What is revision?

How often do we actually explain and define revision for kids? Or do we just say: "Here are some ways that writers revise," assuming that they know what we mean when we say "revise"?? The word revision, quite literally, means to see or look again. I think it is extremely important, when cycling through the writing process in any unit of study, to help students understand not just how to do that stage of the writing process, but also what that stage is really all about and why writers bother working through it. 

I have been working with a 2nd grade teacher during writing workshop, and most of her students are in the revision stage. Rather than starting by teaching her students ways that writers revise, we spent one workshop teaching them what it means to revise and what types of revision tools writers use (flaps, post-its, carrots, colored pencils, etc.) Once the students understood what revision was and made some of their own choices for how to revise their writing, we then began teaching them various strategies that writers use to revise. It has been amazing to watch the students understanding of revision evolve and even more amazing how much stronger their writing has become in such a short span of time!

Here are a few charts that we used to support the revision work in her classroom: