they found
successful/not successful in revising and within the text
Exit Slip: 3 minutes
Ask students to briefly jot down two things they learned about revision
before they leave class.

Method of Assessment:

Students will complete a short exit slip to demonstrate that they have picked
up at least two revision concepts from the lesson. Their knowledge will also
be assessed in the peer review workshops that follow this lesson, as they will
have the opportunity to apply some revision strategies in constructively
responding to the writing of their peers.

Reflection

The free write activity serves to encourage students to share their own
experience with writing and the writing process, a concept that bell hooks
champions in her essay Engaged Pedagogy, making the classroom an open
environment that welcomes student experiences to enrich academic
discussion.

Another reading I continue to revisit is the revised Blooms Taxonomy, which

emphasizes the importance of directly tying in objectives into classroom
activities and lesson plans. I kept this guiding principle in mind when
designing this plan through my activity, which involves the students
reflecting on their own experience with the revision process and practices,
which relate directly to the ENGL101 objective of learning writing as a
process rather than product.
Sample Handout of Text for Revising: