If you are looking for a way to teach your students to revise, this book is for you! Many students believe that to revise simply means to copy their rough drafts again, maybe taking time to check punctuation in the process. The fact is that students just do not know how to revise. Over the years, teachers have told students to write a rough draft and a final draft, but we all know that just telling them to revise does not teach them how to do it. They need to know exactly what the word revision means.
In an effort to provide a step-by-step method to revise, we developed an acronym to teach twelve mistakes and/or traits on which students should focus when transforming their rough drafts into well-written stories or essays. We pooled together good writing traits and came up with "MY PEPPERMINTS", a memorable acronym to help us get the revision job done. The M stands for "Make sentence length vary. " The Y stands for "Your sentences begin differntly." The first P stands for "Put in words that 'sizzle'." You'll have to buy the book to see the rest, but each letter specifically reminds the students what to look for when revising. By introducing this simple acronym and teaching a method to revision, students become confident in making rough drafts much better; and their final drafts show their efforts. This book will explain the acronym, give you lots of ideas on how to teach the revision process, and provide you with plenty of handouts for your students to use.
At the heart of this book is our "Time to Revise" worksheet. This activity teaches students how to go into their rough drafts and make changes. It requires them to list their transition words, find and copy words that "sizzle", evaluate thier introductions and much more! If your students do not know how to revise, this worksheet will take them step-by-step through the entire process. In addition, a "Peppermint Peer Edit" form is included so that your students can help one another in the revision process. The "Peppermint Rubric" will help you and your students easily assess the writing, and a quiz is included to ensure that your students memorize the acronym so that they can use it during standardized testing. Of course, during standardized testing, you will want to give your students a piece of peppermint candy to remind them to use the acronym.
Table of Contents
Section 1: Getting to know the Acronym
Sentence Length Variety
Practice Variety in Sentence Length
Ten Different Ways to Begin a Sentence
Practice Starting Sentences in Different Ways
Do You know Your Prompt?
Figuring Out a Prompt
What is Voice?
Find Words to Revise
A Different Kind of Word Search
Can You Picture It?
Awesome Word Log
Commonly Misspelled Words
How Do I End It?
Practice Writing Endings
Practice Replacing Overused Words
A List of Commonly Overused Words
Practice Writing Sentences with Figurative Language
How Do I Write an Awesome Grabber?
Practice Writing Awesome Grabbers
Practice Revising Dull Detials
A List of Transition Words
Practice Using Strong Verbs
Section 2: Let the Revising Begin!
Steps to the Process
MY PEPPERMINTS Acronym
Wallet-size MY PEPPERMINTS
Time to Revise Worksheet
Peppermint Peer Edit
MY PEPPERMINTS quiz
