5 Peer Conferencing Revision Strategies That Actually Work

From this post I found some fun and interactive ideas to help my students with revision

Revising and editing a peer's writing helps students learn to work as a team. It also gives them a fresh perspective on the proofreading process that will help them become more aware as they write and edit their own work. So, how can you make the peer review and editing process engaging, meaningful and fun for students? Here are five ways to get your students excited about peer review that actually work!

1. Neon Revision
   
   Many kids don't know what or where to mark when reading another student's work. Neon revision is an approach that can really help. First, give each student or pair of students three highlighters and these instructions:
   
   Highlighter Markers: 3 Colors
   Yellow – Mark the first word of each sentence. Questions to think about: Is there variety? Does the writer use transitional words? Are there any sentence fragments or run-ons?
   Pink – Highlight each adjective. Think about: Is the writing descriptive? Are the adjectives strong and specific? 
   Blue – Highlight each verb. Think about: Are there too many "to be" verbs? Are the verb choices strong? 
   
   Students begin by highlighting specifics. Then, remind them to look at the big picture. After highlighting, they can make comparisons and add suggestions about what the student needs to add, adjust or remove. Proofreading will come later. First, they are helping a peer with sentence fluency and word choice—both descriptive language and "showing without telling."
   
   Teach students about the revision sandwich: compliment, suggest, correct. Remind students that when reviewing someone's work, always start out by saying what they like about their work. Next, they make a suggestion and converse with their partner. Students ask questions. Then, they make corrections. By working together, they both learn from each other.
2. Writing Wheel Checklist
   
   Have students assemble their writing wheels using this template, a piece of plain paper and a brad for the center. To assemble, cut out both circles and attach with the brad. Explain that they will use the writing wheel checklist to help them edit one another's writing. Students should do each task on the wheel as they review another's work. The writing wheel checklist is portable, so students could even check their peers' writing from home on a class blog! Students can post their writing on a kid-friendly blogging site such as sKidblog or Weebly, where peers can write comments. Using their writing wheel as a reference, students will know how to assess their classmates' compositions for conventions.
   
   Click here for a PDF of the Writing Wheel Checklist.
3. Revising vs. Editing (What's the Difference?)
   
   
   Students need to know the difference between revising and editing in order to help refine their peers' writing. Revising makes writing better. Editing makes writing correct. A popular approach in many classrooms is to use the acronyms ARMS (for revising) and CUPS (for editing).
   
   Revising (The big picture)
   Add words and sentences (be descriptive, capture all ideas).
   Remove words and sentences (be concise).
   Move words and sentences (sentence fluency, organization).
   Substitute words and sentences (word choice, voice).
   
   
   Editing (Conventions)
   Capitalization
   Usage (Verbs and nouns—does it make sense?)
   Punctuation
   Spelling
   
   To help students with their understanding, say you use your arms and hand to hold your ear to help them remember that when you revise, you want the writing to sound better. If you punch a hole in a cup and look through it, you are using your eyes. This will help them remember that when you edit, you want your writing tolook better. Students could even create a telescope made out of a paper cup and call it their Revisoscope! Check out Busy Bee Kids Crafts to see how to construct one. Once students know the difference between revising and editing and have the acronyms memorized, they can jot them down on a Post-it note when checking a peer's writing. The acronyms will remind students of what to look for and how writing can be improved to make it look and sound better!
4. Proofreading Spectacles
   
   Put your proofreading spectacles on, it's time to edit! To make editing for conventions fun, have students wear crazy glasses with the lenses popped out of them. It will motivate students and encourage them to look closely at their peers’ writing. Remind students to always reread to check for misunderstandings in writing. You can purchase glasses at the dollar store or a party supply store. You could also have students create their own glasses out of paper.

1. Switch! Revising and Editing Stations
   
   
   Set up six stations around the room. Label each station with one of the following titles:
   1. Word Choice
   2. Ideas and Content
   3. Organization
   4. Sentence Fluency
   5. Voice
   6. Conventions
   
   Print out Be the Editor task cards for students to use when revising and editing at each station. Students use Zaner-Bloser's task cards to help them discuss and check one another's writing! The task cards provide the children with prompts, making editing/revising easier. By concentrating on one writing trait at a time at each station, students will not feel overwhelmed. Along with the task cards, put out highlighters, sticky notes, colored pencils and other writing utensils to keep students interested.

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11 Vocab Review Games to Make the Learning Stick

Here are 11 classroom games with free downloadable reproducibles perfect for practicing new vocabulary or test facts. Hope you find them useful! 

• Oranges to Oranges: Quick, define "chimerical"! Based on the popular game Apples to Apples, this is a great way to practice and expand on weekly vocab words or terms from your latest unit.
  
• Fun With Synonyms: Guess That Word: Can your students guess a word by its synonym? They can after playing this game! Having students create the cards—researching the synonyms—is an important part of the learning too!
  
• Vocab-Categories: Just like with Scattergories, kids have to think and use vocab words creatively to win the game. The download includes letter cut-outs, vocab-category lists and make-your-own list cards.
  
  
• Vocabulary Land Game Board: This is one of my favorites—I loved creating this board game! If you have access to a laminator, print and laminate 8 to 10 boards for your classroom and use dry-erase markers. Instant classroom game or language arts station!
  
• You're on a Roll Dice Game: This game gives students the chance to improve their vocabulary skills while playing with their friends.
  
• Vocabulary Checkers: To move checkers on the board, players must use the vocabulary word in the square correctly in a sentence. Challenge students to build on one another's sentences to tell a quick story or to make up the silliest sentences that they can.
  
• Bracket Battles Vocabulary Game: With bracket battles, the best word always wins. Students have to sort the words into parts of speech to play. So you sneak in a little categorization practice at the same time!
  
  

• Bingo Vocabulary Game: Admit it, everyone secretly loves bingo. Now your students can play while simultaneously enhancing their vocabulary skills. Give away new pencils as the prize and maybe your students will finally give up those tiny stubby ones.
  
  
• Color Your Vocabulary Activity: Challenge students to creatively use their vocabulary words to label pictures. It's harder than it looks!
  
  

• Picabulary Vocabulary Game: Divided into teams, students have to creatively draw out vocabulary word meanings for their teammates to guess. Chances are, they are going to make you draw too. Be forewarned!
  
  
• Think-Tac-Toe: To execute their tic-tac-toe strategy (three in a row), students must complete the vocabulary activity within each square. Two students (or two halves of the class) can take turns choosing squares. If it ends in a draw, that means you snuck in more vocab practice!
  

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Playground Prepositions

Another fun activity to do outside while the weather is nice....

Video: English is Crazy

I love this. I have this conversation with many students learning english as their second (or third +) language. English IS crazy!

Short activities to do using a newspaper

I love the idea of using Current Events in the classroom. I really love the "What in the World" series that some schools subscribe to. But, when you don't have access to that, this is a great way to use newspapers for numerous activities.... This website had some great ideas...

Icebreaker:
Before class begins, select an interesting or timely newspaper story or editorial.

•	Make copies of the article and place one on each student's desk.
•	As students arrive, have them read the article.
•	After a few minutes, open a class discussion about the article. Encourage lively conversation, allowing students to interject their own ideas and opinions.
•	After a brief debate, ask students if they read the newspaper each day.
•	Remind students that the newspaper can be an exciting and thought-provoking source of information. Tell them that they can also use the newspaper to practice and review grammar skills, as they will be doing today.

Stress Reliever:
If the class energy level rises too high, give your students an opportunity to relax and read a newspaper for pleasure.

•	Encourage them to select articles or features they find interesting.
•	They can look at advertisements, read advice columns, study editorials, solve puzzles, or skim the day's news.
•	After reading, students can share with the class what they have read.
•	Encourage them to tell why they selected the sections they did and what they learned.

Transition:
If you have a few free minutes, you can challenge students to newspaper grammar searches, such as the following:

•	Copy a sentence and highlight its subject and predicate.
•	Find a sentence in the past perfect tense.
•	Find a sentence that has a subordinate clause. Find the subordinate conjunction.
•	Find a fact and an opinion in one article.

Grammar Hunt:
Materials: newspapers, What's In the News? Activities
Give pairs of students a newspaper or a section of a newspaper.

•	Tell students they will be using the newspaper for a grammar scavenger hunt.
•	Pass out the What's In the News? Activities and read the rules.
•	Review the grammatical elements in the chart and provide examples. You may wish to have students use their grammar textbooks as references.
•	Have pairs search for about 20 minutes. Be sure to assist students when necessary.
•	At the end of the hunt, have pairs total their points. If possible, provide a small reward for the winners.
•	Encourage students to share the examples of each grammatical element they found.
•	You may wish to provide additional rewards for teams that found especially difficult or unique examples.

The Proofers:
Materials: newspapers, highlighting pens
Tell students that the newspaper is carefully proofread before it is printed. Explain, however, that even the best proofreaders occasionally make mistakes.

•	Give each student one or more articles, preferably ones that have grammar, spelling, or punctuation errors.
•	Instruct students to proofread their articles, asking questions such as: – Do all sentences have a subject and a verb? – Do all subjects and verbs agree? – Are possessives used correctly? – Is there an antecedent for every pronoun? – Are there any unnecessary or confusing shifts in tense? – Are all words spelled correctly? – Are all sentences punctuated properly?
•	Have students gather in groups to decide how to correct the mistakes.

Diagramming:
Materials: newspapers
If your students need practice diagramming sentences, direct their attention to the front page of a newspaper.

•	Select the lead sentence in one of the stories.
•	Write the sentence on the board, and model diagramming as appropriate.
•	Have students gather in pairs and select their own sentences from the newspaper to diagram.
•	If necessary, use appropriate pages in a grammar textbook to review diagramming.
•	Walk around the class, guiding and prompting students as needed.

Mixed-Up Articles:
Materials: newspapers
Invite students to play Mixed-Up Articles, a variation of the popular fill-in-the-part-of-speech game.

•	Ask each student to copy the first two paragraphs of a newspaper article on a sheet of lined paper. Be sure they are using pencils.
•	Have students erase a word from each sentence and draw a write-on line in its place. Then have them write the part of speech of the erased word below the write-on line. Encourage students to erase words that represent a variety of parts of speech.
•	Ask students to work in pairs. The first student should read the missing parts of speech and ask the other student to provide words.
•	Once the words are inserted, the first student should read it aloud. Students can then switch places.
•	Encourage students to share their funniest mixed-up articles with the class.

There are many more great ideas, Read more on TeacherVision: http://www.teachervision.fen.com/current-events/curriculum-planning/6215.html#ixzz1wKG3V7LQ