4th Grade Science Fair Projects
- Ph.D., Biomedical Sciences, University of Tennessee at Knoxville
- B.A., Physics and Mathematics, Hastings College
Great 4th-grade science fair projects involve answering a question, solving a problem, or testing a hypothesis. Usually, a teacher or parent helps work out the hypothesis and design the project. Fourth graders have a good understanding of scientific concepts, but they may need help with the scientific method and organizing a poster or presentation. The key to developing a successful project is finding an idea that is interesting to a 4th grader.
The best experiments usually begin with a question to which you don't know the answer. Once you've formulated a question, you can design a simple experiment to help figure out the answer:
- Do cockroaches have a preference for direction? Catch and release cockroaches. Which way do they go? Is there a common trend or not? You can try this project with ants or other crawling insects as well.
- Do colored ice cubes melt at the same rate as clear ice cubes? Add food coloring to an ice cube tray and compare how long the colored cubes take to melt compared to the regular ones.
- Does magnetism travel through all materials? Put different materials between a magnet and metal. Do they affect how strongly the magnet is attracted to the metal? If so, do they all affect the magnetic field to the same degree?
- Do all crayon colors last the same? Draw a really long line with one color, then draw the same length of line with another color. Are both crayons the same length?
- What is the effect of microwaving seeds on their germination rate? Test seeds that sprout quickly, like radish seeds, and different microwave times, such as 5 seconds, 10 seconds, 30 seconds, one minute. Use a control (no microwave) treatment for comparison.
- Will seeds germinate if you soak them in a liquid other than water? You can try milk, juice, vinegar, and other common household liquids. Alternatively, you could see if plants will grow if they are "watered" with liquids other than water.
- Make a simple homemade windmill. What is the best number of blades for the windmill?
- How much salt (or sugar) can a plant tolerate? Water plants with a different solution of salt or sugar. How high of a concentration can the plant tolerate? A related question would be to see if plants can survive if they are watered with soapy water such as leftover dishwater.
- Do birds have a preference for birdhouse material? In other words, do they seem to care if the birdhouse is made of wood or plastic or metal?
- Do worms react when they are exposed to light? Do they react differently when they are exposed to different colors of light?
- Do ants prefer different types of sugar? Test using table sugar, honey, maple syrup , and molasses.
- Can you taste the difference between foods that contain fat and fat-free versions of the same product?
- Compare the water filtration rate of different brands of coffee filters. Take one cup of liquid and time how long it takes to pass through the filter. Do the different filters affect the flavor of the coffee?
- Do white candles and colored candles burn at the same rate?
- Write messages using different types of invisible ink . Which was the most invisible? Which method produced a message that was easy to read after it was revealed?
Watch Now: Make a Gas-Powered Rocket with Alka-Seltzer
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The Writing Process
Day 1: Understanding the writing process
Becoming a writer, the steps in the writing process, day 2: the process in action, day 3 the process in action, revising , day 5: writing an introduction.
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writing process 4th grade
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Opinion Writing Graphic Organizers, Prompts, Lessons, Rubrics 4th Grade W.4.1
Also included in: 4th Grade ELA Reading Writing Language Curriculum - ELA Common Core Standards
Paragraph Writing How to Write a Paragraph of the Week 2nd 3rd 4th Grade Prompts
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Daily Writing Prompts for February | Quick Writes for 2nd 3rd 4th grades
Also included in: Daily Quick Writing Prompts for BIG KIDS Bundle
Animal Research Report Project - 3rd, 4th, 5th grade (Common Core aligned)
Also included in: Animal Research BUNDLE // Lapbook + Worksheets // Common Core Aligned Grades 3-5
Writing Process Posters
The Writing Process Folder EDITABLE - Upper Elementary Grades 3 4 5 6
Also included in: Writing Process Folder and Figurative Language Lesson Bundle Grades 3-5
4th & 5th Grade Writing Units - Curriculum Bundle | Text-Based Writing & Prompts
Fiction Narrative Writing Unit 4th & 5th Grade - Lesson Plans & Guides
Also included in: 4th & 5th Grade Writing Unit Bundle - Personal Narrative, Fiction, and Poetry
Daily Writing Prompts for March | Quick Writes for 2nd 3rd 4th grades
Opinion Writing Bundle - 4th & 5th Grade Opinion Writing, Passages & Prompts
4th Grade Math TEKS Practice Bundle - Progress Monitoring by Standard
Realistic Fiction Writing Unit 2nd/3rd Grade ~ Fictional Narratives MINILESSONS
Also included in: 2nd 3rd Grade Writing Workshop Bundle~ Opinion Informational with Minilessons
Writing Strategies Graphic Organizers for Prewriting Revising Writing Process
Also included in: Writing Graphic Organizers: Prewriting and Writing Strategies Activities
The Writing Process Posters and Anchor Charts
Also included in: Reading & Writing Anchor Charts Bundle - Print and Digital
Personal Narrative Writing Graphic Organizers, Prompts, Lessons 4th Grade W.4.3
NARRATIVE WRITING - ESSAY WRITING - WRITING PROGRAM - 3RD 4TH 5TH GRADE WRITING
Also included in: STEP-BY-STEP INTERACTIVE WRITING NOTEBOOK PROGRAM WITH MINI-LESSON VIDEOS
Narrative Opinion Writing Prompts Paragraph Writing 3rd 4th 5th 6th Grade Tpt
4th Grade Writing Rubrics | Common Core Aligned
2nd and 3rd Grade Writing Lessons for Informational Writing | Burger Paragraph
2nd Grade Writing Project | Publish A Picture Book | Printable Distance Learning
Also included in: Writing Projects ENDLESS BUNDLE 2nd-3rd Grade | Distance Learning
Biography Research Report: Multi-Draft Informative Writing for Grades 3-5 (CCSS)
Fables – Narrative Writing Activity with Examples for 3rd, 4th, and 5th Grade
Nonfiction Summary Writing Lesson Activities 2nd 3rd 4th Grade
Finding Main Idea & Key Details: Summarizing Nonfiction Text for 3rd & 4th Grade
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4th grade writing
by: Jessica Kelmon | Updated: August 4, 2022
In fourth grade, study skills play an important role in your child’s writing. Kids do research using multiple sources. They also learn to take notes on what they research, read. and hear. And even stories are more advanced, with more developed characters who show their feelings and react to what happens. And perhaps most important, your child is expected to analyze a book’s structure, logic, details, and evidence in their writing. It’s all pretty impressive!
Building 4th grade study skills
This year taking notes is an important skill. Fourth graders are expected to use books, periodicals, websites, and other digital sources to conduct research projects — both on their own and as part of group work with peers. Your child should keep track of all the sources they check — noting what they learn, the name of the source and page number or url so they can find it again and create a source list or bibliography later.
Also, taking notes while reading fiction will help your child when it comes time to analyze what they’ve read or to give an in-depth description of a character, setting, or story event drawing on specific details.
Check out this related worksheet: • Finding key points
bttr, better, best!
Last year’s prewriting step — planning — becomes more essential in your child’s writing process this year. Before your child sits down to write, they should use their organized notes to help create the structure of whatever they’re writing. While planning , your child may brainstorm ideas for a story or decide how to organize facts into a cohesive set of points. The more knowledge your child builds during the prewriting stage, the easier it will be to write. Encourage reading and rereading, taking notes, finding additional sources, discussing aloud how new knowledge fits in with what your child knew before, and visually organizing what they plan to write about. After the first draft is written, the teacher and possibly other students will offer feedback: asking questions to elicit new details or clarify an argument or suggest new sources of information. They should check that there’s a clear introduction and conclusion, and that the order of points or events makes sense. Your child will then do a revision (or two), adding, reordering, and refining their writing to show deep understanding.
After making revisions, your child does a final edit focusing on spelling, grammar, punctuation, and strengthening word choices. These steps — planning, writing a first draft, revising, and editing the final piece — help fourth graders understand that research, organizing, clarifying ideas, and improving grammar and presentation are all essential to strong writing.
See what your fourth grade writing looks like
Fourth grade writing: opinion pieces
Your child’s opinions always need to be supported by evidence. Persuasive writing should start by clearly introducing an opinion on a topic. To support their opinion, kids need to present their argument, which is a list of reasons why they hold that opinion. Each of their reasons needs to be supported by facts and details (a.k.a. evidence). After presenting all of their research-supported reasons, kids should close their arguments with a concluding statement or paragraph that sums up how their evidence supports their opinion.
Check out this example of good fourth grade opinion writing: • “ Zoos should close ”
Fourth grade writing: informative writing
This year, your child’s informative writing gets more organized, with headers, illustrations and even multimedia components to support specific points. To begin, your child should introduce the topic. Then they should use facts, definitions, details, quotes, examples, and other information to develop their topic into a few clear, well thought-out paragraphs. Your fourth grader should use advanced linking words (e.g. also, another, for example, because ) to form compound and complex sentences connecting their research and ideas to the point they’re making. Finally, to wrap it up, your child should have a conclusion — either a statement or, if necessary, a section labeled conclusion.
Check out these three examples of good fourth grade informational writing: • “ John Cabot and the Rediscovery of North America ” • “ Big Book of Evolution ” • “ Book report: A Tale of Despereaux ”
Can your fourth grader write an informational essay?
Fourth grade writing: narratives
A narrative means writing a story. This year your child will be expected to use storytelling techniques, descriptive details, and clear sequences to tell compelling tales. Whether inspired by a favorite book, real events, or your child’s imagination, your child’s story should use dialogue, descriptive words, and transitional language. Look for precise language and sensory details that bring characters to life. Finally, your child should keep pacing and sequence of events in mind. The events should unfold naturally, bringing the story to a natural conclusion. Are surprise endings okay? Sure… so long as the details and events plausibly lead there.
Check out this related worksheet: • Putting sentences in order
Gettin’ good at grammar
You may want to review all those parts of speech your child learned last year because fourth grade grammar is expected to be quite accurate. Your child should know relative pronouns (e.g. who, whose, whom, which, that ), relative adverbs (e.g. where, when, why ), adjective ordering (e.g. short dark hair and small red bag ), descriptive prepositional phrases (e.g. in the air, down the block, on the grass ), progressive past, present, and future verbs (e.g. I was walking, I am walking, I will be walking ), and verbs used with other verbs to express mood or tense (aka modal auxiliaries, e.g. can, may, must, should, would ). Also, your child needs to master the distinctions between frequently confused words like to , too , and two and there , their , and they’re . Finally, your child should be able to recognize and correct run-on sentences.
Check out these related worksheets: • Prepositions • Compound sentences • Punctuating a paragraph • Its or it’s?
Learning to use language precisely
- Recognizing and explaining common idioms (e.g. bending over backwards )
- Distinguishing between similes and metaphors (e.g. quiet as a mouse and the sun is a yellow beach ball ).
- Identifying and using synonyms and antonyms
- Using increasingly specific words in writing (e.g. glamorous instead of pretty, pre-dawn instead of morning, quizzed instead of asked )
Your fourth grader should now be using relevant academic words in informational writing and research reports. Although accurate spelling should be the norm in fourth grade, when faced with spelling more academic words, your child should use a dictionary and thesaurus (print and digital versions).
Check out these related worksheets: • 4th grade weekly spelling lists • Making metaphors • Simile or cliché?
Sharing their work
Most classrooms will encourage (if not require) kids to use technology to produce and publish their writing. Your fourth grader should be able to type up to a full page in one sitting. While teachers should be there to help, your child should be doing the work. Students will also be expected to interact with peers about each other’s work. What might that look like? Your child might read a classmates’ published work online and comment on it, or cite a peer’s work when answering a question in class.
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Implementing the Writing Process
About this Strategy Guide
This strategy guide explains the writing process and offers practical methods for applying it in your classroom to help students become proficient writers.
Strategy in practice, related resources.
The writing process—prewriting, drafting, revising and editing, rewriting, publishing—mirrors the way proficient writers write. In using the writing process, your students will be able to break writing into manageable chunks and focus on producing quality material. The final stage, publishing, ensures that students have an audience. Students can even coach each other during various stages of the process for further emphasis on audience and greater collaboration during editing. Studies show that students who learn the writing process score better on state writing tests than those who receive only specific instruction in the skills assessed on the test. This type of authentic writing produces lifelong learners and allows students to apply their writing skills to all subjects. Success in writing greatly depends on a student’s attitude, motivation, and engagement. The writing process takes these elements into account by allowing students to plan their writing and create a publishable, final draft of their work of which they can be proud. It addresses students’ need for a real audience and to take the time to draft and redraft their work. You can help your students think carefully about each stage of their writing by guiding them through the writing process repeatedly throughout the year and across various content areas.
The writing process involves teaching students to write in a variety of genres, encouraging creativity, and incorporating writing conventions. This process can be used in all areas of the curriculum and provides an excellent way to connect instruction with state writing standards. The following are ways to implement each step of the writing process:
- Prewriting—This step involves brainstorming, considering purpose and goals for writing, using graphic organizers to connect ideas, and designing a coherent structure for a writing piece. For kindergarten students, scribbling and invented spelling are legitimate stages of writing development; the role of drawing as a prewriting tool becomes progressively less important as writers develop. Have young students engage in whole-class brainstorming to decide topics on which to write. For students in grades 3-5, have them brainstorm individually or in small groups with a specific prompt, such as, “Make a list of important people in your life,” for example. Online graphic organizers might help upper elementary students to organize their ideas for specific writing genres during the prewriting stage. Examples are the Essay Map , Notetaker , or Persuasion Map .
- Drafting—Have students work independently at this stage. Confer with students individually as they write, offering praise and suggestions while observing areas with which students might be struggling and which might warrant separate conference time or minilessons.
- Revising and Editing—Show students how to revise specific aspects of their writing to make it more coherent and clear during minilessons. You can model reading your own writing and do a think aloud about how you could add more details and make it clearer. Teach students to reread their own work more than once as they think about whether it really conveys what they want to their reader. Reading their work aloud to classmates and other adults helps them to understand what revisions are needed. Your ELLs will develop greater language proficiency as they collaborate with their peers when revising.
- Rewriting—Have students incorporate changes as they carefully write or type their final drafts.
Rubrics help to make expectations and grading procedures clear, and provide a formative assessment to guide and improve your instruction. The Sample Writing Rubric , for example, can be used for upper elementary students.
As you work with your students to implement the writing process, they will begin to master writing and take it into all aspects of life. Peer review, with clear guidelines for students to give feedback on each other’s work, motivates students, allows them to discuss their writing with their peers, and makes the work load a little lighter for you. The Peer Edit with Perfection! PowerPoint Tutorial is a useful tool to teach students how to peer review and edit. You can also have students can edit their own work using a checklist, such as the Editing Checklist . Editing is when students have already revised content but need to correct mistakes in terms of spelling, grammar, sentence structure, punctuation, and word choice. Use minilessons, small-group lessons, or individual conferencing if necessary to make sure that students have made thoughtful changes to their writing content before moving on to the final draft.
- Publishing—Encourage students to publish their works in a variety of ways, such as a class book, bulletin board, letters to the editor, school newsletter, or website. The ReadWriteThink Printing Press tool is useful for creating newspapers, brochures, flyers and booklets. Having an authentic audience beyond the classroom gives student writing more importance and helps students to see a direct connection between their lives and their literacy development.
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It's not easy surviving fourth grade (or third or fifth)! In this lesson, students brainstorm survival tips for future fourth graders and incorporate those tips into an essay.
Students are encouraged to understand a book that the teacher reads aloud to create a new ending for it using the writing process.
While drafting a literary analysis essay (or another type of argument) of their own, students work in pairs to investigate advice for writing conclusions and to analyze conclusions of sample essays. They then draft two conclusions for their essay, select one, and reflect on what they have learned through the process.
The Essay Map is an interactive graphic organizer that enables students to organize and outline their ideas for an informational, definitional, or descriptive essay.
The Persuasion Map is an interactive graphic organizer that enables students to map out their arguments for a persuasive essay or debate.
The Stapleless Book can be used for taking notes while reading, making picture books, collecting facts, or creating vocabulary booklets . . . the possibilities are endless!
Students examine the different ways that they write and think about the role writing plays in life.
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What is the writing process? The writing process is a way to promote successful writers. It provides steps for students to use when writing. Every writing program out there will stress the importance of encouraging students to use steps in a writing process. This post shares the steps I found useful and ideas that help students in my classroom become confident and successful in their writing. The ideas are ideal for any writing curriculum and are a part of a series of mini lessons for writer’s workshop designed for scaffolding through the writing process.
The writing process found on this post has six steps. (prewriting, rough draft, revising, editing, peer reflections, and final copy) Follow these steps with your students and see their writing improve! The following writing process posters are available in my store!
1. Prewriting: Brainstorming and Graphic Organizer
The first part of prewriting is brainstorming ideas. If there is not a prompt to follow, have students go back to their “Ideas” section in their interactive notebooks. Remember where we brainstormed ideas for our I, heart, hand, home, question mark in Lesson 1 ? This will get students thinking about a topic that is interesting to them. If there is a prompt to follow, tell students to think of as many ideas, plots, or ways they can use the prompt.
The second part of prewriting is using a graphic organizer. Whether it is a free writing paper or a prompt, students will need a graphic organizer that will work well for that type of writing. Click on the graphic organizers below for a free download!
2. Rough Draft
For this step, I tell my students to JUST WRITE! Don’t worry about spelling or anything else. Put your story together by writing writing writing! Get your thoughts down without distractions and deal with proper grammar or spelling later! I tell my kiddos to skip lines to have room to revise later. I love to model this step and make tons of mistakes (purposely) and my students want to correct all my mistakes. I tell them, “Let me write! I don’t want to lose my thoughts!” I also allow them to get comfortable, sit around the room, or find a place or seat that will help them enjoy writing.
3. D.A.R.E. to Revise
For the revising stage, I find it helpful to have students read their stories out loud! It is fun to have students record themselves reading their own stories and then go back and listen to it. I guarantee they will find fragments, run-ons, or words that just don’t make sense! What does DARE stand for? D stands for delete, A stands for add, R stands for rearrange, and E stands for exchange. In later mini lessons, I will go in more depth with each of the DARE to revise components. While revising, I require my students to use a different colored pen or pencil so I can see attempts to making their writing better. So many times these little cherubs think their rough draft is their best draft so I DARE them to revise!
4. C.U.P.S. to Edit
The next step is using CUPS for editing . It stands for Capitals, Usage, Punctuation, Spelling. I first review the rules for each of the CUPS so students know what to look for in their own writing. When my students are editing, I ask them to use a different colored pen or pencil. However, if they want to use multiple colors, I allow that as well. My philosophy is as long as they are editing and I can see their attempts, that is what matters! Don’t forget that National Punctuation Day is September 24th!!!
5. Peer Reflection
I like this step so students can get feedback from a peer. Supply each student with a reflection form or sticky notes and a writing checklist. Ask your students to take this step seriously and pretend they are a teacher or editor. Go over the checklist as you read the story. Remind students that they not only give advice on how to fix their peer’s paper, but also let them know the parts of the paper that ROCK! I like to use two positives and a wish. Tell two things you like about the paper and one wish to make it better. Students should not write on each other’s papers. Many students take such pride in their work and don’t want anyone else writing on it. This is where sticky notes are a blessing! After peer reflections, it is completely the writer’s decision on what they want to change OR not. This is their last chance to make their papers better!
6. Final Copy
Time to be neat! Depending on your instructions, students need to write final copies neatly. If they are handwritten, I ask them to sit a desk or table to help assure proper handwriting posture to optimize their final outcome. If it is a typed paper, it must also be neat and free from typos.
Click here for WRITING POSTERS . There are a few different versions of these posters. Notice in the picture below, I have clothespins. I have my students mark the step of writing they are on so I can quickly glance and see who may need help. I can’t take credit for this nifty idea- found it on Pinterest, but I do LOVE it!
Check out my FREE writing masterclass! CLICK HERE
LAST LESSON: Writing Mini Lesson# 8- Table of Contents
NEXT LESSON: Writing Mini Lesson #10- 3 Steps to Prepare for Narrative Writing
This lesson is also included in the STEP-BY-STEP WRITING ® Program with mini-lessons designed to scaffold through the writing process. Writing units included are sentence structure, paragraph writing, narrative writing, opinion writing, and informative writing. See what is included in the image below and click on it to learn more about them! You will turn your reluctant writers into ROCKSTAR WRITERS ™!
Excellent, comprehensive resource that has helped my students and me SO much! There’s NOTHING missing and it is very well planned and engaging! Thank you SO much, it has been a life-saver! -Angela Rutschke
Writing Mini Lesson #8- Table of Contents and Progress Grade for Notebooks
Christmas around the world web quest and more.
The Writing Process
The Writing Process Explained
Understanding the writing process provides a student with a clear step-by-step procedure that they can follow. It means they can replicate the process no matter what type of nonfiction text they are being asked to produce.
In this article, we’ll take a look at a simple and powerful 5-part structure that will guide them from the prewriting stage right through to submitting their polished work.
While explaining each stage of the process in detail, we’ll suggest some activities you can use with your students to help them successfully complete each stage of the process.
THE STAGES OF THE WRITING PROCESS
The 5-step process is made up of the following stages:
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STAGE ONE: THE WRITING PROCESS
Get ready to write.
The prewriting stage covers anything the student does before they begin to draft their text. It includes a multitude of things such as thinking, brainstorming, discussing ideas with others, sketching outlines, gathering information through interviewing people, assessing data, and researching in the library and online.
The intention at the prewriting stage is to collect the raw material that will fuel the writing process. This involves the student doing 3 things:
- Understanding the conventions of the text type
- Gathering up facts, opinions, ideas, data, vocabulary, etc through research and discussion
- Organizing resources and planning out the writing process.
Before beginning the research and planning parts of the process, it’s important that the student takes some time to consider the demands of the text type or genre they are asked to write as this will influence how they research and plan.
PREWRITING TEACHING ACTIVITY
As with any of the stages in the writing process, students will benefit immensely from seeing the teacher modelling activities to support that stage.
In this activity, you can model your approach to the prewriting stage for students to emulate. Eventually, they will develop their own specific approach but, for now, having a clear model to follow will serve them well.
Starting with an essay title written in the center of the whiteboard, brainstorm ideas as a class and write these ideas branching from the title to create a mind map.
From there, you can help students identify areas for further research and help them to create graphic organizers to record their ideas.
Explain to the students that while idea generation is an important part of the prewriting stage, generating ideas is important throughout all the other stages of the writing process too.
STAGE TWO: THE WRITING PROCESS
Put your ideas on paper.
Drafting is when the student begins to corral the unruly fruits of the prewriting stage into orderly sentences and paragraphs.
When their writing is based on solid research and planning, this will be much easier for the student to manage. A poorly executed first stage can see pencils stuck at the starting line and persistent complaints of ‘writer’s block’ from the students.
However, do encourage your students not to get too attached to any ideas that they may have generated in Stage 1. Writing is thinking too and your students need to leave room for their creativity to express itself at all stages of the process.
The most important thing about this stage is for the student to keep moving. A text is written word-by-word, much as a bricklayer builds a wall by laying brick upon brick.
Instill in your students that they shouldn’t get too hung up on stuff like spelling and grammar in these early stages.
Likewise, they shouldn’t overthink things. The trick here is to get the ideas down fast – everything else can be polished up later.
DRAFTING TEACHING ACTIVITY
As mentioned in the previous activity, writing is a very complex process and modeling goes a long way to helping ensure our students’ success.
Sometimes our students do an excellent job in the prewriting stage with understanding the text purpose, the research, and the planning, only to fall flat when it comes to beginning to write an actual draft.
Often, students require some clear modeling by the teacher to help them transition effectively from Stage 1 to Stage 2.
One way to do this for your class is to take the sketches, notes, and ideas one of the students has produced in Stage 1, and use them to model writing a draft. This can be done as a whole class shared writing activity.
Doing this will help your students understand how to take their raw material and connect their ideas and transition between them in the form of an essay.
STAGE THREE: THE WRITING PROCESS
Polish your thinking.
In Stage 2, the emphasis for the student was on getting their ideas out quickly and onto the paper.
The focus for Stage 3 is to refine the work completed in Stage 2 with the reader now firmly at the forefront of the writer’s mind.
To revise, the student needs to cast a critical eye over their work and ask themselves questions like:
- Would a reader be able to read this text and make sense of it all?
- Have I included enough detail to help the reader clearly visualize my subject?
- Is my writing concise and as accurate as possible?
- Are my ideas supported by evidence and written in a convincing manner?
- Have I written in a way that is suitable for my intended audience?
- Is it written in an interesting way?
- Are the connections between ideas made explicit?
- Does it fulfill the criteria of the specific text type?
- Is the text organized effectively?
The questions above represent the primary areas students should focus on at this stage of the writing process.
Students shouldn’t slip over into editing/proofreading mode just yet. Let the more minor, surface-level imperfections wait until the next stage.
REVISING TEACHING ACTIVITY
When developing their understanding of the revising process, it can be extremely helpful for students to have a revision checklist to work from.
It’s also a great idea to develop the revision checklist as part of a discussion activity around what this stage of the writing process is about.
Things to look out for when revising include content, voice, general fluency, transitions, use of evidence, clarity and coherence, and word choice.
It can also be a good idea for students to partner up into pairs and go through each other’s work together. As the old saying goes, ‘two heads are better than one’ and, in the early days at least, this will help students to use each other as sounding boards when making decisions on the revision process.
STAGE FOUR: THE WRITING PROCESS
Check your writing.
Editing is not a different thing than writing, it is itself an essential part of the writing process.
During the editing stage, students should keep an eagle eye out for conventional mistakes such as double spacing between words, spelling errors, and grammar and punctuation mistakes.
While there are inbuilt spelling and grammar checkers in many of the most popular word processing programs, it is worth creating opportunities for students to practice their editing skills without the crutch of such technology on occasion.
Students should also take a last look over the conventions of the text type they are writing.
Are the relevant headings and subheadings in place? Are bold words and captions in the right place? Is there consistency across the fonts used? Have diagrams been labelled correctly?
Editing can be a demanding process. There are lots of moving parts in it, and it often helps students to break things down into smaller, more manageable chunks.
Focused edits allow the student the opportunity to have a separate read-through to edit for each of the different editing points.
For example, the first run-through might look at structural elements such as the specific structural conventions of the text type concerned. Subsequent run-throughs could look at capitalization, grammar, punctuation, the indenting of paragraphs, formatting, spelling, etc.
Sometimes students find it hard to gain the necessary perspective to edit their work well. They’re simply too close to it and it can be difficult for them to see what is on the paper rather than see what they think they have put down.
One good way to help students gain the necessary distance from their work is to have the student read their work out loud as they edit it.
Reading their work out loud forces the student to slow down the reading process and it forces them to pay more attention to what’s written on the page, rather than what’s in their head.
All this gives the student a little more valuable time to catch the mistakes and other flaws in their work.
WRITING CHECKLISTS FOR ALL TEXT TYPES
EDITING TEACHING ACTIVITY
Students must have a firm understanding of what they’re looking to correct in the editing process to edit effectively. One effective way to ensure this understanding is to have them compile an Editing Checklist for use when they’re engaged in the editing process.
The Editing Checklist can be compiled as a whole-class shared writing activity. The teacher can scribe the students’ suggestions for inclusion on the checklist onto the whiteboard. This can then be typed up and printed off by all the students.
A fun and productive use of the checklist is for the students to use it in ‘editing pairs’.
Each student is assigned an editing partner during the editing stage of a writing task. Each student goes through their partner’s, work using the checklist as a guide, and then gives feedback to the other partner. The partner, in turn, uses the feedback in the final edit of their work.
STAGE FIVE: THE WRITING PROCESS
Hand in your writing.
Now, it’s time for our students’ final part of the writing process. This is when they hand in their work to their teacher – aka you !
At this point, students should have one final reread of their work to ensure it’s as close to their intentions as possible, and then, finally, they can submit their work.
Giving the work over to an audience, whether that audience comes in the form of a teacher marking an assignment, publishing work in print or online, or making a presentation to classmates, can be daunting. It’s important that students learn to see the act of submitting their work as a positive thing.
Though this is the final stage of the writing process, students should be helped to see it for all it is. It is another step in the journey towards becoming a highly-skilled writer. It’s a further opportunity for the student to get valuable feedback on where their skills are currently at and a signpost to help them to improve their work in the future.
When the feedback comes, whether that’s in the form of teacher comments, grades, review, etc it should be absorbed by the student as a positive part of this improvement process.
This activity is as much for the teacher as it is for the student.
Sometimes, our students think of feedback as a passive thing. The teacher makes some comments either in writing or orally and the student listens and carries on largely as before. It’s crucial we help our students to recognize feedback as an opportunity for growth.
Feedback should be seen as a dialogue that helps our students to take control of their own learning.
For this to be the case, students need to engage with the feedback they’ve been given, to take constructive criticisms on board, and to use these as a springboard to take action.
One way to help students to do this lies in the way we format our feedback to our students. A useful format in this vein is the simple 2 Stars and a Wish . This format involves giving feedback that notes two specific areas of the work that the student did well and one that needs improvement. This area for improvement will provide a clear focus for the student to improve in the future. This principle of constructive criticism should inform all feedback.
It’s also helpful to encourage students to process detailed feedback by noting specific areas to focus on. This will give them some concrete targets to improve their writing in the future.
VIDEO TUTORIAL ON THE WRITING PROCESS
And there we have it. A straightforward and replicable process for our students to follow to complete almost any writing task.
But, of course, the real writing process is the ongoing one whereby our students improve their writing skills sentence-by-sentence and word-by-word over a whole lifetime.
OTHER GREAT ARTICLES RELATED TO THE WRITING PROCESS
7 Evergreen Writing Activities for Elementary Students
Text Types and Different Styles of Writing: The Complete Guide
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7 ways to write great Characters and Settings | Story Elements
6 Simple Writing Lessons Students will love
The content for this page has been written by Shane Mac Donnchaidh. A former principal of an international school and English university lecturer with 15 years of teaching and administration experience. Shane’s latest Book, The Complete Guide to Nonfiction Writing , can be found here. Editing and support for this article have been provided by the literacyideas team.
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- English Language Arts
- Course: ELAR Grade 4
- Unit: The Writing Process
The Writing Process
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You may have heard the word process used, for example, the scientific process, the decision-making process, a biological process, or the manufacturing process.
Try to define the word process based on these and any other examples that you know.
A process is the steps you take to get something done. If you play a sport, you probably learned a process to help you complete a skill, like making a free throw, hitting a ball, or diving. Learning and following processes help increase your chances for success. Writing is just like sports—the process can help you be successful.
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